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Utah-kin to Me?
Jul. 24th, 2007 12:23 pmMike, Mary Ann and I arrived in Utah Thursday night, with a limited scare factor. While on the plane, the pilot announced that one of the engines had failed, so they were going to be running on auxillary power. As if this wasn't disturbing enough, he then said, "Due to this, we'll have to fly at a lower altitude, which means we need more fuel."
Cheerfully.
Four people quietly stood up and exited, and another man grabbed his laptop case and practically jogged down the aisle. A woman's voice called something, and without turning around, the man replied, "I love you, but not that much."
Despite this somewhat frightening beginning, the plane arrived with no problems.
Friday morning, we woke up at 6:30 a.m. and drove to Mt. Olympus. We were going to meet some people there and hike up the mountain.
"Where are we supposed to meet them?" Mike said.
Mary Ann replied, "Oh, I told them to meet us at the rock at the base of the mountain."
Mike and I traded looks.
"Uh," Mike said. "Perhaps somewhere more specific?"
"Oh, no, it's just one big rock."
We found it and met up with Lindsay and her husband John, her brother Russel, Elaine and her husband Christian and started up the mountain.
The theory behind this was that we were doing three hikes this vacation: easy, medium, and hard. Mike decided that we would do the hardest first, so the other two would feel super easy by comparison.
This seemed like sound, logical reasoning.
Ten hours later, I began to rethink that.
The climb up was steep, with narrow paths and sheer cliff drops on the sides. The air was much thinner than Mike or I were used to, so we ended up panting about ten minutes in. We soldiered on. The climb got steeper after the halfway mark, so that we were nearly climbing vertical the entire way. You looked up and saw the shoes of the person in front of you. Lindsay, who said this was her ninth time up, kept saying, "Oh, the saddle's almost here! Just those trees up there!" About two hours after she said we would be there, we made it and broke to eat lunch. Unfortunately, Mary Ann had told us it was only about three hours up the mountain (it took six) and one hour down (it took four), so we didn't have lunch. The others shared their trail mix with us, though.
From the saddle, it was rock climbing. Honest to goodness rock climbing. We were scrambling on all fours, seeking out footholds, looking down into nothingness. The "trail", as they jokingly referred to it, were three pink flags tied to stakes in a seemingly random pattern.
We finally made it, took pictures, then spent an hour scooting on our butts down again.
On the climb down, our legs were quivering like rubber, Lindsay and I got heat exhaustion because it was 108 degrees on the way down, and I was sunburned.
That was Friday.
Saturday we went to a family reunion type thing, Sunday we wandered around Temple Square and went to Rosa's house (Rosa being a niece of Mary Ann's who is as old or older than Mary Ann, and an absolute sweetheart) where we played games all night with just about everyone.
Monday we went on a three-hour hike up Tippenogas, Mike and I about 85% recovered from Mount Olympus. The hike was easy and pleasant, shaded and paved with wide trails switchbacking gently the whole way up. At the top there was a cave tour that we went through, with a tour guide who looked like a high school freshman in little ranger gear, then came out the other side and hiked back down, where we ate lunch. Afterwards, we headed directly to the food bank, where we worked about two hours packing scallion dressing mix, then headed to Mary Ann's brother and sister-in-law's condo, where the entire family showed up to play games.
Pictures are to come (the mountains are terrific!), and the rest of the trip will come later.
Cheerfully.
Four people quietly stood up and exited, and another man grabbed his laptop case and practically jogged down the aisle. A woman's voice called something, and without turning around, the man replied, "I love you, but not that much."
Despite this somewhat frightening beginning, the plane arrived with no problems.
Friday morning, we woke up at 6:30 a.m. and drove to Mt. Olympus. We were going to meet some people there and hike up the mountain.
"Where are we supposed to meet them?" Mike said.
Mary Ann replied, "Oh, I told them to meet us at the rock at the base of the mountain."
Mike and I traded looks.
"Uh," Mike said. "Perhaps somewhere more specific?"
"Oh, no, it's just one big rock."
We found it and met up with Lindsay and her husband John, her brother Russel, Elaine and her husband Christian and started up the mountain.
The theory behind this was that we were doing three hikes this vacation: easy, medium, and hard. Mike decided that we would do the hardest first, so the other two would feel super easy by comparison.
This seemed like sound, logical reasoning.
Ten hours later, I began to rethink that.
The climb up was steep, with narrow paths and sheer cliff drops on the sides. The air was much thinner than Mike or I were used to, so we ended up panting about ten minutes in. We soldiered on. The climb got steeper after the halfway mark, so that we were nearly climbing vertical the entire way. You looked up and saw the shoes of the person in front of you. Lindsay, who said this was her ninth time up, kept saying, "Oh, the saddle's almost here! Just those trees up there!" About two hours after she said we would be there, we made it and broke to eat lunch. Unfortunately, Mary Ann had told us it was only about three hours up the mountain (it took six) and one hour down (it took four), so we didn't have lunch. The others shared their trail mix with us, though.
From the saddle, it was rock climbing. Honest to goodness rock climbing. We were scrambling on all fours, seeking out footholds, looking down into nothingness. The "trail", as they jokingly referred to it, were three pink flags tied to stakes in a seemingly random pattern.
We finally made it, took pictures, then spent an hour scooting on our butts down again.
On the climb down, our legs were quivering like rubber, Lindsay and I got heat exhaustion because it was 108 degrees on the way down, and I was sunburned.
That was Friday.
Saturday we went to a family reunion type thing, Sunday we wandered around Temple Square and went to Rosa's house (Rosa being a niece of Mary Ann's who is as old or older than Mary Ann, and an absolute sweetheart) where we played games all night with just about everyone.
Monday we went on a three-hour hike up Tippenogas, Mike and I about 85% recovered from Mount Olympus. The hike was easy and pleasant, shaded and paved with wide trails switchbacking gently the whole way up. At the top there was a cave tour that we went through, with a tour guide who looked like a high school freshman in little ranger gear, then came out the other side and hiked back down, where we ate lunch. Afterwards, we headed directly to the food bank, where we worked about two hours packing scallion dressing mix, then headed to Mary Ann's brother and sister-in-law's condo, where the entire family showed up to play games.
Pictures are to come (the mountains are terrific!), and the rest of the trip will come later.
