Summers Big Hike.... Mt Timpanogos

Mt. Timapanogos... My big hike for the year. I was lucky to join my friend Susan's annual Timp hike... It's a long hike, about 16 miles over 4600 foot elevation gain to the 11,749 ft summit. My friends have it all figured out... we went during peak wild flower season. We shuttled cars, so we could hike up the Timpanokee trail and down the Aspen grove trail. It's a lot of work, but an amazing hike. First switchbacking through the trees to the amazing wildflower meadow. Then up a rocky trail to the saddle, then winding and stairstepping to the top. We headed down the the other side of the mountain to the glacier, we slid down a snowy luge run to get to Emerald Lake. Mountain goats were abundant on cliffs near the lake. As we switch back down the Aspen Grove trial we are treated to water falls created by the glacial melt off. The wild flowers could not have been much more amazing, the views spectacular!

I took many more pictures... you can see them on my facebook page and of course this was also a cheeseburger summit!

Small and colorful blessings...

Yesterday was a slightly craptastic morning. I had to run one of those lousy errands...a trip to the tire store for new tires for my car. **Poof** to $500+; don't we all hate it when that happens even when we know it's coming? Of course by the time I was done at the tire shop I was rather late for work. Working for the University means parking is at a premium, so arriving much past 9 am can be parking problematic. Even if you've purchased a $200+/year staff parking pass a parking spot can be elusive.

After cruising my two, first choice, late arrival lots and finding nada I realized I was screwed and headed out and around campus to the far north end where I've heard rumors that there are always spaces in the engineering lot. And, thankfully, there were. Nothing like adding at least a half an hour to the morning commute, but at least I got to park, even if it was in Zimbabwe... **sigh**

Along with the inconvenience and expensive came a few nice additions to my day. I got to take a nice walk through a 'foreign' neighborhood while my car was being worked on, and I came across some lovely morning glories rambling over someone's fence. Later, while walking to Zimbabwe for my car after work I passed the most delightfully colored roses in a campus garden I never would have otherwise walked by. Flowers always make my day, and the lighting was nice... So here is the reason why I always like to carry my camera!

What I did on my summer vacation..

Clearly it wasn't blogging, LOL. Of course the reality is that as an old working person I don't really get a summer vacation... just more weeks of work and hot weather! But even without a really vacation I managed to get some local fun in, and mostly for the benefit of my daughter who reads this but doesn't see the pictures I post on facebook, I figure I'll share... even it it is a bit after the fact.

So one cool thing I did this summer... My friends and I hiked up to the Little Cloud Bowl at Snowbird to watch them fly in the towers for the new Little Cloud ski lift. It was pretty cool to watch the helicopters at work, those pilots appear to have mad skills. Hovering above the platform, tethered to the tower as it gets screwed down, pirouetting on the end of the cable. Pilot hanging his head out the window, watching what's happening on the ground, controlling the helicopter. Mad skills I'm sure! Besides watching the helicopters, the hike from the base to the top of the tram was incredible too. The wildflowers in Little Cloud Bowl were some of the most beautiful I've seen in my lifetime. Amazing!

A small adventure..

This weeks little adventure... Date night... date night with Mabel, my friend and next door neighbor of 25 years. We figure that we single chicks need to stick together, so we have a standing Tuesday night dinner date when we are both in town. I was in the mood for a little adventure this week so we headed up over the mountains, past Park City to the little town of Midway, where I heard there was a good Mexican restaurant, Tarahumara. I was a little disappointed when it turned out to be place where you order at the counter and they bring you your food. I'm more of a sit down restaurant sort of gal. But Tarahumara really redeemed it self when I walked back into the dining room and discovered the salsa bar. Not just any salsa bar, but the biggest salsa bar I've ever seen. Jalapeno salsas, habanero salsas, creamy salsas mango salsas,all sorts of delicious homemade salsas. I wanted to try them all, but settled for about 8 different kinds, all delicious. The main dishes were also good, I had a pork tamale and chili relleno, both were delicious. I will definitely have to go back, as I have a lot more salsas to try, and they have Mole Poblano that I have to try!!! Oh, another fun thing - they did a silly little thing I always like.. butcher paper "tablecloths" and crayons to draw with... you can play artist while waiting for your food!

