Cam's Blog: 2006

AUGUST 2006 TIMPANOGOS HIKE REPORT
(photos to follow)

EARLIER TRIPS
In my younger years, I attempted to hike to the top of 11,752 foot Mount Timpanogos twice. The first time was during a youth conference activity when I was in my teens. Our youth group hiked up the Aspen Grove trail in late June or early July. I was pretty spooked about going further after several youth in our party slipped while traversing icy snow fields and slid out of control down the snow field into a rock slide debris field at the bottom of the snow. Fortunately, they were not seriously injured. I was not in shape and think I turned back before even reaching Emerald Lake. I remember being amazed that some of the older youth made it all the way to the top. The second time was the summer after Kim and I were married. Some friends from our Married Student Housing ward went hiking and invited me to go with them. Even though Kim had hiked it once before in her teens, she did not come with us for reasons I cannot remember. I think there was only one couple in our group, which was Dale and Miley(sp?) Hoggard. I remember being short of breath while hiking the steep switchbacks near the top and being impressed that Miley, the only woman (and small of stature at that), made it. I remembered the hike being very pretty and the slide down the glacier being fun and a bit scary.

I’LL TAKE WHAT’S BEHIND DOOR #3
For Father's Day this year, Clayton gave me the gift of choosing from several activities we could do together when we would later come up to Utah in August for his college graduation. I don't remember what the other choices were, but when the last one was climbing Mt. Timpanogos, I jumped at the opportunity to share this experience with some of my children. We also invited other extended family members, including cousins and grandfathers, but all declined for one reason or another.

EARLY START
On Monday August 21st, 2006, after too little sleep and waking up VERY early and driving his in-laws to the SLC airport to catch an early morning flight back to Southern California, Clayton picked up Zachary and myself at the Johnson’s house where we had been staying. Clayton had been thoughtful enough to buy us all breakfast, which we ate during our drive up American Fork Canyon to the Timpooneke trailhead. The elevation at the trailhead is about 7,170 feet, so even though it was the middle of August, we were grateful to be wearing long sleeve clothing as protection against the cool morning air. I took a photo of the group as we started out and then frequently throughout the hike. We started up the trail about 1/2 hour later than I would have liked, which would have been with just enough of dawn's early light to not need a flashlight. As it was, we still hiked the first few miles in the coolness of the shadows.

WAIT FOR US
It quickly became apparent that Zachary was in better shape than I anticipated, as he was setting a brisk pace, which Clayton could not match, even though he is more accustomed to higher altitude, his home in Orem being approx. 4,500 feet higher in elevation than our home in Orange. Since I was bringing up the rear, this meant that Zachary was out in front during most of the ascent. Zachary's pace was so fast for the first mile or so that he made himself sick and almost threw up his breakfast on the trail until I got him to slow down a little by reminding him that this was a long hike and not a race.

ANYBODY WANT A BIG ICE CUBE?
We soon discovered that I had made a significant tactical error by solidly freezing most of the water we had brought with us. Since the ice was not melting at the rate I had anticipated, we had a limited supply of liquid water most of the hike, especially near the end of the return hike. To help lighten Clayton's load and help him in his efforts to keep up with Zach, I carried Clayton's back pack and water canteen after the first mile or so. Once the sun began to shine on the trail, I also gave Clayton my hat to keep the sun off his head, since he claims to not own one himself. Perhaps I should return to him the BYU hat he gave me as a present last Christmas. Even though I used sunscreen, my hiking without a hat in the thin atmosphere resulted in the pink forehead visible in our end-of-the-hike photo.

SPECTACULAR SCENERY
The scenery was beautiful and the forest fragrances were delightful as the lower trail wound through the pines and quaking aspens. We enjoyed seeing several examples of wildlife in the area, including we saw various birds, squirrels, and deer. We came across several places where large areas of grass had been matted down, apparently by groups of large animals. Throughout the middle part of the ascent, the carpet of lush, green grasses and large, colorful patches of wild flowers were stunningly beautiful throughout the meadows of Timpanogos basin. As we started to climb up out of the basin past timberline towards the mountain's backbone ridge, the old man's conditioning was evident as I gently teased the boys about needing more frequent rests as we gained elevation. These stops provided opportunity to better enjoy the view of the majestic Wasatch mountain range to the north and the steep alpine terrain all around us. Being a weekday, we encountered only a handful of other hikers along the trail, giving us the feeling of having the mountain virtually to ourselves. Upon reaching the top ridge, the view dramatically changed. Below us to the west was a panoramic view of the seemingly unbroken metropolis grids, buildings, and greenery of Utah Valley communities filling the expanse from Utah Lake to the foothills along the entire length of the valley. I do not recall any other hiking experience quite like it. For hours you are hard pressed to see another person or any evidence of the hand of man and feel like you have a majestic, untamed wilderness all to yourselves as far as the eye can see. The next moment it seems that you are flying over and looking down on a large population center 6,000 feet below.

