It's time

It's time to go hiking. The green hills behind my house are calling to me.  Hopefully my legs can handle a good hike sometime soon. Hiking is something I really enjoy doing thanks to my mom.
 She became interested in hiking when I was in high school and tried to get us kids to go with her. We started with hikes like Ben Lomond, Skyline,  Lewis Peak and the Indian Trail.  I'd say half of the hikes I went on I really didn't want to go, but somehow my mom talked me into it every time.
Here is a picture of us on Ben Lomond a couple years ago.

I actually have some really pretty pictures from that hike, but they're too hard to retrieve.  We've had some pretty good adventures together. One time we got caught in a hailstorm on top of the Skyline trail where there wasn't a tree in sight in which to seek shelter. We crouched down behind some sagebrush and prayed. The fast moving storm didn't produce lightning as we feared, but soaked us and left me with a hundred welts on my legs from the hail.

Another time we tried out a new trail near Wolf Creek. My nephew Mason was with us on this hike. We got halfway up the trail when we heard a screeching sound kind of like a screaming woman or a really big bird. We stopped in our tracks and wondered what in the world we had just heard. I was tempted to keep going, but we ended up turning around and returning to the car. Later on we learned that it was probably a mountain lion that we heard. Yikes! Thankfully that's the only time I've gotten close to any wildlife on a hike.

One year we hiked through the Grand Canyon from the North Rim down to Phantom Ranch to stay the night and then hiked back up the same way the following day. It was a 14 mile hike down and of course another 14 back up with a 6,000 foot change in elevation. We had to leave at 4:00 a.m from the ranch to make it back up before it got really hot. Let's just say it is ranked right up there with natural childbirth on the list of my most difficult physical challenges.  I could write a book about the experience. Insanity!

These days I enjoy shorter quicker hikes. I love being out early on a summer morning when it's cool and quiet.  Every time I get up really early on a Saturday to go hiking I ask myself, "What am I doing?!" But, each time I take in a deep breath and the smell of the trees and the dirt and the sound of the birds lets me know I made a really good decision.  I love it!!

Here's some more pictures. I think I have pictures of each of my children riding in the backpack on hikes.  Here I am with Lindsey near Snowbasin.

Here's one of Aaron and me near Willard Peak. This is Aaron's kind of hiking-ride a motorcycle most of the way up and hike for the last ten minutes. 

Here's a view of the bay

Here's one more of me on a hike in Willard trying to get to a waterfall.

And finally another of me and my mom near Snowbasin

I'll die if I don't go hiking soon.