So yesterday we had a ward activity: hike to the Hollywood sign. I thought, "hey that sounds like fun. I have never seen it and it would be cool to have an actual picture of it, so why not?" Plus, we were told that it was a half-hour "leisurely" hike. We met at the church, carpooled there, and began our hike. In the beginning I thought "this is fun!" because I do like hikes... I just usually suck at them. But a 30 minute hike I could do no problem! So we continued on...and on... and ON! Each time we rounded yet another corner I thought, "Oh yay, we have finally made it." But each time it was a false alarm. Soon, 40 minutes had gone by... then 50... 60... we still weren't there. I kept telling myself "it'll be worth it. I'll finally get to see the infamous "HOLLYWOOD" sign. An hour and twenty minutes after we began, we finally made it... or so we thought. Turns out, "hike to the Hollywood sign" wasn't quite what I was expecting. It was a hike up and PAST the sign. We were behind the sign. I couldn't even see all of the letters!! It was such a disappointment! The whole reason I went on the hike to begin with was so I could see it - from the FRONT! Bah. Oh well. It was still fun... in a way.
Actually, the most fun part of the entire hike was about halfway up. The group I was hiking up with (there were 5 of us -- the others got there earlier and thus were ahead of us) had this bright idea to take a 'shortcut.' Instead of winding up and around another who-knows-how-far, why not just climb straight up? Honestly, in the beginning I was all for it. I saw the not-so-official trail and thought "hey, that's not so bad... and it'll cut time off of our hike..." Thus began our journey upwards. The only problem? The ground proved to be like sand... and each step you took, you'd slide half the distance you'd just stepped. Oh, and we think there was a murder scene there relatively recently, because we had to step through a bunch of worn yellow caution tape. Just adds to the excitement, right? :P
I have decided that maybe I should ease up on the hike count for a while. As I was hiking down from the sign last night, I realized that in the last 3 months, I have done 5 pretty good hikes. In April, Martin and I went up through Rock Canyon for quite a ways and then climbed straight up for a while. It wasn't too terribly grueling, but I definitely worked up a sweat. Next, we went to the Grand Canyon. Luckily, we didn't do the full hike... because that one takes multiple days... but it was still a hike. On our way back, we stopped at Bryce Canyon and did one of those hikes as well. Then, my first week here the ward was going on this hike to the "Punch Bowls." I was trying to get to know people and whatnot and figured it would be a good idea to go. THAT hike was probably the most grueling. Round trip it was somewhere between 10 and 11 miles. And there wasn't a marked path, either. We were going through bushes, climbing up huge rocks, crossing rivers, etc. Someone yesterday told me that the Hollywood hike was probably 5 or 6 miles round trip. So basically, I think I have easily gotten in my hike quota for the next little while. Temporary hike hiatus begins now. :)
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