Ropes Course and Horseback Riding in Paradise

Drove over to Paradise for the day, where the Recreation & Park District runs an outdoor adventure setup they call Odyssey Productions — harnesses, helmets, cables strung between the pines. The main crossing was a single log slung high enough that the tennis courts down below looked like a postage stamp. You clip in, hold the vertical ropes, and put one foot in front of the other while the whole thing gives a little under you. After that came a climbing wall bolted to a tree, big resin holds screwed into plywood, with a padded platform waiting at the bottom for anyone who came off.

The same district does horseback rides, so the afternoon went to that — a trail through sagebrush and dry grass down to a river, all four of us on horses that clearly knew the route better than we did. We stopped where the water ran shallow between the banks and lined the horses up at the edge. Two of them stood nose to nose the whole time. Mine kept trying to eat.