Snowbasin -- Green Pond Loop / Needles

Well, I broke down and bought a summer season pass to Snowbasin. Not bad at $110. The gondola is only open Fri-Sun + different occasions, however, so you're kind of limited to what you can do up there depending on the day.

Green Pond Loop Trail: On my latest excursion I did the entire Green Pond Loop Trail, this time without deviating. I went counter-clockwise this time instead of clockwise, and after that, I can easily recommend doing it clockwise. Reason being, the climbing feels more gradual, and is almost entirely shaded, and the other way around is exposed & hot for most of the serious climbing. Either way, the loop is 5.3 miles and you climb almost 1,000 ft. This trail is worth riding for some sweet, free flowing singletrack, and a quick ride. I think it took about an hour, maybe a little more to do this.

Needles: This is trail #1 on the Snowbasin map. You descend 2,553 feet & climb 167 ft (not including the gondola ride). The trail is 7.4 miles long & it feels like an eternity to get down the mountain. The upper section is plagued with the same problems of the lower section: the wretchedly designed switchbacks. They're pretty much designed for novices who ride trails at 3 MPH. The middle section is a blast to ride. The trail flows very well, meaning you don't need to slam on your brakes every 20 feet to make a sharp turn. There are a few places you can get a little air, but I'm still craving more. As you enter into the lower section you have a wide open path with very few obstacles, so you can fly down at top speed. In the end, it's a worthwhile ride. I would've liked to see a little more climbing throughout -- not a lot, but enough to give you more of a workout than downhilling gives you, though combining a couple trails together can easily achieve that.

Once I've ridden all the trails up there, I'll rate which ones I like, best to worst.

Mountain Biking Snowbasin

Snowbasin has been open in the summer to mountain biking for what I believe is the 2nd year. My first time biking in the area involved a ride up Wheeler Canyon, and continuing on up a trail which leads to the lower parking lot at Snowbasin. From there we took the Old Snowbasin Highway back down to a trailhead above Wheeler Canyon & completed the ride back through the canyon to the trailhead. It was a good ride, on good trails. One trail I noted that branched off of the trails we were on was the Green Pond Trail. It's partially on the Forest Service trail system & partially on Snowbasin's trail system.

The parking area for the Green Pond Trail is on the new Snowbasin Highway and is quite obvious. The trail is in great condition, and aside from the tiny insects that seem to hover in large groups & one down tree offered a really good ride. The signage on the trails is good at times, and sketchy at others. One of the problems is that whenever two trail intersect, like the Green Pond Loop & the Last Chance Loop, only one of the trails is listed, in this case, the Last Chance Trail prevailed over the Green Pond Trail, so without a map of the trail system, I headed down a service road in hopes of finding a turn off back onto the Green Pond Trail. After half a mile and seeing nothing I turned back to ride on the Last Chance Trail. If I would've continued further I would've intersected the returning portion of the Green Pond Loop, but that would've cut my ride in half. Back on the trail I met a couple of other bikers, and I rode with one a bit. He was wanting to attempt a climb all the way up to the top of the mountain. I went with him for a couple miles & left him when my asthma started kicking in. From there I rode back down a ways until I was on the Needles Trail which heads back to the main lodges. I wasn't a fan of that trail. It was mainly comprised of 40 feet of straight trail & then a tight switchback, over and over and over, so it was all brake & swerve & no fun. At one point you reach one of the snowboarding pipes where there's no real trail, you just have to haul yourself & your bike up & over it. Not cool. When I was close to the lodge I hopped onto the Maples Trail. This leads you over a fast flowing creek towards the lower parking lot & the Forest Service trail system. I took this trail back down to the turn off towards the Green Pond trail & the parking area. This section of trail was a blast to ride. It's mostly singletrack, except for the first section, and you can just haul. There are few real obstacles. If you count horse piles, then there were a ton of obstacles -- it was bad. Horses are banned from Snowbasin trails ; ) that makes me smile, they're welcome on Forest Service land unfortunately. So this stretch of trail was great. Aside from one tight turn where I almost went over the edge or head long into a rock, but narrowly escaped incident. At one point Wheeler Canyon was coming up quick & I still hadn't found my turn off to get back to the Green Pond Trailhead & I started to get worried. Fortunately after another 5 minutes of riding I found it & headed up. From there I crossed the Old Snowbasin Highway, and continued up towards the lot. The final stretch is through a small canyon. It was quite pleasant in there, and would be a fun downhill.

