Mt. Olympus

This summer Rachel and I made it a goal to hike to the top of Mt. Olympus and Mt. Timpanogos. I have said it before and I’ll say it again, you can't call ourselves outdoorsmen if you haven’t hiked two of the most popular peaks in Utah. So today @7:00 AM Rachel and I busted a move out the door to cross Mt. Olympus off the list. We went into the hike knowing it was going to be hard, and that it was going to be steep (4,200 vertical feet in only 3.2 miles each way to be exact) but up the trail we went. We wanted to start early so it wasn’t so hot, but that really didn't keep the heat off us. It started out not that bad with a few switchbacks to warm up the old sparrows kneecaps, but that didn't last long. Once you were out of sight of the parking lot it began to go straight up, climbing over boulders and fallen trees! We walked and walked and walked until we finally saw someone coming down so we asked him “Hey man are we close?” and he laughed like we were kidding and said “No, but you are almost half way”. HALF WAY?!? I could feel my knees beginning to shake every time we stopped for a break. I really didn't know if we would make it but off we went. We finally got to the saddle (think of a settle on a horse, it's just a flat spot close to the peak where it levels out a bit) 

We could see the peak but most of the people out there didn’t look interested in going to the top because to get there  you literally had to rock climb. I looked at Rachel and said that when we get back home her dad was going to ask me if I made it to the peak and if my answer was no he would look down on me for the rest of my life. 
So up the rock wall we went, scrambling up these rocks until we finally made it to the tip top of the world. (or so it felt) the views were unbelievable. They even had a little mailbox up there with tons of things that others had left, and little notes of everyone’s names who have made it to the peak. I wrote Rachel and my name on a little paper and slipped it into the box so that we have proof we both made it. 

Our hike down was actually the hardest part. Our knees were hurting so bad and my feet had blisters all over em, not to mention we drank all our water on the hike up, so we had nothing for the whole hike down. It took about 3 hours to do the whole thing which is exactly what our map said. We finished off the hike by going to chevron for our well deserved sodas.