Some of the best outdoor experiences I have had in my life have involved adventures in southern Utah’s famous “slot canyons.” Few places in the world are as beautiful. And there is a real sense of adventure involved in exploring them, especially if you have to use ropes or webbing to access them as I have done with hiking buddy Steve Lewis on a few occasions.

Yet, there is also an element of danger to them as was sadly discovered this week when a California couple died in Egypt 3 in the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. Flash floods like the one that drowned 60-year-old Kathy and Gordon Chapple of Walnut Creek, Calif., can come from nowhere and put people in trouble quickly.

Most of the time I avoid hiking slot canyons in August or September though I did hike the Subway and the Zion Narrows this time of year but not without a good weather report and going with friends who were savy canyoneers and really knew what they were doing. That said, the drownings remind us all just how quickly a fun adventure can turn deadly, and sometimes we are just vulnerable to the elements.

On Labor Day, for example, I was playing golf with my brother, nephew and brother-in-law at Meadowbrook when a lightning storm hit suddenly. There we were, carting around golf clubs (lightning rods?) when bolts of lightning began to hit way too close for my comfort. We scrambled for shelter but I have to admit I was more than a little frightened.

My chances of getting run over by a car crossing a city street, being killed in an auto accident or getting nailed on my motor
scooter (which has happened, actually) are far greater than getting hit by lightning, killed in a slot canyon by a flash flood or being mauled by a bear. Yet I take that chance every day.

I guess I’m a bit of a fatalist. I try not to do anything stupid like be on a golf course during a lightning storm or in a slot canyon during the monsoon season, but when your time is up, sometimes there isn’t a whole lot you can do.
Tom