Mt Olympus Hike

Today was a great day for a hike!  My Mt bike  in disarray secondary to the fact I trashed my rear derailleur trying to keep up with my son Scott yesterday and Jaren called and wanted to get out.  We need to work on more training and Jaren suggested Mt Olympus.  He knows it well.   It has been his staple training RUN for his prepping to hike Mt Rainer and his 50 mile runs.  He also loves to hike it at night and in the winter.  I am told that at the top of Mt Olympus in the middle of February is an excellent place for a midnight picnic and peaceful relaxation.  I can not wait to put my snow shoes to work.  The winter hike will have to wait and since I have never done this one, we were in!  Chris and I got our work done to keep mom Nichols happy, packed our packs and set out on our next adventure!

Mt Olympus is a very popular hike.  It is used by trail runners, hikers  and the SLC Fire department to train.  The fire fighters put 45 to 90 pound weighted vests on and run up the trail for best times.  There is a lot of unique wild life and be careful of snakes this time of year.  Ever since Jarren's rattle snake bite last year he seems to attract them (see photo below).

We continued on ward and upward.  This hike starts out on a steep ascent up the side of the mountain.  There are stairs if you call them that.  They were designed for the Utah Jazz players with the stride it would take to use them the way they were built.  The trail then levels some what and is multiple sets of switch backs.  You will run into smaller less used trails that give the appearance of a short cut.  Do not fall for the easy way.  These are very steep and not for the inexperenced hiker to go up or down.  Stay on the main trail.

As we continued up the hill we recived a text that Jaren needed to be at a family function and not to get bitten by a snake and no falling of a cliff.  Most importantly, DO NOT BE LATE!.  We understand the value of keep wives happy, we made it to the creek, ate a candy bar and turned around for home.

As we headed for home, we ran across one more rattle snake.  Despite the snake encounter, we made great time down the hill and Jarren made it to his movie with his wife and girls!

Statistics on the hike:  3.5 miles, elevation change of 3,000 vertical feet, total time on the trail 1:35, total calories burned 700.

This is a beautiful hike.  We have already made plans for a summit real soon.  We are also planing for winter snow shoe hikes and a camp out over night in the snow to prep for Jaren's next trip up Rainer in 2013.