Our two days after the St. George Marathon were spent hiking in Zion National Park. Sunday we took it a little easier because I was pretty sore - especially my quads, which made hiking downhill painful. We did hike all day long, finishing our last hiking route (western part of the park) around 6:00 PM.
Monday was to be our more strenuous hiking day. We were well-prepared with a lunch of peanut butter sandwiches, trail mix, energy bars, apples and plenty of water. Unfortunately for me, Monday morning I had even more difficulty coming down the stairs at our condo due to incredibly sore quads. I'm not sure if the hiking on Sunday lessened the soreness or increased it. None the less, I had a full day of hiking ahead of me. I was determined not to whine - whimper maybe, but not all out whining.
Our first hike was the 2.5 mile hike "up canyon" (5 miles round trip). As we started this hike up the rock face of the mountain, we could see tiny little people moving along the mountainside. Surely we weren't going to be where those people were? Or were we? The trail was wide enough to not be too scary - just enough room for someone coming down to pass by. It was narrow enough to be somewhat scary at the steep drop off sections. The climb was pretty strenuous, especially the section called "Walter's Wiggles" - a series of 21 switchbacks up the mountain to our destination of Scout's Landing.
At this point, there was the option to continue on to the ultimate destination of Angel's Landing shown in the picture above. This climb includes steep drop offs on both sides (a mere 800 and 1200 ft or so), with chains provided in some, but not all, sections of the climb. I tried climbing a small portion of it, turned around to test the quads (for coming back down) and quickly ascertained this was not the time for me to attempt the climb.
After looking at what I thought was the climb, I did not want my husband, Howard to climb it. Although I know he has great balance, no fear of heights, I was concerned about the strenuous nature of the climb to the summit and the fact that it was unforgiving in terms of making a mistake. A mistake could mean falling off the mountain.
Of course he went anyway. Little did I know that the most challenging part of the climb was hidden from our view. You can see it well in the photo. Yup, he climbed up that! And, most importantly, down that! Yikes!
He returned safely and then took my sister up to the "false summit" section - by the tree in the photo. Great! Now I had both my husband and my sister on the mountainside. The climb up went well. Shelley took a look at where the real summit was and decided it was a perfect time to come down. She had conquered a lot of fear to climb this first section. Howard proved to be a very patient co-climber, telling her where to place her hand or foot and providing a "security hand" when they were on a section without the chain.
All appeared to be going well on the way down, until a girl slipped and nearly fell off the mountain. Howard said he could hear the sound of her backpack and body scraping along the rocks as she let go of the chain, slid off the path, and dropped onto a ledge about 3 ft below. Beyond that ledge? Absolutely nothing except about 1500 ft of free fall. Fortunately she was able, with her boyfriend's help, to scramble back up on the trail. Howard was only a couple of climbers away from the girl, so he had a pretty good view of what had happened.
I was very happy when my two climbers returned safely! Now all we had to do was hike down the same 2.5 miles. Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! It was starting to get rather warm and we were thankful we were headed down, rather than up.
I give Howard all the credit in the world for tackling that climb to Angel's Landing. The photo does not do justice to just how scary and difficult that climb was. I would like to attempt the false summit when I'm not sore from a marathon. I'm guessing the true summit at Angel's Landing would remain out of my reach. I also give my sister, Shelley, all the credit in the world. She does have a fear of heights, or at least a desire to have her feet firmly on the ground, and her balance is not great. She had to let go of fear and step into trust in order to make that climb.
As Sir Edmund Hillary said; "It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves". Howard and Shelley both accomplished exactly that.
After that we hiked several other routes - all of them spectacular in their beauty. On our very last hike of the day we had the pleasure of seeing a tarantula! Although, I am not fond of spiders, it surprisingly was not scary to see the tarantula outdoors. After all, it was in its natural environment, it seemed perfectly normal and rather unintimidating. Not that I would want to see one in our house!
We'd love to go back to Zion National Park. It was truly a beautiful place.
"The explorers of the past were great men and we should honour them. But let us not forget that their spirit lives on. It is still not hard to find a man who will adventure for the sake of a dream or one who will search, for the pleasure of searching, not for what he may find."
