Living far from family can make the holidays hard. This holiday season is probably even harder since many people haven’t been able to go home at all this year to see their out-of-state family because of the pandemic.
Any other year, we’d celebrate the holidays with our Wine Hiking Society White Elephant Christmas Party. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to have our annual Christmas party this year because of COVID.
To bring some Christmas cheer to our members who don’t have family here in Utah (which is quite a few, actually), we decided to get into the holiday spirits (like gin, vodka, and whisky) and have a jolly good time sleighing Frary Peak with our fellow wine hikers!
For this hike, we had women who relocated to Utah from all over: from New York and Texas, to the UK and Ecuador.
The hike to Frary Peak is typically 7 miles round-trip. However, the road to the trailhead is closed in winter regardless of the snow level, adding an extra mile to the total distance. Gaining more than 2500 ft in elevation, the hike to Frary Peak is rated as hard, although it’s definitely an easier peak to bag.
Frary Peak is located on Antelope Island, which is known for being the home to herds of bison. We were lucky to see one on our hike, although it was a little closer to the trail than we liked. (Although bison seem like docile creatures, do not approach them. They are dangerous and have been known trample people to death, even at Antelope Island.)
After what seemed like several false summits, we finally reached the top of Frary Peak, where we poured ourselves some red holiday cheer in a cup.
By the end of the hike, the holidays this year suddenly didn’t feel so lonely.
Happy Alcoholidays!