Next time I go up there I might hitch a ride on the gondola to the top, but as much as I love the downhill, I also like to get a workout in, and downhill works your body about as much as one of those vibration belts from the early 1900's. If I had a full day to bike I'd do it. With the temps in the valley looming around 100, it was nice to be up in the mountains. It was still warm, but not quite as much, and in the different nooks & crannies of the mountain you can get some much cooler air.

All in all it was over 2,000 ft of climbing & 11 miles.

View photos

Riverside/Crimson Trail - Logan Canyon

This trail starts in the Guinava Campground, and follows the Logan River West towards the Mill Hollow area, and reservoir, the upper one I believe. Then it climbs steeply up onto the mountainside until you're hiking above the cliffs, where you're almost at the same elevation as the Wind Caves directly across the canyon from where you're at. It's a moderate hike at 4.89 miles, and 2,000 ft elevation gain. The descent back to the campground is quite steep in some sections. It took about 3 hours and was a nice trip.

Lewis Peak Take II

One of my friends wanted to do Lewis Peak, so I went again. All the snow was off the trails, and the wildflowers were starting to grow out of the ground where the snow once was. It was nice and windy, though not so strong that it was uncomfortable. I was feeling remarkably well on the way up, and just the opposite on the way back. My mountain biking & hiking seem to compete for the well being of my knees. If i just mountain bike all summer, then my knees are fine, and same if I just hike all summer, but when I switch between the two I guess ligaments & other fun stuff change position in my knees depending on what I'm doing, and when that happens, it's quite unpleasant., so I had that to deal with on the trip back.

I think this is my last time up this trail. The horse usage is just too much for me. If you read my other post about Lewis Peak, you'll know what I'm talking about. With warmer weather & higher usage, parts of the trial were even nastier.

On the way up the steep section a wild turkey flew out of the brush and started attacking us, then started walking up the trail ahead of us, I guess it was trying to lead us away from it's nest. Near the top I wanted to go out into a section of rock to relax & found a rattlesnake on the way there, just chilling in the sun. As with all my experiences with rattle snakes, this one just winded it's way into the bushes & out of sight. More wild flowers were blooming on this trip making for some very pleasant fragrances on parts of the trail.

While we were on the peak we noticed a storm coming in across the Great Salt Lake. We were fortunate that the stretch we experienced on the way back was all talk & no action except for some faster wind gusts. By the time we reached the end of the ridgeline and dropped back into the canyon, there was lightning and thunder on top where we were 30 minutes before.

The pics taken on this trip are from my new camera, the Canon A95. They're significantly better than my old camera, and consequently the large sized images are significantly larger, but for the good pics, I think it's worth the wait.

View photos from this trail

Lewis Peak

Who could pass up a beautiful Saturday of hiking? Not I. I ditched my current project of rebuilding my master closet, and headed for Lewis Peak. It sits just South of where I live, so it was a whole 5 minute commute to the trailhead. This was my first time on the trail, and I was impressed with the nice steep angle of the trail, it's quality, and the quick variations in the surroundings. Only downside -- horse poop. I googled trail horse poop to see what other communities were doing about horse poop on trails and got a nice mix of opinion. The pro-equestrians think anyone who has a problem with horse poop on trails can go take a hike...somewhere else. They seem to think that bipeds & bicyclists don't know that horse poop really isn't poop at all, it's just a neat pile of water & grass that tells them how healthy their horse is! They also say that it biodegrades very quickly, and that unlike dog or human excrement, horse poop really isn't offensive at all. Well, I don't know what planet they're from, but IMO poop is poop, and horse poop reeks, and remains on trails for over 3 years before it is no longer a pile of something & even then it's still easily recognizable as formerly being a huge mound of poop. It attracts tons of insects, & undesirable wildlife to the trails, and for the unattentive who step in, or ride through a nice pile of the stuff, they get to keep a constant smelly reminder of their mistake for the rest of their trip, or until they can find someplace to wash it off -- wait, who wants horse poop being washed off into a water supply? Aside from their askew thoughts on horse poop, I have no problem with equestrians using the same trails that I do. I think they have equal rights to get out into nature just like everyone else, but just because horses are considered noble animals, doesn't mean their waste should be held in any different light than a humans, a dogs, or any other animal that a human has control over. So what can be done? It would be risky for an equestrian to dismount to clean it up and put the poop out to pasture, horse diapers are an option, but even I think that's a little low for horses, there could be planned trail cleanups by the same equestrians who use the trails to rid the trails of their horses poop, or even just regular patrols by concerned equestrians who would want to keep trails open to horseback riding. The nastiest thing I encountered on the trail though, was a 20 foot long spread of vile horse diarrhea that covered the entire width of the trail. That kind of thing just can't be cleaned up well. So what's the answer? I don't think there is a single answer that will make everyone happy. However, horse owners need to take responsibility for what their animals do, and show some respect for other trail users otherwise the right to use those trails can be taken away. 

