Saturday morning Alene packed her bag and headed down to meet up at the trail head with April and Bill. I went up north to Centerville to coach my scrimmage, but it ended much sooner than I though, so I had this burst of energy and thought I could catch them. By the time my scrimmage ended they were already on their way up the trail, but it didn't deter me. I did not know much about the trail up to Mt Timp, but I was able to call them and find out where they started from and how to get up there.
Alene getting ready to leave the house
April and Bill on the hike up
They passed many waterfalls along the way
Looking back toward Aspen Grove and Sundance
It starts to thin out a bit and you start to see the mountain goats
More waterfalls
Looking up at the summit shack from below at Emerald lake
The TERT shack. Lots of packs stored in here for people that are doing the summit
Emerald Lake and the glacier. If you look closely you can see two people coming down the glacier. It gives you an idea how big it is.
Looking back at Heber Valley
Setting up camp; Bill constructed some chairs out of rocks in the area
The runoff from Emerald lake
I arrived at the Aspen Grove trail head around 6pm or so, threw my pack on my back and set my ipod to "shuffle" and started high-tailing it up the trail. They actually had some cell phone coverage up there so I had occasional contact with them on my way up. As I worked my way up to the top it got really dark and cold and I was dripping with sweat, which made me even more cold. For the last mile or two I hiked in pitch black with nothing more than my headlamp on. It got a little scary because at times you had nothing to follow but some worn talus rock and in the dark it's hard to find. At one point Alene and April were able to reach me on my cell phone and decided to start hiking down to me. We met up about 1 mile from our campsite and I was glad to see them. I was tired and soaking wet and COLD.
When we got to camp we quickly ate our backpacker meals and shared the same broken fork with only two prongs on it (we all forgot to bring utensils). After eating it was late, I was beat from the fast pace of hiking, and we all went to bed. I was still very wet from the hiking and it became VERY cold high up on that mountain and I started to shiver like crazy in my sleeping bag. I remember not really sleeping well that night.
The next morning we packed up and parted ways as April and Bill had to be somewhere and could not do the summit. Alene and I stored our packs in the TERT shack and worked our way up to the summit.
Beginning our trek on up outside the TERT shack
At the saddle before making the route up the rocky route to the summit. There were surprisingly a lot of people up here, even some runners
The route on up - I was extremely out of shape. Even though the summit was only at 11,750', I had to stop what seemed like every 10 steps because my head was hurting and I was tired. I could not believe a few of the guys I saw RUNNING up this trail. They had to be in phenomenal shape to do that. I was in terrible shape, so it made sense that I had to stop often.
Getting close to the summit
In the summit shack
Taking a break
Looking down on emerald lake (near where we camped)
Looking back at Heber Valley
Back at the TERT shack and ready for the steep hike down
More mountain goats
We were really sore coming down the mountain as it takes its toll on your knees. It was a fun experience and I can't wait to get back and do it again. I need to get my butt in shape first however!
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