Conquering a mountain... and myself

Glimpses of our hike in the beautiful Wasatch mountains.

Today was the day.

The morning was crisp and beautiful. All year I had looked forward to the idea of hiking in the Utah mountains during our summer vacation. I was impatient to begin the adventure.

I hadn't guessed what a difficult challenge this would be for me personally....and I hadn't foreseen what mishaps would come our way to add 'character' to this story.

Allow me to set the scene:

Earlier that morning,  I carefully packed a generous picnic lunch comprised of tall stacks of turkey sandwiches, bowls of sliced peaches, bags of salty potato chips, organic energy bars, and my favorite candy bars for quick energy- Big Hunks.

After a scenic drive winding through the Wasatch forest, we eagerly clambered out of our van at the base of a beautiful mountain where the trail head began.

Nathan pulled on the baby carrier after buckling Diego securely inside and then tucked a bottle of formula into the side pocket. As I loaded trail snacks into a backpack, I reminded everyone to carry their own water bottle.

We waved goodbye to our van (which is named twice: the children named it "Buford", after a character from our favorite cartoon "Phineus and Ferb", and I call it "Old Bess", from the first Queen Elizabeth.) and promised to be back in a couple hours. (Oh how naive I was to think we'd be back so soon!)

The children were laughing and skipping to the trail head in their excitement.

I felt a thrill run through me as I eyed the tall mountain before us.

I envisioned my body feeling powerful as my legs carried me up this mountain. I could hardly contain my giggles and euphoria as we began our 5 mile hike.

The trail was a steep dirt path winding around a mountain up to a lake trapped on the top of the mountain. We planned on enjoying our picnic on the shores of the lake before hiking back down.

We sang and laughed as we continued our steep ascent, enjoying the beautiful forest and scenery. I couldn't stop myself from sounding like a broken record each time we rounded a bend in the path and saw new scenery. "It's so beautiful!" I exclaimed over and over again. I realized how much I miss the aspen forests of cooler climates.

Butterflies flitted back and forth through the air, landing on the path or wildflowers or the children. Matthew and Daniel were ecstatic each time a butterfly graced them by choosing their shoulder as a landing spot. They named each butterfly and begged to take them home as pets. (We convinced the boys to let the butterflies be happy and free.)

Matthew and his friendly butterfly

It was breathtaking and serene. 
It was so peaceful.

My heart was full of joy to be sharing this journey with our children.

After hiking about a mile, I stopped short with an unpleasant realization. I had left our lunches sitting on the pavement next to our van! I shared this information with Nathan and we deliberated over whether we should turn back or not to retrieve our picnic. It was 9:30am and eventually we decided we could make it back the the van before lunchtime, so we pressed onward and upward.

I later regretted that decision so much! I was so naive! Little did I know we were going to be pushed beyond our limits and stranded without food or water and very far from our van with no shortcuts or easy way off the mountain. What had I been thinking?

Read Part Two of the story tomorrow.