I’m not the gear junkie Justin is and had to borrow some crampons for the hike (we vacillated as to whether or not we would need them, & thank you Mia for letting me use them). I was a bit clumsy when first putting them on:
I did however get to break out my brand new second hand backpack and hiking shoes; a combined $40. Lately my retail therapy has migrated from heels to outdoor products, and I like to think I’m doing fairly well.
In any case, on this day of resurrection the sun was shining and big white billowy clouds slightly resembled festive marshmallow candy, appropriate for the holiday. We hiked from the Mill Creek side at the Church Fork trail head. The amount of water passing by was impressive- I wonder how long it takes one powder day to flow downstream? We quickly kicked ourselves for forgetting the Yak Tracks as we slid over the shaded snow on the first mile of the trail.
Justin lead the way up the switchbacks, pausing to say hello to others enjoying the day on the trail and later wishing passerbys a very Happy Easter after we were reminded of the holiday by an older lady with a spicy attitude and surprising speed coming the opposite way.
After a few restrained giggles from Justin as I teetered on my crampons for a bit we made our way to the summit up sun hardened snow. I got a bit of a lesson in mountaineering and using an ice axe and crampons on the way up- a cakewalk compared to skinny heels!
When we reached the peak I did a bit of a summit dance as Justin quickly dug out the wheel of cheese we had brought as our lunch and were quickly joined by a border collie approaching from the opposite side with 5 of her humans trickling in behind her. Here we ate a long lunch and chatted with our new friends which included an inspiring couple who had recently completed climbing the tallest peaks in 49 of the 50 states. It was during this conversation a seed was planted. Now we both want to do the same thing.
We finished up the hike with the start of a new Peak A Week tradition: ice cream. The Ben & Jerry’s and Twix ice cream was a welcome sugary treat after our adventure and a good appetizer to the thanksgiving-like meal waiting for us at my father’s house for Easter dinner.
Which was (unbeknown to me) going to be followed with beer and watching the boys shoot pellet guns at hidden eggs in the cherry tree.
Maybe not a holy Easter, but one I won’t soon forget.
