Utah is a desert, at least most of it anyway, and the dry climate is just what you expect when you live here.  Sure, there’s a giant lake that covers the entire northern part of the state, but that’s pretty much an exception.  Utah is a very dry place.

Rain anytime after about the early part of May is a rare occurrence here, so it’s always welcome.  Thunderstorms are even more rare, so I tend to find them delightful.  Yesterday was one of those times.  A nice mid-afternoon thunderstorm rolled through, producing actual thunder and lightning, along with some hail, and plenty of rain.  It was exquisite.

In the morning however, before the storm came, my friend Sra and I hit Bells Canyon for our first big hike of the season.  We were up there last year in the Fall, but this year we were in search of water.  Specifically, the lower waterfall a couple of miles up the mountain.  When we were there last year, the falls were but a mere trickle of what they should be, and this time we were determined to see them in their glory. 

It wasn’t a disappointment.  The falls were swollen with snowmelt from the past winter, and the millions upon millions of gallons pouring over the side was an awesome sight to behold.  Photographs and video really don’t do it justice.  You simply can’t get a sense of perspective unless you’re actually there.  Standing anywhere close to the falls drenched you in cold mountain water, and even a hundred or so yards away still covered you in mist.  The sound was deafening.  The scene was perfect.  Standing there near the falls almost made me forget that I live in the desert, and that water is a very precious commodity to be had here. 

The hike itself wasn’t too bad, although the insects were bothersome.  Other than a bit of a spill on the slope near the falls suffered by Sra, there wasn’t too much problem at all.  Even my aged, creaking knees came out of it in pretty good shape.  It was a really good day.

Nature is cool.  There really is water to be had here, if you only know where to look.

Well, here we are sweeping away the last few crumbs of 2008.  This has been a pretty routine year for me, because quite frankly, I haven’t accomplished much.  There were a few high points, only a couple of low points, and lots of middle ground.  Here’s a quick review of 2008’s greatest hits, sovknight style.

1.  In January, my continuous employment of ten long years came to a very abrupt end.  I was terminated over the matter of a broken DVD case worth approximately $4.  This, after a decade of faithful service, running multi-million dollar departments and traveling the entire country for a corporate entity who cares little for it’s employees.  In the end though, this was a good thing.

2.  In May, I turned 36 years old.  There’s this sort of unspoken thing with men that says by the time you’re 35, your life should pretty much be on the path it’s destined for, and your career and love life and kids and education should be things you worried about in the past.  By 35, you should have achieved.  Well, I’m behind the curve.  Not only is my life pretty much a complete waste up until this point, but I don’t really have any prospects for the future.  There’s obviously something wrong with me.  This one is in the "bad thing" category.

3.  After seeing a video of a parade I marched in over the summer, I couldn’t help but stare in enraged astonishment at the bloated, disgustingly fat blob of flesh that I had let myself become.  Photographic evidence further supported this realization, and after thinking back on the tight, well-muscled frame I fought so many years to acquire in my late teens, I couldn’t help but feel sickened by my apathy towards my appearance.  To that end, I decided enough was enough.  I adjusted my diet and took up hiking as much as twice a week, and over the course of three months, I lost 25 pounds and gained a lot more energy and vitality.  I will never allow myself to become fat again.  This one is a good thing.

4.  I climbed a mountain!  If you’d have asked me ten years ago if I would ever physically climb a mountain, I’d have told you that it’s "on my list", but wouldn’t realistically expect it to happen.  Well, this past year my friend Sra and I accomplished what a surprising few people do.  We stood on the summit of a mountain, like gods, (it was Mount Olympus, after all) looking down on all that is below.  I am especially proud of this achievement, and I will take it as one of the highest points (pun intended) of the year.  Good thing.

5.  As a result of my unemployment, I decided to actually take time away from work and focus on myself for the first time ever.  I took the entire year off, and I will say, without reservation, that for the FIRST TIME EVER IN MY ENTIRE LIFE, I get enough sleep.  This is no small thing, I am being sincere.  Getting enough sleep on a consistent basis is something that everyone takes for granted, and you seriously don’t know what you’re missing.  This is a good thing.

6.  I finally declared Atheism.  There are those who might think this is sad, but it is not.  I’ve been on the fence for about a decade concerning my stance on religion and God.  I’ve been on one side or the other my entire life and the revelation I received finally, is that only by opening your eyes and your mind will you ever be at peace with your faith.  God is a construct.  It’s a way for people to explain things they can’t understand, and mankind will never reach it’s full potential unless we finally give up on superstition and naiveté and see what is real and true.  If there is such a thing as fate, then let me say that my undefined purpose for moving to Utah was to finally come to grips with faith and religion, and it took moving here and seeing the differences and perversions in what should be constants for me to finally realize it.  It’s all imaginary.  This is my decision, and I have no doubts that it is the correct one.  This is a good thing.

