Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Big Baldy in the morning


Scott and I attempted to see if we could hike Big Baldy ‘before work’. Though the south ridge is an option (see this), Scott wanted to go up the maintained forest service trail which is at least a mile longer but less steep. The plan was to meet at the Dry Canyon trailhead at 5am sharp. Apparently to Scott, "sharp" means 15 min after the specified time.
We left the parking lot at 5:22. I tried to set a pace that would punish Scott or his tardiness but he stayed on my heals the whole way. I stopped only to point out a few landmarks we had discussed in the past, less than a minute total on the way up. We reached the peak at 7:14. We spent about 10 min at the peak, unfortunately the haze and lighting conditions made photography suboptimal. Coming down we shaved 8 min off the time going up.

Depart Trailhead:  5:22am
Arrived Summit:    7:14am
Depart Summit:     7:24am
Arrived Trailhead: 9:08am
Elevation Gain:    3278 ft

GPS Tracks: kml gpx
Google Maps: Terrain

Monday, June 29, 2009

Robert's Horn Ridge


Nope, I didn't hike Box Elder for a third week in a row. Instead, Nutmeg and I did an overnighter in the Alpine Loop area on Robert's Horn Ridge. We parked at the "Summit" trailhead, about 8000 ft, hiked up, mostly on established trails, to about 9000 ft where we made camp. In the morning we bushwhacked part way up Robert's Horn ridge to about 10,400 ft and visited all of the high points on the eastern half of the ridge. In total we hiked about 7 miles.

GPS Tracks: kml gpx

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Indian Road-Cactus Hill-Squaw Peak Overlook-Pole Canyon-BST Loop


The Paxman, Nutmeg and I did this loop before work this morning. Scott wanted a nice 8 miler to start the day off. I threaded together the following:
  • Indian Road Trailhead
  • Bonneville shoreline Trail Connector
  • Cactus Hill (ATV) Trail
  • BST To Squaw Peak Road Connector
  • Squaw Peak Overlook Ridge Trail
  • Squaw Peak Road
  • Hope Campground
  • Pole Canyon Trail
  • Bonneville Shoreline Trail (Smith Ditch section)
  • Return to Indian Road Trailhead
Came out to just under 8 miles which we did in just under three hours. There was about 1700 ft of elevation gain, the highest point is the front gate to Hope Campground.

GPS Tracks: kml gpx
Google Maps: Track

Monday, June 15, 2009

Box Elder Peak


Nutmeg and I left the trailhead at about 8:20am on trail 043. The weather was very pleasant for the first leg, 3.6 miles to the saddle which we reached about 10:30am. Over the next hour the sky became overcast and dark clouds could be seen in the distance. I had seen a single set of footprints from a hiker in front of me all morning. There were only a few small snow patches on the trail as it approached the saddle. I saw the foot prints again after we left he junction with the Dry Creek trail so I knew they was also headed up to the Peak since the only other trail in that direction was blocked by steep snow fields on the north face of Box Elder.
After another 35 min of hiking along the ridge which is more or less level, we reached the start of the climb to the summit. There were several large snow banks that were easy to cross since they were mostly flat. The initial section of the climb was covered with snow because it was shaded from sun by tall conifer trees that grew along the west side of the ridge. The going was very slow on the steep snowy ridge. There were a few sections that were bare but a lot of the climb was in deep snow of varying softness. Neither YakTrax nor snowshoes helped much. We eventually caught up with the other hiker. He had left the trailhead 2 hours before me and was moving pretty slowly. We had to leave him behind if we had any chance of making the peak. This 0.6 miles section took me over an hour and a half to climb.
The ridge merged with another at about 10,300 ft for the final section. At point where they merged there was a tall snow bank that was the final obstacle. There weren’t any more conifers to shade the ridge so it was bare to the summit. The only problem was the weather. A storm started to move in over the peak. We kept going for another 25 min but then the storm hit us. Between the snow pelting us and distant thunder, we were forced to retreat just a quarter mile from the top. We were very exposed on the ridge and I didn’t want to become a lightning strike statistic.
The decent went much faster of course, what had taken over two hours to climb to only 40 min to undo with the help of a few short glissades. The other hiker had turned back before me but was making progress down nearly as slow as up.
I ate my lunch on the saddle and then waited for the other hiker to catch up. I wanted to make sure he was OK before we began the final decent to the trailhead. Joe said he was fine and had food, water and gear.
Of course to spite me, the weather teased me all the way down mocking my failure with glimpses of blue sky between the snow flurries. The drop to the trailhead took me an hour and three quarters. In the words of MacArthur, “I will return!” I’m not so sure about Nutmeg, this was her longest hike ever and she is getting kinda old.



GPS Tracks: kml gpx
View in Google Maps

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Grandeur Peak from Church Fork in Mill Creek Canyon


Planned on an 'easy' hike with Ione, Bean and Ione's friend Jon. It was a little more of a climb than I expected but the cool weather helped get me to the top. Since it was off-leash day in Mill Creek Canyon the trail was thick with dogs, Bean made many new friends. I was feeling the previous day's hike in my legs on the way up. We starting getting some rain and put on jackets (except Bean, he wore his coat the whole way) for the final half mile or so. The trail was mostly smooth red soil with a few talus crossings and could of knee-high scrambles over bedrock. I was expecting very low visibility from the peak with all the rain, clouds and mist. We were very happy to have a great vista from the summit. The rail cleared out just about the time we got there. After chatting with a few other grounps at the top, a cold air mass moved in and chilled us. We departed quickly, I had to stay back to shoot a quick panorama. The trip down went by quickly, lot more dogs and more muddy.

GPS Tracks: kml gpx
View track in Google Maps

Friday, June 12, 2009

Sundance & Stuart Falls


I took advantage of the first nice day in a long time to walk from the base of Sundance to the top of the Arrowhead lift and had lunch on the deck of the Bear Claw Cabin. I hiked down and over to Stuart Falls (Cascades) and then on to Aspen Grove Trailhead.

GPS Tracks: kml gpx

Monday, June 8, 2009

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Sugarloaf & Mount Baldy (Wasatch 11ers)


Awesome epic hike that bagged two 11ers. Here is the raw GPS data and stats:
Parking lot     :  8:44am -  8,749 ft - 0.0 miles
1st saddle      : 11:45am - 10,790 ft - 2.9 miles
Sugarloaf Peak  : 11:58am - 11,058 ft - 3.1 miles (11 thousand 58 ft at 11:58? hmmmm)
2nd saddle      : 12:30pm - 10,538 ft - 3.5 miles
Mount Baldy Peak:  1:16pm - 11,074 ft - 4.0 miles
Parking lot     :  3:40pm -  8,749 ft - 6.5 miles

Total distance: 6.5 miles
Moving        : 3:53 hrs:min for 1.7 mph
Total         : 6:56 hrs:min for 0.9 mph
GPS Tracks: kml gpx
Google Maps View: track