Timp, Part 2

We were off to the glacier! The trail to the glacier from the peak was not much pleasanter than the trail from the summit to the peak in terms of scariness. The good thing was that it was shorter and a lot less crowded. As we walked, we talked and got to know Clarissa better. It wasn't so cold now, and spirits were high. When we got our first glimpse of the glacier and how it was almost entirely vertical, we all freaked out a bit, but my dad promised that there was a way around which wasn't as steep.

At one point, the trail almost scared me out of my mind. The rock was a lot blacker than the rest of the mountain (for some reason it reminded me of a volcano), and it was curved sort of inward. The path was a bit narrow, and if you fell, you would die. But no pressure. My dad warned Spencer to be careful and then we all made it across without trouble.

"That was the part I was most worried about," my dad said after we were all safe. It was probably better that he waited to tell us that instead of us having panic attacks in the volcano. I felt so relieved. The worst was finally over.

A few minutes later, we were to the top of the glacier. We all looked down it and decided there was no way jose we would go down it directly. I don't even like steep waterslides, let alone boulder-covered snowfields.

So we went to the left as planned. The last time my dad had come here was in 2004 when the landscape was quite different. Thus, it was a bit more challenging than he had remembered to go to the left. I was in front, and I found myself wondering a lot how I was going to make it down this ledge or that. But we all slowly managed to find our way along the left of the glacier, hoping that eventually it would level out so we could get on at a flatter part.

After one final jump, we were to a gravelly hill with lots of loose rock and boulders. It looked terrifying. Right about that time someone accidentally knocked a rock onto my neck, and it hurt a lot for a few minutes. If that little rock hurt that much, I didn't like to think what would happen if we got into fights with some of the bigger rocks.

But my dad and brother decided to give it a try anyway at one spot which looked easier. As they started to go down, they kicked some rocks, some pretty big. They kept going

and going

and going.

"ROCK! ROCK!" we all yelled, hoping that people sliding down the glacier could get out of harm's way if the boulder turned out to stop there. But it turned out fine.

We sat there for a few minutes, wondering how on earth we were going to make it down the hill. About that time, another lady in white who had been behind us scooted down the hill next to the glacier. She seemed to be doing okay. We considered following her once she was out of the way, but it still was pretty scary.

About the same time, Spencer got tired of us deliberating and just headed down. I did not have a good feeling about that at all. But he seemed to be doing fine -- didn't kick as many rocks down as he had on his first attempt and didn't seem to mind the steepness. When he was close to the bottom, there was a spot where we all wanted him to take a right. I don't know if he couldn't make it over or if he misunderstood, but he went left. I cringed. He went a few steps, then started shaking, a totally panicked shake. He went a few more steps down and then

"Aaaaaahhhh" went careening down a little slope there

My first thought was, "well, it can't be as steep as the top of the glacier, so he'll be fine."

But then he kept going and going, and I realized that he was sliding down into the rock field we had created.

Then he stopped screaming. My heart stopped.

Then, a dreadful bellow. "Aaaaaaargghhh!"

My dad: "Well, at least he's conscious."

Kaylie: "Spence, what's wrong?"

Spencer: "I have . . . frostbite!" and then waved his cold, red hands at us.

True, it was terrible to have to slow yourself down with your hands, but at least he was complaining about that instead of, like, a broken arm. I tried not to laugh.

He never cried, but he sounded pretty miserable so Kaylie went down next to be with him (after us yelling "move move move" over and over so he wouldn't get hit by any loose rocks she might have kicked down). She was a lot more cautious and took the same route the lady in white took, but I was still pretty tense. What if she slipped? How could we all get down all right?

"Is that blood on the snow by Spencer?" Kevin asked. I looked over there and saw a few small puddles surrounding him. I felt even sicker.

Well, Kaylie finally made it down. There was a spot where she froze for a good 5 minutes (to us it looked perfectly fine, so we had no idea why she was not moving, but we trusted her judgment) and then carefully inched her way down the same path Spencer had gone. I'm not sure how she made it without slipping.

Then my dad went down. A little faster, still cautious, went to the right rather than to the left as Kaylie and Spencer did, and then suddenly he was on firm ground. "This is the stupidest thing I've ever put my family through," I heard him mutter. Clarissa laughed.

I figured I might as well go. I inched down, backpack on my chest, sock on my right hand to make it easier for me to grip the ice, and scooted down, down, down, sometimes dislodging rocks, sometimes sliding a bit further than I had anticipated, but never really losing control. I think my dad was a lot more scared than I was. He gave hints about which rocks were safe and which were not, and then when I reached one rock he assured me was safe, I stood on it and then he helped me across over to the firmer ground. The rock was still loose and the hill was still steep, but I was able to sink my feet into the loose rock and walk with relative ease.

