In August we planned a day trip to hike the Narrows for my moms 50th birthday--which her birthday is in November but we had to go before it got to cold and you aren't allowed to hike it I believe after I certain time. Anyways I was super excited to hike this with my Mom, Courtney, Candace, and my Mom's sister-in-law Maryann-she was our little tour guide since she has hiked it already many times. It was gorgeous and so much fun. You basically hike up a river the whole time. And we laughed at ourselves the first time we got into the river and all freaked out with how cold the water felt just on our feet! We went up to our necks swimming at one part. We all manage to do really well and not have any major accidents. My sister Courtney already told our one exciting story so well so I get to steal her side of the story and let her tell you (thank you (:) :
Besides walking in a river, the majority of the hike was manageable. Towards the latter end there were some difficult spots which took some maneuvering. One, Orderville Gulch, was the most intense. We nick named it, "Tower of Terror". It wasn't really that tall but to climb the rock was really tricky. It made for quite the experience.
All of us had made it up the rock at the Gluck except my mom. She had tried but couldn't seem to get her footing right. We were coaching her and she attempted again but got stuck. She was at a place where she couldn't go up or down, just clinging on the side of the rock. Marissa, who is considerably stronger than the rest of us, decided she would pull her up. This is where it got a little scary, though looking back now, it wasn't nearly as terrible as it seemed. Marissa tried to pull her up but my mom had no exertion from her feet and ended up hanging off the side of the rock with Marissa holding on by one arm. The scene looked like it was taken from a movie where the person is holding on to escape a fall to their death. Realistically, if my mom would have fallen she would have slid down the rock about five feet and fallen into water (most likely having little injury). Instead of my Marissa letting her go, and having her attempt to climb up again, she held on to her by one arm. Marissa attempted to pull her up again but the rock was very slippery and she ended up crouched over and almost hurdling over the edge. It was all quite dramatic at the time and we went from laughing to crying.
Luckily, there were two young men who were watching the whole ordeal and came to our rescue. Even with their help it wasn't easy but they managed to pull my mom up. Obviously, it was the adrenaline rush of our adventure and now makes for a exciting story!
So to add to it a bit…while holding on to my mom for dear life..I really didn't want to let her go-like she said she wouldn't have gotten too hurt but the fear in her eyes definitely stung me and I knew she would be so disappointed if she couldn't make it pass this point--which after having her hanging there by one arm I was pretty sure she wasn't going to attempt to climb up the rock again. So I definitely had two motives-to not let her drop and get hurt and to help her continue on this hike. And I still can't believe how she just completely hung there limp not even attempting to pull herself up haha I have to laugh about it every time I tell the story. We were pretty grateful for those two guys--we would have both fallen down the rock into the water if it wasn't for them pulling us up!
That night I met Jesse half way and picked up Corbin and Gavin because I didn't want to miss out hiking again together on Saturday. I knew I wouldn't be doing the whole thing necessarily with a 3 year old and a 1 year old but I wanted to be able to spend the day with everyone still! We went a little south of Cedar City at a hike called Kanarra Creek! It was a super cool hike again and so pretty! We carried Gavin on our backs (my mom and I took turns) while I had to carry Corbin part of the time he really did a good job and enjoyed hiking with Maryann most of the time! And he did manage to get stuck in the mud before we even started the hike. Seriously, those two days were Heaven. I love being in nature and it was so beautiful! Yes…I would have to agree with my mom-better than Disneyland.. :)
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