7.  I lost a lot of money this year.  A LOT.  This is because of my decision not to work, and my failures at starting a home-based business.  I went from making roughly $50K per year down to making $0 per year, and my bank accounts suffered for it.  Even so, it’s still only money.  I can always get more.  Sometimes you have to get humble and climb down a few pegs before going back up.  Losing thousands of dollars is a bad thing, but gaining humility and perspective is a good thing.  This one is a wash.

8.  I discovered a passion for photography.  It also appears that I’m fairly good at it, and getting better.  One of the best things about my decision not to work is that I had plenty of free time to discover my passions, and photography was the big one.  It also helps to live where I live.  I like taking pictures, and more than that, I like seeing people’s reactions to my pictures.  This is definitely a good thing about this past year.

9.  Depression kicked my ass this year.  I’ve "suffered" from depression (I hate that term) since I was a teenager, and this past year has been especially difficult.  I’m thankful for some supportive friends that have helped a little, but depression is a personal issue, and despite what you may want to believe, there is no cure.  Not having an income, failing at business opportunities, and failing to see future prospects really wears on the soul.  I’m hoping next year can turn this around, but I’m not betting on it.  We’ll see.  Category:  Bad.

10.  It may seem anti-climatic to end with this one, but it’s a good one.  I found out something about myself this year.  I’m a writer.  Yes, that’s right.  I am damn good at writing.  Of course, there’s always room for improvement, but on the whole, writing, creating, imagining, articulating, and even things like spelling and grammar come incredibly easy to me.  And in truth, they always have.  I know this all sounds like a massive boast, but please forgive me this once.  I found something that I excel at and it makes me feel good.  It’s a single ray of sunshine breaking through the clouds of my psyche, and I intend to exploit it as best I can.  There are exciting things on the horizon in this matter.  I can hardly wait.

Another year down.  2008 was a curious one for me, and overall I can say it was a positive one.  There was good and bad, but there was balance, and that’s one more for the "good" side. 

See you next year.

Last Thursday, after an entire summer of preparation, and a rainy weekend delay, Sra and I finally conquered Mount Olympus.

We’d planned to do it the previous Saturday, but Sra had a bit of a cold and it rained/snowed all day anyway, so we rescheduled for Thursday.  This turned out to be for the best, because the weather was cool and dry, with clouds most of the day, and it made for perfect hiking conditions.  Probably couldn’t have asked for a better day.

We started out pretty early.  I think we got to the peak right before 8AM, just as the sun was coming up.  After gearing up, we headed up the steep incline that forms the first mile-and-a-half of the trail.

The hike was pretty easy going at first.  It’s a fairly steep trail, but the first half of it isn’t too bad otherwise.  Mostly switchbacks going to and fro up the mountain, then a straight trial that runs parallel to a deep canyon.  Views of the valley enhance the hike, as your elevation climbs pretty quickly.  Passing through a few groves of trees and bushes finally brings you to the halfway point, which is a trickling stream.  I have dubbed it “Sucky Stream.”

From that point on, there is no respite.  The hike turns from an enjoyable stroll up the mountain into a hellish nightmare of climbing an ancient dried-up stream bed, complete with just enough small boulders spaced perfectly to induce the maximum amount of tripping and cursing, sweating and panting, and cramping muscle fatigue.  It’s a good workout to be sure, but that effort is rewarded when you finally come to a clearing at the top.  The only level place on the entire hike is a visual wonder, looking southeast along the Wasatch front across a massive canyon, with eagles soaring overhead (not kidding) backed by incredible views of the Twin Peaks and Lone Peak in the distance.  Stunning, believe me.  This picture doesn’t begin to do it justice.

After resting for a bit, we tackled the hard part.  During our research on the hike, we read of other people doing it, and they referred to a “scramble” that makes up the last 600 feet to the peak.  Ok, we thought.  No problem.  After all, lots and lots of people climb to the summit every year, so two healthy young people should be able to handle it.  We’ve been doing progressively harder hikes all summer in preparation, so we’re ready.  Right?

Well, we discovered the limits of our hiking abilities that day.  Scrambling is literally climbing, using your hands and knees.  We definitely weren’t prepared for the amount of scrambling we’d eventually end up doing, and to top that off, we lost the trail halfway up.  In our efforts to find it, we made an unfortunate detour to the “Cliff of Doom”, which was an attempt to scale the large boulders where inexperienced climbers like us dare not go.  I’ll tell you, I’m not afraid of heights at all, but when you’re perched on a large, flat boulder on the side of a mountain top, and the only thing between you and the valley floor over four thousand feet below you is a slim mountain goat path and some scrub brush, you tend to get a little freaked, especially with the number of people who get lost or hurt doing this climb every year.  After realizing the mistake of climbing up that, coming back down was even harder.  Thankfully both of us made it down safely, but the hike almost turned back there.

Bravely, we soldiered on.  We met a helpful guy coming down who gave us directions back to the trail, and we promptly set out to get lost yet again.  Making our way back to the trail (finally), we ascended the last little bit to the peak.

