For the last three weeks my friend has wanted to hike up to Cascade Ridge in Provo Canyon. It's not a bad hike... ten miles. However, I rarely go hiking! I enjoy the short pleasant hikes that are 1, 2 or 3 miles long. The longest hike I've ever been on was to the Timpanogos Caves and that was only 3 miles. The longest walk I've ever been on was from Nauvoo to Carthage and I think that was 23 miles (correct me if any of my Nauvoo-ers read this!) :). The walk to Carthage was tough!!!!!!!!!!!! I kept putting off the hike, and putting off the hike and he kept wanting to go and wanting to go until finally I conceded.
We went to the store and he usually just brings one bottle of water, but I had him buy three bottles a piece. We loaded the waters into a backpack (the backpack happened to be on HIS back :) ) and began our journey.
Now, I seem to have this large fear of wild animals, or maybe just a fear of large wild animals... :) I don't know, but I wanted to make sure I knew what to do if a bear showed up, or a snake, or a deer, or a large, possessed bird, etc... so in between huffing and puffing, I asked him what we would do. He wasn't afraid of bears. He said the only animals he worried about were cougars and moose. He worried about cougars because they hunt people and moose are grumpy and huge and giant and scary and they charge!!!!! Anyway, that seemed to be much of our conversation on the way up. :)
I had a really hard time going up. The first 3 1/2 miles were great. I was feeling strong and I felt like I could do it. All of a sudden, we got to the steep part. I fell down twice because it was really steep. At one point, my body felt so weak I said a prayer in my heart that Heavenly Father would help me up the mountain. Right after I finished the prayer, my friend turned around and gave me a walking stick that he had found on the trail. Coincidence? I think not! It helped a lot, and I had a bit more energy to get to the top.
When we finally did get to the top, the view was breathtaking! I was in awe at the mountains. I absolutely LOVED the view. I could see Provo on one side, and Mount Timp on the other. Timp is only a half mile higher than we were so it was fun to be close to it. We hallooed to the mountains and heard our echos. We had a snowball fight (there is still snow on the mountains. :) It was just gorgeous.
After we rested for a bit, we began the hike back down. We were going to slide down on the snow, but thought better of it. :) After we finished the steep part ( my legs were shaking at this point), my friend stopped in his tracks and said, "Check it out!" in a hushed voice. I turned and looked and there about 20 feet off the trail was a giant, scary, huge, ginormous, with-big-antlers moose! Now, if you remember from before, my friend said that the moose was one of TWO animals he feared. That meant the moose was even higher on my list of feared animals. I was absolutely petrified. I would not move. I wanted to wait until the moose left and then continue down the mountain, but by then it would be dark and the cougars would be out. My friend finally convinced me to keep moving and just act normal. I continued down the mountain. I was shaking now not just from complete exhaustion, but from fear.
We went to the store and he usually just brings one bottle of water, but I had him buy three bottles a piece. We loaded the waters into a backpack (the backpack happened to be on HIS back :) ) and began our journey.
Now, I seem to have this large fear of wild animals, or maybe just a fear of large wild animals... :) I don't know, but I wanted to make sure I knew what to do if a bear showed up, or a snake, or a deer, or a large, possessed bird, etc... so in between huffing and puffing, I asked him what we would do. He wasn't afraid of bears. He said the only animals he worried about were cougars and moose. He worried about cougars because they hunt people and moose are grumpy and huge and giant and scary and they charge!!!!! Anyway, that seemed to be much of our conversation on the way up. :)
I had a really hard time going up. The first 3 1/2 miles were great. I was feeling strong and I felt like I could do it. All of a sudden, we got to the steep part. I fell down twice because it was really steep. At one point, my body felt so weak I said a prayer in my heart that Heavenly Father would help me up the mountain. Right after I finished the prayer, my friend turned around and gave me a walking stick that he had found on the trail. Coincidence? I think not! It helped a lot, and I had a bit more energy to get to the top.
When we finally did get to the top, the view was breathtaking! I was in awe at the mountains. I absolutely LOVED the view. I could see Provo on one side, and Mount Timp on the other. Timp is only a half mile higher than we were so it was fun to be close to it. We hallooed to the mountains and heard our echos. We had a snowball fight (there is still snow on the mountains. :) It was just gorgeous.
After we rested for a bit, we began the hike back down. We were going to slide down on the snow, but thought better of it. :) After we finished the steep part ( my legs were shaking at this point), my friend stopped in his tracks and said, "Check it out!" in a hushed voice. I turned and looked and there about 20 feet off the trail was a giant, scary, huge, ginormous, with-big-antlers moose! Now, if you remember from before, my friend said that the moose was one of TWO animals he feared. That meant the moose was even higher on my list of feared animals. I was absolutely petrified. I would not move. I wanted to wait until the moose left and then continue down the mountain, but by then it would be dark and the cougars would be out. My friend finally convinced me to keep moving and just act normal. I continued down the mountain. I was shaking now not just from complete exhaustion, but from fear.
After about ten minutes, I forgot the moose and felt fine. We started joking and laughing and then my friend stiffened up. I looked where he was looking and there was another moose.... MUCH bigger than the last one about 25 feet from trail. This time... I really did not want to keep moving. HE was HUGE!!!! And there he was, just eating and looking pleasant. As I was looking at the moose, completely terrified, across the trail ran a big buck. It was beginning to be ridiculous to me!
We just kept walking down the trail --looking normal, right? :) And everything turned out fine. It started getting darker and I started to get worried about the cougars so we kind of started running down... even though my legs felt like they were going to fall off. We switched which side we were walking on depending on which side of the forest I was nervous about. :)
*sigh* needless to say, we made it safely off the mountain. We were both exhausted, but it felt so good to (can I say this?) conquer the mountain. It felt really really good. I DID IT!!!!!!! :)
6 comments:
that was so fun to read that post - it totally reminded me of college! I adored hiking when I was a young buck - never did a huge 10 miler though. I'm impressed. I used to go hiking every weekend up Logan canyon. It was hard, but so peaceful at the top.
Good job!
Congratulations!!!!!!! That is very impressive.
Sister Jackson
I'm proud of you for tackling the wilderness. Now you can tell everyone about facing moose head-on, and living to tell about it! Seriously, that is a great accomplishment. I'm glad you're safe and sound.
way to go emilio!
Good job, Em! I'm proud of you. You're a stronger woman than I.
yes I think Moose are so scary too!!! And I totally agree: the view from the top is worth the trek up there. I'll have to do that hike some day...the photos are gorgeous!
Post a Comment