unto mount Nebo

On Friday, I hiked Mount Nebo (near Nephi, Utah) with John Bradley, Sara Skidmore, and Matt Johnson. I was definitely not in the best of shape to be hiking the tallest peak on the Wasatch Front, but I made it to the top! This was largely made possible by numerous speedmo’s from John Bradley.

(‘speedmo’: a term used in the Hoyt family indicating the action of someone momentarily placing one hand on the back of the person in front of them to support and/or gently push the person along—thus aiding in forward motion; can be employed while hiking, biking, walking, running, etc).

In looking back at the hike, I’m happy to say that I made it to the top and back and had lots (and I mean LOTS…like 9.5 hours) of fun chatting time. Also, I took lots of fun pictures and slept wonderfully the night following the hike. On the other hand, I was extremely tired and grumpy on the hike down and the only apparent lasting result of the hike is that I’m sore and sunburned.

Not too bad, eh?

It’s funny how quickly can be forgotten the pain of going steeply downhill for four hours (I’m pretty sure I got a taste of what arthritic knees must feel like), or what five and a half hours of heart-pumping uphill feels like. There’s something amazing about reaching the top of a mountain and something compelling about getting there. At first, I move forward along the trail to see what is next...what new view will I meet? What will appear if I just make it to the next curve in the trail? Then at some point the scenery isn’t as motivating as it used to be, and I’m looking down, hoping that focusing on my feet will somehow propel them forward. It becomes all about placing one foot in front of the other.

Kind of going off on a tangent a little bit…hiking in the mountains reminds me of my dad and my childhood, how much he likes the outdoors and all the backpacking, hiking, and camping trips we went on when I was younger. I remember once we were backpacking in the mountains in eastern Oregon and after a few days, I told my dad it felt like we had been there two weeks. He seemed surprised and replied “I feel like we just got here.” Something else my dad has mentioned before (and which I think is really cool), is that there’s a lot about mountains in the scriptures, and accounts of prophets that went into the mountains to talk to God:

“And it came to pass that after I, Nephi, had been in the land of Bountiful for the space of many days, the voice of the Lord came unto me, saying: Arise, and get thee into the mountain. And it came to pass that I rose and went up into the mountain, and cried unto the Lord” (1 Nephi 17:7).

“And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount…And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh: and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him in mount Sinai” (Exodus 24:12, 32).