our own death march

we left in the early afternoon last monday to take a bonding hike up to mount baldy, under the majestic snow-covered timpanogos.

the view from the saddle was amazing. it was like looking into mordor. the sun was setting and gave us a great light show behind the west mountains.

"just for fun" we decided to go down the other side of baldy and make it a round trip. we didn't even hit the valley bottom before nightfall. we spent an unknown number of hours (neither of us brought our phones) searching for the snow-covered trail in the dark. we found mountain lion tracks, elk tracks and even a creepy 'house-cat' stalking us in the dark. it never came close enough to really identify it...thank heavens.

after we reached the trailhead, we still had to trudge through the streets of north orem back to where we had parked our car intially. i hadn't been that tired since dad made us hike half dome in one day...death. aaron played the hero and jogged the last thirty minutes and when he came back to pick me up the clock in the car read 12:15 am. the mcdonald's hot n spicy's were well earned that night and the goal of a "bonding hike" was taken a little to the extreme. but well worth it all.