today, me and Stephanie hiked Broads Fork in Big Cottonwood canyon in the Wasatch Mountains.
It's majority is spent trudging up steep inclines through pine and aspen trees, though there are some spots where walking with your arms up as if wading through deep water is best due to claustrophobic spaces where the trail is about a foot wide with greenery everywhere. The squirrels and chipmunks wouldn't stop chattering, and the noise of a fast flowing river was deafening, though the river was nowhere to be seen for about 90 percent of the climb.
here is the tech info:
Big Cottonwood Canyon- Trail Head- S turn-4.5 miles up the canyon
Distance to Meadow- 2 miles
Elevation Gain- 2200 feet to 8400 feet
Hiking time- 2 hrs
we were discussing turning back because my massive hulk legs were built for sudden bursts of strength rather than long strength endurance hikes when we came across a middle aged man with a "Life is Good" shirt on who told us there was only a quarter mile left.
a quarter mile is short, considering a right-off-the-lot Subaru WRX will do a quarter mile in about 14 seconds (Fast and the Furious made a HUGE deal about "10 second cars"). but considering we gained aver 2000 feet in 2 miles, that quarter mile was INSANE.
we got to the top and it was more than worth it. beautiful, windy, wide open, and quiet. the older guy on the trail mentioned a moose, but we couldn't find him/her. what i did find while Stephanie took pics of the scenery was a huge rattlesnake. i realized that this was the first live rattler i'd seen in the wild. needless to say, we were quite jumpy for the next 15 minutes.
on our hike down we encountered at least 5 grouse (wild midget turkeys) and our legs began shaking wildly due to exhaustion and dehydration.
it was more than worth it.
now on to feeling helpless.
at Target the other day, a lady asked me to open her bottle of sobe for her, but i was unable to due to a sprained wrist/elbow.
i feel dumb and i'm ready for my wrist to work again.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Man I know the feeling about the wrist. When my hand was broken my tire went flat and I had to get to physical therapy in an hour or so and AAA couldn't make it for two and my roommate scoffed and asked why I didn't do it myself, at which point all I could do was wave my casted arm at her. The day I realized I could snap my fingers again was momentous.
ReplyDeleteTotally didn't know you had a blog... I will follow it like a hawk from now on.
ReplyDeleteThat hike sounds like a lot of work, but the best hikes usually are. Maybe you and Stephanie can come down here sometime to hike up to the Diamond Fork Hot Springs with Kacey and me one weekend or another. That's the most rewarding hike I've experienced thus far, but I'm a sucker for hot springs.
Hope your wrist starts feeling better soon!