STEVEN'S HIKE TO THE UINTAS

A CUT ABOVE

Steven (second from right), along with his Scout Troop & in his own words, here's his report.

Hi Grandma, it's me! I went on quite the adventure last week, and I thought I'd write a few thoughts about it for one of those fancy blogs of yours, maybe the extended one!

Just an excerpt of my own journal, is all, in my very own words. You could maybe title it 'QUITE AN ADVENTURE', or even better, after my dumb pun, 'A CUT ABOVE'.

Well, I hope everything is just sunshine and lollipops in San Juan for you, and Grandpa too. One week I was at sea level, and often below sea level, and the next week I'm over 14000 feet above! Kinda neat.

As it turns out, I'm a mountain man now. And what better things are there for a man of the mountains to do than scale the High Uintas?

It was a 5 day trip, maybe 13 comrades among us and 3 more leaders as well; just a bunch of backpacking backpackers. A horde of them.

It's a tough hike, we all agreed. Something about rocky terrain, inevitable rain, high up in elevation, lots of passes and hills, oh, and just being all around really long. But that's what you sacrifice so you can enjoy all the great things up there, and see all the great sights. Memories, and such. It's not something just anyone is willing to do, which makes it a bit special.

Makes it and us maybe, A CUT ABOVE! Because it's the biggest, tallest plateau in America. And I am. (Sometimes.

Eh, I've made better puns before).

The trip could have been deadly if we didn't take Wednesday just to fish and enjoy the outdoors. What else, we played a little game called 'High Uintas Wiffle Ball'. It's like regular baseball but the leaders always win. And, yeah, they did. But only because the wiffle ball decided to snap in twain on their side of an inning.

Also, there was some amazing fishing up there, because the lakes were way lower than normal. I caught 3 my very first ever! I named them Ninny, Minny, and Finny, and then I gutted, and shortly later ate poor Finny. What, it wasn't a pet, it's just a slimy, jumpy fish, who isn't killed by light rock taps to the head, I discovered. And it tasted pretty amazing, considering the freeze dried meals I had prior.

All in all, it was quite the experience, through and through.

My absolute favorite part however was this little area on a pass just after Painter's Basin. On top of the pass that is. You can see the Paintman Basin and the basin with Lake Atwood in it, and it's just something about the ridge splitting the two basins. Or maybe how silent it was. And not to forget the mossy rock ruins and such. It's tough to describe, you really just had to be there.

The trail is also really popular. You can see people go by pretty often, and I think I'm beginning to see why.

Stevie Agle

Thanks, Steven. That was quite a trip.

Here's a picture of the Mapleton group on their first day back at school this week.