Labor Day Trek

Growing up, Labor Day to me always symbolized the end of summer - the end of the lazy no-school days, the end of enjoyable swimming (i.e. when it was warm enough you weren't numb), the end of nights spent outside when it was light and warm even later. It was always a little sad when Labor Day came, and I felt like I had to take advantage of this one last day of freedom before school started. Our family would always go with the Clasons, Bairds, and Woodleys up to a river near Applegate Lake in Oregon...I can't remember the name of it though...it will probably come to me at a totally random time. Anyway, we would go up and have a picnic and swim in the river, and it was always lots of fun. Even though I don't get a months-long summer break anymore, Labor Day still makes me a little sad to give up the opportunities to be outside that you have during the summer.

This year Nate and I kept trying to think of something fun we could do on Labor Day, but we had a hard time. We finally decided late the night before to go on a hike. We went up Big Cottonwood Canyon and hiked up to Lake Blanche (and Lake Lillian...and one other one I don't remember the name of). It was about 3 miles each way, and pretty steep (at least by my out-of-shape standards). It was fun though - we were really hot and tired by the time we got done, and it felt so good to dip our feet in the creek at the end. But it was a really pretty canyon and the view from the top was great! It was a good way to sneak in one last summer day before fall comes.