Anyway, enough of that rant. After a mile on the trail and 1000 ft elevation gained you come out of the forest with views of the Huntsville area, including the Pineview Reservoir, which is filled to the brim with all the spring runoff. From there you climb another 1000 feet to the highest point in the Lewis Peak section of mountain. Now my GPS said this point was higher than Lewis Peak, by about 120 feet, and it doesn't tend to lie. Irregardless, my goal was Lewis Peak, or the furthest I could get before I hit a stretch of snow miserable enough to make me turn back. The trail meandes around some hills, and through large patches of wildflowers, through several stretches of snow, and doesn't really gain much, nor lose much elevation from here till the end. There was only one section of snow that I couldn't just go through, it would've been a nasty slide & broken bones if anything happened while trying to get up it, so I went all the way up and around it. Lewis Peak has a nice view of Ben Lomond & Willard Peak to the North as well as Ogden Peak to the South, and the Weber valley. 

All in all it was 5.3 miles, 2516 ft elevation gained, 762 lost with 3.8 miles of the hike uphill, and 1.5 downhill -- all numbers are for a one way trip. So round trip, it's 10.6 miles and 3278 ft climbed. 

View photos from this trail

Bonneville Shoreline Trail Ogden 9th N -> 12th St

This is a nice little stretch of trail that follows the Ogden-Brigham Canal for the most part. There's a 250 ft elevation gain on the initial 1/2 mile climb on singletrack and then nice long stretches of flat road from there on out with occasional dips and climbs amounting to approximately 543 ft elevation climbed throughout the 6.7 mile out & back ride. There are a couple portions of the canal that are covered with a cement cap which make some pretty sweet jumps when they end. There's a nice view of the valley throughout. The ride ends at the mouth of Ogden Canyon where the pipeline is suspended above the highway. If you climb the concrete stairs up & over you can get a nice view of the overflow waterfall, and even walk a portion of the covered canal as it makes it's way through the rugged side of the canyon. From the opposite side of the canyon on Indian Trail it looks almost like there are tunnels big enough to walk through where the canal has been cut through cliffs, but after seeing the first tunnel (which looks like a spider infested crawl space) I abandoned that idea. It would be cool however if the route the canal takes was passable all the way from Pineview Reservoir through the canyon. This would give hikers & bikers access to the Ogden Valley (the valley Huntsville is in, not the one Ogden is in) without having to ride through the canyon which requires a death wish if you're riding up -- it's not so bad going down, so I hear. I don't want to find that out anytime soon though. So on the way back when you get back to the singletrack, it's a really sweet ride back down. The sagebrush & grasses conceal the trail at every turn, so while it may be really tempting to brake since you won't know what's around the corner, it's even better to just roll through and take what comes at ya'. The upper section of the singletrack has some larger rocks on the trail, but the mid & lower section are pretty much rock free. The ride finishes with some tight switchbacks & then you're back at the parking lot. It takes an hour to get out & back riding at a moderate pace. There's a trail that breaks off of the BST about 1 mile in and does some actual climbing if you want more of a workout. It ends around the BL that's been created with painted white rocks on the mountain side.

Indian Trail (22nd St to the shelter)

I did this over a week ago, but had the GPS elevation profile & map route to put up, so I wanted to post this before I completely forgot about it. The trail is well maintained, and well shaded for the last 2/3 of the trail. There's nothing really remarkable about this trail. You hike from the Ogden benches where you hike among the brush oak, and climb up into the South side of Ogden Canyon where you're surrounded by pine. At a little over 4.5 miles & with 1,746 ft gained, the steepness of the trail is moderate. The views are good, especially in a couple spots along the trail which are perfect for resting. The trail supposedly follows the old route the native americans used to take during their seasonal migrations. It ends at a shelter. Waiting at the end were an innumerable quantity of flies just right in that area. It was quite unbearable, so I took off back down the trail without really taking a break at the shelter. One of the reasons I like hiking to the tops of peaks so much is that the number of insects you encounter drops dramatically the higher you go.