Jan 29, 2011

Climbing Maple Mountain: Youth Midnight to sunrise.

Sometimes we do not understand our limitations until we try to do something that pushes them to the limit. That is how I found out about my ability to climb mountains. I learned in one night where my limitations were and thus will never try it again. We had a youth activity when Marie and I were in the Young Men’s and Young Women’s organization. I was Scoutmaster and she was a Counselor in the Young Women’s. We had decided (well the youth council decided) to do a sunrise hike up to the top of “Maple Mountain”, at least that is what we in Mapleton call it even though Spanish Fork people refer to it as “Spanish Fork Peak” and the original explorers called it “Sierra Bonita”.  Anyway it is the mountain that shades Mapleton from the early morning sunlight and the early evening moonlight. It has been said to be the most beautiful mountain in the United States since it is the only one that from it’s center to the outside edges it almost appears to be a mirror image of itself. Well it really isn’t but of any mountain in the U.S. it is the only ones that comes close. So it is a logical mountain for us to have a sunrise hike to it’s top in time for the sunrise and then be together for a testimony meeting. Well the plans were to meet at the church at 12 A.M. and then drive up to the trail head in Maple Canyon and walk up during the night. 4 boys from the Young Men’s Priest quorum decided to hike to the top from the front side and meet us there in the morning, they were more crazy than I. However, the rest of the plans were for the Scouts to take a horse with camping gear to the top starting at 5 pm so that in the morning we could make breakfast for the all night hikers. So I went with them up to the top. Unknown to me and the assistant scoutmasters, one of the young men was hiking on feet that had been operated on not long before the hike. He wanted to go so bad that he didn’t tell us and he was one of the younger boys so did not know how difficult the hike would be for him. We ended up carrying his pack over two thirds of the way just so he could make it. Well we each had a pack since we had plans to stay overnight and get up when everyone else arrived. We got to the top at about 10:00 P.M. as I remember it. I helped the boys set up camp and then headed back down the trail to meet up with the others that were coming later, one of which was Marie. I headed down the trail and not much later time wise but a long way distance wise I began regretting the decision to go back down. I must have scared a lot of deer for there were often sounds of trees being disturbed by rapidly moving animals all of which I suspected must have been a bear or mountain lion and truth be known could easily have been. But I made it down to where the trail crossed the creek at the end of the road coming from the campground. There I laid down and rested for a short period of time since I got there at about 12:30 and the group didn’t get there until nearly 1 or even 1:30 A.M.  I did get a bit of sleep since I had now been to the top with a backpack and ran back down the trail for 3.5 miles in the dark. As the group got there I fell in with Marie and hiked the rest of the way to the lake where the scouts were camped. We got to the lake around 5:30 A.M. and thus were a little early for the sunrise. There were several times on the way up that I had to continue to assure Marie that she had made the right decision. My batteries went dead when we were nearly there so we hiked part of the distance with only the one light since I had left my spare batteries in my backpack. It was a neat experience and one I will probably never forget and at least only skew the actual facts to make it appear worse than it may actually have been. Anyway when we arrived at the camp (and for me arrived for the second time within almost 12 hours and approximately 15 miles of hiking), we decided to rest until the sun was close to rising. I took a hammock and hung it between two trees and crawled in and slept of about 20 minutes. I nearly killed myself hiking up the steep mountain two times within one night and during normal sleeping hours to boot after working a full day just prior to the hike. I couldn’t believe how drained and sick I felt after stopping at the top the second time. (I say top meaning camp since the actual top was still another mile up the mountain from the lake.)  After we had breakfast and our sunrise ceremony we decided to hike to the actual top only instead of following the trial that was still covered with winter snow we just hiked up the edge the mountain. We started up one ridge which soon ran out and we were forced to snake our way in a ziz zag pattern until we reached the rim overlooking Mapleton. It was a beautiful site and the hike the rest of the way to the top was still pretty hard but also worth it since from there you could see for 360 degrees around you with no trees or hills to block the view. It was great, of course I had actually climbed this at least four time before by myself and later with my sons and later the scouts. However for Marie it was the first (and only) time that she had been there. I believe that Tia was with us and maybe even Hayden  but I don’t remember for sure. We enjoyed the top and then hiked back down the mountain to where the trail was covered with snow at which point we did some sliding on our coats on the snow. It was a lot of fun. (Yes we did get wet also.)I will never forget Marie’s comments though as we hiked back down the trail. She would look off the edge where it dropped suddenly a number of feet into dense brush and tell me had she been able to see that hiking up she would have turned around and gone back. Maybe there was some wisdom in hiking it in the dark after-all. She was the only female leader that went on the hike with the young women. I will always cherish this experience even if it just about did me under and I thought I was going to die when all of my energy just melted out of my body and I could hardly get into the hammock before fainting to the ground. Yes I now know I have limitations and will not pull a stunt like that again but I sure am glad I did it once.