Mt. Olympus

On Saturday Tiffanee and I hiked Mt. Olympus… all the way to the top. And I couldn’t agree more with this drawing. It’s 6.4 miles with a 4,000 ft elevation gain and took us all day.


After a lot of hiking we sat down to snack on some grapefruit and crackers. At this point we were still feeling pretty good and were enjoying the view. To give you an idea of how far we had hiked, you can see the 215 belt loop down there. The trailhead is on Wasatch which is just a bit east of the the belt loop.


We continued on our way and took a lot of breaks. You might notice that I changed shirts. We were both surprised by how hot it was, and Tiffanee was kind enough to let me wear her light weight shirt which she didn’t need.


We saw this cool overturned tree and thought the network of roots was a pretty fantastic display. We made sure to climb on it and pose for pictures with it:


When we made it to the (almost) top, we had some gorgeous views. The air was a bit hazy and a science teacher, who we talked to on the way up, explained why the forest fire smoke is still lingering. It had something to do with moisture, but I’m ashamed to admit I can’t explain it to you because I wasn’t the most attentive listener. Tiffanee also pointed out vegetation changes, letting me enjoy hiking with an expert outdoors(wo)man.

Now, by this point we were pretty tired having conquered Blister Hill and crossed the saddle. But we still had the final climb to the summit ahead of us! In the first picture below you’ll see Tiffanee pointing to the scramble that lay ahead:



In the mailbox at the summit were pictures and messages written in notebooks. Most of the notes were people congratulating themselves on their accomplishment or dedicating their hike to a loved one. But there were a few unique ones. Among my favorites were the drawing which I posted up top and a note written earlier this summer by a woman who described how she chickened out again and couldn’t tell her guy friend that she has loved him for the past three years so she instead confessed in the notebook.


Another one of the messages in the notebook said “What happens on the mountain stays on the mountain” so I’ll spare us all the story about how tedious, dusty, sunny and never ending the hike back down was :/ I’ll only leave you with this picture capturing my view as we collapsed down in the shade for a rest (thirsty and exhausted) and say thank you hiker Kevin for giving us water and letting us follow you down and complain about how much longer we had to go.Tiffanee is one of my three new roommates. She’s adorable, funny, and an outdoor/recreation therapist. She just moved here from Cleveland (We’d all like to flee to ‘The Cleve’!). You can look forward to meeting my other two roommates, Mary Ann and Jerilyn in future posts.