Fear of a Female Planet

On Sunday we woke up before dawn to drive down to Mount Timpanogos, the second highest peak in the Wasatch mountains (11,752'). We saw moose, a ptarmigan, mountain goats, pika, and llamas! It was a long day and my legs and feet were sore the next day, but, despite the elevation, it wasn't nearly as hard as Olympus or Pfeifferhorn.

The hike starts overlooking meadows, but you start to go up a "Grand Staircase" of plateaus. The autumnal colors were hard to capture, but really beautiful, as were the shadows the clouds made on the landscape all day.



After climbing the "staricase" you reach the "basin." That is Timpanogos behind us. You ascend to the saddle on the right and then allong the back of the ridge, through a narrow pass in the first rise, then across the ridge to the last steep ascent.



This is just after leaving the saddle, you can see the trail on the lower left. It was scary, but not as scary as it could be - at least it wasn't a straight drop off?



Looking up toward the summit. There is a little hut at the top.



Looking down from the summit on the Timpanogos glacier and Emerald Lake. Some people continue along the ridgeline and slide or ski down the glacier (when there is more snow). They are crazy people.



We had a friend.



On the way back down. We had plenty of time so we decided to check out Emerald Lake.



Mountain Goats at Emerald Lake. They were introduced and have thrived up here.



Sadly, there is not much left of the Timpanogos Glacier...



On the way back we tried to find the 1955 wreckage of a B-25 bomber, but only found the best restroom view on earth.



We got back to the trailhead at 7:30pm, after 12 hours of hiking, close to 20 miles, and over 4,000' elevation gain. It was probably the most scenic hike we've done here, especially the variety of scenery over the course of the hike. This was also our highest peak yet and the altitude sickness wasn't nearly as bad as I've had at lower elevations, so I think I'm finally adjusting - just in time for a trip to King's Peak (13,528') this weekend with our neighbors! It's the highest peak in Utah, and, alledgedly the hardest non-technical state high point in the United States. 

Now that the snow is off of the >10,000 ft. peaks we are enjoying bagging one a weekend that have been on our list for a while. This past weekend was Mount Olympus (9,026 ft.) - strenuous 7.6 mile roundtrip with over 4,000 feet of elevation gain. This meant a constant and grueling uphill grade, often 30%.



Honestly, this trail is about the destination and not the journey - the trail didn't have much of a view (mostly of SLC itself) and despite the elevation you could hear traffic from the freeway most of the way up.

The best part, by far, was the class 3 scrambling for the last 600 ft. before the summit. Yes, that's the "trail" going straight up - it was just one hair shy of "too" scary - therefore, perfect.



At the summit the views were mostly of Twin (11,330 ft.) and Lone (11,253 ft.) peaks (behind us - Twin is the peak nearer on the left and Lone is in the distance - we'll be hiking those in July, after we do Pfeifferhorn (11,326 ft.), which is supposed to have great wildflowers this time of year).

I don't have a great camera, so I can't show you the proof, but we also saw a mother mountain goat and her baby on the lower peak to the North - I swear I see more charismatic fauna within SLC city limits than I do in the National Parks!




Since we had tickets for a Lions game that night we needed to hustle down the mountain, so we ended up ascending it in 3.5 hours and descending in 1.5 hours. My quads are STILL killing me - not just sore or sore when I do something, but burning even when I sit down. Still, that didn't keep me from a five mile run yesterday and cardio class today.

Back to the rheumatic fever chapter... and a sort of last minute idea of ours to head up to Glacier National Park for the Fourth of July weekend to give me something to plan when I need to cheering up :)

After a night in probably the worst motel room ever, we returned to Arches to hike into the Petrified Dunes and backcountry camp for the night. The website and guidebooks discourage backcountry camping in Arches - it is a small park with limited backcountry areas and requires a lot of water - but once we talked to actual rangers they had tons of suggestions and we were so glad we basically pack our full backcountry gear everytime we go camping, so we had everything we needed.