~Sir Edmund Hillary
Monday was to be our more strenuous hiking day. We were well-prepared with a lunch of peanut butter sandwiches, trail mix, energy bars, apples and plenty of water. Unfortunately for me, Monday morning I had even more difficulty coming down the stairs at our condo due to incredibly sore quads. I'm not sure if the hiking on Sunday lessened the soreness or increased it. None the less, I had a full day of hiking ahead of me. I was determined not to whine - whimper maybe, but not all out whining.
Our first hike was the 2.5 mile hike "up canyon" (5 miles round trip). As we started this hike up the rock face of the mountain, we could see tiny little people moving along the mountainside. Surely we weren't going to be where those people were? Or were we? The trail was wide enough to not be too scary - just enough room for someone coming down to pass by. It was narrow enough to be somewhat scary at the steep drop off sections. The climb was pretty strenuous, especially the section called "Walter's Wiggles" - a series of 21 switchbacks up the mountain to our destination of Scout's Landing.
At this point, there was the option to continue on to the ultimate destination of Angel's Landing shown in the picture above. This climb includes steep drop offs on both sides (a mere 800 and 1200 ft or so), with chains provided in some, but not all, sections of the climb. I tried climbing a small portion of it, turned around to test the quads (for coming back down) and quickly ascertained this was not the time for me to attempt the climb.
After looking at what I thought was the climb, I did not want my husband, Howard to climb it. Although I know he has great balance, no fear of heights, I was concerned about the strenuous nature of the climb to the summit and the fact that it was unforgiving in terms of making a mistake. A mistake could mean falling off the mountain.
Of course he went anyway. Little did I know that the most challenging part of the climb was hidden from our view. You can see it well in the photo. Yup, he climbed up that! And, most importantly, down that! Yikes!
He returned safely and then took my sister up to the "false summit" section - by the tree in the photo. Great! Now I had both my husband and my sister on the mountainside. The climb up went well. Shelley took a look at where the real summit was and decided it was a perfect time to come down. She had conquered a lot of fear to climb this first section. Howard proved to be a very patient co-climber, telling her where to place her hand or foot and providing a "security hand" when they were on a section without the chain.
All appeared to be going well on the way down, until a girl slipped and nearly fell off the mountain. Howard said he could hear the sound of her backpack and body scraping along the rocks as she let go of the chain, slid off the path, and dropped onto a ledge about 3 ft below. Beyond that ledge? Absolutely nothing except about 1500 ft of free fall. Fortunately she was able, with her boyfriend's help, to scramble back up on the trail. Howard was only a couple of climbers away from the girl, so he had a pretty good view of what had happened.
I was very happy when my two climbers returned safely! Now all we had to do was hike down the same 2.5 miles. Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! It was starting to get rather warm and we were thankful we were headed down, rather than up.
I give Howard all the credit in the world for tackling that climb to Angel's Landing. The photo does not do justice to just how scary and difficult that climb was. I would like to attempt the false summit when I'm not sore from a marathon. I'm guessing the true summit at Angel's Landing would remain out of my reach. I also give my sister, Shelley, all the credit in the world. She does have a fear of heights, or at least a desire to have her feet firmly on the ground, and her balance is not great. She had to let go of fear and step into trust in order to make that climb.
As Sir Edmund Hillary said; "It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves". Howard and Shelley both accomplished exactly that.
After that we hiked several other routes - all of them spectacular in their beauty. On our very last hike of the day we had the pleasure of seeing a tarantula! Although, I am not fond of spiders, it surprisingly was not scary to see the tarantula outdoors. After all, it was in its natural environment, it seemed perfectly normal and rather unintimidating. Not that I would want to see one in our house!
We'd love to go back to Zion National Park. It was truly a beautiful place.
"The explorers of the past were great men and we should honour them. But let us not forget that their spirit lives on. It is still not hard to find a man who will adventure for the sake of a dream or one who will search, for the pleasure of searching, not for what he may find."
~Sir Edmund Hillary
2 comments:
We were out that way this summer. It is truly beautiful. Next time, try Bryce Canyon too. It is very different from Zion but equally beautiful! Congrats on qualifying for Boston!!
While reading your post, I noticed my palms sweating at the description of the height and the climb and the girl's fall. Sorry the weather didn't cooperate while you were here in St. Louis, but it sounds like other events, as well as the Boston qualification, have been great. Thanks for continuing to inspire and support others through your blog.
mary c.
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