We hiked to and toured Timpanogos Cave today. The plan was to get up at 8, go to the trailhead and buy tickets for early afternoon, come home and go to swimming lessons, eat lunch, and go hike. Of course I overslept for some strange reason (i.e., staying up until 2), so we didn't get the tickets early.
We left the house at 11:30 and got our tickets at 12:00. Our hike time as 2:40 and our cave tour time was 4:10. So we had 2.5 hours to kill. I decided we should go see a movie. I looked for dollar theaters in the phone book and found one that looked promising. Their phone message didn't say if they were a full-price theater or not, and I'm so clueless about which movies are out that I couldn't tell from the movies that were playing. A little part of State Street was closed and we ended up taking a massively huge detour. Once we got there, we would have only been able to watch 1-1.5 hours of a movie that had already started, and it would be $15. I refused to pay that much, so I suggested we go out to eat instead. So we did, and spent $23. Since our hike time was so late, we would have had to eat somewhere, but I probably could have gone to a grocery store and done it a lot cheaper.
One reason I like hiking is that it's very inexpensive recreation. Today was not cheap though! We had the $6 entrance fee to the canyon, $15 for the cave tour, and $23 for lunch. Oh well. We tried to tour Timpanogos Cave last year, but we didn't get there until the last day of the season, and of course the cave tours were sold out. We hiked anyway but were excited to go through the tour this year.
At lunch, I made the brilliant choice of eating a BBQ bacon cheeseburger and fries. I was well aware that this would make me feel awful on the hike, but decided I needed the calories (see this post). As soon as we left the restaurant, I was about ready to fall asleep. We started hiking and I felt OK. Somehow we made it up to the top. The trail rises 1100 feet over 1.5 miles. My lungs/breathing were OK, and my legs weren't really burning, but I felt like I was dying! I took my pulse, and it was at 160. I guess I need more cardio work. I don't know how backpackers can hike with 50+ pound backpacks. I was dying with 28 pounds of baby.
It turned out that our tour was 16 teenagers and us. Before we went in, the ranger warned the other ranger to watch out, because one of the girls had been standing up on the ledge that looks out over a sheer drop-off. Greaaaaaaaaaat, I thought. Teenagers, and worse, choir kids. At my high school, only the cool kids were in choir (do my high school friends perceive it this way?), and I was not in choir, so I was an enemy of choir kids :-) I figured they would be really annoying and sing annoyingly while we were trying to hear the guide.
Then the karma bus hit me, as my beloved child was the only one to make it difficult to hear the guide. But that only lasted about 15 seconds 2-3 times. The guide told the students before they went in that he would give them an opportunity to sing. So they behaved themselves and only sang at the appointed time. Their song was absolutely gorgeous. They were obviously part of the school's elite choir, maybe even an a cappella choir. The song was a hymnal all about Christ and the Atonement. "Only at Orem High" I thought. Nevertheless, it really was beautiful.
So, we survived the tour, got home more than 7 hours after we left, and can't wait to go again!
2 comments:
Only popular people were in choir? Guess we didn't go to the same high school. There were a few that were popular, but they were popular for other reasons. Thinking back, those who were only in the choir.....I'll shut my mouth now, hehehe.
Hey, I know my perception was off -- I mean it was high school -- everyone is crazy!
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