Clarissa was next, and she went even faster than my dad or me. Then came Kevin ("I love you" we repeated back and forth to each other, just in case he somehow lost his footing), and suddenly we were all past the menacing, slippery, loose-rock infested hill that had separated us from the flatter part of the glacier.

The labels aren't quite right -- the purple trail was through snow, not through rock. But you get the idea.

And then came the fun part! I sat down on the glacier and scooted down at a pace I felt comfortable with. I found sticks along the way which made it so I didn't have to use my hands as ski poles. My dad and Clarissa both opted for the slide, which was probably about as tame as a shallow sledding hill by then, but I was just fine dawdling along the little bumps and ridges that bruised and numbed me. (If you're numb, then you don't mind bruises.) Meanwhile, Kaylie and Spencer carefully walked down the mountain, since Spencer's leg was hurt and he couldn't sit down very well.

When we all made to the end of the major snow portion (Clarissa took off and went on her merry way to make up for lost time [oh  ps: the glacier is not faster if you spend an hour getting down one hill]), the emergency response team we had seen earlier was waiting for us on a pile of rocks. They sat Spencer down and put hats and jackets on him to prevent hypothermia. They cleaned off his blood-splattered leg (he had gotten a gash when he hit a rock on the way down, but luckily that was the only serious injury), bandaged it up, gave him some pain medication, and told us some horror stories from earlier that day which made us quite grateful that a cut-up leg was the only injury.

This is the smallest I could make this picture . . . sorry if you don't like blood.  It looked a lot better once it got cleaned up, I promise.

The emergency response team cleaning up his gash.

And then . . .we were off! I don't know how Spencer managed to walk on that leg the whole way down from Emerald Lake, but he did and he wasn't much slower than me. The walk down wasn't quite as fun as the walk up because I spent a lot of it on my own. I was too impatient to stay with Spencer, Kaylie, and Dad, and too slow to catch up to Kevin (who for some reason wanted to go inside the smelly outhouse), so I just walked by myself for miles at a time, worried that somehow one of my family members had fallen off of a ridge (yeah, I can be paranoid). And getting stuck within groups of scouts who refused to let me pass despite the multiple areas which could have fit all of them. Eventually I just found a shortcut and bushwhacked to get away from them (and was able to run for a while with all my pent-up energy). After 2 1/2 hours, we all finally made it back to the parking lot, exhausted but alive.

Then we ate Mexican food and yummy cake. And Spencer got six stitches in his leg. The end.

ps: remember how it was overcast and even rainy? Well, I still got sunburned.

Timp, Part 1

Part 1: To the Peak

"You're hiking Timp today! It's time to get up! You are so excited!" I groaned and turned off the alarm on my cell phone that I had made the night before. What was I getting myself into?

One hour and one carsick ride through Provo Canyon later (note to self: do not eat chocolate chip cookies, greasy popcorn, and snickerdoodle cake the night before driving to Aspen Grove), Kevin, my sister Kaylie, my brother Spencer, my mom, my dad, and I were in the parking lot, eager to hike Mount Timpanogos. Well, eager enough. I was a little upset that we hadn't brought sunscreen (in fact, I had remembered sunscreen but not bothered to grab it because I figured there would be some in my parents' car), but we figured we would just tough it out. So off we went.

The first part of the hike went smoothly. The trails were much better marked than they were 2 years ago when we ended up in a parking lot rather than on Timp, but that's probably because the main trail was washed out by flooding this year so they had to redirect people. As we walked we  enjoyed the sunrise (minus the fears of sunburn).

The switchbacks at the beginning weren't too eventful.  Kevin and I talked about engineering curriculum stuff with my dad while Kaylie belted out songs nonstop as I listened in awe (she goes running more than I do so she has better lung capacity). Sometimes I'd get a little embarrassed when she was singing around other people, but more often than not they would join in, which was fun. The whole first part was steep and green and calm and beautiful, and I absolutely loved the waterfalls. And Spencer's poses at the waterfalls.

As we made it past the switchbacks and into the meadows, the day became overcast and cool, even raining a bit. So much for needing sunscreen and two liters of water each, haha. As we walked through the meadows bursting with wildflowers, my mom would point out specific flowers and tell us their names. I was impressed.

