Along the Bowman Trail in Millcreek Canyon, with my hiking buddies from Mt. Olympus Presbyterian Church. A creek follows most of the trail.
Our leader says these are "monks' hoods" flowers. This stalk is taller than I am.
The wind whipped the aspens around in an ominous way. A huge dust storm rolled in this afternoon (or maybe the news anchor said it was smoke from a forest fire out west?). I watched the sun disappear behind a cloud of dust like it was a solar eclipse. It was pretty spellbinding.
I have so much to look forward to. Everyone raves about the hikes in autumn—with all the aspen leaves turning gold—and I’ve already seen fall’s multicolored landscape of the mountain slopes, even from my vantage point off any hiking trails. Then they rave about snowshoeing in the winter, which I would love to try. I am sure everything will be peaceful and still, still, still…. I can’t wait for those seasons…but of course I don’t want summer to end either.
While we are on the subject of hobbies, and how to expand one’s hobbies…if I had more money, I would buy:
- a piano, now that I’ve resumed lessons after a five-year hiatus (I’m approaching my 16th year of playing the piano!)
- camping gear, including a tent and sleeping bag…although for now I’m content to borrow from others who have the equipment (I want to backpack for the first time next month—I won’t tell you where in case you are a murderer who’s stalking me)
- snoewhoes (that was my attempt to type “snowshoes”)
- a doggie to accompany me on these hikes (I love dogs, I love hikes, and dogs love hikes)
a.) a bigger place for the doggie to live in
b.) dog food and other such necessities
c.) someone to take the dog for walks while I am at work all day
d.) someone to keep the dog when I’m away for weekend conferences…okay, this is getting out of hand - the safety & emissions inspection for my car, and the renewal of its registration :-p
I guess I’ll stick with #5 for now.
Today’s hike was nice. I could’ve taken it at a faster pace, but our group decided to stick together. My fitness level has definitely improved in the past few months. (To be fair, I still had sweat trickling down and tickling my back.) I felt a little sad as I hiked, though, because there are a couple really close friends of mine who I wish were hiking these trails with me.
People just don’t get it. They need to move to Utah. Stupid people.
Frank: “Play the victim and you will be the victim.”
You inspire me to want to go hiking more often. I’m going tomorrow and I have not done any physical activity in awhile so we’ll see how that goes. Once again, I love your new hair cut.
Love, Love, Love the Haircut!!!
[...] you’ll remember from a previous entry, I started taking piano lessons again and found myself in need of a piano. I visited a piano [...]