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Month: August 2002

Mount Timpanogos – My Second Trip up

August 24, 2002

I was determined to not get out of shape this year after the backpacking trip.  So I got right back up on the horse and decided that I would try another hike up Timp.  This time I would try to do it as fast as I could.  I started about 4:30 a.m.  On the way up there was a full moon.  It took me about 2 ½ hours to reach the saddle (not quite to the highest point, but a ridge where you can see Utah Valley).  I was very pleased with the fast pace. No one passed me.  I saw about 50 people up there watching the sunrise.  On the way down I passed more than a hundred people coming up.  I saw Dave Kenison on the way down.  He was shocked to see me out there, knowing that I had just done the long hike last weekend.  It took me about two hours to get down.  I arrived back home about 10 a.m.  I was hooked on power hiking!  With each hike I feel in better shape.  I came home and took it easy the rest of the day but didn’t feel as drained like my first hike up that mountain.

Wind River Mountains – WY

August 12-17, 2002 – 35 miles

This was my yearly backpacking trip with my backpacking group.  This year the participants were:  myself, Carl Hutzler, Brad Clements, and his son Christopher.  David Hansen couldn’t make it this year because his daughter recently died. 

We camped the first night at a campground.  On Tuesday, the hike was brutal.  We hiked through a canyon that had been burned out and had thousands of downed trees.  It was very hard to climb over hundreds of the trees with a heavy pack on.  We camped at a lake and enjoyed the rest, tossing boulders into the lake.  On Wednesday we hiked up to Crescent Lake.  After we camped, I hiked around and explored.  On Thursday we hiked up to the continental divide.  We met “Goat man,” a guy who was spending a month in the mountains with his goats.  The Continental Divide was windy and cold.  I didn’t take my coat up with me, left it at base camp.  The hike back down was neat.  We ran into a herd of big horn sheep.  I was able to creep up on them very close.  We passed by some incredible blue lakes.  I then hiked fast ahead of the other guys and arrived back to camp a half hour before the others.  The route down involved lots of boulder hopping. 

On Friday we broke camp and hiked down Roaring Fork canyon.  Brad’s son wanted to hike all the way out and go home, but the rest of us wanted to spend one more night.  We stopped in the early afternoon and spent the rest of the day building a dam in the river.  It was amazing.  We raised the water level several feet and I had a great time in the river moving huge boulders.  On Saturday morning we hiked out.  I went fast ahead of the rest and reached the car about 20 minutes ahead of the others.  We did our usual pizza pig-out in a small town.

Mount Timpanogos – My First Summit

Mount Timpanogos – August 3, 2002 – 16 miles

This was my first-ever hike up Timp.  I started from the American Fork Canyon side, at the Timpooneke trail   I desperately needed to get into shape for the backpacking trip the following week.  I had been trying to do two-mile road runs several times a week for a while, but I knew I wasn’t in very good shape.

I started my hike before sunrise, about 5:30 a.m.  I was amazed to see that the parking lot was almost full.  There were many BYU groups already on the trail.  My pace was pretty slow. I was clearly out of shape.  People passed me, which was discouraging.  I reached the top about 10:30 a.m…a normal pace for most hikers.  The hike down was pretty fast, I jogged a couple miles.  The trail was beautiful and I really enjoyed it.  I was physically drained and felt sick and sore for two days.