raison d'être of this blog
When I first moved to Utah ten years ago, it did not occur to me at first that it was a recreational paradise. I was like any other American who had pre-conceived ideas about Utah: Mormons, polygamy, etc... The first thing I did was to see the temple at Temple Square in SLC downtown. One would see all the mountains surrounding the city, and I didn't do my first hiking until a year later when I went on a date with another transplant resident. It was an easy hike out at Mountain Dell Reservoir. It was springtime and everything were nice and green. Few days later, we headed down south to Zion National Park and hiked several trails there, including the feared Angel's Landing Trail.
Since I had lived in New Jersey for 27 years of my life, I was so much accustomed to flat terrain and all the woods around me. There were few places where you could stand with views of large expanse of spaces. When I arrived on the top of Walter's Wiggle, which is a long series of switchback connecting to Scout's Outlook at the top of the plateau that overlooks the canyon. At near 6,000 feet, it was easy for me to feel disorientated with all this new space and height that I had never experienced before in my life. The last half mile transverses some of the scariest part of the hike, via a network of narrow rock ridges topped with metal chains and scrambling up rocky ridge to the final destination. It proved too much for me as I only made it halfway through the rocky ridge, only to turn back down and escape.
Through the ten years I have been here, I have fallen in love with hiking, overcoming my fear of height/falling and taking in all the pure nature out there. In the first year or two, we managed to summit some of the peaks close to SLC such as Deseret Peak, Gobbler's Peak, Mt Olympus, Lookout Peak and Mt Timpaganos. My hiking companion has fallen out of interest for hiking, and now I find myself hiking alone.
Being an avid traveler, I started incorporating some hiking trails into my itineraries and enjoy seeing the nature in all the places I visit. I'm an aficionado of National Parks and preserved spaces, and try to visit them whenever possible. Some of my favourite trails were from my travels such as the one at Lysefjord in Norway connecting to the Preikkestole (Pulpit Rock), following the crowds up a popular trail up Halla San on Jeju island (South Korea) and climbing numerous stairs up the Hua Shan in China. I plan to do throwback articles on Thursdays on past hikes, and why I wanted to hike there. After a little organisation with this blog, I hope to get this blog on a better start than in the past, where I just was clueless on what to write about. :)
M~
Since I had lived in New Jersey for 27 years of my life, I was so much accustomed to flat terrain and all the woods around me. There were few places where you could stand with views of large expanse of spaces. When I arrived on the top of Walter's Wiggle, which is a long series of switchback connecting to Scout's Outlook at the top of the plateau that overlooks the canyon. At near 6,000 feet, it was easy for me to feel disorientated with all this new space and height that I had never experienced before in my life. The last half mile transverses some of the scariest part of the hike, via a network of narrow rock ridges topped with metal chains and scrambling up rocky ridge to the final destination. It proved too much for me as I only made it halfway through the rocky ridge, only to turn back down and escape.
Through the ten years I have been here, I have fallen in love with hiking, overcoming my fear of height/falling and taking in all the pure nature out there. In the first year or two, we managed to summit some of the peaks close to SLC such as Deseret Peak, Gobbler's Peak, Mt Olympus, Lookout Peak and Mt Timpaganos. My hiking companion has fallen out of interest for hiking, and now I find myself hiking alone.
Being an avid traveler, I started incorporating some hiking trails into my itineraries and enjoy seeing the nature in all the places I visit. I'm an aficionado of National Parks and preserved spaces, and try to visit them whenever possible. Some of my favourite trails were from my travels such as the one at Lysefjord in Norway connecting to the Preikkestole (Pulpit Rock), following the crowds up a popular trail up Halla San on Jeju island (South Korea) and climbing numerous stairs up the Hua Shan in China. I plan to do throwback articles on Thursdays on past hikes, and why I wanted to hike there. After a little organisation with this blog, I hope to get this blog on a better start than in the past, where I just was clueless on what to write about. :)
M~
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