07/01/01 Mirror Lake Scenic Byway
I drove down to Kamas and the Mirror Lake Scenic Byway of the Wasatch National Forest. I have a doctor appointment on Friday and wanted to get a little closer. They're charging $3/day $6/week to drive along UT 150 from Kamas and calling it the Mirror Lake Scenic Byway... and then they want to charge $11/night for toilet and water, no showers, no hookups. Lots of free camping spots and hiking trails. This is area also has the most heavy concentration of for pay campgrounds I've seen. There's one every couple of miles. No showers anywhere but lots of public toilets at turnouts, trailheads, etc.
07/02/01 Hiking Yellow Pine Trail:
Last night I used the TopoUSA software to check out a couple of trails but apparently didn't check out this one. I got to the trailhead about 7:30am. A notice indicated the Yellow Pine Lakes were 4.5 miles away and that seemed like a reasonable distance to me. The sign also said the trail had a steady incline and was rated moderate/difficult.
I started up the trail and sure enough, it was a steady incline and there were no downs at all and very little flats. After a half hour or so I began taking short breaks that gradually became longer. And the trail continued upwards. After many breaks I reached a pretty mountain meadow and took my final break. In 3 1/2 hours I had covered 3 GPS miles and had risen 2000 feet to an elevation of 9100 feet. My legs decided I didn't really need to see those lakes and I agreed. The trip back down was a little tough on the legs too.
I saw one young mule deer buck with its velvety antlers. He had two prongs about nine inches tall and with the velvet, 1 1/2 thick.
07/03/01 Mirror Lake:
I decided to rest the legs today and see what this Mirror Lake Scenic Byway stuff is all about and why I paid $6 for a week's access. I did find lots of good looking camping spots and a fair number of trails. Overlooks of a small gorge and the Provo River Falls were nice.
I passed a couple of small lakes and stopped to take a picture of Lily Lake with several mountain peaks and their reflections in the background. I finally found Mirror Lake and it is a very pretty half mile lake. It appears to sit in a sort of basin with mountains peaks all the way around it. I followed the trail around the lake. For a morning walk, they don't make them much better. The best photo opportunities are at the far end of the lake but I didn't take the camera. I missed a really good one too with a bright red canoe on the lake and two nearby peaks reflected in the water.
07/04/01 Hiking Lofty Lake Loop Trail:
One nice thing in this Mirror Lake Scenic Byway area (in addition to adequate public toilets) is they have trail descriptions and maps at the trailheads... duh, imagine that. I stopped off at Ruth Lake Trailhead but that seemed too short. Then I stopped off at HighLine Trailhead and that would take me into the High Uinta Wilderness.
Then I came to Lofty Lake Trailhead and that sounded better, although it is rated at moderate to difficult again. After the Yellow Pine Trail description, I believed this one but the trail is only 4 miles round trip. Mosquitoes at the parking lot were pretty bad but eased up as I got on the trail.
I passed a couple of small lakes within the first mile as the trail began its steady incline. The trail weaved its way through a long boulder patch and was barely visible. Actually there wasn't a trail through this section and it was a matter of following the footprints. I dunno what people do after a heavy rain and there are no footprints to follow. The faint trail was a bigger deal than usual because I forgot to get a GPS setting at the parking lot. I did, however, get a 10100 foot elevation at the trailhead.
I passed a larger lake with a permanent scout camp. Several barrels and rafts could be seen and several teenagers screaming as only they can. 1.5 hours brought me almost to 11000 feet, 10950 and I passed a couple of large patches of snow. This was the highest I've ever been hiking. The trail dropped 100 feet or so to Lofty Lake. I saw what I thought to be mountain lion tracks and possibly a moose.
The trail continued along side the lake and through a meadow. Then I saw a few ponds several hundred feet below me. My legs felt a little wobbly and I didn't want to descend several hundred feet knowing full well I'd have to regain that altitude somewhere. So, rather than continuing with the loop, I turned back.
Two fishermen had moved onto Lofty Lake when I got back there. They apparently had hiked up behind me. Serious stuff. Then I bumped into two 6-7 year olds bent over under their daypacks plodding away. They were followed by two 12-13 year olds and an older boy. A little further on I passed a chubby 12-13 year old with a red face. He wasn't having a good time. An older man was trying to give him encouragement.
07/05/01:
I moved from Wasatch to Uinta National Forest today. Leaving Wasatch I spotted a young bull moose with a small rack that wasn't much bigger than its ears. It was almost, if not all, black instead of the dark brown I'm used to in the northeast.
I drove out of my way to the Mt. Nebo area of the Uinta National Forest only to find the road closed for construction. That ticked me off. Instead, I had to go over to the Strawberry Reservoir area. I wanted to avoid that area because there's no shade. I suffered through the hottest day of the season for me. Even so it wasn't too bad. Upper 80's, no wind, humid. It cooled off when the sun went down.
All the doctor's appointment was was to set up a time to re-scope the ulcer. That's next Thursday. So back up to the Mirror Lake Scenic Byway. There's plenty of hiking and it should be fairly cool.
07/08/01 Hiking Shingle Creek Trail:
Yesterday was an honest to God rainy day. Clouds crowded the sky all day and it actually rained... 4 or 5 times... and it rained pretty hard too.
This morning the sun was back out as bright as ever even though the temperature was still in the 60's. The main goal of this trail is Shingle Creek Lake, 5.5 miles from the trailhead. Since the trail was rated moderate to difficult, I didn't have any great hopes of reaching it.
Unlike the other trails here, the Shingle Creek Trail wasn't one long continuous incline. The first two miles is pretty flat with only a couple of ups and downs. In fact, there was no elevation change at all. At the second bridge across Shingle Creek at the two mile mark, things changed. Here I had an elevation change of 700 feet in 1/2 mile. That got me huffing and puffing.
Continuing on I passed through thick aspen forests into one of Douglas firs(?). The trail rose at a more gradual pace until somewhere around the four mile mark I was at 9000 feet. The legs and lungs did pretty well but the day pack was putting a strain on my back.
Big, black, nasty looking clouds moved in and I'd like to say they made me turn back, but it was really the strain on my back. 10 minutes after turning back, the rains came and continued most of the way back. I passed a couple on horse back and another couple that started out after the rains stopped.
Didn't see any wildlife but moose tracks followed the trail for a mile or so.
07/11/01:
Sunday night was a lot of big, long boomers with a fair amount of lightning. The past couple of days have been very overcast and several heavy showers. Monday night we had 5 minutes of small hail stones and another 10 minutes of heavy rain. Tuesday was another rainy day.
Wednesday I decided to head back towards Price in preparation for my Thursday doctor's appointment. On the way out of Wasatch I stopped for a cow moose standing in the road. She looked in my direction (they don't see well) and then up into the woods. There I saw a bull moose that was moving towards the cow. Once the cow saw the bull was coming she trotted off into the woods on the other side of the road. The bull then trotted across the road. Meanwhile I'm digging for the camera, trying to get out from under the seat belt and get the door open. I snapped off a picture just as the bull left the road. (08/01: It turned out so so. The one of the younger bull the other day turned out better).
A little further on I saw a nice 6+ point buck. After just watching a couple of moose, he looked tiny. Then I saw another buck with velvety prongs and two small numbs on top of each. I presume the buck with the fully developed 6 point rack was a whitetail and the velvety one was a mule deer. That's the only way I can explain velvet vs. fully developed.