Timpanogos Finally

Since our BYU days back in the '80s, we have wanted to hike Mount Timpanogos.  Fifteen years ago we did a part of it and it was beautiful but we had too many little kids and not enough time.  For some reason, wait, I do know the reason I really wasn't excited to hike this popular hike.  It was all the stories about finding people in the spring who had fallen into the icy cravasse and not been recovered until the thaw.  My overactive imagination had a heyday with that one.  I just didn't want to hike up snow fields and slide down like everyone else.

In August, Mark kept bringing up the hike and how he really wanted to do it.  I didn't encourage the idea but one night I heard him talking on the phone to our friends, the Williams and he was planning the hike for the next morning.  I said I would go if he didn't leave me, I could go only as far as I wanted and I could take all the time I wanted.  I looked up the hike on the internet and felt like I could do it.  All of our kids except Patrick have done it many times and they love it.

We left at 6:30 bright and early.  We started at Aspen Grove and after checking in with the Ranger, we headed up the beautiful trail.  My brother Craig told me to at least get to the lake and then just a little further if I didn't want to make it to the top.  After several hours, we came around a switchback and there was the most beautiful lake and steep cliffs.  We stopped and purified some water and had a little snack.  I had the thought that here I am wanting to go to Norway to see the Fjords and there was comparable beauty just a short distance from my house.  I had a very grateful heart for God's beautiful creations right then.

Looking up from the lake, I could see people skiing and sliding down the snowfield.  It was pretty rocky and the snow was measly.  I didn't want to hike up or slide down but I know that it is usually worse than this year with our little drought.  No one ever talked about another way around which was spectacularly amazing.  We could see the meadows and tops of mountains in a 360 panorama.  We started up the steeps and I got a little nervous as the trail was narrow and the cliffs down were very steep.  I just looked to the mountain side as I carefully hiked up beyond the tree line into the shale rocks to the top.  I was pretty sure that going down was going to be worse, but up we hiked.  Mark stayed right behind me in just in case I fell or got too nervous to go on.

At the top there were about 30 people sitting on the steep rocky crest.  There is a little shed on the top that has a place to sign your name and birthday.  We had a little snack and I couldn't wait to get off.  The view was amazing but I didn't want to stand up and really take a great look around.  I was happy that I made it up but didn't want to spend much time on top.

We started down and I was right.  I had to go pretty slow on the slippery rocks and the Williams and Mark got ahead of me.  I didn't care though, I wanted to be sure I got down uninjured.  We got back to the beautiful lake and the rest of the hike seemed to last forever and I learned that my knees and I would rather hike uphill than downhill.  It took about 11 hours and I felt it when we got back to the car.

As we were hiking down, Mark would stop and take off his shoes and sit and tell us to go on without him and he would catch up.  We would hike slowly waiting for him to join us.  He did this several times and the Williams asked me if he was OK.  I said he seems OK to me.  A few weeks later it hit me that he was tired of hiking so slow with me and he wanted me to get head start.  I asked him if this was true and he said, "yes, of course what did you think?" I told him to tell me what he was doing next time instead of thinking I could read his mind.   We could have made it down a lot faster I had known.

It was significant accomplishment that I am very glad we did and maybe I could be persuaded to go again just to view the spectacular scenery.