Young Men's Hike in the Nebo mountains

Picking up a new puppy was not the only new and interesting (OK maybe not so interesting for you, gentle reader...) we've done the last 24 hours.

I just got back from a 'grueling' 6 mile hike up one of the Nebo Canyon spurs withe the young men of the ward, two of which I claim to be raising.

We had a blast. The trail heads up concurrently with the Spring Creek, which this time of year is busily going about the business of shuttling the snowpack runoff down the canyon. The water level made the hike interesting. The trail typically sits inside the dry spring bed, so natch, with the waters coming down, a good deal of our hike was spent crawling along the side of the water, flailing at the loose shale rock and extruding roots to keep from falling in.

Andrew took great pleasure at laughing at anyone who got the slightest bit wet, so it was quite satisfying to see him do a flailing, windmill-churning back flop into the water on the way back down the mountain. Thankfully, I had already removed my camera from the backpack he was wearing, and was able to document the sopping wet aftermath.

Boys had a blast, and knocked out some compass reading requirements for a merit badge or two. The total trip time took about 4 hours. I came home relatively unscathed, but not completely dry. In crossing the creekbed, a dry downed log, serving as my pseudo bridge, snapped under my weight and gave way, buckling into the water and taking my ankle with it. Luckily this is my trick tennis ankle, and winding it around 360 degrees is my party specialty. So while I am now ever so sore and limping like the Elephant man, I managed to get off the mountain alive and in one piece. And no one had to fireman-carry me out. Or call in a rescue helicopter. Or leave me for the bears to eat.