On Saturday, we awoke to a beautiful morning. It was crisp and clear. A perfect day for a hike, Diane and I decided. When Sam got up we invited him along and shortly after that we were heading up Big Cottonwood Canyon to the Butler Fork Trailhead. It had been a huge snow year this winter but now, the last week of June, the hiking season was beginning. We started up the trail and soon got to a bridge that had a sign saying, "Danger, Do Not Use Bridge". It looked like it might crash into the stream at any moment but we went across anyway. The next section of the hike was a steep uphill climb. Following that the scenery just got prettier. We walked along a cascading stream that was running much higher than I remember. At one point where we had to cross the stream on wet tree trunk we had to decide to cross there or look elsewhere. Diane found a spot to jump across that only got all of us a little wet. As we went up the stream was overflowing its banks and drenching the trail. We trounced through mud and water getting our feet soaked. After crossing a meadow we came upon a wooded area that was holding a lot of snow. We had to cross several slippery snowbanks. The higher we got the more snow we encountered. This slowed us down considerably. Well, let's say it slowed Diane and me. Sam was off. Soon, he was out of sight. Diane and I trudged on, slipping and sliding and post holing. After a while of this. Diane decided to stop for a rest and I took off my pack and set out after Sam. After about 20 minutes I decided that I would turn around and go back and look for Diane. I figured Sam we get to the lake and turn around and come back. I got back to Diane and we waited about 20 minutes before we decided to head back down. We were pretty sure that Sam we catch up to us before we made it back to the car. We enjoyed that hike down; taking in the beautiful scenery. We got to the car and I checked my cell phone. Sam had left a voicemail saying he had overshot the lake and was up above it on a ridge. He said he was heading back down. All the way down Diane kept asking me if I thought Sam was all right. I reassured her each time. Now having heard the voice mail, we were relieved that we had heard from him. We waited, we waited; still no Sam. I checked the time stamp on the voicemail. It had been sent at 12:20 PM. It was now 2PM. Reluctantly, I now told Diane that I was worried. We had come down in about 40 minutes and Sam had headed down at 12:20, which was an hour and 40 minutes. The thought entered my mind that he might have gone down a different canyon, either a couple miles up the road at Mill D Trailhead or even possibly into the neighboring canyon, Millcreek Canyon. My phone pinged. A text said, "Pick me up at Wasatch and 3800 South". Somehow he had managed to end up in Millcreek Canyon. We got in the car and headed down and around to where he was. As I suspected, he had hitch hiked out of Millcreek Canyon. What I did not know was that he came down the mountain 4 miles above the winter gate and he had to run 4 miles to get to the road where he could catch a ride. By the time we saw him he was one tired and hungry kid. Well, we were all tired and hungry so we had burrito bowels at the Mexican Joint near there. A nice hike and another, "All's well that end's well"
