A Great Waterfall Hike in Utah

Once again hiking with the family.  We met up with my son and daughter in law in Salt Lake and headed for the hills.  It was a perfect week end.  The fall foliage was everywhere.  The roads and all the hiking trails were as busy as well.  Everyone else jumped at the chance of seeing some great colors and enjoying what we were sure would be the last days of summer, the cold edging in slowly. 

I am from Vermont.  If you want to see foliage then that is the place to go.  Color! Color you have not seen here in the Rockies.   These are beautiful and very enjoyable but a bit more subdued than the Vermont colors.  All in all I got some great pics.

Instead of driving all the way up to the trail head we parked just off the road and walked up the access road. 

The rest of us waiting to take off.

Getting the grand daughter all set in her pack.

The gang all heading up the access road

Ceanna didn't want to walk the road.  But the minute we reached the trail and the rocks and the more difficult climb she wanted out of the backpack and began climbing.  Apparently she finds road walking boring but loves climbing over the rocks and up the trails.

The trail brought a lot more interest. 

As we moved along I was beginning to think this was going to be a piece of cake.  Wrong!  I began hearing people talking about this and that boulder they climbed over.  I immediately decided I wasn't going to climb over any boulders.  Wrong again!

This one was very interesting.  I am taking the pic from the top so it doesn't really show the difficulty. It was narrow with little footing, at least flat footing.  There was quite a bottle neck of people waiting to go up and down while the kids would just dart up and down the choppy sides.  We got my grand daughter down it and then it was time for me.  Thankfully my son was there to help.   Of course my son and daughter in law could do this blindfolded as they are the real athletes of the family.  The rest of us just go out and pretend, hoping one day we will be better.




Once  we reached the top we discovered that to get up the waterfall required a small climbing feat.  Since I told myself I was not doing any such  thing, I had to do it.  I have this thing, if I think I can't do it then I have to do it because there can't be such a thing that owns me in fear so I face the fear and do it anyway.  I just wish the fear would go away.  So I keep pushing myself.  Here are some pics of my challenge.

I made it

As you can see this is quite a waterfall and in the spring with the snow run off it must be a sight to behold.

From the beginning

I had to walk over rocks to cross the water in one section and climb up boulders to get on the trail to the left of the trees.  On the right there was a small rocky climb that took  you to the shallow water for crossing.  The deeper water was so full of rocks that a good footing just wasn't there.  Also, to note, it was the beginning of October and the water was still as cold as ice.  I noticed this as my foot slipped off a rock and splashed in the water.

I have many more pics of all the beautiful foliage of that day and the family.  We had a fun outing along with some great exercise challenges.

I am trying to work many different muscles and still feel that I am better off outside working them than inside a gym.   I am finding it a bit tougher here in Colorado.  Sometimes I feel like I didn't even do all the work I did back in Charlotte.  It is a bit disconcerting.  I thought I would be further along my now.    It is not far till next year and I need to be in a lot better shaped than I am in right now.

I have been doing a lot of hiking around the neighborhood with some new walking buddies and thought I would be in such great shape by now.  I had this obvious inflated ego regarding my skills.  So what do I do now?  I could easily give up since the pain and tiredness is getting to me.  Can't do it sometimes sets in.  BUT I want to do this so I am going to have to just ignore the pain and just do it.  Today's hike has me all tuckered out and I am going right back out tomorrow morning and do it all again.  Maybe this pain is why a lot of the people hiking the Camino seem to down a bottle of wine every evening.  Hummmm, not a bad idea. 

If anyone has any experiences of walking sore please share.  I won't give up because I really want to do this but could use some reassurance that this pain will eventually go away, or I could start drinking, chuckle chuckle.

buen camino
b

The Poudre River Trail and the Family

Heading out for a great ride

 This was a real excursion.  It took about 2 hours just to prepare.  Getting out the bikes, pumping up the tires, putting the chariot together and deciding which tricycle to take.  Then loading the cars.  I can only carry 2 bikes and the chariot so the tricycle and other bike went into the kids car.  Off down the road the caravan went, in hunt for the trail head.

We arrived to find a nature center at the trail head with birds of prey.  We had lunch and then jumped on our bikes.  Earlier I had said this was 18 miles round trip but have since learned it is 22 miles round trip.  Since we had the little one and she kept wanting to ride her tricycle we only did half of it.  That was 11 miles in all and my 3 year old grand daughter peddled about a mile of it on her tricycle.  What a trouper.

The trail was a mixture of terrain.  I was surprised at all the underpasses and places where we had to get up onto the highway and cross a bridge or a street to continue.  I was a long piece to be doing this.  There was my bike, the chariot and then the tricycle.  We estimated I was pulling an extra 85lbs so the up hills were not easy.


Here we are:  

Mema, Ceanna and Daddy in the background

Here is Ceanna trying to keep up with Mom and Dad:

Ceanna peddling away

 

 

 

Mom and Dad got away:

Ceanna trying to catch up

Yeaa  rest time

 

 

We were out riding for 4 hours, including a stop at a playground for Ceanna to play.   It is easy to get her out on these trips if their is a play ground involved.  She  is still quite young but we want to break her into being an active part of life.  It is amazing to me how much I missed over the years not knowing what fun it is to be out and truly enjoying what this wonderful earth has to offer.  Even though I grew up in Vermont, I grew up in a city and with a father that took his sons out camping, fishing etc but his daughter was not allowed to come because girls don't do those things, that's for men only.  The same thing happened when I asked to learn how to mow the lawn.  Weird father.  So it took me years to get over his training.  But I consider myself a lucky one because I found/discovered how great life can be if you just get out and enjoy it.


I have an operation coming up that is slowing the training down but after I will be pushing even more.  I am trying to get a job that is very physically active as another way to help rebuild this body.  For this trip, it didn't have any dramatic events but it was enjoyable as well as a real push pulling 85 extra lbs up the hills. I felt like I had a great work out.

buen camino
b