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| Lake Hill 2005 |
Lake Hill is a campground and reservoir up Ephraim Canyon that is a special place for the Murray family and holds many great memories. Most of these memories revolve around Scott's Grandpa Thompson, who grew up in Ephraim and brought his children and grandchildren back throughout the years to share his love of this mountain. Scott remembers every Memorial Day going down to Ephraim to the Scandanavian Festival and Parade. After making rounds to all of the family grave sites, they would head up the canyon for fishing and camping at Lake Hill. As they would drive up the canyon, Grandpa Thompson would recount wild adventures from his youth. His stories about hunting with his brother, Jay, and friends in his 1955 Jeep Wagoneer that had stadium seats mounted on the front, could have been made into a book. He had traveled over every inch of that mountain and still knew his way around all the best trails. Most years the narrow dirt road was still muddy that early in the season. This never detered their plans to make it to the lake. Linda, despite everyone's protests, would pretend she was driving a four wheel drive, off-road vehicle, instead of their Astrovan and got them stuck on more than one occasion. Good thing she had three boys to help push them out each time. Once they made it to the lake, the fishing would begin... at least for the kids. Grandpa Thompson and Linda would sit in their aluminum chairs and untangled line after line after line. Between all the tangled lines and snags there were always plenty of fish caught and apparently this was before the days of catch and release because they would gut all the fish and pack them in a cooler to take home (where they would sit in the freezer untouched for months). Lake Hill is also where Scott's phobia of bears started. One year there was a sign posted stating "Bear in area, camp at own risk". Linda decided to take that risk and poor Scott was traumatized by the constant threat of a bear ripping open his tent and dragging him out by his feet. The memories don't stop after Scott's childhood. When Scott and I very first started dating he invited me on the Memorial Day excursion to Lake Hill with his family. That year the mud proved to be too much and we didn't make it all the way to the lake, but it was still a very memorable trip since Scott and I snuck in our first kiss while off on a little hike together. The next year we made the trip as newlyweds and this time we made it to the lake. This was the best fishing trip ever because they were stocking the lake while we were fishing. Every single cast resulted in a caught fish. After fishing, Scott and I took Grandpa Thompson for a drive all over the mountain. I was able to hear all of his riveting stories. I wish so badly I could go back and record those hours spent driving around as he would point to a tree and tell us "that is the tree that stopped our car when it was flying off the cliff. If it weren't for that tree I would be dead." He told all the stories like they had happened the day before, not decades before. I grew to love Grandpa Thompson on that trip. I believe that was Grandpa Thompson's last trip up to Lake Hill before he got sick and then passed away. I am so glad we got to experience it with him.
