Last winter was the worst for me sickness wise (hello fever blisters!). Then in the spring I kept getting one ailment after another. A bad cold followed by a stomach bug, followed by another bad cold. The last time I felt a sickness coming on I was ticked. I was tired of feeling run down most of the time. I wasn't sleeping well at all and therefore was never getting a good nights rest. My body had had it and I had had it. I realized my troubles were because I was eating a lot of sugar and not ever moving my body enough to break a sweat. I felt toxic. I vowed then and there that enough was enough. As soon as I was well enough I put in my timesaver workout DVD's. Who can't afford 20 minutes a few times a week? Well, lifting five pounds was hard and 20 minutes seemed like forever, BUT I stuck with it and by the time school got out six weeks later I felt in shape. I was so glad to have this good base workout done because we ended up being so active this summer and I could keep up with my kids. I moved my exercise (except for weights) outdoors, weather I was on my bike or on a hike!
 |
| July Family Reunion hike up the Glacial Wash (photo taken by Cade) |
Here it is 7 months later and I have been sleeping so much better, and guess what? I have not gotten sick once! (knock on wood). I am now on the down slope of my 30's and I realize that my body does not let me get away with what it used to eating wise either. I am grateful for my body and want it to work right for me so I better treat it accordingly.
My phylosophy is that I don't think exercise should make you miserable. If it does, do something else. When I got tired of doing squats in the basement I moved on to biking. When my knees started bothering me from so much hiking, I went back to biking. I just try to move a few times a week. Not everyday, I'm still me after all!
It's hard to work out inside when you live in paradise.
 |
| I have noticed an inner calm that wasn't there before ever since I started spending more time outside. |
All of this spring and summer training was put to good use come the end of September when I was able to keep up with the boys on a hike to the TOP OF TIMP.
Matt was a bit indecisive as to weather he was going to hike it or not. His heart wanted to but his body was giving him grief. He was nursing a fallen arch and a bad back. I took him to Wasatch State Park to hike around with me for some good practice. He decided he could do it.
We met up at the Timpooneke Trailhead at 7:00 am on Saturday September 28th.
The original group was Jon, Shafer, Cade, Matt, and myself. My dad had decided to come along last minute. He says he didn't get the memo to, "kick off your Sunday shoes."
Those shoes proved a bit slick in the snow. Shafer's clearance hiking boots that he had to HOT GLUE seemed to hold up great though. I should have grabbed my boots. My running shoes were comfortable but soaking wet.
You'd think because of all the snow it would be hard to see the trail but, boy oh boy, is it a traveled trail. Many hikers had been up since 1 a.m. packing the snow down for us.
Scout Falls. I am anxious to see it in the summer. The group ahead of us must have also taken the trail to scout falls because they left behind a little treasure. We joked that they must really like curry;)
Matt was a dear and got me a sweet fancy back camel back for the trip. It made sipping water easy and convenient.
There was a young punk kid who RAN past us. We were still several hours from the summit when he ran past us on his way DOWN the mountain. He didn't even have a water bottle, said he just ate snow along the way. YOUTH!
Jon was the organizer and spear header of this outing. He and Matt and I were first timers, my brothers and dad have all been up to the summit several times before. But none of them have hiked it in snow!
It was a beautiful hike as you can imagine.
This was an educational hike for me. I learned the proper way to eat sunflower seeds, that my hat was on backwards, and that there are such things as snot rockets. It was much more difficult for me to use the bathroom than it was for the guys. I went off the trail a ways following the sign that read, "toilet." There is indeed a porcelain thrown at the top of the mountain sitting there but those curry folks had again beaten me to it. I came back to the guys and they asked how it was, I answered, "I need a hot poker to poke my eyes out."
Shafer said in the summer there are a gazillion wildflowers but it's HOT. I guess you have to decide what you'd rather. I want to both, to see the flowers and not be hot.
Matt and my dad didn't chat as much as the rest of us. They said they needed all their oxygen just to breathe. About four hours into the hike my dad said he had gone as far as he could.
My last image is of him holding on to the side of the mountain with his head between his knees! The only reason we felt okay letting him go back down alone was because there were so many others along the trail. They came to his rescue and gave him a ski pole to aid in his falls. He had a sprained ankle but made it the parking lot. I hope to make it as far as he did when I'm on the down side of my 60's!
We thought we were a lot closer to the summit than we actually were.
We were gaging distance by an app on Matt's phone that apparently was way off. We passed some guys coming down the mountain who said, "You should be there in a couple of hours." Matt thought they were joking and showed them his app. They said, "That's wrong, you still have two hours." Next thing I knew Matt was sitting on a rock pulling out his sandwich. He told me to go ahead. I wasn't sure if he was going to continue on. He was hurting pretty badly. Me and the brothers got up higher and could see Matt slowing walking the trail, "I'm not giving up."
After the bowl the trail got sooooo hairy, dicey, treacherous, whatever! At some parts you had to hold onto weeds on the side of the mountain and leap across the washed away trail. And it was SLICK. Cade grabbed onto a rock that I had pulled loose and nearly fell down the ravine. He tried to stop his slide but he was in slick tennis shoes. Somehow he saved himself. I called down to Matt, "Maybe you should wait there!" I heard back, "I'm not giving up." We all met up again before the summit. Shafer said he was going to get all his warm gear on because the second you reach the summit the wind is strong and cold. We all said, "Then that is what we are doing!" He was right, as soon as we stood on top of that mountain the cold air hit me but it was... BRILLIANT.
It is an amazing view. It was surreal to look out over Utah County and then turn around and see Wasatch County behind us. My two homes.
Oh man, we made it! We got there at 1:00 pm just like those guys had predicted. It had been six hours since we had started hiking. Shafer and Cade were egging each other on to go up to the shack.
The hikers we saw coming down all had toe picks on their shoes but said it was still treacherous. One teen said, "I almost died!" I told my brothers that I was going to have to be the mother figure and forbid it. The saddle was victory enough.
I'll tell ya what, on top of that mountain Jon looked just like Yukon Cornelius.
We hunkered on the not-windy side of the mountain and pulled out our lunches. We had to smile at Cade's princess sandwich holder. Matt did not have a sandwich. Shafer put Brian Reagan on speaker on his Ipod and we enjoyed a rest.
The hike down took four and a half hours but seemed like forever! It is daunting being 11,000 feet up and realizing you still have to go back down. But what does Cornelius's friend Kris Kringle sing? "Put one foot in front of the other..." And that is just what did. We came across a couple picnicking on a rock. They asked if any of us had any lip balm. All the boys shook their heads but I said, "Yes!" More sympathetic I could not be and squirted some on her finger. She acted like it was manna from heaven. We ran into her again on the trail and I gave her another squirt. Dry lips are the worst.
The thing we all should have brought though is sunscreen. That was my only complaint that night, my nose was burnt to a crisp. Matt had liquid dripping down his face. He was also sore all over. BUT he didn't. give. up.
Looking froward to next year.
Matt only had to wait until the next weekend to see his best good pals again when they all attended the Priesthood session together. With the adventures they had afterwards it almost topped Timp!