After 2 1/2 or so hours of hiking, we made it to Emerald Lake. There, we ate and relaxed and watched my dad try to hand off food to random strangers ("The more you eat, the less I carry," he quipped). My mom wasn't feeling well so she decided to turn around while the rest of us went on. She was smart.

As we continued on through the snow and loose rocks, a young woman named Clarissa ended up walking with us for a little while. I listened to Kaylie get to know her better while I trudged onward, unwilling to expend precious energy for talking. Once we reached the loose rocks, she picked up her pace and said good-bye.

And then came the climb. I hadn't remembered how steep it was just to get up to the saddle. Once we reached the saddle, we took a quick breather,

and then continued to the peak. I had actually been terrified about this part for weeks. I had heard a few horror stories of people falling off the narrow paths, and in my morbid imagination I envisioned one of my siblings falling off the edge. But by the time I was there, the path was wider than I had remembered, and I didn't really mind the hike at all. Except that it was long, and steep, and long, and steep, and sometimes people accidentally kicked rocks down toward you.

And after what felt like hours (at least 45 minutes, I think), we made it to the peak! I collapsed onto some rocks and let my legs return from jelly to flesh. As we sat at the peak we ate sandwiches (complete with mayonnaise, courtesy of my dad) and looked over Utah Valley. And tried not to freeze.

And then Clarissa came back! She asked if we would take our picture at the top, and then she took ours.

Spencer is wearing mittens made from plastic bags that I had brought along. Note that I am the only one who remembered a jacket. I felt smart.

Just as Clarissa was going to head back down the way she came, Kaylie told her she should come the glacier way with us. (You can either go back the way you came along those narrow switchbacks of death, or you can go forward on a few more switchbacks and then slide down the glacier to Emerald Lake. My family has traditionally gone for the glacier since there's less risk of falling off the mountain that way.) Clarissa stopped and said, "I kind of wanted to try the glacier, but I didn't want to go by myself. Could I go with you guys?" We all said absolutely, and so she waited a few minutes for us to pack up. And then off we went!

to be continued . . .

Duchesne in August

There's something about going to Duchesne in August that just feels right. Perhaps I have positive memories because the first time I went there was just hours after Kevin and I first told each other we loved each other. Perhaps it's that we're there when the roses are still in bloom, when the hay is being cut. And since the past few years have been so wet, it's still beautiful and green, even in August.

In a lot of ways, Duchesne is predictable and nice. We will always go four-wheeling at least once. We (or at least Kevin) will help out on the farm at least once. We will watch a few too many movies. It's just a nice, laidback lifestyle for a few days (at least for us as guests . . . his parents always stay busy).

This year had a special treat -- the D'Nerdz reunion. Kevin's senior year, he and a few other friends created a band as part of his friend Derek's campaign. The summer after Kevin graduated, they performed at some dances and other events. But after the members of the band started leaving on missions, it never came together again.

Until now.

There I was again, back in high school, listening to "Kryptonite" and "The Middle" and "Swing Swing." And they actually sounded pretty good! It made me so happy.

Southern Utah, Day 3

The third day, we went to Goblin Valley and Wild Horse. Here's yet another tip for you all: Don't believe Google maps' times. It simply does not take an hour to go 5 miles on a paved road with no construction. Oh well. We got to Duchesne several hours earlier than we had anticipated.


At Goblin Valley, we played hide and seek and acted out scenes from Galaxy Quest. What I like about Goblin Valley is that it's got hoodoos same as Bryce Canyon but you can actually climb on them.

Kevin hid first . . .

Well, from exactly one direction, my hiding spot was good . . .

My imitation of Sigourney Weaver:

 Blasting imaginary aliens:

After we had our fill of fun in Goblin Valley, we went to Little Wild Horse, which is another slot canyon. I think Peekaboo was supposed to be more like it minus all the sand.

Near the beginning:

 Definitely wouldn't want to be stuck here in a flash flood . . .

After going about a half mile in, we hit a wall of rocks and debris (complete with a plastic bag from Walmart I was scared to touch). We'd had enough clambering on the first day of our adventures to last us a lifetime, so we just turned around. And thus ended our Southern Utah trip. The end. :)

Southern Utah, Day 2

Luckily, the rest of the trip wasn't quite as eventful as the first day. In fact, except for the scenic route at Capitol Reef being closed (again, check ahead of time!), we were able to stick to our plans pretty well.

We woke up on Tuesday and headed off to Lower Calf Creek Falls. We were glad we went as early as we did because the hike sure got hot fast! When we got to the waterfall, things cooled down quite a bit.

