Another Sunday on vacation and another Congregational Church. This time we rise early to see what’s happening in the Provo, UT church; Provo, the home of Brigham Young University. To immerse ourselves in the local community on vacation, we find a Congregational church and stay for coffee hour. With 24 other parishioners, Hannah and I settle into a front pew in a sanctuary for 200. A spry elderly woman one pew up turns and says, I hope you’ll come to coffee hour. It makes all the difference that she reaches out.
East of Provo, we take the Provo Canyon Road (Route 189) along the meandering Provo River. We take a left onto the Aspen Scenic Highway (Route 92) some seven miles from town, climbing the canyon road which in places is just inches from the rushing stream below. At no more than 20 mph, we head towards Mount Timpanogos, past Sundance and Aspen Grove (A BYU family camping area) to the state park ranger station. In mid-June this year, the road over Mt. Timpagnogos is closed due to the snowpack. Paying six bucks, we are warned that snows will impede our hiking. Immediately after parking, we suit up with fanny packs of trail mix and water, floppy hat for Dan, and head to Stewart Falls, some two miles away. Immediately we discover that a mini-avalanche has covered the trail. Sixty foot pine trees have been toppled and are strewn about as we step over and under serious trunks in this heavily forested part of the trail.
Hiking a meandering trail through pine forests, which is as much downhill as up, we spot a 100 yard snowfield that adds to the excitement of our last day of vacation. We slip and slide across the snowfield helping others who pass in the opposite direction. One young woman said to me, I need your hand. We connect as a community of hikers. Today we are again aware that we are not alone and didn’t get to where we are by ourselves. A popular family hike on this Sunday, Stewart Falls gives us many opportunities to interact with others. Not 45 minutes after we start, we arrive at the soaring falls, majestically falling to the snowfield below. We learn that the snowfields can be treacherous as melting waters flow beneath them and undercut the integrity of the snowfield.
Once back, we have hiked a mere 90 minutes, which leaves us 90 minutes short of our goal of three hours of hiking. We look to Mount Timpanogos. Wide and welcoming at the start, the trail up Mt. Timpanogos has us quickly sidestepping a boot-soaking impromptu steam and sloshing over mushy snowfields. With another snowfield in our sights, we bail out and turn back after 25 minutes of hiking. Hiking in snow is akin to hiking in sand. We step and slide, two steps forward one step back. It’s joyless, unless you are training for the Olympics or some insane ultra-marathon. We side saddle through the snowfields where we see a family “ski” down the snowpack in their boots.
Pleased and satisfied, we drive down the canyon drive and stop at Sundance to see what it’s all about. (http://sundanceresort-px.rtrk.com/). As we stroll through the grounds, I spot the Big Guy. That’s right – the Sundance Kid, Johnny Hooker from The Sting. He’s literally sitting twenty-five feet away being interviewed outside a screening room in this elegant campus for film folk. Star struck, I can’t wait to tell someone. Three women in their fifties approach. I act so cool and say, Have you seen who’s here? They look and scream and clap their hands together. We are five teenagers. Walking outside, I don’t want to intrude on his privacy or his time but do stare in that trying-not-to-stare way.
Pay dirt. Once home I immediately get Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) at the York Public Library. Yes, it was released during Dan and Hannah’s senior year of college. Initially the screenplay was titled, the Sundance Kid and Butch Cassidy, but with Paul Newman the bigger name and playing the part of Butch, the title was reversed. Initially, Steve McQueen was wanted for the Sundance role, but he and Newman couldn’t agree on who would get top billing. Let me tell you, the movie is timeless. While Paul Newman and Robert Redford are handsome guys, Katherine Ross is drop dead gorgeous. She, riding on the bike with Newman to the Academy Award winning tune of Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head by B.J. Thomas, is the best.
Now a Robert Redford film buff, I was recently taken by Redford’s An Unfinished Life (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0350261/), which is worth running to your local library to get.
Stewart Falls Hike – A family hike of less than two hours. As always when hiking, know thyself, thy limits, and the conditions. Be prepared.
No comments:
Post a Comment