Hiking: Desolation Lake

This past Thursday was the perfect day for a hike. I am glad that I have a rotating day off that allows me to hike without a lot of other people. It's a great blessing really. This time I decided to go to Desolation Lake, an approximately 7.8 mile hike. I had done this hike once before, when my two sons were much younger and I was too, although, I had been up this trail part way several times since then. One of the times had been on snow shoes with a group of friends.
I got off to a later start than I normally like. I began hiking at 7:41 AM, the sun already well up. Still the air was cool at first and I found out once again that my stair climber portion of my workout program was paying dividends. The first couple of miles, up to where the trail splits and the left fork goes to Dog Lake (.6 more miles from there) and the right goes to Desolation Lake (1.9 more miles), went easily for me. I generally get passed by some of the younger folk, and nearly every time by an old “billy goat” a gray-haired guy in his seventies. Since I never saw the billy goat, I started thinking that maybe I'm personally moving into billy goat status myself. I'm not even in my sixties yet, but eventually you've got to consider  with pride that the older you get and keep having adventures, the more billy-goat-like you become. I admire those older people who can hike like billy goats. I got passed later by a trail runner, and that's it for people passing me. It's not that I was hiking fast, it's that with less people, there are going to be less people who hike faster—simple arithmetic.

As I meandered up the trail, at first, the sounds of vehicles on the Big Cottonwood Canyon Road could be plainly heard below. As time went on, however, the sound dissipated and eventually vanished as I moved deeper into the canyon and higher in elevation.

Flowers adorned the path, still not in full splendor, but about ready to break forth in mid-summer radiance. A gentle breeze pushed the fragrant scent of the evergreens toward me. The sound that had been cars below, became birds now, and Tiger Swallowtail butterflies and others flitted here and there.
I enjoyed just looking at the trees and lush plant life, sure signs of an abundant water year, and the views of the surrounding peaks were fabulous.

By the time I got to the lake, my stair climber preparation had worn off and I was getting tired.  It had taken me about two hours and twenty minutes from trailhead to lake, and that included stopping to take a lot of pictures. I left the trail at the lake to get up higher and see what I could see, maybe get some better photos of the lake.

Coming back down and circling the lake, I found the spot, under snow, where my sons and I had stopped to skip rocks across the surface of the lake years ago.

Where the furthest left snow patch is, that's where we once skipped rocks.

There had been some perfect rocks for skipping back then, but since the area was under a couple of feet of snow, those rocks were nowhere to be found. Thankfully, I had picked up a nice rock on the other side of the lake and I got as close as I could to the place where we had thrown them before and let it fly. I guess I have an old goat shoulder now too, and hadn't warmed up properly—it hurt to throw. I thought that maybe I'd do better if I had done some spring training...

As I rounded the lake and got to where the trail split off and  went to the north east, up to the ridge, a mountain biker came roaring down the trail. I wasn't on the trail that time, but all the mountain bikers I had seen that day had been courteous and had been watching out for hikers.
I was reminded that I was very close to a very large population of people and that we all can enjoy our various activities in the mountains. For example, I saw no one having a picnic, but there were many nice areas to lay out a blanket and have some food if one were so inclined. There are always many things to do in the mountains.

I sat down then and took a few more pics, ate some of my snacks and then headed back down the trail. On the way down, I took more shots. That's what it's like, hiking with me. This time, I was trying to get some of the butterflies in flight. Most of them wouldn't land, so getting a still shot was going to be tough. I noticed that the Tiger Swallowtails were meeting members of the opposite sex and then disappearing. Probably to a butterfly motel room somewhere.

There's a butterfly in flight here somewhere.

I finally found one that stood still for a moment and caught this pic.

Finally I got back to the parking area, my heart and mind elevated and refreshed—my spirit renewed. As always, the adventure ended too soon, but I knew there would be another one, and I couldn't wait.

Thoughts on leaving the house with the wrong keys

I got up early this morning, intent on writing an email, getting breakfast, and heading off to the gym. All part of my vacation week regimen, part of which was a vow to get a workout in every day. I got the first two done and headed out the door, only to find that I had the wrong keys in my pocket. You see, yesterday, in my carport cleaning activity, I had placed the keys to the shed in my pocket along with my car keys. Inadvertently, I had hung up the car keys on the hook and left my shed keys in my pocket. Then I had not gone out again last night, so the car keys remained where they hung, and the shed keys slept peacefully in my coat pocket.
That wouldn't have been much of a problem except for the fact that I had locked the door behind me on the way out. That wouldn't have been much of a problem either except for the fact that it was near 7:30 in the morning, very cold outside (it was 30 degrees, and good thing it wasn't last week when the temps hovered in the teens at night), my wife had just gotten back to sleep, and the rest were still downstairs. I would need to wake up Ann (my wife) in order to have her let me back in, which I definitely did not want to do, or I would have to wake up those who still slept in the basement.
After a few minutes of thinking it through and enjoying a nice sunrise in the process, I thought that I would call Justin, my son-in-law, who lives in the basement with my daughter Rebecca and their four kids. I got no answer when I called. I tried again. I walked around the house hoping that I'd somehow awoken them and that they would appear at the top of the stairs. I phoned again, this time leaving a voice mail. Nothing.
Fifteen minutes had gone by and I was getting colder. The beautiful colors of the sunrise were beginning to fade and I was contemplating getting a couple of sleeping bags out of the shed in order to stay warm. I still didn't want to wake up Ann.
By then I had decided that it was unlikely I would make it to the gym. I made the decision to go for a walk thinking to raise my body heat. It would be a short workout, but it would fulfill my requirement for a workout every day. The walk took about twenty minutes and by the time I made it back, Rebecca, Justin, and the kids who go to school were up and let me in. I was cold, and needed to warm up. Justin explained that his phone was turned off. Ann who woke up later told me that I could have woke her up to let me in.
It wasn't the first time I've locked myself, and I doubt it will be the last. I just chalked it up to life getting in the way of plans. I won't miss the strenuous workout all that much, and the morning was nice, even if it was brisk.

Life, Glen Frey, and the Eagles

A guy posted this on a Facebook page, about the Eagles Glen Frey who died yesterday,. I thought it was very good:

So, so sad! Way too young to die, 67 is not old but what we all have to realize is that you can die at 37 just as well as you can 67. It's not about getting old or your age, it's keeping your health strong and staying on top of it. That's all we can do. I beat Stage 9 cancer just a year and a half ago and it was a very fast moving rare aggressive cancer. Keeping positive, never be afraid, don't think about it or give it a second thought. Keep your spirit unbroken, be a warrior and say you won't beat me, and do all of the different treatments you have to do no matter how sick they make you and painful they are you have to make up your mind from the start and verbalize it out loud and say, "I will win, nothing is going to take me down, I'm not finished with my life here on this earth, my goals, dreams and what I intend to accomplish yet. I will not let anything stand in my way or leave this world until I'm ready and I'm done with what I set out to do." A strong mind and relentless spirit will carry you through the darkest of times. Always pay attention to changes in your body, listen to what it's trying to tell you if something doesn't feel right and hurry up and go get checked out. That is vital for survival! Fly with the angels Glenn, your music will live on here forever.

I'm committed to life. I'm committed to survival. We never know when it's our time to go, but one thing's for sure--we can fight the diseases that ravage us. We can eat right, work out, try to get enough sleep and drink enough water. We can laugh. We can grab life by the scruff of the neck and make it do what we want it to do, and if we can't quite get it done, we can have a great attitude about our efforts. What we can do is put our full effort into making our lives incredible and robust.