If you check out this map, our destination was pretty much exactly where the pin is. This is my GPS watch's record of our first day (the battery died halfway through the second day - dream REI purchase? Solar panel charger). You can see where we tried to climb out of the canyon and wandered all over :)

We entered the canyons with the plan of going up the third one and seeing if we could climb out of it to camp for the night (no trail, only rules were camp on rock more than 300 feet from arch, water, and archaeology sites). The canyon was actually quite lush, with lots of water crossings and signs of beavers.



About a mile in the canyon walls got much higher and we started taking breaks to scramble up them and explore.



We resisted the urge to soak our feet in the water.



Eventually we began to wonder how we were going to climb back out...



Looking back toward the main canyon, from about halfway up the canyon wall:



In our attempt to find our way up on top of the canyon we explored caves, shelves, and arches - did I mention there was no trail and not a sign of another human being - well except archaeologically speaking (we saw a campsite that was probably 200 years old)?



This was as close as we got to the top - Nick went exploring and decided we had a 95% chance of making it. We decided it wasn't worth the risk, since the fall was over 200 feet.



It helped that we had spotted a flat rock area at the bend in the canyon, so we knew we had an option for the night. Since we still had daylight - and we are completists - we went to the very end of the canyon and found an even better spot to camp. Desert camping - you may need to carry a lot of water (5 liters per person per day - heavy!), but no bears, bugs, or people? Heck, due to the canyon walls we were able to sleep in!



On the way back out we took a slight higher route, enjoying the Spring wildflowers.



26 hours later!



We had a few hours of daylight left so we checked out Double Arch.



Petroglyphs:



And Delicate Arch.

The day after the race we went up to Ogden (which is apparently where Utah's rednecks live?) to do an easy hike up Waterfall Canyon. It is a pretty popular hike - lots of dogs (and one cat!), people doing the weirdest hiking things (bringing a radio to play music while hiking, eating McDonald's on the trail, and generally not following simple trail etiquette rules. That being said, it was a pretty hike with an impressive waterfall at the end.



Working out those post-race calf cramps.



The view down to Ogden and the Great Salt Lake. That poor black dog got sprayed by a skunk on the way up the trail (maybe you should keep your dog on a leash?)



We were done by 4PM so we thought we'd do another hike while we were in the area, so we drove down to Adams Canyon. This area was much more alpine and shaded, with more waterfalls (though less impressive).



The water was actually too high to see the final waterfall, but Nick tried to peak around the corner to see it.



The weekend was rounded out by delicious foods (half price oysters and craft cocktails at a new bistro, followed by dinner at our neighborhood brewpub) and quality time together, including reading in the back yard.

Reading: Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending for book club. A very approachable and interesting combination of psychology and business expertise on what really makes us happy. Some of it is very unsurprising (spend money on experiences, not things), but some of it is counterintuitive (that spending money on time-saving devices or services may not actually give you more time or happiness).



Wearing: My new favorite bright pink pants, a white button down top, white converse low tops, and my favorite pair of sunglasses - found in a restroom at the Great Dane after a frisbee game.



Planning: It's Nick's birthday today, although he skipped playing golf to celebrate because he hurt his ribs last night playing Ultimate. Since I have the Half Marathon tomorrow he is going out with friends and I'm calling it an early night (the race starts at 7AM). Next weekend we will celebrate with a trip to Arches and Canyonlands - first camping trip of the year!

Yesterday we went for a hike up Grandeur Peak (8,294 ft with 2,829 ft of elevation gain in 5.82 miles and 3:43 hours). The trailhead is located very close to the city, in Millcreek Canyon and on the way up mostly offers views to the south, especially of Gobler's Knob.



We had wanted a hike with some snow, which we got near the top.



The view at the top was wonderful - I love the way the city goes right up to the mountain.



You can see some rain over the Great Salt Lake, downtown, and even our neighborhood.



Looking East at a reservoir.



