Would You Rather...

Today the universe played a fun little game of would you rather with me, pitting my known fear against fears I apparently didn't know I had, and had to choose which one scared me more. I have always known I was afraid of heights, although not able to admit that until recently. And why I continue to do things that scare me, I have no idea. But oddly enough, when presented with other fears, heights are not so bad. I realized it's one of the few fears I have a little control over, so in the fun little game of would you rather, heights always lost.

Let me explain. My friend Brian and I hiked Mt Timpanogos yesterday. It was more of an adventure than we had planned on. But we did summit and now have better stories than most people.

Would you rather:
~Be afraid of heights or a disgruntled herd of Mountain Goats?
I know, this one may not sound so scary. But you can't understand, you weren't there. We were stuck on the trail for 1 1/2 hours waiting for a herd of mountain goats to saunter across the trail. We couldn't go forward because they wouldn't stop coming, but we couldn't go back because there was no where to go. The scary part was that there were AT LEAST 60 of them and they just glared at us, some from only 8-10 feet away. And they would stomp their hooves at us and keep glaring. And they wouldn't keep moving. We got off the trail as far as we could but they still wouldn't pass by. So we happened to be by a cut off to a lower trail so we hopped down in hopes that if we were more out of the way they would keep passing. It was our best option, but not a great one, because as they finally started passing, they would cause big rocks to tumble down the mountain. Not good when you're on lower ground. Finally this initial group moved enough that we could start moving, only to encounter another 60 or so farther up the trail. If I never see another mountain goat I will consider myself blessed. I know, you don't think it's scary, but you just can't appreciate the predicament we were in. My words don't do it justice.

~Be afraid of heights or be stuck above tree line during a thunderstorm?
Because of our little mountain goat delay, we were not nearly as far down the mountain as we would have hoped by the time the storm we knew was coming came. It ended up being fine, we did get poured on, but nothing too traumatic. The trail was slippery, but we still made it down in pretty good time.

~Be afraid of heights or reprimand from doctor and parents?
We ended up hiking an extra 5 miles (don't ask but it wasn't our fault), so it was a pretty burly hike. My body was so tired and I was worried I had overdone it. I'm pretty sure this is not what my doctor had in mind when he told me to use a little more common sense when choosing physical activity. But he doesn't read my blog, so I think I'm okay. Don't worry mom and dad, gut still intact.

Congratulations universe, you win.



Do you see them completely blocking the trail being obnoxious?
This felt much more intimidating in person, and note, the camera is not zoomed in. They were right there.
Still blocking trail and every way around them and being obnoxious
I like the look on my face, glad to be away from the goats

My house is in between our feet, also, 3 showers later and my feet still look like this!