Hiking
A New Year And Some…
Jan 6th
These these past few weeks have been pretty crazy, but not crazy enough to keep me from doing what I do best and that is enjoying the great outdoors. Work and the holidays have really cut into my consistent posts. I just accepted a new position and with training my replacement and being trained myself, I have had no time to even open the Internet or even think about it. But looking into the future, it is a small price to pay for a big payoff in the end and best of all more free time. So enough of that! Here is a recap of my last couple weeks.Since the snow has been flying I have been hitting the Mtns as much as I could, taking advantage of the “greatest snow on earth”. The wife and I once again got season passes to Sundance and it has become a second home for us these past few years. Snowboarding to me is an escape from the rules of life. Like fly fishing it gives me an escape from reality and during the time I’m on the mtn nothing else matters except for what is 5 feet in front of me. Its living in the moment at its finest. But the nice thing about snowboarding is that the worst the weather gets the better it is. So when most fly fishermen are complaing in about the long winter, I am smiling and waiting for the next big storm…But to explain my obsession I hit the mtn 6 times in the first week and a half of the season and since then been almost ever weekend.
With all this snowboarding, I have also made it a priority to keep myself balanced this winter. On Dec 19th the Gillespie crew decided to try our luck and hit Strawberry for some early season ice fishing. It was a good and bad idea. The lake was only 10% froze (bays) and when we drilled our first hole it was only 1 1/2 to 2 inches of ice. (stupid) Luckily we didn’t have any problems, but just as luck has it the fishing was slow and the weather was terrible. We left frozen and wondering if we really knew what we were doing. 
The day after X-mas Liz and I left for a weekend at our friends cabin in Lava Hot Springs. The back country boarding rocked! 
With Fri being my older bro’s last day in town from Cali. We decided to make it a good one. We hit the marsh for some duck hunting in the morning (and the evening before, Jer killed it bagging 3 drake mallards) without any luck. Then played some intense b-ball, and followed up with a stop by the lower Provo and some prefect weather fly fishing. It was a great evening to be on the river the temps were a remarkable at 40 degrees and our eyelets never froze once, which is crazy for Jan 2. The bit was good and in a short 1 1/2 hours Gun and Jer were able to land a handful and miss many more. In fact it was a perfect ending to a great few weeks of having my best friend home for the holidays. 
On Sat with the weather report of 12 inches of fresh “pow” I was back on the mtn cutting through the trees and floating on the soft Utah Powder.
I love Utah. Where else can you snowboard 13 world class resorts in a day, duck hunt, fly fish, ice fish, boat, see magical red rock formations and the whole time be the second driest state??? It has it all and a lot left over…
First Asent
Oct 3rd
My whole life I have looked with amazement at the giant mountain that overshadows my home in Utah Valley. Mt. Timpanogos stands as much more than a mountain to me, it is a symbol of protection and beauty. I have always wanted to hike to its tall peaks, but never was able to find the time to do so. So with one more day of good weather in the forecast, before snow covers its peaks for the year, I decided it was now or never. I talked my little sister into being my tour guide for the trip and we were set to meet at 4:30 am and start the hike at 5:00 am.
The hike to the summit wasn’t just a lazy walk in the park. The trail is steep and the sharpe rocks are very unforgiving, throw in the 11,700 ft of elevation and my lungs felt like exploding like an A-bomb!
Once we reached the Summit at 8:24 am. I was overcome with accomplishment and joy. I had finally conquered the mountain that I loved and respected so much. It was a great feeling, but the cold thin morning air was definitely and awakening experience. After a quick snack and some pics we were back on the trail and on our way back down the Mtn.
This time we really got to see the real beauty of the seasons. The smaller Mtns surrounding Timpanogos we painted yellows, reds, oranges, and all other fall colors. As we dropped out back into the tree line we were meet by a huge bowl that looked like we were walking the frozen Tundra of Denali and just pasted there we enter the painted forest where bright colors are the norm. 
So on this first ascend up Timpanogos, I learned a deeper appreciation for the shire spender of a Giant mountain. I also learned that it isn’t the just the beauty of the hike that made the trip, but it was the conversation and stories that Mallary and I shared that fullfilled and strenghtened our love and friendship that made the trip.
