The Beast!

Friday night my sister Nikki got remarried in the Jordan River Temple. Hooray! We're so excited for her and her new husband Brent. Since Ryan's parents had the kids spend the night Ryan decided to take me to hike to the top of Mount Timpanogos early Saturday morning. I figured since I was in pretty good shape that that was a great idea.


We started a little after 6 am since we had to park a ways down the road. The trail head was full and a Ranger was redirecting people to park along the road. It was dark but there were lots of people heading up with us. As the sun started to come up I was shocked to see how many people were coming down! In my mind I was thinking maybe they started around 4 or 5 am.

It wasn't until a little later that Ryan informed me this was a 9 mile hike to the top! I soon overheard some of the people coming down say that they started at 1 in the morning! I was already feeling winded, weak and shaky, and started to seriously question my ability to get to the top. Especially since most of the people passing me (everyone) was in their twenties or in high school. At one point I pictured myself lying down in a field of flowers and curling up in a ball to sleep (or cry). But I kept that to myself. I told Ryan I was struggling and he just kept handing me granola bars. (For some stupid reason I started a high protein low carb diet the day before. FYI, don't do that before you hike Timp!)

Believe it or not I made it to the top! It was as great as everyone was saying it would be, albeit absolutely terrifying if you're afraid of heights, which I am! I actually only made it to the Saddle. There was still another trail to the Summit but I don't think my heart, or my fears, could have gotten me there. Maybe another time Ryan says. ???

We made it up in 4 1/2 hours which I'm sure is nothing to brag about and down in 3 hours. We were in a hurry to get Cameron to a birthday party and clean our house for another showing. (I got that phone call on top of the mountain. It was really weird when my cell phone rang 10 min. from the top). On the way down I stubbed my toes on hidden rocks about a thousand times. I was sure my left toe was bleeding so when we were fairly close to the bottom I sent Ryan ahead to get the car and meet me at the trailhead.

When he came to pick me up he said it was a blessing I sent him ahead because two Rangers were writing tickets on everyone's car that was parked on the road, $125! They were just filling out his ticket when he showed up! He argued with them and told them that the Ranger this morning told us to park on the road. Amazingly, he got out of the ticket. But it seems some people even got their cars towed! How evil is that? You hike a mountain for 8 hours only to come down, exhausted, to find your car gone! I think something is seriously wrong with the Ranger department to do that to people.

When I went to bed Saturday night, early, all I could see in my mind were trails of rocks and dirt! Not a good thing. By the way, my toe was not bloody, or broken, but definitely bruised.