Tag: 2012

Moonlight Snowshoe

By the light of the full moon…

Cousin Tacy and Cousin Kimbot joined Mountain Dad and I on a moonlight snowshoe to Stewart Falls.
I think we will make this an annual tradition.
How much is a good nights sleep worth to you?  With an infant and a toddler who end up in our bed nightly a good nights sleep is a precious but elusive goal.  So to purposely stay up late in order to walk through snowy woods seemed a little silly to me at first.  But urged by the commitment made to friends and family and the promise of pristine, quiet beauty we did in fact decide to give up sleep and hike to Stewart Falls.  The trail is fairly flat, but our group got stuck in a quagmire of snow covered branches surrounding the stream that flows from Stewart Falls.  The beauty of a cold sleeping world was totally worth the trip.  It reminded me of another world, one where there is peace and quiet, not crying babies waking me up in the middle of the night.  I enjoyed the company of family and friends and the feeling that in addition to being a Mountain Mom I am also a woman, nature lover and wife.  Sometimes its important to remember that.

Thanks Mountain Dad

Last week Mountain Dad was out of town and we got over 2 feet of snow!  It made me appreciate two important things:

1 – Mountain Dad is great at snow driving and I don’t enjoy it.
2 – I don’t mind if snow blowing remains a traditionally male activity.

Amidst all that snow I was blessed to have the best snowboarding day of my life, floating down the mountain on so much powder it felt like I was flying on a cloud.  I was giggling with the joy of gliding down the back mountain at Sundance Resort.  It was an amazing feeling.

The adventure of this last weekend was much more interesting than floating on snow, however.  Mountain Dad took cousin Michael snowmobiling at Daniel’s Summit.  The powder was deep and exhilaration high.  Mountain Dad carved through a powder filled meadow for 10 minutes with cousin Michael tagging along.  The day soon turned sour, however, when cousin Michael jumped his snowmobile into a creek, flew off and landed in freezing cold water and ended up having to ride with Mountain Dad to the lodge and pay for a snowmobile tow.  We’re still not sure if the water soaked engine of the snowmobile will work.  Sad.

Hiking in Hetch Hetchy Valley

Location: Hetch Hetchy Valley, Yosemite National Park, CA
Destination: Wapama Falls
Date: May 2011
While going through photos for our 2011 photo album I found these gems.  More than any others these remind me of what it is like to hike with a two year old.  In the first photo Mountain Dad is wearing the hiking pack that we assumed Big E would ride in.  Big E vociferously refused complete with weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth.  Once we actually got on the trail Big E would run full speed toward the 15 foot cliff that ended in the lake so one of us was constantly sprinting after him.
When Big E wasn’t trying out for the Olympics in the 50 meter sprint he was examining plants, rocks, flowers and bugs with an enviable intensity.  Unfortunately for our forward progress he wanted to examine every plant, every rock, every flower and every bug we came across.  Our two speeds were full steam ahead or full stop.

 

You know the hike is in trouble when one of the members of the party sprawls on the ground and refuses to move forward at all.  This is where we decided to turn around.  We had been on the trail for an hour and gotten 500 feet or so.  My expectations had to be severely altered, even though I had gone into the hike not expecting much.  Looking back it was a fun experience but in the moment it was frustrating.  You know it’s bad when you feel like yelling at your toddler on a day that is supposed to just be fun.

 

 

Big Springs Hike

Destination: Big Springs
Location: South Fork Provo Canyon
Time: 1:30 pm
Temp: 46 degrees

To Get Here: Take Hwy 189 (Provo Canyon Road) headed north.  Drive approx 4 miles until Vivian Park, turn Right.  Drive approximately 5 miles, almost to the end of the road.  Park is on the Right, look for the above sign.
Big Springs Hike is fairly easy with little elevation gain.  What I like about it is that you walk along a river which provides no end of entertainment for my now three year old Big E.  The weather was so warm when we went I was tempted to not put him in snow pants but I’m glad I did.  The sun was melting everything so bare spots became mud and the trail was still icy.  The full hike is 1.8 miles to the Big Spring, the source of the flowing river you walk by.  We just stayed on the bottom part of the trail since it stuck by the water.   Big E loved throwing rocks into the water and trying to break the ice.  Little g loved sleeping in the moby wrap.  I loved being outside.