Hiking in a Thunderstorm

I am sorry I didn't write about the 4th of July, or about the Art Show... I'll try to catch up on posts for those topics later this week.  For now, I want to write about today's adventure!

Bill, Will, and I decided to go on a hike this afternoon.  Helena was invited, but she didn't feel well and declined.  It is probably just as well, because I don't think she would have liked this one.

We drove up the Tibble Fork of American Fork Canyon past the Tibble Fork Reservoir and onto a dirt road.  When I say 'dirt' road, what I mean is a rough riding rocky off road adventure along sheer cliffs next to a raging river of death!!!  At least, that is what it felt like to me.  Most of the time there was not enough room for two vehicles to pass each other comfortably, and at one point we had to back down the mountain side to find a spot to pull off and let another vehicle pass us going the other direction.    I get mocked by my family for my fears of canyon driving, but I really can't help it!  Driving mere inches from a severe drop with no railing of any kind just freaks me out!  This was all in the Expedition with 4 wheel drive, of course.  We were well past the point that a civilized road car could handle.

After driving on some of the roughest road I've ever been on, and crossing the stream bed several times, we arrived at a point in the road where even the Expedition could no longer handle the terrain. At that point, we got out and set off on foot.

 Early on in the hike.  Everything is looking good!  The weather was nice... not too hot, but not cold either.

 Early on we noticed that in several places the trail had turned into a stream with all the melt water trying to find its way to the river.  This has been the wettest spring/summer season on record!  The fact that there is even still snow in the mountains is kind of amazing!

 The terrain may have been too difficult for our Expedition, but there were plenty of people with off road-ing vehicles up there.  This Jeep was at the tail end of a 3 car 'pile up' because a white pick up style at the front of the line had a flat tire and was on a steep incline.  The drivers of all three vehicles were trying to work out the best solution to the problem as we passed them by.

 Although there were a lot of people adventuring in off road vehicles this far up the mountain, there was only one other group of hikers up on this particular trail today, and we passed them coming down early in our hike.  Bill guestimates that only about .001% of people from the valley ever make their way up to these higher elevations on foot.

 This is not the stream.  This is the trail!  Normally at this time of year it would be dry.  The river is to the right and out of the picture frame.  By this point in time, I had given up trying to keep my feet dry and I just hiked straight up the water.  It was freezing, of course, being melt water, but it is surprising how little that mattered.

 The actual stream had turned into a 'raging river of death'.  Literally.  We never went any where near it because to slip and fall in would spell certain death.  Not to sound overly dramatic, but really.  It was deep, swift, freezing, and deadly!

 This was probably around the 8,500 ft level.  You can see that the snow is not gone.  These shadow drifts are about 5-6 feet tall.  It really amazed me to see so much snow still on the ground in mid July!  The air was cool, but not cold.  I was comfortable in my shorts and t-shirt.

 Hiking at high elevations can be challenging.  I got a great work out, but I also was surrounded by stunningly beautiful scenery!

 We were at about the 9,000 ft elevation here.  Notice the trail is a serious stream bed again, with a deep puddle to wade through.

 At this point I realized I ought to get some photos with me in them, so I started trying to fit myself into some of the pictures, too.  Photos of me are rare, because I am the family photographer.

 Oh, so beautiful!!!

 I had to take this shot to illustrate the amount of snow still on the ground!  That is a full grown tree, not a sapling!

 Not long after the last shot, we crossed over into the snow field and reached the base of the Snowbird Resort back country ski lift basin.  This is at about the 10,000 ft elevation.  It was getting cold (duh!  There's snow everywhere!) and had started to rain.

 Will had forgotten to pack a parka/rain jacket, so I let him use mine.  I found that if I just kept moving, I didn't get too cold, although by the time we made it back to the car, my hands were numb with the cold and wet.

 Bill took off ahead of us.  I think he was headed for the ski lifts and the tunnel that bores through the mountain to the front side of Snowbird.  However, Will and I were more than ready to turn around and head back to the car!  The rain was intensifying, and we started hearing thunder and seeing lightning!  It is probably not the brightest idea to be up on the mountain during a storm.

The thunder and lightning were a little unsettling, and I admit we were faster down the mountain than we would have been without that extra motivator.  However, I felt like the weather conditions only added to the feeling of adventure and I really found myself enjoying hiking in the rain!

 Heading back to the car in the rain.  For part of the hike down, we watched the trail for Bill's wallet.  He thought it might have fallen out of his pocket!  Can you imagine losing your wallet on the mountain?!  You'd never see it again!  Fortunately, it turns out he never had it in his pocket; he had left it in the car.

 There were so many amazing and beautiful flowers on the mountain!  I limited myself to one photo, though, because I know that too many flower pictures are... well,,, too much!

 Back at the car!  We were really glad to get in out of the rain and dry off!

 Bill was a little disappointed in the hike because we ended up on the wrong trail.  We were going to hike to Pittsburgh Lake, but ended up on the Mineral Basin trail up to Snobird by mistake.  He felt badly that we never found the lake, but honestly, I had such a great time hiking through all that water with two of my favorite men in the world that I couldn't care less about the lake!

 I have to say that hiking in the rain was really a whole lot of fun!!!  For the first time I was able to hike down the mountain without my knee giving me trouble!  Years ago I damaged one of my knees hiking to the Mt. Timpanogos summit and it has never been the same since.  I hope it is due to all the marathon training I've been doing, because that means I can go on more hikes now!

Oh yeah.  On the way down the mountain I slipped once and fell to my knees.  I got my hands and video camera all muddy and managed to get a scrape on my knee reminiscent of all those scrapes I got as a little kid.  So now I have a band-aid on my knee and some slightly sore muscles, but lots of awesome new memories that make me happy and eager to go out again!