Sunday, September 10, 2006

Jared & Allyson Hiking Mt. Timp

Last weekend Allyson and I got a crazy desire to hike Mt. Timp so we decided to do it after work on Friday. We left at about 4:15pm and started hiking up the trail that leaves from Aspen Grove. The first part of the hike was a snap and we felt good.

As the hike went on though our leg muscles started burning. It was amazing to see the spectacular views as we climbed higher and higher. From that East side we could look down on Deer Creek resevoir and into Heber.

The sun was going down and being on the backside of the mountain left us in the shade for the hike up--which was a nice relief. By about 7:00 we had hiked to Emerald Lake and the glacier. Things really started to cool off once the sun had set and we started to see our breath.

We continued on and reached the summit at about 9:00pm. By then it was completly dark and was probably about 40 degrees (brrr!). Because of the cold we only stayed on top for about 15 minutes.

In my opinion, the decent was much harder than climbing up. It was hard on the knees and hard to see where we were going. Fortunately we had headlamps, but even then we stumbled as our legs grew more and more tired.

The last part of the hike down we both were so anxious to get back. Our legs felt like jello and every step was a chore. The goal of the hike was to gauge how well we think we would do hiking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back in one day.

Researching the hike online we've found that it is twice as long as Timp and the same change in elevation (which means that it will be half as steep). I'm pretty sure we can do it, so we're thinking of heading down at the beginning of October.