And a funny thing happened while we were dining. since I had my camera out I decided to snap a picture of Mabel and our dinner. After doing so I joked with the men sitting at the next table, apologizing for taking their picture and asking them if they were famous for when I put them in my blog. When they got up to leave they stopped at out table, said "These are for you." and handed us a box containing two mexican wedding cake cookies. Now that was a surprise! Maybe it was a bribe to get be on my blog or kept off my blog, I'm not sure which, but when I walked to the front to get a cup for Mabel's coke, he was at the cash register buying more cookies for himself. Not sure of his motivation, but I have to say I've never had a random stranger give me cookies before!

After dinner we went drove around to see the local sites. Midway has perhaps the cutest coffee shop I've ever seen! Still too full from dinner so we didn't stop, except to snap a few picture.

Another interesting spot we found was Midway's Memorial Hill. We saw the hill from town, wondered what it was, so when we just happened to drive by I turned in and drove around and around the hill to the top. At the top we discovered a veterans memorial like none I've seem before. Plaques around the perimeter honored the counties veterans from all wars, not just the World Wars and Vietnam, but modern wars like Desert Storm, old wars like the War of 1812 and Civil War, as well as local wars from the 1800's that I had never even heard of. Midway must have had an ambitious historian, the history lesson was interesting. The view from the top was pretty spectacular too!

We took the long scenic route home, up over the picturesque Alpine Loop. It was getting a little dark for pictures, but I did snap one of the setting sun from the summit. Mabel was thrilled to take the scenic route, because 85 she doesn't do a lot of long distance mountain driving anymore. It was a pretty fun 5 hour, 100 mile dinner date, I am so lucky to have such a wonderful friend to go off adventuring with!

What a wonderful world...

I'm so lucky to live in a place with so many great outdoor activities right in my own back yard, so I can do cool things like go for great hikes after work and cooler that I have several groups of friends who like to hike so there is always something going on. This week I hiked on Wednesday and Thursday...

Wednesday's hike was up Neffs Canyon with my pottery studio hiking group; AKA "Hiking Buddies". We try to hike or mountain bike most every Wed and every weekend when the weather is good... It was a great (steep!) hike up to the wilderness area, we stopped at a lovely waterfall where we could get a nice view back towards the valley.

This weeks excitement was when one of the guys stepped on snake... he screamed and jumped, but the other guy with us reached right down and picked it up... it was an adorable little Rubber Boa.

Last nights hike was with a different group of friends... members of the UFA- the "Up For Anything"... last night "Anything" was a sunset dinner hike to the "Living Room", a spot high above the university were people have built a "room" full of chairs and tables made of stones. A perfect place to enjoy some wine and cheese and watch the sunset!

Shotski Time!

Here's a little camping fun and games..

When you are camping with a bunch of skiers that is.

The "Shotski".

This is a special custom shotski. 2 skis attached together with wing nuts in Snowbird colors. Attached to the skis are 8 beautiful handthrown ceramic shotglasses, made by my friend Susan. Susan orchestrated the perfect shot ski... everyone is lined up my height, so nobody gets a shot shower. (Being a short gal between 2 tall men is dangerous.) Everyone pours the beverage of their choice, on command the shotski is raised in salute, then tipped. Yummy and warm in the tummy.

Funny, I'm not much of a shot drinker, I'd usually much rather sip and savor my favorite beverages... but who can resist the Shotski?

More from Moab....

A lovely Prickly Pear Cactus flower

A few more photos from my Moab adventure. In case a 20 mile mountain bike ride wasn't enough, after our ride a bunch of us headed out to Corona Arch. Not a very long hike, only about 3 miles round trip, just enough the work the kinks out of cycling fatigued legs, a perfect apres-biking activity! Corona Arch is one of the areas most spectacular arches, which recently received much notoriety by climbers who turned it into the world's largest rope swing. A climber rappelled down from the arch as we hiked up and one too scared to rappel down up was still perched on top, and there were others hiking out who had claimed they had just finished doing the swinging thing. Sadly, all this adventure activity may well lead to the demise of this magnificent arch, and the holes from the bolts used to secure the ropes will likely catch water and freeze in the winter, eventually cracking and collapsing the arch. I kind of wonder how these climbers decide the bolts are really still secure enough for these activities. It seems like a real "leap of faith" to me! On Sunday we headed out with our bikes again.... this time to Dead Horse Point State Park where we road the 9 mile Big Chief loop. Loads of fun, not too tough a trail, but being the rock virgin I was prior to this weekend some spots were still a little challenging to me. Totally amazing views!!!!

Corona Arch

Bowtie Arch

Corona Arch

Spotted Leopard Lizard

The views from Dead Horse Point