MLK Hike

For those of you who have ever come to Salt Lake in January, you know that we have a tendency to get a nasty inversion. The cold air gets trapped in the valley along with all the pollution and it gets really depressing. It can stay this way for weeks until a storm or wind can come to blow it all out.

If you are smart and have lived in Utah long enough, you know that the trick is to go up in altitude and then the inversion can’t follow you. Once you get out of the valley the sky turns to a bright blue and the sun comes out and it makes you want to go enjoy the snow in your swim suit. . . or birthday suit, whichever you are more comfortable with. Your call.

On Monday, to celebrate Martin Luther King Day I went for a little hike up Millcreek Canyon. It was a beautiful day but still too cold to break out my shorts and tank top. (In the winter I always wear summer clothes underneath my winter wear just in case it gets super hot all of a sudden. By the way, all my winter wear has buttons up the sides so you can easily tear it away like the folks in the NBA in a matter of seconds…wha-la, you are ready to enjoy the sun. It’s call layering people.)

So while I was hiking I wasn’t wearing snow shoes so it was a little bit tricky. Every once in a while my foot would go through the snow, and then I would have to schimmy it out, and continue walking. I was working up a sweat and realized I may not have been in the best shape to go snow hiking. My last mile I clawed my way up the summit panting and came close to throwing up two CLIFF bars I had eaten along the way.

“Whoelse does this on a holiday?” I asked myself. “While everyone else is out going to movies and eating their weight in Martin Luther King shaped pastries, I am up here in nature strengthening my inner-self and getting down to the core of who I am.”

“I’m the king of the world”, I shouted, barely able to stand up right. (Let me pause here to give a shout out to little Leo DiCap for blessing us with that phrase whenever we do something that merits shouting. We can always lean on “I’m the king of the world”. When everyone is screaming something in celebration and you are not sure what to say, his little phrase is a good one to have on stock. I have used it the last four New Years Eves, and it continues to be a hit.)

So guess who can ruin physically exhausting moments like these? People who are in really good shape and are over zealous when it comes to working out. Guess who shows up right behind me? That’s right, some overzealous runners who ran all the way up the snowy trail.

What took me five hours has conveniently taken them fifteen minutes. And they were wearing their summer wear, running shorts and all. And to make things worse, while I am gasping for breath and feeling very achy, they were all chipper and chatty.

In this moment I did what any rational minded person would have done in my situation…I pushed them into the snow and then marched back down the trail.

I hate people like that. They are such buzz kills.