Thurston Peak

Thurston Peak has been on my list for a long, long time. Since it was only a ridge hike I thought it would be easy enough to get over, bag it, and come back. Not so. I keep thinking that the snow should be gone by now, it is July, and we had an incredibly warm spring, but somehow the snow is still sticking around, and covering the trails.

On the way up the canyon road to the area by the spherical radar towers I passed 4 bikers, they must've come all the way from the valley, and I later on passed them in the middle of my hike, which means they did make it to the top, and at that point had already scored more than 5000 ft elevation & 10+ miles. I don't know where they were headed, but they're pretty hardcore just to have made it that far. 

It was a good hike, I had about 2500 ft elevation climbed by the time I was through. There were a couple of sections that lost/gained 3-400 ft along the way making the total elevation climbed pretty significant when you look at the starting elevation of about 9100 ft, and the summit elevation of 9700 ft.

The approach climbs about 650 ft from where you leave the Great Western Trail to the summit. There are plenty of game trails to follow up to the top, and by staying further east, rather than west I avoided the mounds of sagebrush that line the eastern side. The summit isn't really that spectacular, although there is a monument to the guy the peak is named after. Odd though is the fact that there is no actual trail to the top (at least that I was able to find). In fact on the way down I decided to try a different way down to see if it would've been a better route. It wasn't. When I finally hit the Great Western Trail again to get back to my truck it was pretty overgrown. If it doesn't get used more I wonder if a trail will even be distinguishable in a couple of years.

After 9 miles & 2500 ft elevation climbed I was more than ready to go home.

After I get Willard Peak I will have climbed all the county high points north of Salt Lake, and all of the county high points that surround the Great Salt Lake

Ben Lomond Peak

Saturday was my first peak of the season. Originally I set out for Willard Peak, it's Weber counties highest peak. The easiest way to get to the top is to go to the town of Mantua and climb a fairly decent, but bumpy road to the Willard Basin just below the peak. It took more than an hour to get up the dirt road. You can cruise up it on a 4-wheeler, but anything larger will be slower. I had to get by a couple Suburbans on the road, both times there was less than an inch of clearance, and both encounters were in wide sections of the road.

At the Willard Basin Trailhead there's a nice spring flowing out of a pipe onto the side of the road. Up the trail is a nice snow-fed lake, and above that is Willard Mountain to the West, and Willard Peak to the East. To get up there you can take two different trails (or continue on up the road to be dropped off nearly at the summit of Willard Mountain at a place called Inspiration Point). The trail I chose meant crossing a very long section of snow at a precipitous angle. It didn't look so bad from the lake. In retrospect, the other trail would've been much better, but crossing the snow made the trip a lot more interesting. Once on the ridge between the two peaks there's a nice trail that goes from that ridge, around Willard Peak, and down to Ben Lomond. Figuring that there would be a trail to the top of Willard I followed the trail towards Ben Lomond. After not seeing a clear trail I decided to just do Ben Lomond, and then Willard later on. There were a couple more patches of snow to cross on Ben Lomond, but the trail was nice for the most part. On the way over I spotted a very faint trail up Willard Peak from the southern end, but there wasn't enough time. All in all it was a nice, easy trek, 6 miles in all, w/ a little over 1000 ft in elevation gained. The GPS read 9726 ft on Ben Lomond.

On the way down to SLC a couple hours later for a reception it started pouring, and there was lightning all around. I'm glad there was great weather while I was up there. 

View photos from this trail

Bonneville Shoreline Trail

I've spent the past couple weeks biking the Utah County section of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. Over the past couple years I've biked sections of it, w/ moderate success of finding all the sections. The thing really isn't mapped that well, and their website hasn't had updated maps in a very long time -- not that those maps would do any good anyway. So armed w/ my GPS I set out to map most of it, and I had to find the connecting chunks that I have yet to ride. The trail has some really fun sections to ride, and there's a good mix of all types of trail riding throughout. There's some sweet downhill singletrack with tight turns, and trees/brush lining the sides, then there's roller coaster style trails in doubletrack, and plenty of uphill to make the legs burn. I managed to get about 25 miles of it mapped. There's probably another 5 miles down in Springville that I'd have to find. I was down there in unfamiliar territory biking last night when the trail did it's typical thing and went off at an intersection in an unpredictable route, and I was too tired to want to look for it. It had taken two weeks of biking and recovering to get that far, and though it was a good time, I just didn't want to go any further. Since I'm moving out of the area in a couple of days, I think I'll just leave the trail at that, and if anybody else wants to submit the rest of it later on they can.

