A schoolteacher Mom, Cookie, suddenly finds herself without students or her son to shepherd around life's daily challenges and banal moments. Empty nest syndrome strikes with a vengeance and Cookie realizes she wants "to go play in that jungle out there." Thus, Cookie ignores her internal warning voices and heads for Broadmoor, an "elegant, historic Five Star resort at the foot of Pike's Peak," and very close to her dear friend, Joanne's, home. She thinks a "nice hike" on Pike's Peak might satisfy her yearnings for adventure.

Have you ever heard the expression, "Be careful what you ask for?" Cookie quickly discovers a new, fiercely indomitable challenge in Pike's Peak. Beginning with the daily onslaught of fleas and bugs, Cookie learns to treasure the bliss and endure the agony of mountain climbing; being dumped into the Royal George Rapids; exploring a haunted castle; going to sleep with the sound of nearby wailing, wild coyotes; driving down an icy-slick mountain road surrounded only be cliffs and sharp rocks; and finally much more at a ranch where she applies for a job as a cowhand.

Yet another unexpected turn of events haunts her mind and soul! Everyone has heard of the injustices suffered by migrant and illegal alien workers, the prey of money-making, unprincipled and rich bosses; but few have encountered it in its stark, painful reality. Cookie rapidly awakens to the gross features of an unimagined world, and the reader will be stymied to figure out how she plans to deal with this set of crises she just can't ignore.

For those who love the charms and challenges of living and hiking in the outdoor life, this is a grand book to read and even consider trying in one's own way. Ann Payton does a superb job of conveying the difficulties with serious and humorous points of view at exactly the right moment. Her descriptions of Colorado's beautiful and majestic mountains, rapids and ranches will remain in the mind's eye long after the reading is done.

Finally, but certainly not less adventuresome than the traveling, Cookie's response to terribly degrading conditions of legal and illegal migrant workers will raise your respect level by more than several notches.

Extraordinary characters and setting merge into a very real, engaging plot, to result in this so very scenic, yet scathing adventuresome tale.

Well done, Ann Payton!