Mt Timpanogos

So Eli and I are going to Hike to Machu Picchu on the Inca Trail next year. I told Eli I wanted to hike to Timpanogus to see how hard it was and see how ready we needed to be. INca Trail is 26 miles over 4 days with elevation between 9-14K. Mount Timp is a 16 mile round trip 5k ascend to 12000 feet. We got up at 630, made lunches and ate breakfast and had a total of 3 liters water between the two of us. Here we are fresh and happy and before our feet hurt and before we ran out of water.


Along the hike i saw a shadow behind trees and i thought it was a barn/cabin/tent, I said "eli look someone built a cabin up here!" he said dad its moving. Then i Saw this MOOSE, And its MOther.

We hiked to a Waterfall at about 2 miles in. Eli pulled out his cell phone and took pictures of it all.



We hiked another mile or two and found another Waterfall. I figured on the way back if I was desperate we could drink here, I was conserving water for ELI.





This was a view of the lodge, we were only at 8,000 feet and had 4,000 to go so we still felt good.

This picture is taken at 10,000. We had used almost all of our water, we were on verge of melting down but this guy told us there was a lake ahead and a resting place and then it was only one more hour to the top, this is the first view of the peak.

Here we are on emerald Lake, it is glacier fed but there are mountain goats. We were almost out of water, someone had a filter so we filled up two more liters and drank and ate and felt recharged. We were told it was only one more hour but had to go almost 2000 feet up.

and it was a rough 2000 feet


we hiked along this ridge, then accross a shale slide, then nearly strait up.

Finally we got closer

Then we reached the crest, we could see OREM and PRovo and lake Utah, there was a lot of smoke from the forest fires in California.

We climbed up this, this picture cannot show how high and scary this was. but it was really fun.

We went strait up this. THis is probably my favorite picture.

We hiked accross this

ON the way down we ran into mountain goats.



On the way down a college kid from UC Berkley passed us, he was really nice. Eli and I had used 5 liters of water and had only half liter for the 8 mile return trip down. He had a filter and filled us up with another 2 liters, we drank some and our spirits were high, we started to go down the hill, We felt better and better and stronger and stronger as we came down. Eli said he felt like he had the blinking star from mario cart giving him energy. We made great time going down and our spirits were high. Then we ran out of water again, we gave a liter to some people that looked like they were really struggling. Then Eli hit the wall. he was so exhausted that he could not keep going. I told him he could be frustrated, and angry, but that didnt get us closer to water or food. He sucked it up and we made it to the cafeteria right at closing. I think eli drank two liters of root beer. We were sore the next day but it was really fun.

I think Eli will be able to Make Machu Picchu. And I actually had a really fun time with him. I did buy a water filter. And More water bottles. I dont think i have been that worried about water before. I knew i could be thirsty, but seeing eli having a rough time was hard for me