I don't know who's to blame for the lack of trail markings, or directions. It could be the local cities, or the trail association itself. I find it humorous that where trail markings are essential, like at intersections, there's no signage to be found, but when the trail is obvious, and there's no chance of getting off course there are signs galore. Hopefully the maps, and info I've put together will be of help to others to know where the trail goes.

Moab 2004

My spring birthday vacation has come and gone. April 15-17 in Moab; what a blessed place. I had planned on biking, hiking, whitewater, and golf and managed to get all of those in during the 3 day trip. Since I was carrying a lot of gear, and I hate moving anything I don't want stolen from the back up to the cab whenever I have to leave my truck anywhere I decided to actually stay someplace in Moab this time around instead of just camping. I tried to get a cabin since they're cheap, but I couldn't find any vacancies since it was late notice by the time I thought of that. The only place I did find vacancies was at the Days Inn. I don't think I'll ever go back to the Moab Days Inn again. It was terrible. I hardly got any sleep the first night because of all the noise coming in from the hall and from the building. My room even came complete with rubber sheets! For the love, everything was so bad that I almost went out to sleep in my truck. I made it through that night, and made sure I bought ear plugs for the second one. Never again. 

Okay, so let's get down to the real vacation: I got down to Moab around 10:30 am on Thursday, got checked in, and got ready for some mountain biking. I bought a Nalgene hydration pack for this trip. My Camelbak has been well used over 7 years, and it was about time for it to be retired. The Nalgene packs are sweet. You can disconnect the hose from the water bladder and the bladder doesn't leak (the hose does though). It comes with it's own insulation bag to keep things cool, and I like the bite valve that comes with it. The bite valve won't even leak if you put stuff on it, unless it can get it just right, but tha'ts not likely to happen. The thing is even a lot cheaper than a Camelbak of similar carrying capacity. It even has a mesh pocket in the middle of the pack that I can stick my GPS in when I just want it to track where I go. I love the thing. Anyway, I went down to one of the bike shops to rent a bike. I didn't want to bring mine down and worry about hauling it around when I could get one and ride it hard for $30. So my dual suspension rental and I were off to the Slickrock Bike Trail. I really didn't have anything to eat for breakfast, except for a couple Krispy Kremes when I was on my way out of town earlier that morning, and I didn't want to stop and get something to eat right before I hit a trail, so I did the foolish thing and hit the trail around noon. My Nalgene was filled with 2.5 liters of Gatorade, I'd be fine, right? Well the trail kicked my butt. 1.5 miles in I thought of just turning around since my legs were burning out halfway up all the hills, but I kept going. After 2.5 miles I seriously thought of turning around, but I still had 4 hours left on the rental bike (started w/ 5). I wasn't going to turn around when I came all the way down there to do the trail, so I chilled in the shade for 15 minutes and got going again. After I was warmed up enough things weren't that bad, just a mild nauseous feeling from eating an energy bar and gatorade on an empty stomach :P I managed to make it up to mile 8 of 10.5 before I hit real problems. My quads started seriously cramping up. That's how it is when you choose to have the Slick rock trail as your annual kick in the butt to get back in shape. I managed to bike the last 1.5 miles out regardless and get the bike back to the shop with 1.5 hours left. 

I showered up after that and grabbed some lunch then headed out to my golf lesson. The golf course in Moab is pretty nice considering it's in the middle of a desert. The pro who gave me the lesson was less experienced than others I've had lessons from, but was able to get my swing in shape when the others weren't doing much for me. With the lesson done, and the sun setting, it was time to find some good food to help recover from the days activities. I grabbed some grilled salmon and fettuccini at the fire baked pizza place. There was a group of frenchies eating behind me. I don't know if they were trying to fit into the american stereotype of the french, or if we actually got a stereotype right, but one of them was wearing a black and white striped t-shirt, others had the long sleeve sweaters tied around the neck, etc... and they were really nitpicky at the salad bar talking about how our food just isn't as good as theirs.