STEEP AND ROCKY
As we hiked south along the ridgeline, the terrain is very rocky and bare, with little, if any, vegetation. A blanket of large broken rock fragments covers the steeply sloped west face of the mountain descending downward for about a mile, with precipitous cliffs to the east. We soon arrived at the steepest part of the trail, a series of switchbacks that ascends though a near vertical portion of the ridgeline. I was able to take a good picture of Clayton and Zach above me, and another hiker above them silhouetted in the indirect rays of the sun. As we labored up the trail switchbacks through the rock field within sight of the summit, I had to remind myself that even though we were above 11,000 feet and the climb was challenging, our elevation was still lower than the 12,000 foot elevation Mt. Whitney Trail Camp to which most hikers climb with full packs before tackling the 14,500 foot summit the next day with day packs like we were carrying on our Timp hike.

EUREKA, WE MADE IT!
Eventually we reached the heavily vandalized metal "shelter" at the summit in about 4 hours where we rested, took pictures, and ate lunch. Zach had a bit of a headache, probably from the altitude. I tried to call Kim and Katie, but only got their voice mail. The wind coming up from the west was strong enough to make walking around the narrow, uneven surface of the summit a bit challenging. The clear air allowed us an uninterrupted view from Lone Peak and the adjacent peaks forming the backside of Little Cottonwood Canyon to the north to Kennicott Copper Mine and the Oquirrh Mountains towards the northwest to the desert valleys of the Great Basin to the west to beyond Mt. Nebo on the South and to the Uintah Mountains on the East. Thinking back on that view, it is easy to believe a statement I afterwards read on an Internet website discussing a book about Utah hiking trails which stated that Utah has the highest average county peak elevation of any state. Got that? Identify the highest elevation point of each county in a state and then compute the mean average of all counties. Colorado is #2.

SELLING THE DESCENT ROUTE
During our ascent, Clayton and Zachary had expressed concern several times about descending the glacier/permanent snowfield. I reminded Clayton of the time I descended the large snow field just below Trail Crest on the Whitney Portal trail to save time and avoid the knee wear and tear while descending the trail of 100 switchbacks above Trail Camp. Because the slope was too steep and the snow was too slippery to descend safely under control, I walked down by allowing my boots to sink into the very slushy snow and made deep footsteps for the boys to follow. Judd and Clayton followed me a short way, and then because of one’s heel blister discomfort and the other’s lack of long pants, the two decided to cut across the steep mountainside right above some cliffs in an effort to reconnect with the trail. I was very worried that one or both of them might encounter an area of loose rock that might cause them to loose their footing and be swept over the cliff in a rockslide. Because I took the shortcut, I arrived at the trail intersection just above Trail Camp 25 minutes before they had both arrived at the same point by descending the switchbacks. I told Clayton and Zachary that I would not lead them anywhere that was unsafe and that if we arrived at the glacier and decided it was unsafe, we would double back and descend via the trail. From a location just north of the peak shelter, I was able to see the snowfield and was able to use my binoculars to watch a group of hikers carefully select a descent path and safely slide down the snowfield. If they could do it, then we could, too. I shared this information with the boys and we got ready and started our descent.

