Climbing a Mountain in Beavers Bend

 When Brooke and I were at Girls Camp, we went on three mile hike at the Beavers Bend State Park. The last time that I had seen Brooke hike was in Colorado, and she was scared because there were lots of rocks and steep drop offs. I was happy to see this trail was pretty wide, and I found out that steepness wasn't an issue for Brooke, so long as there weren't huge rocks to climb over.

Brooke wanted to run up the mountain even though most of the teenagers were complaining about having to do this hike at all. It was one of the rare times Brooke didn't want to be with the older girls, and it was because she was excited and they weren't. So Brooke, myself and one of the Doyle girls led the pack on this hike. We even went at  a full on sprint on and off at times... If you know me....you know I was loving that Brooke wanted to run up the mountain. ( The first time that Kevin and I were at a mountain together we were in SLC. Right away...at the base of the mountain, I took off my six inch high heels and said, " Kevin come on, lets have a race up the mountain."...We totally did it! I didn't even care that I was barefooted since we were on a closed road that was asphalt. ( It didn't hurt my feet). I can't remember who won, but it must have been him, otherwise I would not have forgotten!)

At Beavers Bend, with Brooke being so excited to go fast up the hill, I was reminded that going uphill running didn't mess with my neck so much, so Brooke and I really had a blast going on this hike speedily.

I don't know if it is my older age, but I did find myself trying to decide if we should slow down and take in some of the scenery? I did quickly brush that thought off and decided that the faster pace and uphill was worth not taking in deep relaxing breaths surrounded by scenery....the burn of uphill just feels to good, to worry about how something looks ;) even if its really pretty...I knew we would be coming back down the mountain slow, because that would hurt my neck to run down hill! So I thought we'd take our relaxation time on the way down ;)

I have always known Brooke has a great eye for details, but I didn't know she could multitask so well that she can notice details as she speeds up a mountain? While we were briskly climbing the mountain Brooke suddenly stopped right in her tracks because she wanted to dig a big rock out of the ground that she thought looked like it had a crystal in it? So she did...and we soon weren't leading the pack...but digging out a rock...No matter the weight of carrying this rock in her backpack, down a mountain...it was a treasure to her. Even today she was showing me the rock and asking if she could go outside and break it open with a hammer.