Westwater was on day 2. The water level was at 3600 CFS, which is very, very low for the Colorado. I went with Adrift, they had special pricing this month and were prompt with the emails, so I just went with them. It took about 1.5 hours to get from Moab to the put-in. Since the river was so low, it also means that it's real slow. It took a couple hours to really get into the canyon, but it's really sweet once you get into it. The sandstone cliff walls give way to black granite that's been polished by the water to a high gloss finish in places. It's strange to see red sandstone on top of black granite in the SouthWest, but it's there. We stopped for a quick "snack" and to change into wetsuits. In the end they weren't really all that necessary. Most of the class 3 rapids would be pushing it if you were to call them class 2's and the big rapid on the ride, Skull, was barely even worth mentioning. The only really good rapid out of the 11 was Sock it to Me. It was a class 3, and a good ride. One person in the raft ahead of ours was bucked out, and her husband had her pulled in just as quick. The guy next to me in the raft was bounced 4 feet in the air, twice, but managed to land in the raft both times. Well, now that I know what to expect at a meager flow rate, I'd like to do this at 20,000 CFS and get a good ride out of it.

Day 3 was spent in Canyonlands. I've never been through the park, so I wanted to see what it had to offer. I only did the northern section of the park called "Island in the Sky". There were some interesting hikes, but I don't think it offers much so I won't come back to this area again, though I would really like to rent a jeep and go exploring the roads at the base of Island in the Sky and down in the Needles section. Floating the Green River through here would be fun too. From there it was back home. My truck turned 150000 miles on the way back just North of Helper. I think it'll make it another 50k, but who knows. If I get another truck it will be so I can invest in a hard shelled tonneau cover for the back that I can lock down so I can leave stuff in it and not worry about it. Anyway, when I hit Utah Valley it was pouring rain. "Welcome Home", right.

View photos from this trip

San Rafael Swell

I went down to the San Rafael on Saturday to get away from it all. I seriously needed a break from work, looking for a house, and everything else that's going on. I got down to the Wedge Overlook around sunset. I had planned on hiking around the bottom of the canyon that makes up the Wedge, but it was already dark, so I set up camp. The temperature was around 10°. The 0° sleeping bag I purchased the day after Thanksgiving was awesome. I just needed a better face mask for when I was all bundled up inside as the tip of my nose got a little cold. I don't know how the guys on Everest can stand to live in that environment all the time. I didn't even have any wind blowing, and I was hovering at the very limits of my tolerance. There was a 3/4 moon, and plenty of stars, but it being so cold I couldn't stay awake too long to appreciate them. The worst part of it all is when you wake up and have to leave the warm cocoon of the sleeping bag and get dressed to do stuff. That's about the time I went back to my truck and turned it on till it warmed up and I was warm, then I packed everything up and went home. I guess I'm a wuss when it comes to cold weather camping. I don't know many people that would enjoy camping in that temperature, so I don't feel apart when I say that I thought it sucked.

Habitat for Humanity

I've been going up to the thriving mecca of Magna since July nearly every Wednesday to help build houses w/ Habitat for Humanity. It's a riot. You get your regulars, most of which are pretty cool. They're a mix of retired guys, unemployed guys, guys that work odd hours a couple days a week, and the young single guys with nothing better to do (i.e. me). Then you get the volunteer groups. My favorite has been ATT Wireless because they bring cold drinks, and order pizza. 

Since I've been going there we've mainly been working on 4 different houses. There are four houses that have already been built and are occupied, with another 8 or 9 lots awaiting some action over the next couple years. Through the summer months most of my time was spent shovelling, and raking gravel for foundations and driveways. It does a wonder for your abs & back ;) On days where somehow I was able to do something else we mainly framed three of those houses (after the foundations were all done). One is a two story we put the rafters on a couple weeks ago. 

It's been a lot of fun to learn this much about buliding houses. I don't know how much longer I'm going to keep going up there. I mean, it is 48.64 miles one way. With 15 total trips up there, that's 1459.2 miles so far. At least the mileage should be tax deductible. I'm going to be looking at the local habitat group in Provo. They've done a very poor job of impressing me before when I inquired with them last year. When I sent in my application to the SLC habitat chapter they called me the very next day. Very impressive. It looks like Provo is actually doing something right now, so maybe I will switch. 

Squaw Peak

Starting elevation: 4728
Summit elevation: 7854
Total Gain: 3126 ft.
Trail Length (one wayy) 2.9 Miles

It was a good day today to climb a mountain. Beautiful weather, not too hot or cold, not a cloud in the sky. Halfway up the mountain when I realized that it was a Saturday and that we had great weather I wondered why I wasn't climbing one of the peaks on my list. Squaw Peak is probably one of the lowest peaks to climb in the area, but aside from a very well groomed trail all the way to the top it was a similar climb to many of the other peaks I climbed this summer. Some of those peaks even had their starting elevation around the summit elevation of Squaw Peak. The typical ascent on those peaks was between 3-4000 ft.

