"Prosper by degrees"
We set out early that fall morning wanting to get the bulk of our hike in before the heat of the day set in. It was fall break, and we were camping at Zions National Park with two other neighbor families. Our youngest was seven, and we decided he was finally old enough to tackle the Angels Landing trail. The first couple of miles was a steady, uphill climb on a wide, paved trail. Then, the trail enters Refrigerator Canyon. Carved between Cathedral Mountain and Angels Landing, it is the only shaded part of the hike. Exiting the canyon, you begin the ascend known as Walter’s Wiggles. The series of twenty-one switchbacks at 19% grade gets your thighs burning and heart pumping. At the top, we stopped to rest at Scout Lookout. One of our neighbors, realizing the difficulty of what lay ahead, decided it would be best for them to turn around. So, they took their youngest two children, and the other neighbor’s youngest, and left their oldest to finish the hike with the rest of us. Wa