The Mystery of the Crying Woman
And the curse of Puesta del Sol Canyon
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(A Lucas Winslow Story — Episode 8)
Like an idiot, Lucas Winslow was wearing tennis shoes when he took a short hike into the little canyon to the west of his property. He had recently purchased brand new expensive hiking boots but out of habit he just put on the tennis shoes. The hiking boots sat on the floor of his closet right next to the tennis shoes but Lucas grabbed the tennis shoes and did not even notice the hiking boots which still had yet to be worn.
Following the creek, Lucas realized that very soon after leaving his property the land turned very rocky and wild. There was no path to follow. It was a matter of climbing over rocks and logs, jumping from rock to rock, climbing up then down then up again, while carefully avoiding cacti and keeping an eye out for rattlesnakes. It was not far into the canyon when Lucas remembered the hiking boots.
Lucas was filled with joy. He had not experienced any of this kind of hiking in over eight years. Back in the very, very, very flat land from which Lucas had recently moved from, hiking was not a real thing. Since everything is so flat it is really cannot be called hiking. It is just walking.
But Lucas did plenty of desert hiking and mountain hiking when he was younger. It all started when he was in the Cub Scouts and went on a hike with his troop up to a real abandoned gold mine in the mountains. While all the rest of the boys were busy glancing down for rattlesnakes, Lucas searched for gold nuggets. Nature hikes, some solitary, continued unabated for the rest of his childhood well into his adult years. But now he was in his sixties and had been only walking on flat land for eight years. The excitement he felt descending into the canyon came with extra carefulness as his body began remembering how to hike.
Before setting off into the canyon Lucas had done a little bit of research online and found a map that showed the name of the little canyon. It is the same name attached to the little creek than ran along the southern edge of his property and then emptied into the canyon. It is a Spanish name, Puesta del Sol, which in English means ‘sunset.’ He was hiking along Sunset Creek heading into Sunset Canyon. It felt nice that the place…
