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We started off the hike with a restroom stop at the Silver Lake trailhead parking lot and then drove over to the Brighton parking lot where we got some guy to take a body recovery photo. We followed the left side of the main base ski area, ignoring the signs for the popular Lake Mary Trail where you can hike if you like a bumper-to-bumper affair with zillions of sweaty zombies trying to escape the heat of the valley. No place for seasoned and snobby hikers like us.
We got off the trail a bit after we went by the bottom of the Pine Martin lift, we should have found a road/trail that went more northeast, instead (my bad) we followed the road that took us way too far north. I talked Jen and Tina into bushwhacking up the hill and meet the trail on the ridge. It worked out though I got a ton of burrs on my socks and Tina whined about biting flies a lot. There was a lot of brush/undergrowth and a few steep spots but it was a reasonable recovery. Once we made it to corner of the Silver Spur ski run, we were back on track. There wasn't as much trail on the Elk Park ski run section as I expected, just a slog up the ski run with a few recent ATV tracks to knock down the tall wild grasses. Once the ski run turned into a cat track it was easier going.
We turned the corner onto the Western Trail which was a gravel road used by trucks I'm sure. The top of the Great Western lift was quiet and I had to prevent Tina from trying to turn on the lift. Past the lift the trail was a steep single track that wound up the rock until we made the summit ridge. Turning back towards the summit of Clayton Peak, the trail soon became a fun boulder scramble, nothing too scary. We ate some lunch, fed a chipmunk and took some photos.
There was a steep, switchback trail down the SSW ridge of Clayton Peak until we regained the service road. There wasn't much breeze and the flies were swarming along the road so we hurried on our way. We passed by the top of the Snake Creek Express lift and continued on to Preston Peak, the trail quickly because a single track with little obvious use. We picked our way through the brush and trees trying to get to the summit. The summit of Preston Peak was a major let down except for a very nice looking, metal plaque on the side of a boulder. There was no clearing, no view and red ants were swarming. Tina tried running away but I made her stop for a photo with the plaque.
We found a faint trail that roughly continued along the ridge until we came to a very steep stop we eased down to regain the ridge service road. We stopped for Tina to clean out her shoes at the top of the Crest Express and took more photos. We followed a service road down until it crossed a real trail and turned towards the Dog Lake area. THe trail eventually dropped us onto the Lake Mary Trail and the swarms of wussy hikers got in our way. After knocking a few people down we made our way down to the Brighton parking lot. Is anyone reading this any more?
GPS Tracks: kml Live Google Maps: Terrain (TOPO) View
