Allen is taking the students in his lab up Mt. Timpanogos today. And I, home with our three girls, am wishing I could’ve gone and remembering past hikes.
Timp is the second highest peak in Wasatch Range (Only Nebo is higher) and its majestic presence reigns over Utah Valley. From each angle it looks a little different (luckily for me, my favorite angle is the one I can see from the front windows of our house). My favorite way to do the hike is to go up American Fork canyon and ascend the Timpooneke trail which meanders through a series of four alpine meadow plateaus called the grand staircase ending a large basin graced with two small glacial lakes, a small herd of mountain goats, and often a dazzling array of wildflowers. From there it is another 1700 vertical feet to the survey hut atop the mountain’s highest peak. At 11,749 ft., the summit provides a stunning view of Utah County, which in the bright panoply of autumn is ablaze with color. There is an almost perpetual snowfield (often called the glacier – though it doesn’t actually qualify) north of the summit which goes down the east slope of the face ending at Emerald Lake. The Aspen Grove trail begins on that northeastern slope and consists mainly of long, steep switchbacks through a craggy Aspen-filled gorge to the Stewart Falls parking lot above Sundance.I’ve hiked the summit of Timp twice – first in October of 1996 with my wilderness writing class and second on July 24th 1998 with Allen, Mom, and Bry the week before Bry entered the MTC. That second time, there was still a lot of snow on the mountain and we had a kind of harrowing experience on the way down trying to find a trail obscured by avalanche remains. I often feel much braver about hikes after they’re over than I do in the moment. Past tense, I bask in the accomplishment of having mastered my fear. Present tense, I am usually just trying to act cool so my companions won’t know how ill-at-ease I am scrambling up rock faces or balancing on narrow trails adjacent to stunning drops, trusting my body not to fall prey to my typical clumsiness at an inopportune moment.I don’t think of myself as a thrill-seeker. I avoid roller coasters and truly extreme sports (like skydiving – though I did almost do that once to prove to myself that I wasn’t afraid: Allen convinced me it was a dumb idea). But I cling to the still-vivid memories of some fabulous adventures in the Ko’olaus as proof that I am no fraidycat and that the world outside my comfort zone is far more beautiful and awe-inspiring than I thought. Are those days over? Will the demands of motherhood (hard to hike with a nursing baby) and the restrictions of parenthood (not too fun to take little kids on long hikes) persist so long that I’ll have lost my nerve and my ability to master fear?
Oops - dunno why that showed up as an anonymous comment. Sorry, I'm new at this blog thing.
ReplyDeleteWell hiking has never been my thing. It's not about mastering fear, it's about hating anything remotely resembling exercise.
ReplyDeleteFor me the fear that I have had to overcome is, I think, a fear of rejection and a fear of talking to strangers. I have made great strides in the second thanks to Princeton's Army career, and the church. When we moved to Stuttgart, our bishop met with us after church our first Sunday. He told us: "From now on you are not 'new' in the ward anymore. During the summer, if you've been here a week already you are an old timer. If someone doesn't come up to you and say hello, go up to them, chances are they are newer than you are." I took that advice to heart and ever since then have made it a goal to go up to new people at church and introduce myself.
I'm still nervous about it - and please oh please don't ask me to make any phone calls - but it does get easier with time. And the positive feedback I've received from people who tell me "you were the first person in the ward who talked to me," helps me along.
And I hate to tell you this, but the real fear comes later. When your kids have to deal with bullies at school. When your teenage driver isn't home when you expected. When you start to worry about how your children will survive the transition to adulthood.
Personal fear has nothing on parental fear. I can survive anything - except having to watch my kids survive something.
Maybe I should learn to hike.
Posted by Anonymous
I'm with you, Liesl. I love hiking and miss it desperately. I hiked Timp every year I was at BYU, and I hiked Mt. Nebo my last February there in snow that, in places, came up to, at least, my waist. There are a couple of scouts in my stake you asked their scoutmaster if I could come on their winter camp in the Adriondacks this year. He apparently said yes, but I was distressed to hear yesterday that they all went this past weekend without inviting me.
ReplyDeleteI miss hiking.
ReplyDeleteWe've tried a few ventures with the kids -- Stewart Falls, the Y, Timp Caves -- and while Sarah is getting progressively better at hiking, the other two are still totally impossible.
What will we do if they don't like hiking even when they get older? There are some in the family, (I won't name any names, Nicole, Erika, Kim & Beth) who probably wouldn't choose to spend their free time hiking let alone want to plan a family vacation centered around it.
One of the major reasons we decided that Utah was an okay place to live was beacuse of the relatively easy access to hiking opportunities (esp as related to Boston or say, Iowa). It just seems a shame not to take advantage of it. Knd of like living in Hawaii and never going to the beach . . .