Guest Post - Moonlit Ride of Doom

September 13, 2011 - Sundance Ski Lift in Clay's words

Tonight was supposed to be moonlit date night. What’s not to love, right? Full moon, misty mountain tops, beautiful and scenic Sundance Resort.


That was the theory, anyway. The truth? We just spent an hour suspended by a hook, dangling in the wind, connected to a lawn chair about a bazillion feet up in the air. At least, I *think* it was a bazillion feet, because we couldn’t exactly see the ground. What ground we COULD see was covered in these tiny little bushes and scrub that later turned out to be…the tops of thousand-million feet tall trees.

We were surrounded by happy couples, lounging in their thin-metal couches suspended from their little hooks. They were obviously oblivious to the imminent doom; most happy romantic couples weren’t even USING THE SAFETY BAR….nor were they even centered in their contraption! Did no one tell them about the spear-pointed tree tops a bazillion feet below them? Or the jagged teeth of rock just waiting to chew them up and spit them out?


We plotted an escape at the halfway point; had there been an employee parked up top with a vehicle, we were bribing our way back down via truck.

There were no trucks, so we stayed on board, secure in the knowledge that we were halfway finished.

Going down would surely be easier on the nerves than going up, right?

No.

I focused on the moon, made like I was on a boat, and the gentle rocking was due to waves. To think it was gale-force winds buffeting our skyhook? Preposterous. We were safe and sound in some northern sea, that’s all.



About an hour after this “romantic” adventure ended, I was safe and sound in the Owl Bar sipping an Old Fashioned (Maker’s Mark, thanks), with barely a perceptible tremor left in the hands.

I’ll never be a skier, skydiver, or highrise window washer.

Dinner Sleep Hike

I was so glad when Clay finally made it home Monday night because I was so hungry. We headed to Tucanos (Brazilian) for dinner. The picture below was taken in the shopping center where Tucanos is located.

The next morning I dropped Clay and one of the other guys off at Action Target bright and early then I came back to the hotel to determine what was on my agenda for the day.

This photo shows the back of the hotel, we have the middle balcony room that overlooks the Provo river with the mountains in the distance. In fact I am sitting in bed with the sliding door open enjoying the view and river sounds as I am posting this. We are staying at the Best Western Cottontree Inn and have been very pleased.

On the way to the hotel from Action Target this morning I noticed that there is a Great Harvest store about 2 blocks from here. I learned about them by reading Kath Yonger's blog KERF. She and her husband recently opened a Great Harvest in VA and I have drooled over many of the items that she posts on her blog. There isn't a Great Harvest near me in GA so I headed over there to try it out. I picked up a sandwich to take with me, got a pack of 6 GIANT gingersnap cookies, and they give you a free slice of bread to sample, I got the pumpkin chocolate chip (so moist and yummy!). I devoured my sandwich at Vivian State Park and wrapped up a cookie to eat as my snack along the trail. I did not see the start of the Great Western Trail that I thought was supposed to start there so I followed the rural road to South Fork Park and hunted around there for a trail.

Behind one of the campsites I found a small unmarked trail heading up the side of the mountain so I followed it up.

Hiking - Day 4

I wasn't sure what I wanted to get into today so I decided to start at the park where we stopped the other day to look at the dam. I walked the quick 1/4 mile out to the waterfall from the dam and then connected to the Provo Canyon Parkway to see where it went. It is a paved trail for bikers and walkers, it actually stretches from Provo out into the mountains and past several parks. I believe the total distance 1 way is about 14 miles.

The first park that you encounter is Nun's park. There was a camping area along the Provo river but otherwise was not spectacular. I kept on trucking it. Next Park was Bridal Veil Falls as seen below. It is a stunning waterfall that starts at the very top of the mountain and spills over, it collects in a beautiful pool at the bottom.

My animal friend of the day was sharing the path with me. I saw 2 more snakes today but the were little bitty (about the size of a pencil) and were gray. They were sunbathing on the rocks on the side of the trail until I tried to take their picture and they got away before I could. Snakes are much faster than caterpillars!

There is another much smaller dam further up the path past the falls, the water collected behind it into a pond. The water was very clear and I could see the fish in there. The reflection of the mountains was picture worthy and you can even get a little glimpse of the fish.

You can see how nice the trail is here, the two left lanes are for bicyclists and the right lane for runners and walkers.

At the falls I had checked how far I had gone and determined that I was going to try and make it to the end of the trail. I made it to Vivian Park where I had my snack and stretched a little before heading back.

On the way back I was passing a gentleman that I had passed going out to the end and said hello as I passed. He said "Do I detect a southern accent? Georgia maybe?" Turns out he was originally from Colombus and moved out here with his family in the late 1970s. We walked and talked for a good while, discussing how hard it was to transition to winter out here, me lamenting how hot it has been at home (the high today here was 76). What a small world. After about 30 minutes or so of chatting we got to my parking lot and I bid Randy farewell after getting some tips of other places I should check out.

I ended up doing just about 11 miles and finished it in just over 3 hours including the many stops for photos. Not too shabby! This is me at the end after happily enjoying some nature for several hours.

Just Had to Share

As seen in local grocery store.

Ride of Doom followed by Park City

This road looks wide and safe and not scary...do not be fooled!

After hanging off the side of every curve by the skin of our teeth I had experienced about all the adrenaline rush that I could stand. I pleaded with Clay to slow down, I may or may not have cried a little. The views were incredible and being in the open air was really nice but for some reason I had just not pictured the dirt/gravel fishtail inducing snaky paths along the side of really tall mountains in an open-sided death trap. Whew! I am glad to be safely in the bed now, and I didn't die. YAY!

The reason I did not start out driving was because I thought that I would be more beneficial as the navigator. Terrible choice on my part!

Some peaceful calming scenery....lol.

He was enjoying this just a little too much!

In efforts to keep this post tame I will just let you imagine what I was saying for the first 45 minutes of the trip while Clay was driving, it may or may not rhyme with duck.

Our trail heading up and around the mountain.

Now dubbed "evil face."

Was glad I had brought my scarf, even after putting in on my face was covered in dirt and I had all kinds of sand grit in my teeth. At least it kept my hair out of my face.

The next couple of pictures were taken at Cascade Springs. It was a stop during our ATV outing. There are multiple fresh water springs that come up in this area and the parks service built boardwalks out over them for the public. I wish we had not been on a time table and could have stayed longer to check out the fishies and mosey around some more.

After seeing this farm and many others here bale their hay in rectangles it made me wonder why we always see it in big circle bales at home....

Went to the High West Distillery in Park City. It was a neat old building, we took the tour and did the whiskey flight to sample their different whiskeys. Because it is the glorious state of Utah, the distillery has to sell its alcohol to the state and then buy it back again to be able to sell it.

Got some awesome gifts for others and ourselves at this market in Park City.

Park City, Utah

Gotta get my moose-kissing on. Although I later realized that it was a girl moose and tried to get Clay to get a kissy pic instead but he refused.

Outside the Eygptian where they show a lot of the movies at the Sundance Film Festival.

Clay finally got the hat he always wanted.

On our way home a storm started rolling in.