This was one of beach-reads between long distance swims at my favorite lake.

While I love the water, I admit I will never jump into a flash flood to get to a trailhead, as Childs describes doing in this book.

He's crazy, in a good way, and a fastastic writer.

One of my dreams is to have a long stay with hiking in the American SouthWest -- Chaco Canyon, Monument Valley, and the like. This book is providing me with a lot of valuable history of the people and landscape, and is fueling my urge to go. Even though such a trip will be out of my financial reach for a long time.

One of the many interesting aspects of this book were the archeological politics. I understand the requirement of asking a land owner or indian tribe for permission before going to on their land to excavate a site, letting alone setting one foot on that land.

But it seemed odd to me how archologists insisted that the sites found in northern Mexico -- Paquime and Sierra Madre, for example -- had absolutely no ties to what happened in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.

Walking isn't that difficult and for people who were experts on desert living, it would be much easier for them to cross that expanse than you or I.