I was probably 12 when I first remarked Squaw Peak's southern exposure with the jagged cliffs running all the way from the canyon floor to the summit, and the cliffs pretty much ran the length of the canyon at it's base (Rock Canyon). I had just gotten into rappelling and I thought it would be cool to be able to rappel from the summit down to the canyon floor. I wonder if anybody's ever attempted that. Looking at the range from the West it looks like Squaw Peak, and Y Peak (The peak just to the South of Squaw) were once the same, and the mountain just cracked open forming the two peaks, and Rock Canyon.

I almost summitted Squaw Peak w/ my bike 2+ years ago. I was riding along the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, and as it typically does, it disappeared. So going in the direction the trail was headed I hopped a fence and rode a trail that was kind of faint, but still there; hoping eventually to rejoin the real trail somewhere down the line. The trail ended at another fence, but I saw a trail going up on the mountain. I thought I'd ride that for a while and then turn around. I got halfway up the mountain and decided that I'd already come that far I might as well keep going to the top. It took a couple hours, and I think I was finding my way up the upper half on game trails, but eventually I reached the ridge that leads to the summit. My roommate had told me at one time that there was a trail that led to Squaw Peak (he was talking about the one I hiked today) and I decided that I would try to find it. If I would've hiked for 10 minutes in a southerly direction up the ridgeline I would've hit it, but I went East, straight down the other side. The trees and grasses looked lighter and I thought I would intersect the trail eventually. There was no trail in the area I was in. The grass was now up to my shoulders and I had to carry my bike above my head, I ran out of water on the ridgeline, and it had been 8 hours since I'd last eaten, not to mention the denseness of the trees making travel time really slow. I would've turned around, climbed back up to the ridgeline and packed myself out the same way I came in, but I needed water, so I kept going another half mile until I hit what I was hoping to be a nice sized stream I could get water from. It was bone dry. It made travel easier for the most part though. When the streambed was blocked with fallen trees it was a pain. I thought I was going to have to go all the way up to Provo Canyon, but thankfully there was a canyon I ran into -- I think it's called Crack Canyon, not sure -- it had a little trickle of water flowing down the top portion of it. It was teaming with all sorts of insects swimming around in it, and who knows what kind of other nasties were in it -- the Camelbak slogan comes to mind to describe the situation: "hydrate or die". If I would've known the area better I would've known that there was a beautiful dirt road and a campground about 500 ft to the east of where I filled up w/ the nasty water. It took a couple hours of rock hopping (on foot, not on my bike) to get to the mouth of the canyon, but the canyon was a welcome change to the dense forest I had just trudged through. Still carrying the bike was still a pain. I had wanted to leave it somewhere on the mountain to come back for it when I was in a better condition to carry it out -- and after I had found a better route for getting into this area -- but I never wanted to go back there, ever, ever again. I made it out of the canyon and finally I could ride again. Made it to the car about 8 hours after I left it. In all it was probably about 5 miles, but the route was less than optimal. It was really disappointing to see just how close I was to the trail I was seeking two years ago. Biking down that trail and coming out of Rock Canyon would've been the greatest thing, and would've made the entire trip only 3 hours long instead of 8. Well, whatever doesn't kill you usually makes you stronger -- and wiser. A GPS would've been awesome for that trip, no, I take that back, it would've been priceless.

I'm glad I went up there today. I've been bogged down with work from several different clients this past month, and this was a welcome break from the routine.

I got a beta this week. I call him Monsieur Poisson (Mr. Fish). I was thinking it's kind of sad how he has to live his life in a tiny little bowl just swimming around in circles all day long. He'll never be able to puddle jump in southern asia where he comes from, and fight off invading male betas, or enjoy any of his other natural activities. I realized a second after I had that thought that his life isn't that much different from mine. I really spend most of my days in my room; either working or sleeping. If we were to compare our living space relative to our mass I think Monsieur Poisson gets more living space. On top of that he has a deluxe beta tank w/ his own cool blue led light in a stylish little stand which is quite the upgrade from a puddle back home. And human kind today lives better than the noblest kings of the past with all of our conveniences and technology. Since we're pretty much in the same boat I can only reason that if I enjoy my living quarters and lifestyle, then so does Monsieur Poisson. 

View photos from this trip