Hike #2-Mt. Naomi

Friday, 9/26, Ben, Joseph and I took off up the canyon. William wanted to come but he had his Homecoming Dance and Date. I got back from work and grabbed some meat at Walmart. Mom helped us with our foil dinners and we packed the car. We decided it wasn't the best time for back packing because Joseph didn't have his pack (at Grandma's in Perry, UT) and we hadn't had the time to really plan it out together. So this time it was car camping and that turned out to be an adventure of its own. Logan canyon is pretty cool for a lot of reasons. One, is that the walls of the canyon are covered in rock climbing spots. We packed the climbing gear and started by finding an empty wall. We pulled off the highway and started climbing. It was a fun climb. Ben got up once to set our anchor and then when coming down discovered the rope was 5-10 feet short! So he had to go up again with the longer rope. It was a good climb for him even. Joseph and I both did pretty well. I'm getting better the more I climb and I love it. I think swimming has strengthened my upper body. We were climbing until it was dark and then we headed off to make camp.

The other reason Logan Canyon is cool is because there are very few camping restrictions. I called the ranger and there were only two small spots that had a fire ban and you can pull off and camp anywhere. So we went up Right Fork Canyon Rd and 

found a spot we liked. It was right near a 

creek and it wasn't until the morning when we realized just how beautiful a spot it was. We had the most amazing foil dinners (thanks to mom) and then we decided to watch a move in the car. Yup, this is car camping at its 

very best! We can plug in a converter that allows us to run my computer and then we plug the sound into the car stereo and we have surround 

sound! Pretty sweet. But there was a problem. The back window on the Expedition wasn't closing and so the interior lights wouldn't go off. We worried about it at first, thinking we might drain the battery but then we decided that dad runs his sleep machine off the car all night, it should be able to handle this right? Well with about 30 minutes left in 'Italian Job' the car lights began turning on and off. I checked the gage and sure enough, we had drained the battery. We tried to start the car and nothing. We quickly turned off the movie, rigged the 

back window so the lights would go off 

and then did the only thing we could do...we went to bed. I had a fitful sleep worrying about how we were going to get the car to start in the morning. We were in the middle of nowhere and better yet, the car was parked in such a way to make it very difficult for another car to get close enough to help. I had dreams all night about different solutions and it was never helpful. In the morning I woke up to Ben starting the car and said a prayer of thanks. 

I then finally slept for a few minutes before we had to get up and make breakfast and break camp.

Next we were off to Tony Grove and the trail head for Naomi Peak. It is 3.3 miles to the top with just under a 2000 feet elevation gain. It was a pretty good hike. The boys are in much better shape than I and would have scrabbled up the 

mountain were it not for my need of occasional rest and water. We got up in 2 hours and back down in just over an hour. The views were beautiful but we discovered something about being from the NW. 

As beautiful as the grays and browns may be, it is hard to find beauty in them when you are used to continual green. But there was some amazing color up there this time of year and that was fun to capture. 

We made it back down without incident and we were hungry! Mom had met us up at Tony Grove but we were ready to be off 

down the canyon to get home. I'm sure the hike barely phased the boys but I paid for it on Sunday with a little soreness. I'm sure it didn't help that I had ran every day last week. 

Anyway, it was a great first big hike. I'm excited to get out into that wilderness and experience more of it! Be expecting more of this! And when winter comes it will just change to snow shoeing and cross country skiing! I'm excited, can you tell?

From the top Logan is right behind Ben's head :) Look hard and you can see it!

View of Mt. Magog from the top of Naomi

You can see Tony Grove Lake in the right hand corner.