Cascade Mountain Hike

Ever since we moved to Orem I have been looking at Cascade Mountain wanting to climb it. Every morning when I would step outside it stood there laughing at me. But no longer! This labor day I climbed to the summit and conquered the mountain. Yeah, it got a few good blows in against me too. My knees are still hurting a bit from the hike down.

Nate and I had been researching how to get to the top of this mountain for quite a while and we finally drove up Provo Canyon on a search for a good trailhead. After driving around for about an hour we finally came upon a marked trail at Big Springs Park. I didn't know this park existed until this drive. It is a nice little park set way back in the mountains. To get there you drive up Provo Canyon, exit at Vivian Park, and then follow Southfork Road a few miles until you reach Big Springs Park. At the back of the park is a trailhead marker stating that the Cascade Saddle is 4.1 miles up the trail. We now knew where to start. We just had to plan when. Labor Day became the answer to that question. So on Monday a party of 5 set off on the trail at 6:00 AM.

It is still dark outside at 6:00 AM. The first 30-40 minutes we hiked following a single headlamp. Luckily the trail is very clean and nice. In fact, the trail was a lot nicer than I had expected. All the way to the saddle the trail was well defined, not to steep, somewhat shaded, and just a nice walk. By the time we got to the top of the saddle we were wondering what happened to our challenging hike. This was really easy and we thought we were almost there. We were not disappointed though, the hike turned out to be quite challenging and we were not almost there.

From the saddle the trail continued down the other side of the mountain as the Dry Creek Trail but it did not continue on to Cascade Peak. Only the ridge of the mountain continued toward the peak. The trail along the ridge quickly narrowed and much of the ground turned to loose scree. We thought the peek was not too far from where we stood on the saddle, but it turned out it was hiding behind another set of lower peeks. We ended up having another 3 miles to hike.

Several things combined to make the hike along the ridge somewhat technically challenging. You had to be careful where to step due to the loose rock. Several times the ridge was very narrow and large trees were growing right on the top of the ridge. This situation required that you either climb over tree branches or walk down below the ridge. At some points the one side of the ridge was a sheer cliff. The other side was still passable but it certainly limited the trail possibilities. There were several peaks that we climbed before reaching the true summit. Between each peak was a valley in the ridge. This meant that we climbed up and then down several peaks making the hike long and hard. On the return trip we did not follow the ridgeline much at all. We instead hiked on the South side of the mountain 100 feet or so below the ridge. The side of the mountain was steep and covered with scree, but it was easier than the constant rise and fall in elevation.

We made it to the summit right about noon. A full 6 hours after we started. The view was spectacular.

By the time we arrived at the summit I was starving. I sat down, ate lunch, rested. Knowing we had a long hike back down the mountain we stayed just long enough to take a few pictures and sign the register. Overall, this was a great hike. I was better prepared than I was for last years Mt. Nebo hike. It was still quite painful coming down the mountain, but going up was great. I recommend the hike to anyone with a full day available and a fair amount of experience under their belt.

Big Baldy - One Year Later

I climbed Big Baldy again. You can read about my first venture up baldy if you haven't taken that opportunity yet. So, I have been exercising quite a bit since my last trip up the mountain. I didn't think it was doing any good but after this trip I think it may be helping after all.

I started up the mountain Monday morning at 5:30 am. It was still dark outside so I wore a headlamp. The weather was beautiful. The trail is worn enough that it was pretty easy to follow in the dark. There were points, though, were the grass had grown so long on the side of the trail that it bent over and made the trail impossible to see. Luckily, at those points the trail was worn down into a rut which allowed me to stay on the trail by feel instead of by sight. It became light enough to see without the headlamp about 6:10.

I still had to go to work after the hike so I gave myself a time limit of 7:00 at which point I required myself to turn around and return home. At 6:30 I was at the top of the steepest grade and on the back side of the mountain. At this point, I knew I was close to the top. I sped up my pace to make sure I made it to the top before the 7:00 cut off time. I ended up jogging about a half mile of the trail. I finally reached the summit at exactly 7:00 with at least 15 seconds to spare. I climb the trail in only an hour and a half this year cutting about an hour off of last year's time.

After a brief stop to catch my breath I headed back down the mountain. As I headed down I noticed the same birds that I saw last year at the top of the mountain. I got a better look this time at what they were. It was a bunch of grouse running around.

The trip down the mountain took almost as long to make as the trip up the mountain. It was so steep that I had to travel pretty slowly on large parts of the trail. But I made it home at last with just enough time the take a quick shower and run off to work. What a great way to start the work week.

