Wed. Reminisce Willard Part Dos

This was the first house my parents built in Willard. I loved that house. We had so much fun there. One time, my friend Casey was visiting from Layton and Kayli, Wyatt, Casey and I decided to go on a hike. So up the mountain we went (there was a trail that started where our driveway ended, hunters and horseback riders used it all the time) to the canal road. We followed that past the gravel pit to the canyon (you'll see in the pictures below.) Of course we took our dog, Dolly. Dolly was the awesomest dog ever, but that's for another day. On this particular instance, Dolly was actually the root of all our problems.

My goal, (I don't know about anyone else's) was to make it to these waterfalls that are at the far end of the canyon.

Okay, here's the picture to explain it all. Our house was up on the side of the mountain to the left of the gravel pit. We went down into the canyon between the Willard Thrust. (Handy that I found a picture with so much already explained.) There's a ravine there with a stream that runs from the waterfalls down to well, I don't know where, probably Willard Bay or the canal system or something.

We followed the stream a while and then decided to cross it. Kayli, Wyatt, and I had no problems. Casey fell in. It was cold water and the stream was going fairly fast since it was spring and had all the snow runoff. So we sat a while to let Casey dry a bit and ate the sandwiches my mom had packed us. Yummy. Then, we decided we didn't want to keep going up the ravine but instead try to find a trail higher up. When we tried to get out of the ravine, we tried the way we had come down first, only Dolly wasn't making it. It wasn't a cliff face by any means, but it was fairly sheer. So we came back down and being the absolutely brilliant children we were, we tried going up a slope of shale. Umm, yeah. Wyatt made it first, sending a rock the size of a soccer ball down that missed Casey's head by about a foot. Then when the rest of us were almost up, Casey slipped and slid down the whole way. His legs were all scratched up and bleeding. (I don't know why but we rarely were the ones to get hurt, usually our friends fell victim instead.) So then Kayli and I went back down to help him. Dolly, by the way, hadn't been able to get out that way either.

Another view of the mountains from Willard Bay.

Kayli, Casey, and I decided to go up where we originally had come down and go ask for a rope for Dolly (or something like that) from the men working at the gravel pit. This is where it all went downhill. Really downhill. I stayed with Dolly, while Kayli, Casey and Wyatt went to the gravel pit. Being the genius I am, I used my belt to pull Dolly up the parts that she couldn't clammer up and then went to find the other kids. When I arrived at the gravel pits, there was NO ONE there. It was completely empty. I scanned around a bit but couldn't see anyone. So I decided they must have gone home for rope instead. So I started to walk home, waving blissfully hi to my brother Derek who was working for the Anderson's in their orchard that day as I passed by. I arrived home, and Andrea met me at the door and said the oddest thing, "You've fallen and you can't get up!!" Actually, she more or less shouted it and then laughed hysterically. I gave her a "You're an idiot" look and asked what she was talking about. She explained that the police had called mom saying that I was stuck in a hole in the mountains. I immediately burst into tears thinking I was in HUGE trouble. Andrea was nice and told me to go take a shower (I was rather filthy) and she called the police to tell them that I had definitely not fallen in a hole and I was home safe and sound.

A view of the same canyon from a different direction.

So this is rest of the story. Kayli, Wyatt, and Casey DID go to the gravel pit. Casey apparently started saying, "SHE'S stuck..." and then the man working there, seeing Casey, wet and bleeding, assumed it was another kid. He radioed someone else to call the police and after a few more hasty questions to some very confused kids started running back up the mountainside to where supposedly I was stuck in a hole. Kayli was a little taken aback by all this but not at all worried until the firetrucks arrived. Then she started bawling (thinking she was in deep trouble no doubt). Multiple police cars arrived. A professional mountain climber was called in. They called our mom. She laughed. Literally. I'm not joking. She laughed outright on the phone. She was a little embarrassed after thinking about what the police thought of her, but I guess it was her sixth sense that she knew nothing was wrong. So she drove over to the gravel pit and luckily had not been there long when Andrea called the police. In the end, we had to write notes of apologies to the police department, but that was it. My mom wasn't even mad at us. But as we found out at church the next Sunday, we sure caused a stir .