Now that the equinox has passed I guess I can say the “F” word… Fall is coming, whether we like it or not, so read your favorite passage from Cold Mountain and go see the leaves starting to change.
nature
All The Hikes
We did a 4th of July hike up in the Uinta mountains last week that I didn’t post about because I was too busy talking about my workouts.* Yesterday we did a normal jaunt up Millcreek Canyon (the upper canyon is open again!) so here’s double the hike pictures for Monday.
From Millcreek yesterday–we got some afternoon rain so there were good cloud shadows:
And from our holiday hike–we did the Lofty Lake Loop trail again with my brother and his family. It was indeed lofty (11,000 feet top elevation) with many lakes:
*Turns out that when you push a heavy sled at the gym, everything else that does not involve pushing a heavy sled gets easier! Including hiking! Also, DID YOU KNOW I GO TO THE GYM NOW?!
Favorite Hike
We repeated the “John Denver” hike from about this time last year and went up to see the aspen forest knee-deep in blue flowers. That trail to Willow Lake is one of my top five–just look at these magic meadows.
Remember When We Used To Hike?
We did, too, so we went out Sunday. It’s the one month a year here where the grass on the foothills is green so I’m glad we caught it.
It’s hard for me to head up to elevation in spring and fall, because it’s so much nicer in the valleys (plus there’s yard work to do). But that Nature Rx is real, y’all. I’m glad Doc reminded me.
Burnt Siena And Phthalo Blue
We finally got out into the mountains over the weekend. The fall colors are gone at elevation, but it was a gorgeous day–blue sky and 50 degrees. Everything looked like a Bob Ross painting where he only uses about four colors, so I took some Bob Ross pictures with things in the foreground:
Finally, Mountains
There was rain and hail* in the valley Sunday morning but then there was a break and we thought, “Now or never” and headed up to Millcreek. We hit snow going up and it was a brisk 44 degrees mid-canyon, but it was beautiful. Like a Chinese brush painting, or a Mahler song cycle.
*Since this blog is now becoming The Feral Cat Times, Oliver was in his house during the rain and it stayed much dryer (we put it on the outdoor rug to cut down splashback. Still working on a better fix, though).
John Denver Day
We went up the Willow Heights trail Sunday straight into a John Denver paradise: blue skies, bluebells and lupins and forget-me-nots in bloom, crossing an aspen forest to a lake.
I’ve been discovering Rocky Mountain High after dismissing it for years as corny. But it’s about the perfect summation of being happy in the mountains that I’ve found:
“And oh, I love the life within me, I feel a part of everything I see.
And oh, I love the life around me, a part of everything is here in me.”
Mountain Day
It was a near-perfect day in Millcreek Sunday: 75 degrees with blue skies and Bob Ross clounds and fast streams and–once you made it past the hordes trying to picnic in closed picnic areas–not too many people on the trail.
That Old Saying
Don’t like the weather in Utah?
Wait five minutes.
(Rimshot!)
Hiking With Poems
Passage
by John Brehm
In all the woods that day I was
the only living thing
fretful, exhausted, or unsure.
Giant fir and spruce and cedar trees
that had stood their ground
three hundred years
stretched in sunlight calmly
unimpressed by whatever
it was that held me
hunched and tense above the stream,
biting my nails, calculating all
my impossibilities.
Nor did the water pause
to reflect or enter into
my considerations.
It found its way
over and around a crowd
of rocks in easy flourishes,
in laughing evasions and
shifts in direction.
Nothing could slow it down for long.
It even made a little song
out of all the things
that got in its way,
a music against the hard edges
of whatever might interrupt its going.