Hiking, part 2

Week 5 - The U - Easy walk, trail at end difficult

Since we went to the Y, we thought we'd go see the U on the mountain too. It really wasn't a hike at all, but a short, easy walk along residential streets. A very short, steep trail leads up to the concrete U, and T. and I decided to climb up there. Very quickly we found that the trail was hard-packed dirt with no real footholds.



Going up was pretty easy, but then we turned around to go down...



Note how A. and M. wisely stayed at the bottom. The trail was slippery and so steep that we ended up sitting down and scooting a bit at a time so we wouldn't fall. Lessons learned: 1. Don't "hike" to the U without hiking spikes. 2. Always wear jeans to go hiking in.

Week 6 - Ensign Peak - Moderately easy

For our last week staying in the valley, we decided to hike to Ensign Peak as we have done many times before. It's about a mile round trip, but enough of a climb to be a little bit of a challenge.



It was very windy the day we went. T. was trying to stay out of the wind behind the monument. Several of us almost lost our hats (but had quick enough reflexes not to).



The view is the best part about this hike.



Next time we're heading up into the mountains again. It's getting too hot in the valley, and there are lots of places we want to explore in the canyons where it's cooler.