Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Notch Peak

A few weeks ago the Teachers, Priests and their leaders in our ward drove out to the western desert past Delta for hike up to Notch Peak. This was the sunrise from our camping spot.
Notch Peak is far behind and above this sun-lit peak.
Three young men/scouts and three leaders went. I was worried that I might not be in good enough shape to make it to the top but there was no need to worry. From the beginning it was evident that one of the young men was not up to the whole climb so two of us leaders let him set the pace. We made it about 2/3rds of the way before having to turn around so we would have enough time to get back to Springville by dinner and evening work time. The other three made it all the way up and down in six hours.
I used the slow pace to find pine nuts (most had already fallen out of the cones and been consumed on the ground by rodents and insects) on the way up and to harvest a few dozen sticky cones for future eating on the way done.
One of the larger pinion pines along the way. We have a pinion pine in our front yard. Each year it produces cones with nuts, but with no meat inside. I have since found out that pinion pines need to be at a higher elevation to be able to produce non-hollow nuts.
The view of Sevier Lake to the east. This is as high as I got. I missed seeing the bristle-cone pines near the summit.
The hike was up through this shaded, pine covered canyon.
Wonder what snapped this big tree in half? It was a beautiful day and a great hike. I think I may like my new calling working with the Venture Scouts.

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