hikers? us? ya baby

You may recall previous posts dripping with despair over my sudden, substantial weight gain.

A few days ago, I went into the kitchen and shared some of that despair with the drummer (a slightly built 21-year-old with muscles on muscles from hours and hours of drumming and marching and carrying a drum while marching). He listened to my wailings and calmly pointed out that in order to lose some of that weight, I was going to have to quit eating so much crap food. I thanked him for that bit of information that I'd never thought of--not once--before that moment.

A few days later, I entered the kitchen and again bemoaned the slow process of losing weight. The drummer was sitting at the bar, observing and listening carefully to my whining. His response was that if I wanted to lose weight, I'd have to get off of the couch and start moving more--in other words, add exercise. Again, I was stunned--stunned-- by his brilliance.

Last week, again in the kitchen, again the drummer, as I walked to the fridge and took out a diet coke to drink. The drummer watched me pop open the top and take a long satisfying drink and said, "You've just got to get rid of the caffeine and drink more water if you want to be healthy." Wow, smart kid, huh.

Hello--of course I know all of those things. I've just never really had to pay any attention to any of them. Hate me if you must, but my life has been one of eat what I want, when I want, as much or little as I want, move if I want, sit if I want, and drink all of the soda I can find. It was perfect. Until I went mad last fall and ended up taking drugs that were supposed to help me feel all better but didn't and instead helped me pack on enough weight to really bring me down.

In fact, that weight came so fast--or I was so fuzzy during that time--that I went from a weight of one hundred something eight to one hundred something three and never even saw the 15 pounds in between those two numbers. (I can't make myself even admit on the internet what the middle numbers are, but just know that I totally missed realizing that I'd gained them.) Yeh, I know, wah, poor me.

Jack asked me the other day if I'd like to start going on walks on Sunday mornings. I was all over that. We started yesterday. We drove up past Sundance and took off up the back side of Timpanogos. Not the hike to the cave. No, we started up the mountain to the top. Jack got me to agree to the whole hiking thing by telling me about the beautiful wildflower meadows to be seen on the way up the mountain. Now that I think back, I realize he didn't just come up with this hiking idea over the weekend. He's mentioned the wildflowers a couple of times--not to trick me into hiking, just because he knew I'd truly enjoy seeing them.

We talked to the skinny ranger boy at the trailhead before we started. (You know, those guys in the green pants who are always young, skinny and bearded. I'm certain they run up to the top of the trails and back down several times a day just to check on the snow and trail conditions. And because they can.) Ranger boy said we could probably hike for 15 minutes before we'd hit snow and have to turn back because it isn't safe to walk on the snow when water is running underneath it, melting it from the bottom.

As we walked off, Jack and I exchanged knowing looks and both considered that it would probably take us at least 30 minutes to an hour to make the 15 minute hike.

Can I just say that we really know ourselves? We walked until we reached the first waterfall that was fed by the melting snow. It may be a 15 minute walk for Ranger boy, but it was easy an hour for us. It could have been a lot longer had we not come across smaller patches of snow for Jack to put down the back of my shirt and on top of my head and neck so that I could cool down because I was too dehydrated from the 32 oz diet coke I drank on the way to the trailhead.

Jack and I have set a goal to make it to the top of Timpanogos by September of this year. Our plan is to walk several days each week at the parkway and continue with our Sunday hikes on local trails so we can survive the 11-mile hike in September.

By the way, the view on Sunday was great. Even without the wildflower meadows.

This is the view from the waterfall we hiked to. I know it looks easy. It should have been easier. But we're old and fat. Maybe after a few more days of walking and hiking I won't need the Advil so much.


This is the view at the start of the hike. If you look really carefully, right in the middle of this picture, just below the big snow field, is a little tiny white vertical line. That's a waterfall, but not the one we got to. It's above the one we reached. Not way far above, but above.


What a great way to spend a morning.