Learning the hard way - January 26, 2018

Totally my fault.

 Lincoln dislodged a big rock into the trail around Pilot Butte and I wanted him to push it back out of the way, you know, responsible trail use.

But it was too heavy for him to move back up hill, so I told him to roll it down hill instead. After one revolution, I realized it was not going to stop. 

At the bottom of the slope is a retaining wall (thank goodness), a sidewalk and a busy highway. We heard it hit the wall, but couldn't see what happened to the rock or the wall.

A truck at the intersection hollered at us, something we couldn't understand, but we kept walking. And Lincoln and I talked about choices and what we should have done differently.

At the end of the trail is a playground and, nearby, an on-site host's RV. The truck from the intersection had gone to the Park Host to get him involved and they were waiting for us when we came to the playground to escort us to the Park Host. Then they left, thankfully.

The host listened to what happened, told us that the rock had dislodged part of the retaining wall and could have killed someone or gone into traffic and caused much damage. I knew all that, the second the rock rolled over the second time and kept going, but having someone tell you that you could have killed someone...well, I started crying.

In any case, the Host just asked us to do our best to repair the wall and not roll anymore rocks. 

So Lincoln and I talked about consequences of our choices, I certainly didn't intend to break the concrete wall (or hurt anyone) when I asked him to move the rock to the down hill side. But we were able to repair the wall so that you can't even tell it was broken.