Originally posted March 21, 2008. With Easter upon us I decided to repost.
When I was young, one of our observances for Easter was to plan a hike for the Saturday before. We would pack a lunch and head out on foot to hike to a little cave on Little Mountain (NE of town), or if we were really lucky a parent would take us a little closer to the mountain via car.
We would hike up to the top of Little Mountain and across the ridge until we were right above the cave, then down to the cave for our lunch break. While there it was common to crawl back into the cave to the end, because we had the notion that it was the Easter Bunny's cave.
About the only thing we ever found was evidence that coyotes had been in the cave, nothing resembling the evidence of rabbits was found by me or others I was with.
After lunch and exploring the cave was done, a parent would show up at the appointed time and take us back to town.
I remember one specific year where a friend and myself were planning the traditional hike to the Easter Bunny cave. We decided to invite a friend from school who was from another town and had never had the experience before.
In this particular case, I think we were dropped off close to the base of the hill and arranged to meet our ride back at Newton Dam at the appointed time.
We had a great time. Up the hill, along the ridge, down to the cave, eat lunch, explore the cave then head back to our meeting spot.
This day the meeting spot required us to hike back up to the top, then down the West side of the hill to the reservoir.
All was going splendidly until we started down the West side (much steeper back then, if you ask me) and I implemented the improvised toboggan slide-roll maneuver down the hill.
I have performed that maneuver many times in my life, but probably never with as much grace as I did that particular time. The problem I faced was that towards the bottom of the hill was a barbed wire fence.
I am glad to report that I did not maintain my speedy descent all the way to the fence, and was able to avoid injury.
All's well that ends well, I guess. I walked out the pain and we caught our ride back home to relax the rest of our weekend.
Another successful Easter weekend hike was under our belts, even though we never met up with the Easter Bunny.
