If only / Shoulda (Good bye Smiley Face)

We missed this little notice in the paper:

PUBLIC NOTICE Passive Reflector Removal, Uinta-Wasatch-Cache N.F. Logan Ranger District A passive reflector known for its \"smiley face\" located on Logan Hill on the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, Logan Ranger District (legal description T. 12N. R.2E., SW1/4, NW1/4 Section 30, SLM) is authorized under a Communications Use Lease with the Forest Service. The reflector, owned by Crown Castle International is no longer in use and will be removed via helicopter on June 1, 2012. Publication date: May 27, 2012 

Friday afternoon, the Smiley Face came down from the mountain.

We noticed a helicopter flying around when we returned from our morning hike and wondered what was happening.  When I got home I continued to watch and realized that the helicopter was carrying large pieces of something.  I got out the binoculars and could see a single red eye at the place it was hovering. 

 

It's exciting to watch a helicopter going so close to your house, but also horrifying to think that our icon was coming down.

Sweet memories came flooding back of hikes up that very steep mountain, figuring out our own trail and mostly bushwhacking, struggling, sometimes slipping on the gravelly surface.  What an achievement to actually get there!

My first experience with Smiley Face was September 25, 2009, just a little over a year after moving back to Logan.  Nan and Kim and I  braved the climb.

Some Young Women had been up before us, hanging a large gold flag in honor of the new Young Women value of Virtue.  We added our names.  The flag came down a few weeks later meaning that those Young Women did the hike twice.

 What a view it is from way up there!

  The Smiley Face is much bigger than it looks from down below.  Can you see Nan standing under it?

On October 29 the following year, Nan, JoLynn and I did the hike again.  JoLynn wanted to conquer this one because Smiley was always smirking at her through her kitchen window.  It had snowed the night before, but we went anyway.  We climbed all the way to the top of Saddle Hill where there are two more reflectors.  I wonder how long those will stay?

 We came down above Smiley and JoLynn did a victory wave.  She had conquered!

 This time instead of a gold flag, we had a new addition to the face - a nose and mustache.  Look how it towers above us.  How could people climb up there to paint?  It was beyond me to understand.

 But that early fall view from the mountain was another great reward for our efforts.

 As we descended, we looked up to see Smiley smirking down at us.

 And knew that we would remember this day for a very long time. 

I'm so glad that I took the opportunity to conquer the mountain, to climb to Smiley.  It's gone now, and I will never have another chance. 

Last week I got a note from a dear friend letting us know that her husband had passed away.  We haven't seen them since 1989 when we lived in Oregon.  Now they live less than 200 miles away and we still haven't seen them.  We've been saying that we should go and visit, but things always came up.  I hope that this is a lesson to me.  I need to take the opportunity when it comes, as I did with Smiley.