66 miles . . . . . oh my!

The youth in our ward planned a 66 mile week long adventure.

They were planning on hiking a little over 50 miles, biking some of those miles, and floating the Provo river for the last of the miles. It was a pretty crazy plan. I was lucky enough to be invited. Originally I had plans to backpack at the end of the week with Ambers family but because there were no other available female leaders I stuck it out with the youth. My feet are SORE! But other than that it was an awesome week doing things I always enjoy. The best thing was that Moki could come on all the hikes. It made the trip so fun.

We met early Monday morning and started our trek in Pleasant Grove at the Battle creek Falls Trail. The cool thing about this adventure was there were tons of different activities for the kids to try along the way. The first one was repelling down the waterfall!!!

I started off by finding a spot to take pictures of the youth while they repelled. I wasn't too sure about repelling I think the last time I tried was right before my mission when I was 21. Yeah 16 years ago....what the heck how am I that old.

 After watching the youth for over an hour I decided to give it a try. I am glad I did. It wasn't too terrible!

We only had one incident while we were repelling. One of the young women got her hair stuck in the rope. One of the leaders had to climb down to her and cut it out with a knife. She had long beautiful hair so that was a real bummer. She handled it like a champion, definitely not the start we wanted.

After we repelled we continued up battle creek. The hiking was very steep and very hot. After 6 long miles we made it to the camp the boys would be staying at. We set up some shelters and then had time to chill. They also set up a shooting range so the kids could shoot guns. Moki and I napped in my hammock.

The craziest thing about day one was that the boys camped at Indian Coral which was not easy to access. The girls had to ride 30 minutes on a long bumpy road to get out in the evening and then back in the next morning.

The next day we hiked from Indian Coral to Timpanooke campground. It was another six miles. These miles were easy but for some reason they took a long time.

Once we got to the camp the kids played with bubble balls and did group activities. I figured out on this day that I could bring my car and leave after the hiking. This allowed me to get some stuff done at home and get more sleep. I am not used to hiking when it is the hottest part of the day and I was exhausted.

Wednesday was our day to hike Timpanogos. We went up the Timpanooke trail and then came down the Aspen Grove trail. I was excited to do this hike as a through trail. The hike took us 12 hours, which is long, but the kids did great!

 I ended up not summit-ting. We had one girl that was struggling and didn't feel like she should push to the summit. Of all the leaders I had hiked Timpanogos the most and so I took one for the team and bypassed the summit.

The cool thing was that it allowed me to walk part of the trail from through the meadow I had never been on before. It was beautiful.

We hiked to Emerald lake and waited three hours for our group to catch up. I took a nap and we watched the herd of mountain goats that was hanging out as well.

 I was bummed to not summit with all the youth but it was still a great day.

When we finally got to Aspen Grove everyone was tired and ready to rest.

Thursday was a little bit of a recovery day. We hiked from Aspen Grove to Stewart Falls and then up above Stewart falls.

We dropped down above Sundance on a crazy road where we picked up our mountain bikes. We rode our bikes down a trail at Sundance and then on the road from Sundance to the Provo River.

 I made the mistake of letting Moki run while we mountain biked and she was soooo exhausted. We only biked a few miles but it was so hot and she worked so hard. I threw her in the truck before we biked down the road and she refused to get out again.

After we biked we caught a ride up the canyon to the dam. We ate lunch here and then the kids floated the river. Moki was done for the day so I didn't get to do the river. I ran her home instead. Poor puppy was so tired.

The kids floated the river from the dam down to Vivian Park. I went home and napped and then met them up the canyon at Provo zipline, where we all got to zipline!!! I had never ziplined before so I was pretty excited.

 It ended up being so much fun!!! This was one of the kids favorite activities. I loved it too.

The boys were camping at the zipline place and so after we finished the kids just hung out by the river. I headed home early because I was tired.

Friday we stated our hike at Vivian park. We headed down the Provo River trail until it ran into the Bonneville shoreline trail. We then hiked along that train until we hit Squaw Peak Road. We were staying at Rock Canyon campground and so after we got on the road we alternated between trails and roads to get us to camp.

 We had lunch at the Squaw Peak overlook and then headed back down the road to the rock canyon campground turn off.

 We got to camp around 4. The kids had a chance to use a slack line, shoot a bow, and jump off a bridge. I think they all jumped off the bridge. It was a long hike and it was pretty steep towards the end.

Saturday was our last day hiking! We started hiking by leaving rock canyon campground.

We hiked down rock canyon a couple miles and the youth had a chance to rock climb. It was fun to watch them and they all did awesome. Once they had all completed two or three climbs we headed back up the canyon to our turn off.

We hiked up the backside of slate canyon. It was hot and very very steep. The trail isn't used a ton so it is really overgrown. We kind of bushwhacked our way through until we ran into the slate canyon trail.

Then we just had a few miles of steep downhill. The youth did awesome on the dowhnill.

When we could finally see Provo it was a very welcome sight.

 We ended the hike by walking all the way home. Our ward boundaries is just over a mile from the trail-head. We were hot, sweaty, and the boys were super stinky. Some ward members brought Popsicles and water bottles as we finished the last leg of the hike.

The hike was a good experience for me and the youth. Moki didn't come the last two days she was just too tired. It was fun to have her when we did the kids loved it. Years ago when I was first called as camp director Sister Elaine Dalton talked to our area about the importance of young women doing hard things. She discussed how it builds confidence and prepares them for the future. Her talk really resonated with me. I feel like a lot of times the young men get to do a lot of the hard stuff and the girls are a little bit pampered, at least in wards I have been in. These young women were amazing. This was a hard week and they showed up each day and worked hard. I really was proud of them. I was lucky to get to be a very small part in this fun little journey.