That time I tried to climb a mountain

THE SHORT STORY: Curtis and I hiked Timp this weekend with his siblings and after 15 miles of walking up a mountain from midnight until 11 am we were EXHAUSTED. It was a little bit of a nightmare but somehow we all lived to tell the tale.

THE RIDICULOUSLY LONG STORY: This weekend Curtis and I decided that we would disrupt our nice, quiet, lethargic lives by attempting to climb a mountain in the middle of the night. It all started a few weeks ago when Curtis' sister suggested that we all hike Timpanogos together. For some reason, when she suggested this insane activity, we thought it sounded like fun. We all decided on Saturday, the 24th as the big day and planned on leaving around 6:30 that morning to beat the afternoon heat. On Thursday while trying to finalize plans, someone suggested that we leave at midnight and get to the top in time to watch the sunrise. I had heard of a lot of people doing this so I thought it sounded like a good plan. Friday night I was getting a little bit nervous about this plan. I mean, I've never pulled a full all-nighter before and now I was planning on not only staying up all night but climbing a mountain all night. When I got home from work on Friday, Curtis and I had dinner and then tried to get a couple of hours of sleep before leaving. We ended up getting an hour of sleep before we just couldn't sleep any longer. We got ready and headed out the door at 10:45 to meet everyone up American Fork Canyon at 11:30 pm . At 12 am Keri, Nate, Kyle, Shea, Curtis and I started up the trail. We felt pretty good for a while and we had fun talking as we hiked through the trees. The trail started getting progressively harder as the night went on (a combination of the trail, the time of night, and our muscles starting to scream at us) and we started to think that this was maybe not as good of a plan as we had originally thought. By about 4 in the morning I was DONE! I was exhausted and my muscles ached. It was a chore to keep moving one foot in front of the other. I wanted to turn around several times but Curtis kept motivating me to keep pushing forward. All I could think about was that every step I took forward was another step I was going to have to take on the way back. Finally, at 4:45 we made it to the Saddle. At this point in the hike, for those of you who haven't done it, you come up over the back of the mountain and wrap around to the front where you have a view of all of Utah Valley. It was amazing to look down on the valley from way up there. We sat down and took a break for a few minutes and then decided we better keep moving or we were going to get passed up by the other groups of flashlights that we had seen further below us on the trail. Curtis and the others who had done the hike before said that it would be about 20 more minutes to the top. I really didn't know if I was capable of going further but I decided that I could pull 20 minutes of energy out of me. We started up the trail and it was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. The trail turned into loose rocks and shear drop-offs and I was getting really nervous. I was already walking like a drunk person because it was so late and my muscles were so dead and it didn't seem like a safe combination. After about 30 minutes of rocky switchbacks and no end in sight I decided that I had had enough. I couldn't go another step. I decided that I had made it high enough up the dumb mountain and I just wanted to go back. At that point, Curtis' sister and her husband had already gone back to the Saddle to wait for everyone so we decided to meet back up with them. When we made it back to the saddle I was starving and FREEZING! We got something to eat and huddled together trying to keep warm. We were able to watch the sunrise from there and it was SO pretty. It was really amazing. At that point I really regretted not bringing my camera. Darn it!

By 7:45 Curtis' brother and his wife had met back up with us after making it up to the top. We started our long walk back to the car, completely exhausted physically and mentally. We were behind schedule already and were anxious to get back to the cars. By then, with the sun up, we could see the trail and I was amazed at how different it was in the day light. It had been pitch-black on our way up and so we could only see what our flashlights had shown right in front of us. Looking at it in the day light I was so glad that I couldn't see what we were doing on the way up or I might have called it quits before we got to the top. The hike back was probably one of the longest experiences ever. It seemed to go on and on and on and we were so ready to be done. Several times I thought to myself "ok, thats it, I can't go on I'm just going to have to quit" but then I would realize, "I'm in the middle of a trail, miles away from the end, there's no way to quit unless I decide to live on this stupid mountain". We decided after a while that they must have moved the parking lot in the middle of the night because the hike was never coming to an end. Every part of me ached! Finally, (thankfully!) we came around a corner and saw the parking lot ahead. We were saved! I've never, ever been so happy to see my car in my life!

We headed home and got a sandwich on the way. Curtis and I took a nap from 1 until 5 that afternoon and then decided we better get up. We ate dinner, watched a movie and then went back to bed and didn't wake up until 7:30 Sunday morning. Luckily, my mother in law told me to take an Ibuprofen with my dinner and that helped a ton. I wasn't nearly as sore on Sunday as I thought I was going to be.

During the hike most of us vowed that we would never, ever attempt this hike again. By Sunday afternoon however most of us had decided that we might consider doing it again but that we would need some time to let the memory fade. All in all I felt good for having done the hike. I didn't make it to the very top but I did make it pretty dang far. I was proud of myself for having survived most of a 15 mile hike, especially one that lasted 11 hours and that kept me up all night long. It was another experience that helped me realize that I can do hard things, even when I think I can't. Maybe next year I will be able to say that I made it all the way to the top and survived. For now though I am just content with being able to walk without too much soreness in my muscles.


Luckily, Curtis was able to get a picture of all the wildflowers from his cellphone. It was a beautiful trail!


There was a herd of about 50 mountain goats up near the top and by the Saddle. It was cool to see them all when the sun came out. Curtis' brother Kyle took this picture from his cell phone when they had a close encounter with the goat near the top.