My 11,749 foot nap.

Last summer I hiked Timpanogos in the middle of the night and got lost (thanks to a few "we know the way" boys who didn't actually "know the way" and in fact had never done it before) We planned on hiking through the night and making it to the top to see the sun rise. None of that happened. The four hour hike took us six hours and we only made it to the saddle of the mountain (about an hour from the top) We did however manage to use up all the batteries in all but one flashlight (and accidentaly drop the few spare batteries we did have down the cliff), drink all of our water, and forget to bring any food with us and thus had no energy for the hike back down the mountain. It was one of the single worst nights/days of my life. I was so hungry/tired/thirsty that when I got home I couldn't eat, sleep, or drink anything. I remember thinking to myself after the experience "I don't like hiking, it is not fun" but I conviently forgot making that statement and so I tried again. I was finally going to slap that mountain in the face. I wish I could say that was what happened but the truth is: you can't really slap a mountain in the face. Lets just say that if a mountain could "theoretically" hurt a person, then I was body slammed by the Mountain Timpanogos. I remember now why I do not like hiking: because it is hard. It took us 4 1/2 hours to get to the top which is about average and then we ate and took naps on the cliff and finally headed back down. This is where it gets bad. I don't remember a lot about the way down on my last Timp hike except that we ran most of the way. Not because we had energy and strength to run but because it took more energy and strength to go slow due to the downward momentum. I did not run this time. Instead we took it one slow painful step at a time. The first part of the descent is so steep and covered in gravel and boulders that one wrong step will send you down one of many sheer verticle cliffs and so by the time you finish that part and the trail turns to meadow and dirt, your entire lower body is shaking (or at least mine was). I also realized that I had a gnarly blister on the back of my foot that I hadn't noticed before then but could do nothing about. Then there was some kind of time/space continuum after that and it is all a painful blur. Remember in hiking that the way up is harder on your mind and the way down is harder on your body. At any point on the way up you can say, "I quit. I'm done." Turn around and you're done. But you don't have any options on the way down except to get it over with. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I did it, I'll just never do it again. (Oh wait, didn't I say that last year?)