Mt. Timpanogos

As a former resident of Provo, you would expect that I would have hiked Mt. Timpanogos before, but I had never done it prior to Saturday. John and I planned to go with our good friends, Shane and Becky, before Katelyn got sick. Being the nicest husband who ever lived, John opted to stay home with the kids and let me go by myself. What a sweetie! When I got up at 4:45 am, I wondered if I was making the right decision (I had gotten about 12 hours of sleep between Wed, Thurs, & Fri nights), but I got my stuff together and headed off to meet the Kumps. It was raining and there was a lot of lightning along the mountains, so I kept hoping that Shane & Beck would wimp out so that I wouldn't have to, but they were determined (and I'm glad they were) to do the hike. I think we all thought that the rain would stop before we started hiking. After all, it hasn't really rained here since we moved back.

We got to the trailhead around 7am, and as Becky had predicted, the parking lot was full. We lucked out when someone changed their mind (no doubt due to the rain) and pulled out of their spot. I was wearing shorts and a tank top, obviously in denial about the weather. Luckily I had thrown a jacket in my bag. We had our picture taken (when did I get so many chins?) and took off on the 13 mile (round trip) hike.

The hike was so much harder than I expected! My sister, Stephanie, and Becky had told me how challenging it would be, but I really thought they were exaggerating. It turns out I'm a big wimp. It rained lightly almost the entire trip up the mountain. I would have been freezing if I hadn't been so hot from the workout. It started out pretty easy, and the rain actually made it really pretty. The higher we got, the more mist we could see down below us, and everything was pretty and green.
As the air got thinner, I got wimpier. It got harder to breathe, and of course I had a nosebleed. By the time we got to the saddle, I had about had it and I really wasn't sure if I could make it to the summit. (The lowest point on the top of the mountain in the picture below is the saddle.)

I think the summit was about a mile past the saddle, but it seriously felt like ten miles. After one particularly difficult series of switchbacks that seemed to go straight up, we rounded a corner and saw the summit. I would have started crying because of how far away it looked, but we had been warned by some nice hikers on their way down that the view was deceiving. So I plodded on. I was embarrassed by how many times Shane & Becky had to stop and wait for me to catch up with them. I could not believe it when we finally hit the summit! I think it took us about 4:20, which was pretty slow thanks to my wimpiness on the last leg. But what a feeling! Here are some pics from the top:
We sat on top for a few minutes trying to catch our breath and eating our sandwiches. My legs started cramping up the second we stopped moving and I was afraid it would take us forever to get down. The hike back down to the saddle was pretty tough with our shaky legs and the steep rocky climb down. But by the time we got back to the saddle, euphoria was setting in and I suddenly felt like I could fly the rest of the way down. It took us another four hours to get back to the car. Along the way we saw a deer that let us get pretty close. We also saw a rainbow below us, which was pretty cool--I've only ever seen one above me.


We had not been rained on for the first few hours of the hike down, but as luck would have it, we were caught in a serious downpour in the last hour. By the time we finished, we were soaked to the bone. The rain stopped a few minutes before the end and when we looked up at the peak we had just been on, the sky was as clear as could be.As we sat on the summit, I told Shane and Becky that I would probably never attempt this hike again. It's funny how quickly your thoughts can change. When I got home, John told me that he really wanted to do the hike and that we should do it before it gets too cold. Of course, I'm all for it! My legs and glutes are pretty tight and sore, but I've always liked muscle soreness. It feels like evidence of hard work and (hopefully) calories burned.