We had planned to go swimming, but the water was COLD! At least we had some fun in the sand:

After that hike, we took the amazingly beautiful drive on Highway 12 over to Capitol Reef. Wow. It's the best of both worlds -- trees and forests on one side, red rocks and canyons on the other. This should give you an idea of what it looks like (although this picture hardly does it justice):

Once we got to Capitol Reef, we decided to hike up Cohab Canyon a bit. Here's another tip for you: Don't believe weather.com. It said the high in Capitol Reef was going to be 81. When we were the car said it was more like 91, and I'm inclined to believe that instead.

But still, it was a pretty cool hike.

That night, we stayed in Hanksville in a room with two beds. When we were in bed, I asked, "What's the name of that one singer who sounds like Evanescence?" Kevin said, "Oh, I know who you're talking about. The one who sang 'Only Time.'"
"Yeah," I responded.
"We have to find out who we're talking about. It will kill us if we don't know," Kevin said. So I headed over to the bed where we had our laptop. But on my way out of bed, my feet somehow missed the ground and I instead went flying and landed on our laundry in between the two beds.
"It's Enya," Kevin said as I struggled to get up. Oh, the irony.

Lessons and Tips from Southern Utah, Day 1

On Monday, Kevin and I headed on a vacation to southern Utah for a few days to see the red rocks and slot canyons. Although I felt like I had done lots of planning and list-making, by the time we walked into our hotel Monday evening, I felt like I had failed at everything. Looking back, it's good that we were as prepared as we were, because this first day turned out to be a bit more adventurous than we were anticipating.

So, for all of you planning a trip to southern Utah anytime soon, here are some pointers.

1. If you spend two hours working on making new mixes to listen to in the car the night before your vacation, your packing will be seriously delayed.

2. When in doubt, call actual people. There were some hikes we considered going on but decided against because we thought they were closed. When we found out they were open, we didn't made room for them in the schedule, so we missed out. (I'm looking at you, Navajo Loop.)

3. Pay attention to road signs. You feel a lot smarter if you follow a sign that says "Highway 89" than if you run into a sign that says, "This is not Highway 89" (yes, it actually said that). Luckily, that detour only took 10 minutes.

4. If you stop at Escalante Outfitters, don't assume that just because you and your husband almost finished an 18'' thin-crusted Slab pizza one time that you can also finish a 16'' pizza composed mostly of meat and a much thicker crust. They really aren't comparable.

5. If your sweet mother goes to all the trouble to provide links to maps for you, and you happen to have your laptop with you, keep the links to the maps open. And not just Google Maps (it's kind of clueless, but I'll discuss that more on that in another post). Otherwise, you will fret as you look at Google Maps in the middle of nowhere, Panguitch County (or Kane County) wondering if Harris Wash is where you're supposed to turn off. (Luckily I had saved one of the pages my mom linked which said to turn off Dry Fork, so we didn't actually get lost until we were hiking down the wash, and we managed to correct that quickly.)

6. If you're going hiking at any point in the day, wear a T-shirt, not a new cute shirt and nice shorts. Yes, you may get tired of wearing T-shirts every time you go hiking (and in 90% of pictures taken of you), but at least you don't mind them getting dirty.
 What may look cute on a gentle stroll in Bryce Canyon

may look kind of ridiculous in a mud pit in Peekaboo slot canyon:

Luckily, all of the dirt washed out. Took an hour in the shower and perhaps a time or two in the washing machine, but my clothes are clean again.

However, all of this could have been avoided had I followed this next piece of advice:

7. When you are headed up Peekaboo and a little boy shouts out, "Hey, that's really muddy," don't disregard his message because he's little. And don't take it as a challenge, either.

8. When you are encountering a mud pit with a tiny ledge on one side, sometimes intelligence is more important than willpower. I said, "I can do this" seconds before I fell in the 2-foot-deep mud pit. Instead, I should have said, "right beneath this ledge is dried mud that I can walk on and I can hold onto the ledge rather than walk on it." Alas.

9. If you have spent the last 5 years of your life feeling somewhat cheated that you didn't get to go to the Peekaboo slot canyon but instead went to some obscure (albeit awesome) slot canyon somewhere in the vicinity of Peekaboo, stop feeling cheated. When there are mud pits in Peekaboo, boring slot canyons look awfully appealing.

10. If  a slot canyon dubbed "Spooky" seems a lot tamer and a lot less, um, spooky than Peekaboo, then it's probably not a good time of year to go explore Peekaboo. (Not that we finished Spooky either because Peekaboo had worn us out, but we did get a lot further in.)

