Ultimate Prime & Backpacking

After breaking my thumb, I came to several realizations:

1. I use my thumb a LOT on a daily basis for really basic things, things that are nearly impossible for me to do with my arm splinted from my thumb to my elbow... for example- tying my shoes, holding a fork, buttoning my clothes, brushing my teeth, shaving, opening jars/bottles, starting my car, locking/unlocking the front door, writing, etc... etc...

2. I will be missing half of my softball season and likely all of my ultimate frisbee season (except for the game I played the Thursday before jacking up my thumb)

3. My work is forcing me to take all my sick, comp and vacation time and not letting me work on light duty, so I will probably be completely out of any kind of paid time off by the time I heal and get to go back to work, so the trips I would like to make this fall probably won't happen. :(

4. Broken bones hurt a lot, and they hurt even more when the broken part of your thumb sticks out of your splint and you hit it on everything.

So I got to go watch my little brother play ultimate with the rest of our team yesterday. He did really good. He had some really good throws, catches and played some good defense. I wanted nothing more than to be on the field with him. I enjoyed watching him play so well, but was hating the being on the sidelines part...

Anyway, I got an email this morning from my cousin Nicki inviting me to go backpacking with her and some of her friends up the backside of Mt. Timpanogos. I was glad to get out of my house since today I would normally have been working and figured it would be a good practice for our backpacking trip next weekend to Buckskin Gulch, down in southern Utah. We took off from the trailhead about 6 or 7 I think... (I don't really know cause I can't buckle my watch without my thumb so I stopped wearing one). We hiked up a couple miles only too find out there was too much snow on the trail to get to where we had planned on camping for the night without crampons, so we turned around and headed back down. We got to the trailhead just as it started raining, so instead of trying to find another place to camp up one of the other trails, we opted just to load up and head home.

It was a little harder and the trail was steeper than I had expected. It just made me realize I'm still not acclimated to the higher altitude out here yet. I fully expect to be very sore tomorrow. I'm glad the trip next weekend is pretty flat and is at a much lower altitude. I expect I'll do a little better. Anyway, not much else to say, I'll include a few pictures of the hike today. It was really pretty.