Kay Harms

Of Names and Hikes

My Names for Yesterday

Yesterday I mentioned that I’d let you know what name I had earned through my attitudes, words, and behavior throughout the day. I realize you don’t really earn a name in one day, but over the course of time. But I came up with a few anyhow.

One reader, Courtney, offered a link in her comment that leads to a great web site that gives meanings for all sorts of names. This link specifically leads to Hebrew and Jewish names and their meanings. Check it out if you dare and consider what names you have earned. Here’s what I came up with based on what I did and how I lived just yesterday:

Leah – Weary (I was exhausted by 7:00 pm, from what I do not know!)

Moria – My teacher is God (I did spend some time studying my Bible yesterday and my kids and husband know I love doing this. He teaches me so much each day!)

Oran – pale one (I went swimming at my friend Rosita’s house yesterday and since she has dark skin she would probably say I am a pale one!)

Sachiel – angel of water (at least I like to think I looked like an angel as I swam through the water! Probably not…)

Zebulon – home (I spent a lot of time doing home things yesterday – laundry, cooking, ironing, etc.)

Hiking with My Pal

Last week I did a 6.7 mile hike with my hiking buddy and friend, Kim. Since it’s July in Arizona (and elsewhere, of course) I decided we should head up to the top of Mt. Lemmon in the Catalina mountain range for our trek. It’s about 30 meaningful and significant degrees cooler up there! So we drove about 5000 feet up into the mountains – no small feat for these two windy road wimps – and got to our destination of 7,410 feet at about 9:00 that morning.

This photo was actually take on the way down. I was holding on to the arm rests too tightly on the way up to take any pictures!
It’s amazing how you can go from this…
… to this in Arizona in just a matter of minutes.
We started at Marshall Gulch at 9:00. This is my “good hair” shot…because if you’ve been reading my blog long at all you know I have a real thing for good hair moments. When hiking, I have to seize the moment because the hair is always the first thing to go!
I think this is at the beginning of the trail. Actually the guy at REI told us to take the drainage ditch up the hill instead of the actual trail because it was prettier, so we did. At some point we joined the actual trail but we have no idea when that occurred…
I just wanted to make sure you realized there was plenty of uphill climbing on this hike. I like to get credit where credit is due…
This photo cracks me up because, though it’s a great picture of Kim, the moment was a little awkward. We came across this young woman who was all by herself and having some kind of moment. She had stopped in a little grove of trees and was staring into space. I’m not sure if she was becoming one with nature, praying, birdwatching or just stretching and breathing, but it was obviously some kind of …moment. And it was at this moment that Kim decided we needed to take a break and she needed to eat some Chips Ahoy cookies. She was rattling the wrapper and posing for pics and this woman was communing with nature or watching birds or something. I was relieved when Kim finally decided we could move on!
Of course the awkwardness didn’t keep me from posing for a picture too. After all, the hair was still looking pretty good.
It was about here that we came across a whole big group of girls and their adult sponsors from some kind of camp. They were practically marching through the woods and yelling something like “hidey hey, hidey hoe!” If Kim and I didn’t ruin that young woman’s “moment,” this little band of enthusiastic hikers certainly did!
I love a good dirt trail surrounded by soft green grass. Unfortunately, this was not typical for this hike. It was mostly rocky and rough. I guess that’s kind of how life is too. We crave the shaded, even, and nicely trimmed trail sections, but generally live on the rocky inclines.
Once we got off the Marshall Gulch Trail and onto the Aspen Trail, it was all up hill. Breaks like this became more and more common. As we looked up we thought, “Surely we’re not going all the way to the top!” But, alas we did. At this point the trail definitely earned its “more difficult” rating.
We could hear men’s voices ahead of us and assumed they were hikers we would soon be crossing paths with. But, alas, we were actually hearing the men who were working on these towers. This is the top of the mountain that we didn’t realize we were hiking to. We hiked up 1,000 feet to 8,400.
When we got to the top, I sat on a little bench and ate my lunch (it was a pleasant 65 degrees or so at this point), while Kim…
walked over to the ski lift and asked if we could have a ride down and back up. Even though she offered to pay for it (with what I don’t know because we didn’t have any money on us!), the guy wouldn’t let us get on at the top. You had to get on at the bottom! So then Kim visited with all the people who got off the lift. I have no idea what they were talking about.
This was the view as we headed back down. Not very pretty because a recent fire burned all the aspen trees in this section. But the far off view was nice.
Here Kim is in a grove of Aspens and ferns at the bottom of the trail.
Same grove. Very picture worthy. The grove that is, not me.
On the way down.
Our only picture together. You never know how the shots are going to turn out when you ask someone else to take them. But, at this point I didn’t care! From here we headed to In’ N Out for burgers and fresh fries. Now that is the way to end a hike!
Great hike! Great day! Great friend!
PS – one more thing! If my pictures of the hike made you hot and tired, you might want to head over to StoneGables where Yvonne is giving away a Cuisinart Ice Cream, Frozen Yogurt and Sorbet Maker! Yippee! You’ll love her blog and maybe even win a nifty kitchen gadget!

Comments

  1. Stephanie Page says

    Very cool! Thanks for sharing your hike!! I would LOVE to do that sometime….if you ever need a hiking buddy….!! LOL

    Reply

  2. Beth E. says

    I'm very impressed with your hike, and even more impressed with the beauty of nature and the blessing of good friends – on the trail and off. 😉

    Reply

  4. Kellie says

    Oh! Its so beautiful! We took the kids up to the top of the mountain for a hike several years ago and were so sad by the fire damage. He and I used to hike that trail when we were dating. Glad to see the foliage is coming back a bit!

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.