Okay, so really the only major mishap the first day was in Peekaboo. Other than that, the day was pretty good and full of spectacular views:

Have I ever mentioned that I really love Bryce Canyon? :)

The Morning After Harry Potter 7.2

Warning: If you want to see the movie, don't read this.

So, I kind of feel like the only person in my news feed on Facebook who doesn't have some synonym of the word "awesome" followed by several hundred exclamation points to describe the Harry Potter movie. And I feel like a cynical, horrible person for this.

Don't get me wrong, I liked the movie. The first 100 minutes of it, at least. But then . . . I don't know. Was I expecting the illustrated version of Harry Potter and that's why I'm disappointed? Well, maybe. It's just such an epic ending. Full of Christian themes and triumphant battles even after they thought Harry was dead and gripping conversations between Voldemort and Harry.

Whereas this, well . . .

HARRY: I'm at King's Cross. But it's clean.

DUMBLEDORE: Oh, that's nice. Well, I've got to go now.

HARRY: Wait! So Snape's patronus was a doe? So was my mother's! Isn't that a bit . . . odd to you?

DUMBLEDORE: That's a really lame question. Didn't you want to know, for example, why you're not dead? Or learn why Aberforth had a grudge against me? Or why I don't have the ponytail in my beard right now? Um, yes. Snape has a doe for a patronus. No, that's not weird. I'm outta here!

Later

VOLDEMORT: (laughing) Harry Potter is dead!!!

NEVILLE: No he's not! He's alive in here! (points to his torso).

VOLDEMORT: In your stomach?


NEVILLE: No! In my heart! In all of our hearts! So what if he died? We can still fight you. He wasn't that good, anyway.

(murmurs of approval from the crowd)

HARRY (Pretending to be dead in Hagrid's arms): (thinking) Okay, this is getting out of hand. Hagrid's not even crying! The only one who cried was Ginny. That's it. I'm rolling out of Hagrid's arms this minute and putting these people in motion.


NEVILLE: Hey, a sword!

HARRY (to Voldemort): Tag, you're it!

A great chase scene ensues between the two. During the chase scene Voldemort hangs Harry, but he lives and manages to escape.

HARRY: Let's finish this how we started it. Together.

VOLDEMORT: What does that even meeaaaan (starts falling with Harry)


HARRY: Well, he's no Firebolt, but he'll do.

They land on the ground and pick up their wands in what should be an epic duel, or at least a gripping conversation. Instead,

VOLDEMORT: Avada ke--

HARRY: Care bear stare!

Together, they build us a rainbow of red and green.

HARRY: (thinking)  Since when have I been able to duel with Voldemort? He must be overrated.


VOLDEMORT: (thinking) I knew I shouldn't have gotten the Elder Wand from that Blue Light Special! Why did I leave my other wand at home?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch . . .

HERMIONE: I don't like snakes! And I'm not very good at blasting them to pieces! Why didn't Neville kill this snake 10 minutes ago? Why didn't Harry tell Neville to kill this snake instead of breaking our hearts when he left to go into the forbidden forest?

RON: Because we had to make this cooler than any Indiana Jones movie! Blimey, I hate snakes too. Oh no, it's cornered us!

NEVILLE: Don't worry, I'll have my moment. I've got to make the ladies cheer! (slices the head of the snake off right when it's about to eat Hermione and Ron.)


Harry comes back in.

HARRY: So, no big deal, but I just killed Voldemort. At first I wasn't sure, but then my care bear stare overpowered his avada kedavra, so I guess that means it hit him. It took him a few minutes to disintegrate, but I'm pretty sure he's gone now.

EVERYONE ELSE: Oh, that's nice. But we want hot cocoa for breakfast so don't bother us.

Later

HARRY: Surprise! I'm the master of the Elder Wand! It's me.

RON: So what are you going to do?

HARRY: I'm going to snap this millennium-old twig in two and toss it into the lake.

HERMIONE: Wait! You won't have any wands after this besides Malfoy's, which you really should return! Can't you at least use this wand to fix your other wand?

Harry snaps the wand in two and throws it as if he didn't hear Hermione

RON: dumbstruck


And then there was the epilogue. My biggest complaint with that was that Harry's parents looked older when they were killed at the age of 21 than Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, and Malfoy did at the age of 36-37. But now I'm just nitpicking.

Anyway, the rest of the movie was great! I guess I just had such high hopes for the ending when I should have realized that since it was a Harry Potter movie, it had to mess important things up. Now that I know this, I should be more okay with it the next time I see it.

I'm going to go have some hot cocoa for breakfast now.