THE SNOWFIELD (otherwise known as The Glacier)
It wasn’t long before we had traversed the ridge trail southward from the peak to the snowfield located in a concave U-shaped glacial canyon on the eastern side of the ridge. It appeared from the snow thickness at the top of the snow field where the sun and warm westerly winds had melted the snow field back from the crest of the ridge that the northern part of the snow field was at least 15-20 feet thick and sloped approximately 75 degrees for a short section at the very top of the northern edge. This slope was too steep for us to want to slide down, so we did what I had seen the other hikers do, which was to hike a little further to the southern most part of the snow field and hike down around the edge of the show field on the rocks until we were below the relatively short steepest section (about 60 degree slope on this side) to where the slope was "only" about 30-45 degrees. I then made holes in the bottom sides of the trash bag I had brought with me, put my legs through the holes and pulled the bag up to my body trunk, put on the old ski gloves I had brought with me, and firmly grasped in each hand the short, stiff tree branches I had gathered and shortened to the right length during the ascent. The purpose of the garbage bag is not to decrease friction, but rather to keep your butt and back somewhat dry. I had paid the price during the ascent of hiking in relatively heavy, long legged jeans and hiking boots. Now I was about to enjoy the benefit of having done so. Clayton and Zachary were only wearing short pants and running shoes, but they too had garbage bags and gloves. Zach thought he had brought long pants, but they turned out to be another item of clothing. Clayton changed back into the too tight pair of shoes he had started the hike in. He tied the other pair to the outside of his backpack rather than putting them inside. This would prove to be a mistake. Both Zach and Clayton had also gathered sticks to dig into the snow with their hands, but I think Clayton left his behind during a rest stop. With Clayton and Zachary watching, I carefully slid down a shallow chute in the snow made by previous hikers using outward and downward pressure from my hiking boots on the insides of the chute and using the sticks in my hands to dig into the snow to keep my sliding speed under control. After I had slid down about 100 yards, I turned around and gave verbal instructions to Zachary and Clayton on what to do to keep their speeds under control. For some reason, Zachary went next. Having never done anything like this before, he was not as successful in maintaining orientation and speed control while sliding down the snow chute. He started sliding too fast, got turned around backwards, may have flipped once (I can’t remember for certain), lost his sticks, and only came to a stop with a panicked look of terror on his face after I repeatedly shouted for him to dig his feet into the snow to slow himself and I placed myself in his path and braced myself to stop his slide. After seeing Zachary’s acrobatic display and the low style points I awarded him, Clayton took great care to come down slowly and under control. Zach complained that his hands were so cold that he could not feel them, nor could he continue. My hands were also very cold, even with the gloves, but since I had ski gloves and Zach only had heavy duty work gloves (that were now completely drenched), I traded gloves with him and we slid another hundred yards or so in stop-and-go fashion in a two person train configuration with me providing the braking force for the both of us. It took several successful stops before Zachary was satisfied that I could actually stop both of us and his level of anxiety subsided somewhat. Both Clayton and Zach got wetter and colder than I did while sliding down. Clayton’s spare pair of shoes were packed with slushy snow by the time we got to the bottom of sliding portion of the snow field. We walked a short ways down to the beginning of a large boulder field in the middle of the gently sloped, bottom portion of the snowfield, where the snowfield continues around either side of the boulder field. After we removed the mangled trash bags and the snow from our clothing and took stock of our condition, I was all for continuing to walk on the snow around the boulder field, but Clayton and Zachary did not want to travel on any more snow than was absolutely necessary. So, we slowly picked our way through the quarter-mile long boulder field until we reached Emerald Lake. Our slow and careful descent down the snowfield, followed by the even slower descent through the boulder field, neutralized the time advantage I had hoped to achieve via this route. But hey, we were all still in one piece and were quickly drying out. Clayton was especially happy to be back on a trail and was willing to follow it wherever it went, even if it lead to the Aspen Grove Trail. We quickly got reoriented and headed in the right direction, passing the crude hut by the lake along the way.

WHERES ROCKY THE FLYING SQUIRREL WHEN YOU NEED HIM?
The one notable event that occurred during the hike back down the trail was our encounter with a bull moose in Timpanogos basin. We spotted the moose up ahead of us walking on a course that crossed our trail at an angle. So we slowed down and waited for him to cross the trail. To our surprise, he turned and began to follow the trail in the same direction we were going. Because we were upwind from him, he could smell us and kept looking back to see us apparently following him. I wanted to make certain that we did not give him any reason to think us a threat, so we stayed at least 100 yards behind him. After he went over a rise, we couldn’t see him anymore, so we approached the same rise slowly, with caution. As we crested the hill, we found the moose about 50 yards ahead of eating tall grasses where the trail traverses a lush hill. To make matter worse, there were two hikers on the trail on the far side of the hill who were observing the moose. Not wanting the moose to feel that it was trapped or surrounded, I lead our group down the grassy hill and around the moose, giving it plenty of clearance. While doing so, we came across another spot where the foliage had been matted down by large animals. Since our group was the larger of the two and was the only ones moving, and perhaps because the other group of hikers was downwind of the moose, the moose seemed more concerned with our movements and kept turning his head to look back at us as we walked around and away from him. I figured as long as he felt comfortable enough to keep grazing with his back to us, he was probably not thinking us to be a threat, which was just exactly what I was hoping for.

