Spencer the mountain climber

Michael here. Back in the summer, Spencer was fascinated after hearing me telling about how a friend and his 4-year-old son “hiked the Y.” The “Y” is a giant white letter “Y” high up on a mountain side above the BYU campus. It was first painted up there in the early 1900s and the story is that they were going to do the full “BYU” but got too tired after doing the Y first.

Here’s how it looks from the BYU campus (over Spencer's left shoulder, to the right of the tall pine tree):

Hiking up to the Y is kind of a BYU tradition. I had only done it once, during my junior year. At a certain age, all of our kids have hollered when they could first spot the Y during a drive to Provo. Spencer is at that age and really wanted to climb up to it, esp. after hearing that someone younger than he had done it. I promised him I’d take him. Then every Saturday became consumed by moving and its aftermath. So finally I just picked a Saturday morning in mid-Oct and said that’s when we would do it. Older sisters were invited but declined, much to Spencer’s delight. We surrounded ourselves with positive-thinking symbols and went for it:

We went with my friend from work, Joe, and his son Lincoln, who had been the trailblazers for the experience. Joe really had to negotiate to get Lincoln to do it again, and I threw in the promise of some goldfish (his favorite) at the summit. You can see the Y in the background of this one, taken at the trailhead, but since we are much closer to it, it's harder to make out:

The trail is well maintained but very steep. It’s 1.2 miles one way and rises from 5100 feet to 6200 feet. I actually wasn’t sure Spencer would make it. He’s got good anaerobic muscles honed from battering his sisters but not a ton of stamina for long walks. I brought lots of extra snacks to use as bribes to get him to the top. But he was so excited, he just trucked along - he was even running at times. This video shows how he was at the beginning:

The trail is all switchbacks back and forth across the slope of the mountain. There are 11 turns, clearly marked, which gave Spencer a great sense of progress as he climbed. I held out the fruit snacks until we reached the halfway point at Turn 6.

Getting even closer!

I swear he never slowed down once. Never complained, barely got out of breath. He could have easily climbed it twice. Here he is reaching the top (and you can kind of tell how winded his dad was):

That white behind us is the top of the Y.

Being at the top of the Y wasn't good enough; he wanted to keep climbing up behind it. But alas, there were quilt store customers that need servin' by our Mom, so we had to stop somewhere.

Sitting on the bottom of the Y:

Joe and Lincoln's dog Lady never complained, either:

At the trailhead on the way home:

Now he's asking when we can do it again.