Restoration in Progress
It was the kind of trail with switchbacks. A lot of them.
Seeing those Zs cut into the side of the mountain is a good indicator of a steep slope - they make you walk longer but not straight up (usually). This trail ascended a face overlooking the Salt Lake Valley and then dipped into a gulley until it rose to a peak. A rocky scramble finished the trek to the summit.
Mt. Olympus Trail, Salt Lake City, Utah
For the first mile and some change, the metropolitan valley was a trail companion. The interstate’s noise could easily be heard, the thick layer of pollution unmistakable as it cloaked the small range twenty miles west.
An urban hike. Dirt at my feet, cars in my ears, streetlights in my eyes. With those so evident, the everyday persisted. It didn’t feel like backcountry because it wasn’t. My brain agreed and continued to come up with ways I had failed already today. Ways I should be performing my life better.
Those are the exact thoughts I come to the trail to quiet. But that day, they weren’t going away. They remained firmly lodged, switchback by switchback.
Mt. Olympus Trail, Salt Lake City, Utah
The things about switchbacks is they are easy to shortcut. There a clear path that goes straight up. Even with everything I know about trail damage and erosion, it’s really tempting, but signs warned me not to. “Restoration in progress,” they read, their brown posts sunk solidly into the rocky soil.
As I ascended, ice coated the dirt in shady spots necessitating more attention to what was literally beneath my feet. A few times, I could take ten continuous steps on hard packed snow, a luxurious change in surface. The city began to fade just a touch. Birds became a little louder. Restoration, it turned out, was in progress.
Mt. Olympus Trail, Salt Lake City, Utah
Up I went. No summit that day, which I had planned for. I turned around at an unremarkable bend in the trail a half mile from the top.
My restoration had been worked on, even when the city rose up again and the internal lists resumed their discordant noise.
Still, I left slightly restored. And still a work in progress.