Park City itself was way flatter than I had imagined. The city sits in a valley surrounded by ski mountains. Main street is a tribute to the old west and is lined with old style buildings and cowboy themed businesses, but the surrounding houses are modern-day rustic development mansions.
I went for a hike Nancy had suggested, which climbed up to the ridge of one of the foothill peaks. It actually ended up being right next to the Canyons resort ski trails. It was slightly weird hiking through the snow having just been in the desert the day before... but the air was crisp and refreshing and it was fun to stomp through the snow. There was probably about a foot and a half of fresh snow and it twinkled in the sunlight. It was squeeky under my boots, and every time I stepped, a bit of it would fall from a nearby branch and startle me. I climbed up to the ridge and looked out at a sea of white peaks with Park City nestled between them. It was a spectacular view.
As I tromped my way down the mountain, I was daydreaming and enjoying the quiet of the woods when I heard a rustle to my right. I let out a "geh!" as a clump of snow fell from a tree right next to me, showering me in a rain of snow mist. I sighed, let my heart return to its normal pace, and continued on. A couple minutes later it happened again; a rustle of snow disturbing the silence, but this time when I looked up to give the tree a disgruntled glare, there was a different brown object amid the branches. About 20 feet away stood a giant moose. I froze. Never before have I encountered a moose that close without being in a car or a house or some other secure structure. It was thrilling! Aaaaand, then I remembered that I could die. Sweet. The moose didn't seem to notice me and there was a fairly dense clump of trees separating us. I slowly kept walking, keeping my eye on her (I say her because she had no antlers, but she was still huge). As I passed by, she suddenly looked at me, glaring at me with intent in here stare. This stare was not the stare of an east coast moose. East coast moose have nothing to worry about; no lions or wolves to hunt them down, so they are are like hippie moose on the reefer compared to this. This moose looked at me with a "move near me and die" look. I didn't know what to do. I just kept taking slow steps. I finally got far enough away that I was able to breath again, and then of all things I was excited! Holy crap! That was amazing! And terrifying! And awesome! I started walking briskly down the trail, thinking about what on earth I was to think, not really looking around, when I abruptly noticed a clump of brown fur directly to my left. My heart immediately deserted my chest and hid in a tree. Not 5 feet off the trail, was another moose, bigger than the last, with its butt facing me. I slowly backed up the trail. The noise made it turn around and when it saw me it jumped up the hill, turned around and faced me. Options were running through my head, I can totally run downhill and dodge through the trees using serpentine wonder woman skills to avoid trampleation. In a complete state of shock I did the first thing that came to my mind. I put up my hands and gently sang I'm not here to hurt you! ......... The ridiculousness of this decision actually calmed me down a bit and I began taking very slow steps down the trail, making sure to hunch a bit a maintain eye contact. I walked like this until I couldn't see the moose any more before I returned to a normal pace. Of course the firs thing I thought was did you really just try to sing to a moose! Who are you? Snow white charming the animals!? Whatever the effect of my vocalizations, the moose didn't attack me, did it? Ah, nothing like a possibly life-threatening situation to make your day!
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| Ok, I know it was stupid to even try and take a picture, but my camera was already in my hand and I couldn't help myself... After this slightly-possibly-life-threatening experience, I met up with my friend Andy to regale my tale over a soothing glass of beer. Andy works at the Canyons resort on ski patrol, but due to the lack of snow, he was also getting some mascot hours skiing around dressed as a moose. I think that's cool. I mean, how often do you get paid to ski with a legit excuse to over the age of 8 and sport antlers? The next day, after paroozing the newspaper, I saw a add for a daily organ recital in Salt Lake at the Mormon tabernacle and was intrigued. It was also free, which had me more convincingly intrigued. It is only about a half hour drive from Park City to Salt Lake and I was curious to see the city, so I hopped in the coche and went. I have to say, without wanting to offend anyone, I was kind of disappointed in Salt Lake City. It was somewhat depressing. However, it was also a very gray day, and it was black Friday so everyone was camping in a line somewhere and not walking around.  Example A The Mormon temple was very beautiful and all the women walking around with name tags were really friendly, though I felt bad about assuring them I would contact them if I had any other questions while knowing full well that would not be happening. The organ in the tabernacle is incredible! It's simply huge. The organ recital was about a half hour long and fairly well attended for the day after Thanksgiving. The organist was very good, though he kind of seemed to be in a hurry and did not give enough time, in my opinion, to the awesome chords and dissonances of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. (See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd_oIFy1mxM for wonderful performance or if you don't know what this is.)   Afterward, a took a drive up to see the great salt lake, which is very great and very salty. The mountains surrounding the lake were epic ominous. As I stepped out onto the sand, what I had thought had been snow from a distance turned out to be large crystals of salt covering the whole shoreline.   The sand was actually gray mud (which took like a month to finally wear off my sneakers) and it was a long way to the water's edge. As I was walking to the water I looked down and saw the perfectly intact skeleton of a bird lying in the sand like a display. I marveled and cringed at it, thinking it to be an anomaly. Ha. Oh no. By the time I had finally reached the water I had passed hundreds. Dead birds and fish scattered the sand and I actually had to make an effort to avoid them. I don't know how the heck one of the fish skeletons was as large as it was. It must have traveled down a river, because this thing was at least two and a half feet long with bone like scales and could not have grown that large living in so highly salt-concentrated water. It was a strange experience to, on one hand, enjoy the view of the expanding mountains, but on the other, be surrounded by the carnage of old England's most valued seasoning. I followed the path of what looked to be the remnants of a bridge that must have crossed to one of the islands. Colorful rocks lay between the wood stakes and, of course, I collected some cool ones. They are still on the floor in the back of my car.      As I was leaving, a blond, cardigan-clad family of four with a stroller passed by me on their way to a nice walk on the beach? The next evening was a real treat. Andy invited me to celebrate Thanksgiving at his house with he and his roommates, who were teaming up to make a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. The house has been designed a commune because it is nine people of all different ages and backgrounds sharing a big blue hippified house. All of them were great, especially Annie who I additionally bonded with after she put on "Alice's Restaurant" and I was the one who could sing along. I even got to cut the turkey, but that was really because no one had done it before and none of us wanted to screw it up, so I was voted the special guest and therefore designated to cut the turkey. I didn't do too bad either, I think. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, instant gravy, chopped veggie salad with dressing, and a green salad. It was awesome. To top off the evening, with our plates full we crowded into the living room and watched the 7th Harry Potter movie. It was splendiforous! And a much welcome gathering of friendship. |
