Our hike down was scattered. Eldon, Debbie, and Phil took off ahead of everybody else, then came me, then the Losees and Herb, and finally Taffy. Herb went back to help Taffy down the last bit. Eldon struck off on his own path straight toward camp across the rock rather than winding down through the wash the way he'd come up. Phil went back with Debbie, but Finn and Sputnik, who were with me, saw where Phil went. I tried to follow Eldon across the rock but Finn and Sputnik would have none of it. They wanted to go back the familiar way they'd come up, especially since that's where Phil and most everyone else was going. They stood between everyone and refused to budge until I climbed back up to get them.
"Stop it Finn! Stop being prettier than me!"
After leading the boys across the rock for a ways, they finally reluctantly agreed to follow me... at a distance. I came upon an interesting rock formation with some small, strangely-shaped chunks lying around it. I wanted some good photos of the goats standing among the odd rocks, but they weren't in the mood for photos and kept wandering back the way we'd come and scanning the far horizon for Phil. This was the best I got before they wandered away.
"Lookie here guys! Over here!"
"Huh? We're busy!" (And then they disappeared behind the rock.)
With a cool rock formation and a cool dead tree, I hoped to get a lot more photos like this. It was the only one.
If I stayed close to the rock formation, the boys disappeared behind it so they could look for Phil. I had to climb way up the next ridge before they agreed to follow, and by then I was too far away to get decent photos. Little stinkers!
But I found some other rock formations that were cool to photograph. These took a lot of effort. When Finn and Sputnik finally realized we were not going to follow Phil and he was not going to follow us, they stuck to me like glue and wouldn't stand far enough away for me to take pictures. I had to do a bit of shouting, dancing, stomping, waving my hands, and repeating the word "Whoa!" in a loud, commanding voice. It actually worked a few times!
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