Wilderness Wednesday

This was the view from my front yard growing up.  Well, actually, you have to go a little west and north, as this is the view from Mt. Ben Lomond from the east, but this was the mountain looming over me.  She is 9712 feet above sea level and when you get to the top, about 8.2 miles from the North Ogden divide, you will have a 360  view of Northern Utah; Willard Bay and the Great Salt Lake  to the west, Willard Peak to the North and East, and the city of Ogden and all points visible south.

I was one time at the top of this peak, with a girl and her brother who lived in the neighborhood (if you can call those long, Utah blocks "in the neighborhood.").  She lived around the "corner" (again, a phrase I use loosely because it was probably a half mile walk) and she had horses.  One summer day, moving toward late afternoon, he suggested we ride their horses to the top and back.  I wish I remember this girl's name.  But she was fascinating to me with her long blonde pigtail braids, cut off jean shorts and her flannel shirted brother.  She seemed like a real cowgirl and I, not that far removed from my early childhood in southern California, was enthralled.  I knew nothing about horses or hiking but I wanted to be prove my cowgirl mettle, and in the dust of late afternoon, headed up the mountainside.

We did make it to the top, but I remember nothing about being there.  I remember, however, being terrified the whole time, especially coming down.  I was sharing the saddle with the girl and the horse, and the distance between my elevated self on the horse and the ground suddenly became magnified as the horse walked precariously downward.  The trails were suddenly too narrow, the specter of falling off the back of the horse, the horse getting spooked and bucking us off loomed large as I imagined tumbling down 200 feet of rock face to my certain death.

We made it back just as the sun descended beyond the Great Salt Lake, and I resolved to myself that I would never, never, ride a horse for hiking ever again.  I have been true to my word (though for more complicated reasons other than just not liking that particular experience), but I have not been back to the top of that peak.  The trailhead is about a fifteen minute drive from my parent's house, and well, it's time.  If I start early, I can do 16 miles in a day.  I did 17miles in a river (I'll tell you about that hike later).  Mark my words, all, this peak will be hiked!