I finally got to hike TIMP!

I've lived in the beautiful Heber Valley for 12 years.  It truly is a gorgeous place to live and there are so many outdoor recreation activity options.

One of those options is hiking Mount Timpanogos.  I've wanted to do it for a long time, and it finally happened on July 19th. 

 Some of the fantastic people at the gym I go to, Crossfit Vapor, met at the gym on Saturday morning at 5 am and drove to the Aspen Grove Trailhead.  By 5:50 am, we were on the trail.

 

 There were 11 of us that wanted to hike Timp, and we had a great morning.  I am grateful we started as early as we did though!

 

 Jaren and McCall Scott are the gym owners and coaches.  They are wonderful and such great people to sweat with, laugh with, lift with, and learn from.

 

 We made it to Emerald Lake in a little over 2 hours.  It was gorgeous.  There is a glacier that runs into the lake and it is COLD!

 

 I was a little disgusted with my soaking wet shirt when we stopped at the lake.  It was so sweaty under my backpack, I could ring it out!  We took a 50 minute break here and enjoyed the views.  I kept saying the entire way up the mountain "Its just so pretty" and "Oh my goodness, look how beautiful it is here" and all kinds of annoying comments on the gorgeous alpine forest.  I had to hold my tongue so I didn't make everyone CRAZY!

 The mountain goats were very fun to watch and quite friendly.  I suppose they would have to be because there were hundreds of hikers up in their mountains on that Saturday, and I'm sure many other days in July and August when the mountain is gorgeous.

 

 After the lake, we had to hike to the summit, which is at the very tip of this picture.  There is a little shack up there that is right out of the picture.  The summit of Timp is 11,752 feet.  We started around 6,900 feet, so we climbed a mile in elevation in about 7 miles on the trail.  Its a 14 mile round trip.

 

After Emerald Lake, we hiked across this snowbed near what is called 'the saddle.'  Of course there were snowball fights!

 This was one of my favorite parts of the hike for some reason.  Maybe because it looks so cool!  That's my friends right on top giving me a big wave.  It looks wicked, but it wasn't that bad.

 

 We made it to the top at 10:11 am.  So, four hours and 22 minutes.  That of course included a bunch of rests and breathing spots.

We enjoyed ourselves some yummy morsels from our packs and some water, and enjoyed the incredible view.

 There is a shack at the top with a registry.  I was surprised that when I wrote my name in it at 10:30, there were already 5 pages of entries for the day.  It was a busy busy day for hiking Timp.

 It was sort of surreal to be able to see so far from the top, in all directions.  This is looking East towards Heber City.  You can see Emerald Lake in the corner of the picture.  It took us about an hour from Emerald Lake to the top.

 

 I'm glad I had such good company to hike with.  I think some of them learned a little too much about me in one day, but I had a great time with them.

 

 This picture shows the shack at the top as we hike our way back down. 

 

 Back down at Emerald Lake, we all regrouped and headed off the mountain.  My knees were tired and sore and going downhill wasn't super comfortable, but it was all good.  When we were at the top, Denver went around the ridge and slid down the glacier on his rear end while the rest of us hiked down the way we went up.  He totally beat us to the lake! 

 

 I am so glad I was finally able to climb Timp and with such fun fun people.  We had a great day.  I passed so many gorgeous waterfalls on the way up, I had to catch a picture of at least one on the way down with Terra.

When I got home, I took a cold water soak for my old knees and then I got in the shower to clean off all the trail dirt.  What a good day.

In the past people have said "Yeah, I hiked Timp over the weekend" or some sort of similar claim.  Now that I KNOW what hiking Timp really entails, there will be a little more respect when I hear that again!