Mike moaned. The alarm went off for the third time. To get to work on time, he had to wake up at 4:45 a.m., shower, and drive from Logan, Utah for an hour and be at work by 6:30 a.m. He had stayed up every night this past week to watch the monologue on the "Tonight Show." By Thursday morning, the lack of sleep had caught up to him.
As Mike pulled out of the driveway, he
noticed that it was raining. He wasn't
looking forward to the drive in the September downpour to the rocket
factory. This entire month, Sardine
Canyon Highway was closed for construction, which forced all traffic to use the
Valley View Highway. Mike enjoyed
driving by himself instead of riding with a carpool for the commute. He had enough of the carpool routine from
last year. That last carpool had been
it.
Even though he had been in a carpool,
he used to drive by himself a lot.
Having big defense budgets meant plenty of money to pay for the overtime
work, so he didn't mind driving. He
remembered how big those paychecks used to be when he worked 30 hours overtime
a week. For most of the 1980's, he
practically lived on the production line.
But with the peace dividend, the overtime was cut.
As Mike passed the fish hatchery, a
semi-truck trailer passed him from the other direction. He was temporarily blinded as the spray
covered the windshield. He had just
passed the big bend in the road and was heading due west toward the Little Bear
River. Yesterday, he had noticed that
the UDOT was again on their once-a-week effort on that monster bridge in the
sky. Why was that project taking so
long? That was Mike's last thought as
another semi-truck passed him on the narrow part of the road.
Mike woke up. He was lying in a hospital bed with needles
poking into him and bandages covering him.
Family members and co-workers were surrounding him, but he was too
groggy to talk. Mike had been a really lucky
person. The second semi-truck had passed
him and completely covered his windshield with mud. Being unable to see, Mike swerved into the
raised shoulder of the road, which caused him to roll. The highway patrol was amazed that anyone had
survived the wreckage. Mike's back was
broken, his legs were crushed, and he had several internal injuries.
For the first few days, Mike was in a
lot of pain, so he didn't notice much that went on. As his condition improved from critical to
serious, the frequency of visits from co-workers and family members dropped
off. He had a lot of time to
himself. One morning, the nurse opened
the curtains to the room, and he couldn't help but notice the Wellsville
Mountains. He had forgotten how green
the mountains got after a few days of rain.
Mike reflected on how much time he
used to spend hiking the northern end of the Wasatch Mountains. It became a tradition to hike to the peak
with his dad and brother each summer. They had
extended the trip by hiking the entire Wellsville ridge from Rattlesnake Canyon
to Deep Canyon. One summer, he and his
scout troop represented the Wellsville heliograph station for the annual Boy
Scout signaling. He had even tried deer
hunting on the mountain, but it was futile.
One could expend more energy dragging a deer down that steep mountain
than there was meat on a deer. He gave
up hunting and instead watched the hawk migrations. One April, a bunch of his tech school buddies
hiked the south slope of Rattlesnake Canyon to the cirque by Box Elder Cone and
skied down the mountain. Mike resolved
that as soon as he recovered from the accident, he would hike to the Wellsville
cone.
Mike became infatuated on information
about the Wellsville Range. When family
members came to visit, he pestered them for any book, map, or article from any
library or book store about the mountain.
He learned about geologic history.
He learned about the Brazer Limestone Formation, between Box Elder and
Wellsville peaks, that contained tons of coral fossils. The extraordinary concentration of trilobite
fossils could be found in the Spence Shale Formation. He studied the mountain by looking out the
window daily using binoculars that his father gave him to use.
He was afraid that he wouldn't be able
to hike the Wellsville cone before the snow fell. The doctors were monitoring him daily. He recovered from the broken bones, but his
bruised pancreas developed an infection.
After the third week in the hospital, Mike was still in a lot of
pain. When he tried to go to sleep one
night, he was afraid that he wouldn't make it to the morning.
Mike arose. Finally, the day had come. As he left the hospital, he noticed that all
his bandages were gone. Instead of the hospital staff being near him, many
relatives that he hadn't seen for years surrounded him. Mike had them take him to the Rattlesnake
Canyon trailhead. If he couldn't
physically make it to the top, he wanted to at least put his foot down on the
trailhead. He was amazed that he had
strength to stand after being in the hospital for so long. He took his first step. He tried to walk. He could.
Through his excitement, he got stronger by the minute. All the
while, he noticed that the color of the leaves were changing from drab to
brilliant hues. He felt so good that he
began to run. He was amazed at being in
such good shape. He could never in his
38 years run like this. Never. It seemed as if he began to fly. In an instant, he had made it to the top of
Wellsville Peak. He had reached his
goal. As Mike turned to leave, he
noticed his brother coming up the trail, sprinkling his ashes behind him.
mddwave 11 February 1994
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