Tuesday, May 20, 2008

The Great Outdoors


While I've always enjoyed camping and hiking, it is definately not my favorite thing to do. I have never instigated a camping trip. Part of it is water... I like to be clean, or to at least be close enough to running water to know that I can be clean when I decide to be. I also hate mosquitoes and other flying bugs and the insane itching they leave behind. How I ever got Brent, to whom the ideal day is waking up in the mountains and never seeing another person, to marry me is a mystery. Maybe he didn't believe me that I didn't like it. Maybe he just couldn't fathom that I could possibly be telling the truth. However it happened, the best thing about being married to a man who loves the outdoors is that he knows where the short and easy yet still beautiful hikes are. We can leave the house at 4, drive up the canyon, have a great hike, and be back by 6. I love it. Really and honestly I do. I love how it's so much cooler, the sound of the river, the way the sun comes through the trees. And water tastes so great with the background of a pine smell. Yesterday we went on our first hike of the season. We went up Big Cottonwood Canyon to Mill B South. I certainly wasn't the one naming the trails. But despite the unfortunate name, it was gorgeous. Miriam did great in her pack, pointing to everything. About halfway, I asked to rest for a bit. Brent took the pack off and got Miriam out, but she wasn't ready for a rest. She immediately started hiking up the trail, and did a darn good job of it too. She loved how much mud and dirt and how many rocks and sticks there were. Her favorite part was coming across patches of snow. Her dad showed her how to scrape the top before putting it in her mouth to get the dirtiest parts off. She became a pro snow scraper. We did not finish the hike, but we decided that Miriam wouldn't have thought the pinnacle top was any better than the snow piles we already found. So we headed back down. The game then became getting dad's hat off his head on onto hers. She was really good at it. All in all it was a great time in the mountains and I'm glad to be in hiking season.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think you inherited your attitude from your mother and she from her father. When we would be having a picnic outside, Grandpa Blacker used to say, "If the Lord wanted us to eat outside, he wouldn't have invented dining room tables." I agree wholeheartedly but do appreciate this beautiful world in which we are blessed to live.

Anonymous said...

I am also blessed! Chris is the scoutmaster. He gets to go camping whenever he wants, Brady is getting his hiking merit badge, Nathan and Brady and Chris went on a 50-miler last summer...and I have spent every night in my own bed. I highly recommend scouting for those outdoor lovers, and I will admire it from the picture window in the condo on a lake in McCall...next to my momma:). And we will welcome you when you get home from the hike, Paigie!