Mount Olympus: Oh the Agony

Sam and his friend hiked Mt. Olympus (a peak just up the Wasatch front in Salt Lake City) last Saturday in their fastest time yet, 1 hour 48 minutes up and 1 hour and 30 minutes down. He decided to take his younger brother, Jacob, and me (with Winston, too), up the hike yesterday.

I debated whether to go, because it has been a while since I've done some cardiovascular exercising and strength training. But I let Sam talk me into it, telling him that I would be going a nice, slow pace.

We started about 4:00 pm. It's only a 3 1/2 mile hike up, but it is up, up, up the whole way and the last 1 1/2 miles is straight up--like a staircase of rocks. It is intense. And that's almost an understatement. My body and heart felt great the whole way up, but about 1/2 mile from the top my legs were screaming.

It took us until a little after 7:00 pm to reach the top. I actually stayed with Winston just down a little bit from the tippy-top, but Sam and Jacob scurried up all the way about 100 more feet above us. The elevation climb is 4000 ft from parking lot to top of trail.

I enjoy hiking. I like to get out and see the beauty around us. I like to challenge myself a bit. But this is probably not a hike I will do again.

My legs were wobbling all the way down the hike and then I was hit with a bout of altitude sickness. I had to keep stopping to rest and to consider vomiting. It was the worst feeling ever. I would have stopped to rest for a longer period, but we were racing with the sunset and darkness, so I had to keep pushing along.

We made it to the car just as light was disappearing. Despite the seizing legs from the hike, today I am surprisingly not sore, besides a little knee pain that comes my way after running or hiking.

Now I can only think of all the "hard" hikes that now seem much easier compared to Mount Agony Olympus.