As a young child I eagerly looked forward to the annual Easter hike to the top of Round Peak. This year I felt a compulsive desire to recreate that experience for myself. So I bought an orange Crush drink (I think we drank Nehi orange soda in my childhood), a package of Twinkies, and some bologna for my sandwich (not because I like it but to be true to my little-girl lunches). I boiled an Easter egg and spotted it with food coloring dots, made my sandwich, and put everything in a back pack. (It took a while to find an old bottle opener that would work.)
Shaunalei agreed to go with me, so I gathered her up and we started up the road at 10:30 in the morning. I brought along a jacket because there were some cool breezes blowing for awhile. (I didn't need it, though.)At the top of the paved road, we asked the owner of the corner property for permission to cross the edge of his lot to get onto the trail. And then we began to climb--first past the rocky "King's Chair" where I needed to rest a bit and take a picture of Shaunalei on the trail and another of Springville spread out below us.
She took a picture of me when we reached "The Flats," a misnomer as the grassy slope is actually quite steep, and another photo when we reached the Fire Road and the beginning of the true trail around the north side of the hill. I don't think I made many pauses when I was a kid, but this year I needed them several times to slow down my pounding heart. Shaunalei was very patient with me. I took a couple of pictures as we neared the top of the trail, and then we were up! We walked back to the tip of the hill to eat our lunch and had a wonderful time discussing God and salvation and what is meant by the Kingdom of God. (I'm sure those were not talked of all those years ago.) I'd like to say I felt like a kid again, but the truth of it is that I felt like a very grateful grandma-ish age--still filled with joy at the blessings of beauty and nature (we saw a glimpse of golden brown deer on the way up)--and thrilled to get a top-of-the-hill perspective of my town again.
Going down proved to be the bigger challenge as my knees shook uncontrollably at times so that I had to stop and settle them down and eventually found that walking sidestep down the trail didn't affect them quite so much.
A day later my thigh muscles above my knees are still stiff and sore, but I'm glad I went and am eager to do it again soon. Anyone want to join me?
5 comments:
That would be FUN! I would be happy to go on a hike! :-) HAHA. What a lovely tradition! The tradition in My family is for Mom to hand each person(since we grew out of the easter egg hunt age)a bag of Easter candy-A BIG one! Decidedly unhealthier than your nutritious shack and hike work-out! Your blog is fun! :-)
errr.. I mean snack-not shack!
What a beautiful entry! I'm so glad that you and Shaunalei were able to go on the hike together. Way to make it Mom! I love you, and I'd love to hike with you.
I'll go hiking with you anytime Mom! Love this entry..thanks.
I had a marvelous time, Mom! Neat that you have chronicled it this way. I enjoyed our conversation-- you were patient with me, as I ALWAYS love to talk about my current thoughts on God, life, and the purpose of it all. You did a great job on the hike, too. Hope it's not your last time to that spot of beauty on our beautiful Wasatch mountain.
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