I Love the Mountains, I love the rolling hills, I love the fountains. . . . . .

Once again I think of things to blog about, but just don't get around to doing it. Michael recently got called to serve with the Young Men. His first duty was to go on "High Adventure". Man I wish I could have gone. They hiked to King's Peak. I guess it was a pretty grueling hike. It was 28 miles total, but they did 20 miles of it in one day! They hiked 8 miles the first day to the base camp. Then the next day they hiked 6 miles to the summit and then turned around and hiked the total 14 miles out! Killer! Michael's knee started hurting, but as he put it, "Couldn't do anything about it," so he continued to hike. He said he just took some Ibuprofen and the swelling went down overnight. They ended the trip spending a day of swimming, cliff-jumping, and mountain-biking at Flaming Gorge. I was very jealous of that part. I have actually been to the spot they were cliff-jumping at. It has some fond memories for me. Ones of De and Toby decorating themselves with moss to create green belly-button, armpit and facial hair. Good Times. I was glad to have Michael back. He has to leave me all the time for Guard, but i usually can talk to him. Not this time. Here are some pictures he took. What a beautiful view.

Michael says they were doing a "Caber Toss"

Lost? . . .

Oh yeah, my hero! :)

The following Monday, we decided we would go on another hike. Cache Valley is so wonderful and I feel like I have wasted a lot of my time here focused on school (go figure!). So I am trying to take advantage of these last few months. We decided we would hike to the "Jardine Juniper". It is said to be Utah's oldest tree. It is said to be 3200 years old. We looked online and found out the trail is 5.2 miles long. Easy hike right? Well it really wasn't all that bad. We just didn't know where it ended, so we kept thinking we were almost there. When you think the trail ends just around the bend, and it ends over two more mountains, it makes the hike feel a little longer. Michael's knee and ankle started acting up again from the previous trip, so it was no surprise when he got a little frustrated. "Where is this stupid tree!" "I am going to burn down this stupid tree." Don't worry . . . he was joking. . . it is still there for anyone else to hike to. The hike down felt a lot faster of course because we knew how far we were going, but it wasn't completely pleasant for either of us per we were both sporting injuries. Looking back on the hike, it was fun. I ended up with some wicked sore calf muscles. Ouch! I haven't been that sore since endless calf-raises at volleyball camp.

Not the Jardine Juniper but a Narly Juniper just the same!

I have no idea what kind of snake this was. We saw it on the way up. It was so smooth that I thought it was some kind of liquid at first.

Finally! The notorious Jardine Juniper! Supposed to be alive when the Eqyptians were building pyramids.

After a lunch of smushed tuna sandwiches, we hiked down. We saw these berries. They look like rasberries, but I wasn't about to eat them because the leaves looked all wrong.

Look how big those leaves are! These berries were all over! I smashed one in my fingers and it had s raspberry-ish smell to is, but it also smelled different. Maybe if we were starving and desperate, but I kept thinking of some saying someone told me about the colors of berries. . . "White, take flight. Red, your dead."

(I was told that at a very young age, and I am sure it isn't true.)Michael is just about healed up now. He doesn't say anything but I notice he walks different sometimes and some movements are checked. I am sure he would have been back to 100 % capacity a few days ago if I hadn't suggested the hike. Oh well, right? Gotta take advantage of Cache valley while we are here. Injuries aside. The scenery, sweat, and conversation made it all worth it.