High on a Mountaintop (round 2)

I only say round two because I have a blog post back from my European adventures titled the exact same thing. I’m so original, I know. But it’s just so fitting. Also, that’s one of my favorite hymns, so maybe I just like using the name. Anyway, the first post was all about hanging out in the Alps in Germany. You know, every day stuff for me. Round two takes place right here in Provo’s backyard. And this time I really did climb the mountain. No cheating here, although if there were a gondola, I probably would have taken it down the mountain.

So I’ve been living in Provo now for almost three years and I had yet to hike Mount Timpanogos. What is wrong with me? That’s something everyone is supposed to do within their first year. It’s almost as cliché as hiking the Y. I remember back before coming to BYU (sooooo long ago) that Uncle Scott told me hiking Timp was one of the first things I should do. And then I was supposed to do it again at the end of the school year because it would be so much easier now that I was used to the altitude. Well, Scotty, I finally did it. I finally conquered that mountain.

View from BYU campus. Courtesy of Google.

 The ordeal began at 1:30am, Wednesday morning of August the fifteenth in the year of our Lord two thousand and twelve. I want to make sure that’s really well documented. There were ten of us: Candice, Jen, her friend Taylor, myself, Kyle, and five of his friends. Let me tell you, perfect time to go hike a mountain. It doesn’t get hot! We all had our flashlights or headlamps and up we went. Besides a couple steep parts that lasted maybe two minutes, the hike was actually pretty easy. You gain almost 5,000 feet in elevation from the trailhead, but you wind your way up the mountain over 6.4 miles so it’s a slow gain. Ok, the first mile is always hard because you’re getting into the groove, but once you’re in, man you can go for hours. And that’s just what we did. I think it took us like four and a half hours to reach the saddle (even with all the “detours” we ended up taking), which is where you can look out over all of Utah Valley, and apparently on a good day you can see all the way up to the Salt Lake. That’s where a lot of people go to watch the sunrise.

Utah Valley

We stopped for a little while but got impatient waiting for the sun to peek out, so all but two of Kyle’s friends started the climb to the summit, which takes another 30 to 45 minutes. That trail is on the western face of the mountain so we missed the actual sunrise, but it was close enough when we got to the top. The view is always worth the climb. It’s beautiful up there. So quiet. So peaceful. So serene. I wanted to stay up there all day and just think. I am definitely not meant for the city. There has to be some mountains nearby where I can escape to like this.

After signing our names on the little shack that’s up there (it used to be used for triangulation purposes) and documenting our victory with pictures, we started our long trek down the mountain. We stopped at the saddle again to gear up for the next few hours and made some friends with a herd of mountain goats. Just hanging around by the trail like it’s no big deal. Showing off how great they are at climbing rocks. It was pretty cool to see them so close. Oh my gosh, why oh why is the hike down so miserable? I was so pumped and full of energy when I got to the top. You’d think I’d be dead since I just walked UPHILL for five hours, carrying a 20lb backpack (I had lots of water, and my Nikon of course, oh, and a giant notebook). Downhill is supposed to be easy and relaxing. Haha, no. Your knees basically scream at you the entire way and now that you can actually see the trail you realize how far you still have to go. It’s torture really. I wish I were just being dramatic, but I’m not. It’s super hard on your body and your mind. But the hike was still worth it. I’d do it again, but I’ll definitely take an airlift out of there next time.

Fellow mountain men/women.

We were done by 12:30 pm, so we came in under twelve hours. Wow, I basically hiked a half marathon on about 20 minutes of sleep. The whole day before I had planned to take a nap, but you know how that never works out. Clearly, I’m just super hard core. Or not, according to the last paragraph. Poor Candice is never coming hiking with me again! I’ve ruined her knee. About a mile into the hike down her knee started really hurting. She said it hurt so much she just wanted to cut her leg off. Yikes! So that was a very long, painful hike. And we almost ran out of water and collapsed on the trail and baked in the summer heat and we could have lain there for hours before someone found us nearly dead. Ok, now I’m just being dramatic. We were fine. Candice was just in a lot of pain. But she made it. Obviously, she’s the real hard core one.

In other news, yesterday I was on another mountaintop, this one symbolic. I went to my first temple open house at the Brigham City Temple, which is where the general public can take a tour before the temple is dedicated. I wish I could accurately describe my excitement and wonder as I walked through. The temple is such a wonderful place and I can’t wait to go through for myself. For those of you who aren’t familiar with temples, they are places where Latter-day Saints go to feel closer to God and to make covenants, or promises, with Him. They are places where families are sealed together for time and all eternity, and where ordinances, like baptism, are performed for the dead who were not able to receive those ordinances in this life. They are places of peace. They are places of great inspiration. They are places of love and happiness, and I am so grateful to have one just down the street.

Well, school starts on Monday. Where the heck did my summer go? I think I made the most of it though, and honestly, I’m so ready to be back in school. I want to feel like I’m moving forward again. I’ve got four semesters left. Over halfway there. I can do this!!!