Author: rwaltjen

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Soo’s 600th Hike – September 28, 2025

If you’ve hiked with me longer than a few years, you know by now that people come and go. Everybody’s lives takes twists and turns and people who we come to know suddenly move to a different city and we rarely see or hear from them again. So we get used to people leaving after a while.

However, it is very unusual for people to continue hiking with us for over ten years. It’s a very low percentage of the group who stay active by regularly hiking. Soo (pronounced Sue) is one of those hikers who is committed to coming out every week for the exercise, the fun, and to hang out and socialize.

I remember when Soo first started coming out on hikes with me. She was excited to try new things and was always happy to be out and being challenged. From the very beginning, Soo seemed pretty confident when scrambling. However, over time she has developed into one of the best scramblers that I know.

Even though she climbs everything with seemingly no effort, Soo has no need to prove to anybody that she can make it past an obstacle. She’ll do it if she wants and if she wants to go around it, she will. Unlike so many other people, she has no need to impress anybody else. Similarly, Soo is not easily impressed by anybody. She is simply out to scramble and have fun.

One of the things that helps to make people good scramblers is helping others. Soo is always around to help anybody who needs it. Whether its technical help, or just encouragement, Soo will quietly help. Most of the time, she does it without anybody else knowing about it; except those she is helping. That’s just part of being a teacher.

Yes, Soo is a teacher and she takes pride in her work. She has gone out of her way to earn a doctorate degree to be prepared to help her students. She obviously is able to meaningfully connect to her students, because they seek out her guidance beyond class and many times she becomes a personal friend of her students after they leave her class. Many of her students have made it to well known universities and institutions. Soo frequently expresses genuine pride in being able to be part of that.

Soo, on her first hike with VegasHikers.

There was a time, when I thought we were not going to see Soo again. She has her family to care for and she needed to stay away from hiking for a while. I thought we would not be likely to see her again. But she came back and now we see her regularly and weekly.

Soo’s family is very important to her. She is a strong mom, who is very proud of her children’s achievements. But she is unlikely to go on and on about her kids and remains objective. She’s not private about them, but won’t be in your face about them, either.

Until I started looking, I never realized that Soo is a bit camera shy. Trying to find a good picture is a bit difficult. She’s one of those consistent forces that operates in the background. But if she’s not there, you’ll know it.

Soo is going to reach her 600th milestone in or around September 28, 2025. We’ll have a small celebration after the hike.

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Dr. Bongio (Nick)’s 600th hike

This weekend (Saturday, August 30, 2025) is going to be Nick’s 600th hike. He’s already wise to it, so we can’t surprise him. We’ll just have a little celebration.

I’ve known Nick for about 5 years. In that time we’ve done lots of hikes together and we’ve gone lots of places. In case you didn’t know, Nick does have a doctorate degree. They don’t just hand those degrees out. It takes a lot of time, effort and drive. He’s crazy, but he’s not stupid.

I sometimes refer to Nick as “Qui-Gon.” That’s because when it comes to scrambling, he’s one of the jedi masters of the rocks. He makes almost every obstacle look effortless. And he does it in regular everyday shoes. He’s also rather rebellious, like the actual character Qui-Gon. He’s always questioning the elders.

Nick rarely misses a weekend hike. That’s why he’s been able to do 600 hikes in 5 years, while still holding a full time job. In addition, he’s been able to develop many of his own routes without copying anything from anybody. He explores his own stuff and puts his own routes together.

Nick likes to give everybody the impression that he doesn’t care (and sometimes I fall for it), but don’t let him fool you. He cares more than most organizers, not just about safety, but about whether people on his hike are having fun. Most of the time that means crawling through some unbelievably tight hole in the rocks while he’s laughing.

Nick’s 600th hike is this Saturday. If you can’t go, then the next time you see Nick, congratulate him on reaching his 600th hike.

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Hike and Swim

September 20, 2025

If you’ve hiked The Zion Narrows and enjoyed it, then you’ll enjoy this. This hike is more wild than the Narrows and it includes a steep climb (about 2000 feet in 2 miles). The hike is about 10 miles round trip, but it will feel like a lot longer.

Hiking through the creek can be difficult due to rocks, boulders, trees, and branches. It can be a challenge, but it’s fun.

This is an all day adventure. It takes more time than you would expect. We usually start out early and do not get back until 9-10pm.

A life jacket or float can really help you get past areas were you must swim. I have seen other people climb all the way up and run around the swimming portions of these hikes, but that seems like more work than just swimming or paddling your way up the river.

There are plenty of smaller waterfalls along the way to destination falls.

This is an out of town hike that is a 5-6 hour drive from Las Vegas. It will also take a high clearance vehicle to get to the trail head. We do not have space for extra people, so if you want to go on this trip, then you’ll need a high clearance vehicle or be able to arrange a ride with somebody who is already going.

https://www.meetup.com/vegashikers/events/308496517/?slug=vegashikers&eventId=308496517

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Rick Kendrex

This past week I heard about the sad demise of one of our hiking family, Rick Kendrex.