After a summer of prep, several hikes, and a bit of delay, we finally reached the summit of Mount Olympus.  The view from there is spectacular, and every bit worth the effort.  You literally almost feel like you’re on top of the world, standing like a hero with hands on hips, the master of all you survey.

But wait, there’s more!  If that weren’t enough, Sra and I also took some video.  I mean, it’s one thing to read my never-ending babble about the hike, but it’s nothing compared to seeing it for yourself.  Courtesy of Sra’s most excellent purchase of a tiny hand held video camera, we’re able to bring our hike right to you, almost like you were there with us.

One note about the video:  We shot almost an entire hour of goodness at varying places on the hike, and documented it pretty well, but because of YouTube’s time limit, I had to edit it all down to a scant ten minutes.  I’m not overly thrilled with the final product, given that 75% of it is edited out, but even in its shortened form, I tried to make it entertaining, so I hope you enjoy it.  Don’t forget to leave comments!

Note:  I’ve discovered that for some reason the embedded video below loads extremely slowly.  It may be best to click over to the actual video itself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8nPCbB6iqc&fmt=18 as it seems to load much faster there.  Weird.

Lastly, I’d like to thank Sra for being an amazing friend, and sharing this amazing hike with me.  Thanks for letting me have this experience with you, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store next year!

Note to self: Hiking up mountain with two pulled calf muscles is very owie.

Seems like my little league coach’s advice to just “walk it off boy! Rub some dirt in it, ya wuss. It’ll be fine” doesn’t really work so well. It might have been great for taking a 60 mile-per-hour fastball to the ribs, but walking with old age chasing me just doesn’t give that advice much credence.

It seems that there’s this procedure called “stretching” that one should perform before engaging in pretty much anything after a certain age. I’m familiar with stretching from my days as a fitness trainer, but that was in preparing for intensive training. Things like bench presses and dead lifts require the body to be fully prepared and warmed up — walking across the room should not be something that needs a lot of preparation. Yet, that’s exactly how I pulled my left calf muscle a week ago.

It’s just a slight pull. It hurt for a couple of days and then subsided to a dull ache. I can handle it now, but it’s still annoying. I write it off to recent inactivity and age. No big deal.

Last Saturday I participated in the Asthma walk at Sugarhouse Park. This involved nothing more strenuous then walking around the perimeter of the park on the paved surface, but, as luck would have it, I came up lame by pulling the right calf muscle. After shaking my fist in anger at the gods for cursing me with decrepitude, I hobbled over the finish line and then proceeded to sulk for a few hours. Now I gimp about like an invalid every day thinking about my bygone youth, wishing I was in better shape. I don’t remember any passages in the Old Person’s Handbook about stretching before doing something so mundane as walking.

So I’m committed to getting myself back into shape, age be damned. After all, Lance Armstrong is my age and he can run marathons and ride his bike up and down mountains in France, all with only one testicle.  Shaqille O’Neal is my age and he can run back and forth on the basketball court and miss easy free throws. Jason Statham is my age and he can star in ass-kicking movies and hold his own with people like Jet Li. Josh Duhamel is my age and he can fight giant transforming robots. So is Karl Urban, who can fight hordes of Orcs. The list just keeps going and going. I bet none of these people pull calf muscles walking out the the kitchen for a drink. Anyway I’ve considered that I live in the beautiful state of Utah, and Utah has lots of area called “outdoors”. In this “outdoors” there is apparently “stuff”, which can be seen and experienced. I intend to see and experience it, and at the same time, bring my body back into its rightful state of well-being.

This brings me to today, in which I once again gasped and wheezed my way up the hill to Ensign Peak. I was attempting to correct the photographic mistake I made a few weeks ago by actually getting a shot of Salt Lake that’s in focus. I also used it as an opportunity to work on this “get in shape” thing. Baby steps, to be sure, but Ensign Peak will do for now. It’s short and intense. Hopefully, within a few more tries, I will be able to traverse the distance without stopping, although I’d feel much better about it if my calves weren’t screaming in agony the entire time.

I met my first rattlesnake of the season tonight. I was coming back down and there he was, just sitting there sniffing or flicking or whatever it is that snakes do. The little bastard slithered back into his den before I could limp up and snap a picture of him though, so there’s no evidence. I didn’t think that they came that close to the path, especially with all the people that come and go, but upon further inspection there are many suspicious holes right along the edge of the dirt there. I guess it’s finally warm enough for snakes to come out and play. I bet he didn’t pull a calf muscle either. Probably didn’t even think about stretching beforehand too.

Oh well. There it is. My plan is to first heal, then go about finding some good hiking here in Utah. I’d like to extend the invitation to my friends and new blogging buddies to come along if they want. In fact, if you are a Utah native (I’m not), you probably know some good trails and spots in which to hike and experience “stuff”, so I’d be delighted to meet some new people and experience some “outdoors” with them. Just hit me up and let me know.

And I promise we’ll stretch first.

And avoid the snakes.