another day . . . another hike

One of my favorite things that gets me up and going and out of the house every single morning is hiking the hills of Alpine with some good friends. We make an effort to get out and do some walking and hiking just about every weekday and sometimes on Saturdays! I live in such a beautiful, perfect place for walking the hills and hiking the trails, I have gorgeous views just about every day of my life, no matter what the seasons. It's something I am truly grateful for and never cease to marvel and find beauty and joy in Heavenly Father's creations that are all around me.

Over the last couple weeks one of my friends, Ilene, decided we should do some hiking over the hills and into the neighboring community of Draper where a new LDS temple is just about finished and ready for the open house and dedication. She was certain that if we planned it right we could go over our Alpine mountain and come down right behind the new Draper temple. So she and I got online (the wonders of modern internet technology) and after consulting Google Earth, maps and the many mountain bikers online sites came up with a great route for traveling over the hills of Alpine and dropping into Draper right behind the temple. We were eager to explore this option and as we didn't know how many sunny hiking days we have left before the snow falls in the mountains, decided we better get hiking!

It turned out to be much simpler than we ever thought, although we did have some fun adventures along the way. We left home just before 9:00 am and parked our car on the west side of Alpine, just below the old Hog Hollow dirt road that leads up the canyon to the saddle at the top, just below Lone Peak. It was a beautiful sunny day and not too hot. I brought Cleo and Conan along, our two large salt and pepper labradors, who were raring to go for a grand outdoor mountain adventure. Because of the short notice, only a few of us were available to go - so it was myself, Ilene, and Shea who made the trip up the mountain and down the other side.

We made very good time and arrived at the top, so to speak, where the dirt road opens up just East of the new Suncrest neighborhood, about 10:30 am. There is a big open space where many dirt roads and trails of all shapes and sizes seem to merge and diverge off into every direction imaginable. Some off to the top of Lone Peak, others to the East and into Draper, some to the East and down into the Fork Canyon area. Hmmmm . . . . which road to take, there were so many to choose from. We meandered along the saddle for about an hour taking in the views from the tops of various hilltops and speculating on which way might lead back down to Alpine by perhaps a different route. Finally, we realized we needed to get back down the hill into Draper to meet up with our carpool ride back around the mountain to Alpine.

We decided on one trail that took us down a dangerously steep and slippery slope thinking we knew where we were going, but in reality ended up in a dead end which required that we hike back up the same hill. Our next option was a well made mountain bike trail called Clark's Trail. We saw a few hikers come up the trail and a couple bikers also. After our first wrong turn we decided it was probably our safest route to take. It turned out to be a gorgeous trail, certainly well worth the hike over the mountain to get to the top of the trailhead in the Corner Canyon area. The trail begins at the east side of the open area where all the trails merge, and goes off to the left down into the wooded canyon. On Draper's trail map it is noted as the Corner Canyon Walking Trail.

It took us only about 20 minutes to get down the hill. Just as we were wondering how close we would end up to the temple, we came around a corner and there it was right in front of us. Success! We made it just like we hoped and had a great adventure along the way, lots of time for good female conversation and catching up on homes, families, and kids! We already have our next adventure all planned out. This time up to the top and back down again into the Fort Canyon area . . . hmmm . . . . hopefully Google earth can help us figure that one out also!

Continue Reading...

It all started with Timpooneke

Yesterday was a perfect day for a hike to the top of Timpanogos. I listened to the weather report and noted that skies were suppose to be clear with high's in the mid-80's. It doesn't get better than that when you are hiking to the top of a very tall mountain. In Utah, Timpanogos is pretty famous as 'THE' place to hike. It promises to be gorgeous no matter what time of year you make the trip. (Winter although would be totally impractical due to the large accumulations of snow - but I'm sure it's still gorgeous). We were looking forward to beautiful autumn vistas - and we certainly did see them.

Karianne and I started up the trail head (elev. 7370) from the Timpooneke campground, which is a trail leading to the summit about 7.5 miles in length, at about 6:50 am. We were the lone car in the parking lot when we arrived and we thought we'd be hiking the trail all by ourselves. But just as we were leaving another couple cars arrived with a few more people. Usually during the summer the parking lot is jam packed with hikers. An alternative trail is the Aspen Grove trail in Provo Canyon which is a little longer and a little steeper.

You can't beat the weather for hiking at the end of September. Even with the sun shining once we arrived in the lower basin, we still needed our hoodies to keep us from getting chilled. The autumn colors were gorgeous, lots of yellows on the Aspens and red and golds scattered in splashes of color across the mountainside. We kept an eye out for moose, usually we always see moose on the trail but no moose sightings on this adventure. We did have one scary experience as we were hiking through a wooded area. Suddenly we heard a startled growly sound and the noisy crashing of something making it's way through the underbrush. We took off on a dead run until we decided we didn't really know where to run too or what manner of animal was behind us. We didn't dare go back to look . . .

While the leaves and foliage on the mountainside were beautiful we missed the gorgeous wildflowers of summer. We climbed up to the saddle (just under the 11,749 elev of the summit) in exactly four hours. While we ate our peanut butter sandwiches, granola bars and gator aid for lunch we contemplated continuing on to the summit. I never feel comfortable heading up that trail just looking at the steep drop away on the right. We did see a very woolly family of mountain goats nimbly ambling along the cliff side trails, occasionally pausing to jump from ledge to ledge or sun themselves on the rocky outcroppings. From far away down in the basin, even though our binoculars they resembled "Utah Polar Bears". They were not very frightened of us and even came quite close to us while we were eating. The views from the saddle are spectacular! All of the Heber valley lies beneath you on one side of the mountain, and all of Utah county is below you on the other side of the mountain with a view of the entire Utah Lake. There was no water at all in Emerald Lake, and we could see a few more hikers making there way to the top from the Aspen Grove Trail.

After sitting in the sunshine on the top of the mountain and enjoying our lunch, we decided it was about time to head back down the mountain. Going down always seems to be much easier than the hiking up. I was a little worried about whether my knees would take me all the way to the bottom without becoming too uncomfortable. My knees don't seem to hold up as well as they used to, but we made it all the way down without any difficulties. We had some great conversations on the trail, and decided we already must plan our next summer hike to be sure it is reserved with a firm date on our calendars. We made it back to the parking lot in 2.5 hours from the saddle for a total of approximately 14 miles in 6.5 hours, while climbing approximately 4000 feet in elevation. Not a bad days work - I think I'm going to just enjoy my dinner tonight and maybe even have some ice cream for dessert!

Continue Reading...