Hiking the Y

Monday, April 21, 2014

With the weather nice, we thought it would be a good experience to climb up to the "Y" on the mountain down in Provo.  DH and I haven't hiked it since we were students there and we have never taken the kids.  We picked DH up from work and headed down to the trailhead.  I had just switched to a new cancer drug and thought I was going to be alright with this, but apparently not.  After we got up through the first couple of turns, I started to not feel well at all and sent the rest of the family on ahead to finish the hike.  DH felt pretty bad about that but I insisted that I would be alright and that I would follow if I could.

At the start of the hike.

Map of the trail.  Now notice that there is a cutoff point where you can continue on to reach the bottom of the "Y" or you can take another turn and head to the top of the "Y".  Our original goal was to try and hike to the bottom of the "Y".

After my family left me, I rested for a bit and then decided that I would try and make it still - or at least meet up with them on their way back down.  So I slowly resumed my climb and would stop at the start of each switchback to catch my breath.  I was trying to remember in my head what the map looked like and how many turns there were, but apparently I missed the turnout for the trail to the bottom of the "Y".

The kids at the bottom of the "Y".

Cute MJ

DH and the kids took the trail to the bottom of the "Y" and then were going to continue on to the top as well.  So while my family was down at the bottom of the "Y", I apparently took the turn at that switchback and kept going on the trail that goes to the top of the "Y".  On my way up I kept wondering why I hadn't caught up to them yet and how long this trail really was.  Then I got up to the top section of the trail and realized that I was headed to the top of the "Y" and I could see my family all down at the bottom of it.  I tried to wave to get their attention and then one of the kids noticed me up there and they all started pointing and the expression on their faces was pretty funny.  They were all quite surprised (especially DH) that I had made it and that I was all the way at the top.  They yelled at me to stay where I was and not try and join them down at the bottom - although I had no intention of doing that!  I figured that if I had made it this far I was going to go all the way.  They quickly got back on the trail and met up with me at the top of the "Y" where we took some pictures.

Me and the kids sitting on the top of the "Y".

DH and the kids at the top.

Kitty actually shared the story in a talk in Primary a couple of weeks later.  She likened the experience to trying to make it to the Celestial Kingdom and how they were really sad that they had to leave me behind and then when they saw me on the path later on, she related how happy and excited they were to see that I had made it and that we could reach our goal as a family.