Valley View Ridge

I’m not a hiker. I mean, I'm a hiker on the most basic level where "hiking" is walking on dirt. But I’m not someone who puts effort into hiking. What I mean is, there are people who travel and camp and have gear and go through a lot of effort to… walk on dirt. And I wish I was that person. I wish I had a mantra that involved the word “adventure” instead of a mantra that involved the phrase “just don’t spend all day watching Netflix, okay Kat? Come on.” 

 I’ve been trying to change that up. Not necessarily change my nature, but rather work with my existing, Netflixy nature to expand my experiences. So one of my goals this spring and summer was to hike every trail I could find that’s within a five to ten minute drive from my house (because when you live in Salt Lake City, that’s an easily achievable goal), and it's been fantastic. I found some amazing trails and I now hike two to five times a week. It’s worked out exponentially better than I planned. 

Valley View Ridge Trail 

I finally did the entire Valley View Ridge trail today! The trail is a four mile, out-and-back hike starting from City Creek Canyon. But I was starting from my house, which tacks on a couple more miles making it six miles total. 

So, let’s get real. This was my third attempt at Valley View. It’s taken me a few tries, not because it’s all that hard, but because the entire trail is in the sun. And since I’m not what you would call an “early riser” or a “morning person” or “someone you should talk to before noon,” I'd always start the hike way too late for a Utah July, and so I kept hitting a point around two miles where I convinced myself I was melting, Wicked Witch-style and turned around to head home. 

Oh! Also, I’m kind of a pansy. I should probably make that very clear. 

But this time, I actually started at a time that had an “AM” at the end of it, so (I’m so excited to use this phrase) time was on my side and I made it to my viewpoint. 

Valley View Ridge Trail, Salt Lake City, Utah

Avenue Twin Peaks Trail 

When I finally got to, you know, the view of the valley, I looked over my shoulder and saw that I was, like, two feet away from the Avenue Twin Peaks trailhead. I love the Twin Peaks trail. It’s hard, but not so hard that I lay down on the trail in resignation and wait for wild animals to put me out of my misery. Plus, it has a bunch of offshoots from the main trail so there’s always variety. 

And apparently it connects to the Valley View Trail. 
` So based entirely on the fact that I was drunk on endorphins (and Vitamin D), I upped the volume on my painfully embarrassing iPod mix and headed up to Twin Peaks. And sure, I essentially turned my 6 mile hike into a 10 miler, but what you need to understand about me is that… well… I’m a chump. 
Because now I’m home and the endorphins are gone and all I want to do is drink Pedialyte out of a fancy glass (like a lady!) and spend the next three hours watching NewRadio next to my boyfriend, a floor fan. 

So, just to repeat, I’m not a hiker.

I do like to walk on dirt, though!