Climbing the Mountain
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Here's what happens after David suggest going on a hike. Theoretically hiking sounds good to me; it's an active, family bonding activity. The mountains are gorgeous, why wouldn't I say yes right? So I say yes and then I get a little apprehensive- did I really want to spend all day climbing a mountain? Is it worth the soreness? Am I actually athletic enough? It can't be more fun than spending time doing x,y, or z, right?
David convinces me that it will be good so we set off and I'm still not sold. Until we get going and I realize once again that yes, this really is fun. And every time I admit to David that he was right again.
At the end of winter, David got me to agree to hike Mt. Timpanogos by the time school started and I was dreading it all summer. But because we were really prepared this time with water, food, extra clothes, and other supplies we actually had a great experience. Since David was the mastermind who made it successful here's his explanation of our Labor Day adventure up Timp.
As we drove up the canyon to start your hike, it started dumping buckets of rain, I got a little apprehensive telling everyone that maybe it will let up, or don't worry, this is why we brought ponchos. When we arrived at the parking lot, the rain had almost stopped, we put on our ponchos just in case it started again, but then we quickly took them off once we got started, since we were getting hot and it didn't look like it would rain again.
We brought Hunter with us- poor kid, the next day is his first day of BYU and he spends his last day of freedom hiking Timp with us. Who am I kidding? He loved it!
Sibling pic! Yay look how far we've come.
Laura and I on our way up the mountain. You can make out the switchbacks behind us that will lead us to Emerald Lake.
Looking down the mountain towards Sundance Resort.
Here are Hunter and I at the saddle of the mountain. Behind us is Heber valley.
I put a poncho on to get ready to summit. The visibility looking down the other side of the mountain was about zero. All you could see were clouds. And then...
The wind started blowing really hard.
The view of Utah Valley and Utah Lake. We could only see it every once in a while when the clouds went by.
And then you could see the gorgeous view below. We felt so lucky because last year we didn't get to see this view, there were too many clouds.
David at the shack at the top chewing on some beef jerky.
Hunter at the top, doing great and checking his blood sugar. He did great the whole way, as his mother would be happy to know.
Look at that cutie, she's just smiling cause she is having so much fun and wants to hike Timp every year.
Just outside the shack at the top of the mountain on a ledge below us we spotted a mountain goat.
He was just chillen' munching on some shrubs that he could find. I hiked around so I could get closer to him.
Here he is just acting cool watching what I would do.
He waited long enough that I decided to take a selfy with him.
He walked right by me on the ledge below, he was like 6 feet away from me, I wanted to reach out and pat him as he went by.
Here he is navigating this little cliff. He didn't seem scared at all, he just took his time and kept his cool.
Here Laura and Hunter are on their way down from the top. Heber Valley can be seen right between Laura and Hunter.
As you can see it's very windy and cold, also the condensation from the clouds would build up on our clothes and hair making everything damp.
We're just a couple of hikers enjoying the day.
We stopped at the shack at Emerald Lake (not photographed because it's not very pretty) on the way down. Hunter said he wasn't tired, he just had his head in his hands because he was "conserving energy."
This is the doorway to the shelter.
And here Laura is taking pics of us, while I'm digging in my pack for some more food.
In the end, it all turned out great, we got home safely and were glad to hike Timp. We had some very sore feet and legs the next couple of days, but we enjoyed the out doors and the breath taking nature surrounding us. Plus we got to see a mountain goat up close.
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