Summer 2024
Summer 2024 in a nutshell: We hiked. We ran. We bought a house.
Technically, at the time of writing this we didn’t buy the house just yet (closing is on Tuesday, Sept. 17th), but close enough.
We hiked.
Mount Olympus - this hike sucked because it was super steep and had a ton of elevation gain over a short distance. It’s local and a staple Salt Lake hike, but we will not be doing it again.
Brighton Lakes - This is a favorite of ours. Not too hard, but still challenging enough to feel like you put some work in. You hike from the Alta ski resort in Little Cottonwood Canyon up and over to the Brighton resort in Big Cottonwood Canyon. It’s always beautiful and a great spot to see wildlife.
Hello, badger.
Hello, moose.
Sugarloaf & Mount Baldy - Back to Alta for this two-for-one peak special.
Hidden Peak - Now we’re off to Snowbird, another local ski resort, which we hiked up then took the aerial tram back down to the base. Most people pay to take the tram up, take in the views, then ride back down, but the weirdo hikers know you don’t have to pay to ride if you hike up. This one was special too because we did the last leg to the top in a rain storm. The things we do for fun.
Ian likes to take pictures of all the pretty wildflowers.
The Indian paintbrushes are our favorites.
Spooky tree
Deer Valley - Another weekend, another summertime ski resort adventure. We made a weekend out of a half marathon and a concert close to Park City and stayed at Deer Valley. Normally, Deer Valley would be waaaaaaaay out of our price range. Lucky for us, I had a coupon plus it being in the off-season actually made staying at the resort cheaper than staying closer to Downtown Park City or even outside of it.
The half marathon photo will be in the running section of this post, but after running the race we explored around the resort. The food was AMAZING.
We were supposed to see Leslie Odom Jr. (of Hamilton fame) perform with the Utah Symphony Orchestra at Deer Valley’s outdoor amphitheater that night. I was excited for this because a touring company performing Hamilton was performing at the big theater in downtown Salt Lake, but the tickets were way too expensive to justify dragging Ian to go with me (or for me to take myself, honestly). Go figure you have to go to bougie Park City to see what I called “the poor man’s Hamilton” where the Leslie Odom Jr. tickets were a small fraction of the theater tickets.
Anyway, mother nature had other plans and decided to unleash and unholy thunderstorm. We waited it out for a while, but the lightning flash on the lawn sealed the deal for us to cut our losses and call it a wash. We walked back to the hotel, changed out of our sopping wet clothes, and ate dinner at the hotel restaurant (also delicious).
Mount Timpanogos - This is a Utah classic famous for it’s beautiful views and mountain goats. This is a super popular hike, but we were able to snag a weekend parking reservation and started the 15 mile hike bright and early at 4:45 AM. Honestly, it was worth the hype. I can see why it’s so popular, and you probably will too after you see these photos.
Blurry mountain goats
More blurry mountain goats
Mount Nebo - We summitted the tallest mountain in the Wasatch! We decided to hike up to the summit the weekend before we ran the Nebo half where we ran down the same canyon. This particular canyon has high alpine cows and several gnarly climbs. Worth the pain!
That one cow stared into Ian's soul and was not interested in moving whatsoever.
We ran.
We did eight half marathons this year from April to September. Our ankles and knees and feet feel like we ran eight half marathons and hiked all those peaks. We hurt, but it’s totally worth it.
The medals didn't arrive in time for race day on one race, so we got little ribbons and pins to tide us over.
Can you spot the two cows? Look for the little black blobs at roughly 12 and 10 o'clock.
We bought a house.
The view from the rooftop deck.
Bonus Content: Complaint Corner
Look at this sorry excuse for a crab cake. This is some BS. Pootah is dumb. Maryland has the most superior crab cakes, and I can’t wait for a Regionale crab cake sandwich when we come home in November.
