About a week before Labor Day I told Mike I was going to hike Timpanogos. I told him he was invited to come along, but I was going to hike it regardless if he was present or not. Law school had been in full swing for two weeks and I was really quite sure he would say I was on my own. He said he felt scared about me going by myself because some scary hikers might kidnap me. He must not have very much confidence in my self-defense skills. (That’s ok because I don’t either.) I still wanted to go very much and said he’d better come along to protect me then. It worked! He came! I am very clever.
We had a great time! Well, not very much at the beginning because I kept complaining that my backpack was too heavy because Mike made us take a gallon of water each and I hated it. You can tell I didn’t learn very much from our Arches adventure. Besides the heaviness, the scenery was beautiful (so many wildflowers!) and we had a great time together. We stopped to have lunch in a fun, little meadow and watched crazy people slide down a glacier. Very enjoyable.
After that the hike started to be less fun, even though I had drank a ton of water as to lighten my load, because a lot of the trail was covered in slippery snow. I can’t tell you how many times I fell down. Mike didn’t fall down once! I was getting very annoyed and frustrated. However, I eventually made it through and my life continued.
We made it to the top and we felt so proud of ourselves. Going down was even more enjoyable (except the dreaded snowy part) because we passed everyone going up and they were tired and breathless. We were so happy we have moved past that stage! We were getting close to the bottom, about 3 miles away, when Mike sprained his ankle on some crazy moving rocks! I was so sad for him, but he was such a trooper! If that had happened to me, I would have passed out on the spot and Mike would have had to throw me over his shoulder and carry me down (this may or may not be an accurate statement of what would actually occur because it may or may not have already happened on the stairs leading to our apartment while I was carrying groceries in the rain – will blog about later). He just tightened his little shoelaces and off he went! He is a very brave man.
Once we got home, we removed his shoe and his poor ankle was so scary looking! I went and got him and ace bandage, athletic tape and an In and Out Double-Double and he seemed much better.
Despite the injury, it was a wonderful hike and I am so glad I did it. As we move further and further away from the event, I keep thinking that I want to do it again! It took us 8 hours to complete, but I felt so accomplished in that little, tin shack at the top, and it was so fun to be with Mike for a full day and complete something like that together.
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