Break's Up

Glenwood, Utah sits in a tiny valley surrounded by low mountains that rise quickly to cut into the blue sky with their brown ridges. Beyond those hills is a massive giant known as Cove Mountain, and last Tuesday it loomed particularly large while I trudged along a dirt trail leading to the Glenwood Fish Hatchery. Cove Mountain seemed to taunt my instincts as I walked, and I contemplated the possibility of someday climbing to its peak. As I continued, I decided that the opportunity probably wouldn’t come again for several years. I had an apple, an orange, and a liter of water in my black German medic shoulder bag, which seemed to be sufficient as long as I made it to the snow line where I could melt some snow for water.
The first thing to fail was the shirt on my back. It is a black, long-sleeved sports shirt that wicks away the sweat and is made for temperatures of below 60 degrees Farenheit. Today was much warmer than that, probably closer to 80 degrees, so I stowed my shirt and decided to hurry so that I didn’t get too sunburned as I went up the mountain.
Four hours later, I stared at the enormous expanse of southern-Utah valleys, encased on the opposite side by cliffs painted red and yellow by thousands of nature’s years. I hadn’t reached the summit, but if I didn’t turn back soon then I was sure that my good friend Dehydration would eventually catch up to me. I jogged back to the house and this hike turned out to be the best and only hike I have done so far this year….
On another note, my last day of “break” was spent in a rather “creatively planned” clinical (meaning the hospital couldn’t give us enough hours) that involved babysitting developmentally disabled children for 9 hours. It was a growing experience, but I did manage to get half of my head literally drenched in saliva from one of the participants….I can’t block the memory of the shirt-staining drool oozing down the left side of my head and onto my ear.
Back to school, now!