Mt. Timpanogos - #8

So, on Thursday I decided to take a day off work (even though we were extremely short staffed) and hike Mt. Timpanogos with Brian (my brother-in-law) and a few of his friends. I didn't get much sleep the night before (about 3 hours) because the Bishopric was invited up to Girl's Camp for dinner and the testimony meeting at a cabin out near Mt. Pleasant (about an hour away from Spanish Fork). I will have to say that girls will be girls. It's interesting to think that someday my daughter will be going through all of that. Anyway, got to bed around 1:00 am and woke up at 4:00 am. Left the house by 4:30 and met up with Brian and his friends in time to start hiking at 5:30 from the Timpanooke trailhead.

The morning was beautiful and due to some avalanches that has done some damage to the trail, there was hardly anyone on the mountain. We lost the trail and bushwhacked up through this ravine but found the trail again only because I had my GPS with me and had programmed in a geocache that I knew was near the trail. Once we found the trail again, we turned a corner and practically ran into a huge moose grazing in the grass literally about 20 feet from us. I've heard stories about moose in Yellowstone and wasn't about to stick around much longer than needed to snap a quick picture.

We took our time up the mountain running into several large patches of snow along the way. Strange to see that much snow in the middle of August. We reached the saddle and were expecting the wind to be whipping through the pass like it usually does, but there was only a gentle breeze. Didn't even need the windbreaker I had packed in my backpack.

It only took about 4 1/2 hours to get to the top. We were surprised to find only 2 other people up there. I think it's the least crowded I've ever seen it. We took our time coming back down and even had some fun sliding down some of the ice fields. Besided some pretty wet pants and cold hands, no one was hurt.

This makes my 8th time to the top of Mt. Timpanogos. My goal is to hike it at least once a year as long as I live in Utah. So far I've only missed 1 year since my arrival after my mission in '96. Last year, Tami and I attempted the acsent up the Alpine side, but due to a wrong turn in the trail, only made it up about 3/5 of the way. If anyone is looking for a relatively moderate day hike (14 miles round trip with 4,400 feet elevation gain) I highly recommend this hike.