Load Up the ATVs, We're Going Hiking

A few days ago mom, dad and I went up to the mine for a day trip. Some people's fathers get a sports car, or a boat or pool table to treat themselves; to have something that is just theirs that they love. Mine bought a mine. It's an old defunct mine, but a mine none the less. It's in the middle of nowhere. From Cody you drive two hours into Sunlight Basin and then take four-wheelers for two hours more once the road gets too bad. You eventually have to stop once you hit the glacier. Those things can be hard to cross in any vehicle.

Years ago, before mom and dad got the ATVs, we would hike into the mine. That was an all day project that left us exhausted by the time we got home. Now, with our forest assault vehicles, getting to the mine is much easier, but I feel that something is lost in the speed in which we expedite our mine adventures now. Now there's less danger of being caught in catastrophic downpours at 11,000 feet. Now we can out drive the grizzly bears instead of trying to out run them. Now the approach to the mine feels more like an assault and less like an accomplishment. Something seems lost.

However, I know if I would have hiked in I would have bitched to mom and dad about the need to get some ATVs. If nothing else I can comfort myself with the thought of another Nathan in an alternate reality hiking his ass off to the mine and complaining about it the whole way. Now I don't feel so bad.