Rick was present on one of my very first hikes with VegasHikers and he’s been active all this time. In the past few years we haven’t seen as much of him as we had before, but that’s common for a lot of people.

He was an affable guy and a good scrambler. He was always willing to help and he has saved at least one person from a very bad fall. Condolences to his friends and family. He’ll be missed.

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Sedona Secret Caves-Memorial Day, 2026

The last Sedona Secret Caves trip was 2022. We had a great time. Next year we’re going back. We have the entire camp area to ourselves, so the only people we have to worry about are the whiny camp hosts and the whiny people across the creek.

This year, we’re going to try to add more caves to what we’ve done in the past. We’ve been to the not so secret “Subway” and the “Birthing Cave,” and we’re going back to some of the favorites, but we’ll also be going to others that are more secret.

The trip has already been posted. The link is below.

https://www.meetup.com/vegashikers/events/307906310/?eventOrigin=group_calendar

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1500 Hike Celebration

It’s been about 4 years since I reached 1000 hikes. Since then, there have been no celebrations. I knew it was my 1500th hike, and I knew that we would celebrate, but I was not aware of the extent. Janie made brownies, so I was sure we would have a little time after the hike.

After the hike, everybody quickly left. I guessed that everybody had their own things to do, and wouldn’t hang around to eat the brownies. Of course I thought that this would mean more brownies for me.

Janie told me we should go to the park, so I knew then that everybody from the hike would be there. The park is always a good celebration spot. Little did I know that a LOT more people were going to be there also. Here’s some pictures of the celebration.

I guess everybody had sent in pictures to use on a giant collage. I collected all of the pictures, and Janie gave me more that she received, and I added them to this gallery. I hope you have as much fun looking at them as I do.

Abu went WAY out of his way to have a plaque made. It’s really cool. I hope everybody gets one of these someday because it’s a great thing to hang on the wall.

Lots of people wanted to thank me for doing what I do for the group. I just do what I can to help make our group fun and enjoy the company of people who love the same things as I do. So I think the gratitude is going the wrong way. It is I who owe everybody my gratitude for coming out and joining the celebration.

THANKS TO ALL OF YOU FOR COMING OUT AND CELEBRATING MY MILESTONE. THANKS TO EVERYBODY WHO BROUGHT FOOD AND DRINKS. THANKS FOR ALL OF THE GIFTS.

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Sedona Secret Caves

During the Memorial Day trip to Sedona we were able to find a lot of new things that we had never seen before. We found a couple of the secret caves. Finding these caves took a lot of research online and map studying, as well as reviewing gpx files that we found online. Even that wasn’t enough. We still had to find the caves on our own by some trial and error.

On one of our hikes, we spent about 10 hours hiking in backcountry areas, most of which was through dense manzanita. It was tough hiking, took a long time to get places, and everybody came away with dozens of scratches. We probably aren’t going to do that again. In addition, it was a hot day and some of the group began to run out of water. Luckily, we were able to get out of the sun by going into cool caves and alcoves to avoid the heat.

Check out the Sedona Caves Gallery for pictures.

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The Search for Secret Caves in Sedona

After having visited Sedona many times, we have found some of the caves that are popular. But there are other, secret caves, that are so secret people in Sedona refuse to give the information on them. So we’ve been going online and doing our best to research some of these caves.

The featured picture above is from the Birthing Cave. The picture below if the Soldier’s Arch. There are more, but I don’t have pictures of my own to share. When we find the caves, I’ll post pictures. If possible, I’ll post a map with a GPX track.

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Halloween in Sedona

After months of planning and waiting, we finally made it to Sedona for what we thought was going to be a “post pandemic” trip. As it turns out, the virus is still affecting everything. But, as usual, we made the best of it.

In prior trips to Sedona, we realized that parking might be a problem. However, we thought that Friday, October 30, 2020, was going to be different because it was not a holiday in AZ. Not true. We arrived and struggled to find the last 2 parking spaces for the Devil’s Bridge hike. When we left, the cars were parked along Dry Creek Rd. in both directions. We did 2 other hikes that day and struggled to find parking in both of the trail heads due to crowds.

We had been looking forward to Halloween in Jerome, AZ. The rumor was that Halloween celebrations there are fun. The setting was perfect. Jerome is a “ghost” town. It was a Saturday night and the moon was full. But every business in town closed early and by 7pm we were ready to leave because there was nothing happening. Our only guess is that the town decided that they were scared of the virus more than they needed tourism dollars. What a disappointment.

We had a lot of fun on hikes on this trip and can’t wait to get back to explore more of the trails in Sedona. Check out the Sedona Gallery for some new pictures.