We had the peak to ourselves so we relied on the timer to take a photo :)



Afterwards we went to the home opener of the Salt Lake City Lions (SLC's brand new Ultimate team). Of note, those were the mountains we were in as our game's backdrop.

On our way down to Vegas we stopped at Zion. Our friend may have just started to get into hiking, but he is still used to eating every meal of the day out and having constant internet access, so he wanted to stay at a motel instead of camping. The next morning we had a healthy breakfast at a local cafe that also made us sandwiches for hiking (I had an amazing veggie/fruit/nut wrap). Due to the need to airlift out the toilets at Angel's Landing, we couldn't do that iconic hike, so we did a longer, more strenuous, higher elevation one - Observation Point. I'm glad we did, as it had more varied terrain.

The trail started with a steep ascent, but with well maintained switchbacks.



And was directly across from Angel's Landing.



After that ascent you enter Echo Canyon, my favorite spot on the hike.



Then you start ascending again, with sharper and sharper switchbacks until you reach the mesa.



Lunch at the top (6508ft). Again, not very high by Utah standards, but southern Utah is a lower elevation than northern Utah, so the ascent was still over 2000 ft. gain.



On the return the light in Echo Canyon was even nicer than on the way up.

This Summer a strong wind came though a knocked this iced tea dispenser over, so I saved it to make a terrarium. I finally got around to that yesterday!



I misjudged the size of the container and got too many plants, so I re-potted them separately. I have a black thumb, so they may come in handy as backups...



Their new home in my office.



I'd also been meaning to hang this green decoration and string some LED lights through it to make it a chandelier. With company coming in a few weeks I also decided to flip this shelf vertical to allow a smidge more space for our guests.

Reading:

A friend recommended this book when we found out we would be moving to Utah. I'm sure some of you have read Desert Solitaire? Reading it as a historical document (it was published in 1968, when Utah's National Parks were new and didn't even have paved roads) helps to put his extreme libertarian elitism in perspective. His descriptions of the environment and people are fascinating and well written, his politics are deeply, deeply flawed.



Wearing: My batik Mountain Sun Brewery "Kind Ale" t-shirt (oh, Colorado... oh Boulder...), some jeans that haven't fit in a few years, warm socks, and a handmade bracelet from my best friend Kelly's daughter (kids these days and Justice, wtf?).



Planning: Nick is working late tonight (he found out his time slot for the upcoming big tropical cyclone conference and he got the prime evening spot on a panel about Hurricane Sandy with several big wigs - as one of his labmates said in response to finding out "wow, that could make your career if you give a good talk." So, you know, no pressure...) so I'm going to finish up the last season of Dr. Who so we have room on the DVR for the Olympics!

We really want to get out for a hike this weekend, but the inversion has been pretty bad this week (from "unhealthy to sensitive" to just plain "unhealthy") so we're afraid of both exerting ourselves too much in it (they advise against being outside more than hour a day) and if we could even see anything from a peak. A little bit of wind and some fresh snow in the mountains has made it slightly better though, so we're hopeful.

All this means a lot of running on an indoor track for half-marathon training.

Last night we drove up to Park City for the FIS Freestyle World Cup (the qualifiers for Aerial Skiing in the Olympics) with our friends Jen and Erik. Dan was also visiting on his way back from Portland for the Holidays (he is in my program in at Wisconsin and he and Jen entered the same year - she left with a terminal MA to finish her medical degree). This is from the parking lot at Deer Valley, with the mogul run lit up behind us.



Said mogul run. Erik said "I'd try that" and Nick said "I'd die on that."



One of the competitors:

This was a qualifier for Aerial Skiing in the Olympics next month and will air on NBC sports at 5:30 PM EST tomorrow. It was super fun - very different than anything else I'd done and really impressive athletes. For some reason I never thought of this before (I'm sure it was obvious to everyone else), but I now know why they use cowbells so much at skiing events - your hands have gloves on and don't make much noise clapping!