Saturday, August 6, 2011

Timpie







Sunburned from yesterday, my bottom lip is swollen so I look like I'm pouting.
11:00 am we're greased up with sunscreen, water and hats ready to drive to Timpanogos Mountain to hike to the cave. Can I really do this? My friends said it is a mile-and-half straight up. Yarg! Why do people torture themselves?
I'm wearing long sleeves to protect myself from the sun. Rachel tells me I'm going to be too hot. Yeh, I know that, but how hot can it be 6500 feet above sea level. Doesn't the air thin and cool down?
So, the hike begins. First 1/4 mile I'm feeling pretty good about myself...yes there is definitely an incline but I can handle it. Moving on to the next 1/4 mile; my smile is fading---aren't we almost there? O.K. now we're half-way. I'm HOT, sweaty and I've dumped most of my water down my shirt to try and cool myself down. I've begun to count my steps to try and entertain myself and keep my mind off my heavy breathing. Wondering to myself if people passing by me can hear me gasping for breath and if they are taking bets as to whether I'll make it another 50 yards. 3/4 the way there---seriously, why would anyone want to forge a path to the top of this mountain? If you've seen one mountain haven't you seen them all? I'm stopping now after every 100 steps, wonder if Rachel and Alex will notice if I never show up at the top. Five more switch-backs and I'll be there. Some overly zealous nut-case passes me by jogging up the mountain, I secretly hope he trips. Two more resting stops and now there are only two more switch backs and I wonder how bad it would hurt my knees to crawl.
I MADE IT!!!!!!! I collapse against the rocks while we wait for the cave tour. As I'm sitting trying to control my breathing I think back to the beginning of our little journey and the guide at the bottom of the mountain that checked our tour tickets and remarked that we were beginning our trek a little earlier than necessary to make it up the mountain. Yeah, what did she know? She'd never hiked with me.
So, we got to go through the cave....it was incredible. We walked right under the fault line and witnessed some amazing formations created by our moving, changing earth.
Was it worth it? With all the technology available don't you think they could build an elevator to take people up and down the mountain?

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