ARE WE THERE, YET?
Because we were tired and running low on liquid water and the trail was now hot and dusty, the trip back down seemed longer than the hike up, even though we hiked quickly on the way down and took few breaks. Our drinkable water was still frozen and only thawing enough to provide a sip of water every half-hour or so. Clayton and I used a small water bottle to scoop up some stream water and pour it over our heads and necks to help cool us off, but Zachary declined our invitation to join us and did not seem interested in allowing us to catch him and douse him anyway. We think he still had a headache, as he was uncharacteristically quiet . We were very grateful to finally reach the parking lot again where we could fill our water bottles with liquid water, change into some comfortable shoes, and rest our weary bodies on soft car seats during the drive home. Unless I miscalculated, the trip down actually took us 1/2 hour longer than the hike up! How could that be?!

COULD ANYTHING ELSE POSSIBLY GO WRONG?
During our drive back, we had to decide where Clayton should drop off Zach and I. Our family had planned to move camp and stay the night at the Dunn home after sharing dinner and FHE with them, but Kim and Heidi and Katie were gone and not answering their cell phones. I phoned the Johnsons and asked Taylor whether Kim had left behind any suitcases. He reported not seeing any. Worried that the Dunns already had dinner ready and were fending off hungry kids while waiting for us to arrive, I called the Dunns to see whether Kim and Katie had already driven down there, but got the Dunn’s answering machine. I called Holly’s cell phone and found that she was just leaving a BYU Education Week class and was heading home. Not wanting Clayton (who was already in a bit of a hurry to return home) to have to drive us clear down to Salem, I asked Holly if we could rendezvous at the Nibleys and then have Zach and I ride the rest of the way with her. She agreed. Because it was not far out of the way, I had Clayton swing by the Johnsons to double check that nothing had been left behind. That’s when I discovered that Kaylee was there! Taylor had made not mention of her during our phone conversation, and I hadn’t asked. Oh-oh. Change of plans. This meant that Katie and Kim were planning on eventually coming back to the Johnsons. I was beginning to feel stressed. So, I thought that I would help out by loading up Kaylee and a few odds and ends I found of ours and take her with us to the Nibleys. I called and left messages on both Katie’s and Kim’s cell phone telling them about my plans to save them from having to return to the Johnsons. I saw what appeared to be Kaylee's car seat by the front door, so I installed it in Clayton’s car, loaded up Kaylee, and off we went. We got several miles down the road before Zachary (I think) said something about the car seat not being Kaylee’s, since it did not have a high back. I am now feeling even more stressed! I ask Clayton to drive us back to the Johnsons and just drop us off since I needed to return the Johnson’s car seat and since he is already behind schedule. I try several times to call Holly’s cell phone to inform her of the change of plans and release her to just go on home and not delay serving her family dinner on account of our tardiness. All I get is her voice mail. I try calling Heather’s cell phone and her home phone and also get voice mail. I am REALLY feeling stressed and wondering what else could go wrong with this comedy of errors, which seems intent on sabotaging every helpful choice I try to make. When we arrive back at the Johnsons, we empty all our gear onto the shady front yard grass and send Clayton on his way. I called Katie’s and Kim’s cell phones again and asked them to disregard all previous messages. Good grief! Where is the hidden Candid Camera?! I then decide to unwind by just lying on my back on the grass and relaxing. It finally dawned on me that despite my good intentions and efforts to try to save Kim and Katie a drive back up to the Johnsons, they were probably going to have to come back anyway to drop off Heidi, since Heidi probably rode with them since Heidi’s car was still in the garage. DOH! I finally got through to Heather, who had been ignoring her ringing phone because she was enjoying talking to Holly. I notified Holly of the delay and the uncertainty regarding when we would be arriving at her home. She was her usual gracious self and told me not to worry about it.

THE END
To keep an already too long story from being too much longer, the girls eventually returned home from having enjoyed a picnic at Sundance and watching a movie together. Kim, Katie, Kaylee, Zach, and myself eventually found our way to the Dunns home after only calling for directions 3 or 4 times, and we enjoyed a very nice dinner and Family Home Evening with the Dunns. A nice ending to a long, but memorable day. Thanks for the wonderful birthday present, Clayton!