A Maid of Sixteen Summers

A Maid of Sixteen Summers By Jesse Theodore Simmons Leonard G. Hardy (upper left) 75 years of age, second oldest man to make the climb. Jesse S. Harding (upper right) 77 years of age. oldest man to make the climb. Six different states represented in group on auto. leads across the breast of Timpanogos. lovers scaled the great glacier of many from the topmost crest of Timpanogos splendor of Utah lake and Utah valley, the glory of endless hills. The crowd who made the climb was a varied and unusual THE Timpanogos hike of July, 1927, was singu- lar in many important respects. Eugene L. Rob- erts, the man who dis- covered "the Sleeping Woman Mountain" for the world, has seen the sixteenth organized ex- pedition go to the sum- mit for what is counted to be the largest com- munity outing in the world. A record crowd of five thousand people attended the pre-hike pro- gram at Aspen Grove on the evening of July 16. Dell Webb of Provo, who was an official for the big hike, made this count. This number lacked just a few hun- dred of being double the number who attended the program in any one year in the past. By way of numbers another record was crushed. More than one thousand hikers climbed the winding trail that One thousand mountain winters' snows and beheld to the south and west the and to the north and east

848 IMPROVEMENT ERA group of mountain lovers. Old ones and young ones, large ones and small ones, lean and fat, — all had their place in the steady stream of hikers that poured from the Aspen Grove camp, from 1 1 o'clock on the night of July 16 until the same time on July 17. Jesse S. Harding, of Vineyard, Utah, was the oldest man to conquer the heights of Timpanogos, he being 77 years old the day he made the climb. It was his first trip to the top of Utah's wonder mountain, but he said it would not be his last visit to this great mountain. Leonard G. Hardy, of Salt Lake City, 75 years of age, was the second oldest man in the group to make the climb; and Bishop Don C. Young, a prominent architect of Salt Lake City, was the biggest man. Mr. Young is tall with considerable width to correspond, but he, too, promised that the sixteenth hike will not be the last one for him. More than half of the states of our country were represented in the long line of mountain trampers. Students from the three large colleges of Utah, the Utah Agricultural College, the University of Utah, and the Brigham Young University, were on hand with plenty of pep. A group of students from the University of Chicago, led by Dr. Cole, as well as many other out-of-state student and tourist groups were included. It was a unique caravan of climbers that formed the zig-gag march across the east face of Timpanogos. So the army of mountaineers climbed and climbed. And as they climbed, they breathed the joy of nature. This is the picture. Filing up the path from Aspen Grove, be- ginning at 1 1 o'clock and with a full moon, the mountain hikers made the trail a lively one. A jovial atmosphere fused with the flood of moonlight in such spendid fashion that no one could have doubted that the hiking life for Timpanogos was sixteen summers. The leaders of the hike reached Emerald lake at the foot of the glacier at an early hour. The Sleeping Woman, Timpanogos, must have been thrilled. The east sky was thinly painted and pale. Oh, there was so much to see and to breathe! On went the hike — up, up. The glacier was frozen and like jagged rock, and it was steep, but on went the hikers. When the summit was reached by the leaders, the east was gray. Slowly the fire of old Sol drowned the flood of light made by the moon as it softly illumined the long trail except where the tall mountains cast their shadows. Then dots of flannel and khaki could be seen to caravan along the ser- pentine path. Then came a time for testing of the mettle of the stoutest- hearted mountain lover. The hikers must come down — down the glacier that had been so tedious to climb. To slide, — that was the

A MAID OF SIXTEEN SUMMERS 849 only respectable way in which the homeward journey over the glacier could be accomplished. There was no alternative. So the hikers began to slide. Now if there is any truth in the twentieth century adage that this is a thrill-seeking age, surely the thrill-seekers of Utah can find a glorious opportunity to indulge themselves on the Timpanogos glacier. The slide was eight hun- dred yards long and was done in record time by each slider. Many of the hikers, who neglected to bring a piece of oilcloth on which to ride and who had but one pair of trousers, were in a rather em- barrassing predicament, for the friction between the icy-snow and the hikers' contact was most terrific. To all those who made the descent thus, the glacier ride was counted to be the greatest sport of the whole hike. Enough time has now elapsed to heal most of the serious blisters caused by the sixteenth annual Timpanogos hike. The mountain lovers have long since filtered back to their homes in Utah and to the other twenty-seven states from which they came for the greatest community hike of the world. It will be long remembered, even if the hikers should never come back to another Utah mountain climb; but the impressive part about a Timpanogos hike is that the hikers always come back. That is why the outing becomes bigger and better every year. Mountain Solitude How pure, the snow-white mountain crest Above the valley's space! How thrilling and refreshing is The breeze that fans your face! How green, the pungent pine-clad hills — How vast the vale beneath! How solemn and religious, like A silent funeral wreath! From tip of pine to crest of peak — From earth to eagle's crag — From burrow of the woodchuck and From creek or thorny snag — From all the mountain range there comes Devotion, faith, and peace! From heaven God sends happiness. That nevermore shall cease! Weston N. Nordgren