Hike #5

The mother in me wanted to avoid hiking in mud. But how? I briefly contemplated doing a little urban hiking -- walking up and down the steep dugway a couple times and climbing the stairs on Old Main Hill a time or two. In the end, last week I looked out my back windows at the foothills and noticed that the snow was almost gone. Upon closer examination, I noticed that the Cedar Ridge jeep trail on the mountains above Hyde Park looked dry. I decided to give it a try.








So, on Friday morning I dropped my youngest off at school and took the dog in the back of the truck up to the trailhead. The two photos to the left were taken so you could get a feeling for how steep the trail is. I was glad that I decided to go this hike alone, as no one had to know how many times I stopped to catch my breath on the climb up.









The views of Cache Valley on this hike were spectacular! (I had plenty of time to enjoy them on the many stops I took during my ascent.) In this photo I can actually see my house. It's fun to see my community from a different perspective.








When I finally made it to the top of Cedar Ridge, I felt great. What a sense of accomplishment! This is the view from the tippity top. I'm happy to report that my body held up great -- my knees felt fine, and my heart and lungs didn't feel over-taxed even though I haven't really done much cardio in the last two weeks. The nausea I've been feeling the past three weeks disappeared on Thursday. I felt like Rocky when he made it to the top of all those stairs. I even thought about putting my hands in the arm and doing some Rocky moves. Yeah!




Okay. I will admit it. I was really looking forward to getting to head DOWN the trail. It was a nice change. And again, my knees held up great. I did notice, however, that my legs where a little shakey from fatigue. After a couple weeks of little exercise, it felt good. Once I got off the ridge there was a lot more mud,but I found that I could walk on patches of unmelted snow or along the side of the trail where the vegetation kept me off the mud. Some spots were dry, and for the most part I avoided getting too much mud on my hiking boots.

The biggest disappointment of the hike was seeing the amount of junk and trash that the melting snow left uncovered. ATV tires, wooden pallets, liter from food containers. Who do people think is going to clean up after them? It's disgusting! Actually, I may make a suggestion in my newspaper write-up that some enterprising Eagle Scout looking for a project would have plenty of work to keep them busy. (Thank goodness for Eagle Scout projects!)

All in all, it was good to get out into the great outdoors and enjoy a solitary walk in the mountains. I love hiking!