Sunday Snow Hiking Fun!

Kym, Susan, & Diane-- Them Posers!

Sunday late morning, I went with friends snow hiking up a small local canyon.  Neff's Canyon is kind of tucked in above the mid eastern bench area of the Salt Lake Valley.  It is a pretty little canyon where locals go snow hiking, snow shoeing, cross country skiing, or just take the dogs out for a bit of a hike.  Quite often on the way down (if the valley air is clear) you can see over the entire Salt Lake Valley.  It's an amazing view! 

Myself & Susan

We had met at a local bagel/coffee place and decided where to go for our hike.  It was going to be about 3 mile round trip; up and back hike.  It started out fairly cold and I put an extra layer on when we arrived at the parking lot.  There was just a nice dusting of new snow from the day before so we passed on the snowshoes and I took my Yaktrax along just in case it was icy.  We got about a third of the way up, and two of us(Susan & I) paused in the hike to let the other two catch up. 

It was here that I had some problems. I discovered that my fingers were really freezing.  They were so cold that they felt like they were burning.  I Susan's gloves on but no change.  Then, the two that were now caught up arrived.  Kym had mittens with outside mini pockets and I put them on.  Then had her open my packages of hand warmers, which I had brought along (just in case) and she put into the mini pockets.  Awwww... warmth! 

Treat break! Kym, Susan, & Diane.

But then, I bonked!  My head felt like it was swimming and my eye sight started to get that fuzzy TV screen effect.  I felt a wave of nausea.  I laid down in the snow quick; standing was just too much.  Susan had some animal cookies, and had me eat one.  Then, they helped me stand up.  I was ready to go back down, but they said no that I needed to get a little better before we attempted to go back down. 

Diane talked me into continuing on but taking it slower.  Susan and I had really pushed it that first bit.  It proved to be a little bit too much for me.  Of course, it probably wasn't smart of me to be doing this kind of activity so soon after a day of cleansing my system.  I didn't have any of the reserve like I usually would have.  Cleansing?  Well, my version constincts of a day where I have water and herbal tea for most of the day and then have a dinner with vegetables and whole wheat bread.  I try to do it at least once a month of kind of reset my body.

Me at the top with a bit of attitude-- where's the flag?  I've conquered!

As we continued on going slower up the canyon, I felt better.  We stopped a couple of more times before reaching the top.  Diane shared with us little goodies that she had brought along.  One stop, she shared a yummy chocolate chip cream cheese cup cake; and the stop at the top she had a bag of fruit & nut mix.  When I got to the top I finally felt like myself and it's always seems easier to hike down hill than up.  It was as we went down that we saw some of the cutest little dogs coming up.  They were like a little fur ball with tiny feet working their way up the canyon.  Hey, if a little fur ball could make it that far; what was I complaining about?