Thursday - Utah

We had an amazing day on Thursday.

That was the day we had pegged to climb Timp.

The weather couldn't have been more perfect.

Beautiful clear blue skies.

We were sure this little trickle was Scout Falls.

But then we thought this little stream was it.

Or this????

FINALLY!

A sign for Scout Falls.

But no water nearby...

We had a lovely trail to climb.

With the occasional wild flower along the way.

You just don't see stuff like this in Florida!

Kyle wanted to check out the cliff.

My camera didn't.

A mountain meadow.

(It was quite WARM)

And sometimes a little steep.

And seriously lacking in oxygen!

When we got to this rock in the trail we decided to stop.

We had met several people on the trail.

Most of them were coming down.

We met a gentleman here who was on his SECOND

trip to the top (and bottom) for the DAY.

He climbs to the top and then RUNS back down.

Looked to be in his late 60's.

He recommended that we stop here and head back.

It was 2:30 and based on our climbing speed he 

anticipated we would run out of daylight.

Kyle was having NONE of that.

So we left our packs on the rock

(along with Kyle's big heavy camera)

He took a bottle of water and a granola bar

and headed UP.

I climbed the hill off the the side where there

was a nice flat rock in the sun and I would

keep an eye on the trail.

We agreed that Kyle would be back around 5:00,

giving him 1.5 hours to get to the top

and an hour to get back to us.

(He's a mountain goat and we were seriously

holding him up!)

While we waited, Rod scoured the hillside for the perfect stick.

(That's the one he picked... in the center of the picture.)

Then he found a rock to sit on and started working.

Took all the limbs off.

Then used another rock to take off

the bark and smooth it all off.

Then back to the big rock to finish it off.

The wind had come up and it was getting chilly.

I wondered how Kyle was doing.

The view was amazing though!

Several groups of people came down.

Each reported seeing Kyle.

Moving fast and looking good.

5:00 came.

And went.

And then it was 5:15.

And then 5:20

And then 5:25

And we were probably burning Heavenly Father's ears off

with all the fervent prayer being sent His way.

I just knew something bad had happened.

It's a steep trail from up from where we stopped.

With lots of loose rock and shale.

And the wind was getting cold.

And then shadows were growing.

At 5:30 I couldn't take it anymore and 

we started climbing the trail.

More prayer.

More prayer.

Eyes searching.

Hearts pounding.

More prayer.

And then around the corner.

There he was.

He looked EXHAUSTED.

(He was.)

Said he had never been so tired in all his life.

And cold.

And thirsty.

And shaky.

And he never looked so good!!!!

Lots more prayers of thanksgiving.

And he drank several bottles of water.

And ate a bunch of granola bars.

And then we had to press downward because the

light really was fading.  We had about 2 hours

of daylight left.

And didn't REALLY want to finish the climb in the dark.

On the way down he regaled us with stories of his

crazy, hair-raising experiences climbing to the top.

He MADE it!

Well, he was about 50 feet short of the little

white building at the top,

but the trail vanished,

it was blowing about 20 mph

it was COLD

and he was worried about getting

back down in time.

But we are counting it as a summit.

The light was going.

And we surprised lots of deer coming out for 

their evening meals.

It was sure beautiful though!

We met an East Indian (from California) on the way up.

He made it to the top.

 He was really interesting to talk to.

He caught up to us when we were about 2/3 of the way 

down - he was RUNNING.  

Sheesh.

Congratulated Kyle on making it to the top

and then he was OFF.

Said he would see us at the bottom.

The light got really "flat" near the bottom,

Rod slipped on a rock and turned his knee

so he was behind us, but urged us to keep going.

We could see his flashlight coming down above us.

So we kept going.

And when we got to the bottom,

our little friend was there waiting to make sure

we made it!

And take our picture!

(Notice Rod's awesome walking stick - including his initials (right by his elbow)

(I bought mine the night before at a sporting goods store...)

We were tired.

But happy.

And I'm pleased to cross this OFF

the bucket list.

Whew!