Bearpaw Lake

I spent the last week in the Grand Teton Nation Park. It has been said that the Park is the Disneyland of the National Park system. This seemed to be accurate as there was fun to be had by myself, my wife and my young children. Everyone had a good time. While I did a lot of different things from riding in a covered wagon and watching an old west shoot out to white water rafting I will focus this post only on my hike to Bearpaw Lake.

Bearpaw Lake is the oblong blue spot on the map just north of Leigh Lake. I rode the ferry across Jenny Lake from the South Visitors Center to the Hidden Falls trail head. From there I followed the trail on the west side of Jenny Lake to the trail on the east side of String Lake and Leigh Lake and then up to Bearpaw Lake. I completed my hike at Jenny Lake Lodge.

The overall trip was about 10 miles. The trail was fairly flat and well maintained allowing for fast and easy hiking. The landscapes were beautiful and the lakes pristine. Wildlife was abundant, especially the mosquitoes. I almost ran over a bull moose eating the vegetation on the edge of the trail. He didn't seem to mind me being there at all, which I appreciated. I saw eagles soaring above me. I also saw a lot of humans.

I found it interesting to see how well maintained everything was. As I hiked I heard a chain saw cutting through some fallen trees. Evidence of this could be seen quite often along the trail. Campsites were organized and bear safe lockers were available at each site. Flags and markers were frequent to give direction and show detours. I was surprised at how unnaturally this part of nature was being preserved.

Overall this hike was very beautiful and enjoyable. Next time I am in the area though I will hike deeper into the mountains hoping for a more natural experience.

Extolling the virtues of wool

I can't say enough good things about wool. I have always been told that wool is great for winter camping, but have never really listened. I am now a convert. It all started a few weeks ago when I went to buy some running socks. My old cotton socks were rubbing my feet raw, so I stopped in at Runner's Corner knowing that they would have a good selection of socks. I picked up a couple of pairs of nice socks for running. Then it happened. I saw the wool socks. I remembered that I was going to go on a winter campout in a few weeks, so I looked at the options and picked up a pair of Feetures Bamboo & Wool hiking socks.

I love these socks. They are so comfortable. First off, they come is a size that fits me. The medium size fits shoes sizes 6-8.5. This is great for me because I am a size 8. They fit nice and tight, the way I like it. I don't know why most sock manufactures think that one sock can fit sizes 6-12. It's just silly. Second, the fabric feels great. It took just a little bit of getting used to. It has a different feel then anything I have ever worn. You can feel the fibers in the sock, but they are very soft and nice. Third, no sweat. I don't sweat in these socks. I walk to work most days and when there is a lot of snow on the ground I wear my hiking boots. This is great for the walk, but very hot for inside the building. I have a pair of sandals at work now, but for a while I just wore my boots all day. With my normal cotton socks, my feet were very hot and sweaty, but with these wool socks, no sweat! They help regulate the heat and keep my feet at a comfortable temperature in the heat and the cold. Fourth, they stay dry. I wore my low top hiking shoes with my new socks to work one day last week. It snowed about 4-5 inches that day during work hours. I hiked home through all that snow and then started shoveling the snow when I got home. The bottom of my jeans were soaked. I had snow packed around my ankle. I didn't even notice until I started to take my shoes off. I was completely dry. I shook the snow off my socks and they were still dry too. My conversion was complete.

I went camping this weekend in about a foot of snow. Because of my recent conversion, I went to the local thrift store and picked up a $6 pair of wool suit pants as opposed to the $140 pair of ski pants the salesman at the outfitters store tried to sell me. After tromping through the snow for two days, I was completely dry. Never wet once.

I love wool.

Mt Nebo Hike

I made it to the top of Nebo! I went with Nate and Matt, who are friends from work. It was a very fun hike. I was out of shape and it turned out to be a bit painful as well. For the last few days it has been very hard to get down stairs. I feel like I have been given a large series of shots all in my thighs. In other words, I am very sore. But that is OK. Candace has been very good to take care of me. I have been saying lately that Bianca is learning about consequences, now Candace is telling me that Daddy is learning about consequences. But enough of that business, on to the hike.

Nebo has 3-4 peaks depending on how you define it. There is the north peak, the center peak (which is the tallest), and south peak. Between the south peak and the center peak is another peak that stands just about a hundred feet shorter than south peak. For lack of a better name, I called this peak the "almost south peak."

We hiked up the north peak trail and reached the top of Nebo in a little over 2 hours. The trail is beautiful though pretty much straight up. Much of the trail has nice cover from the fir trees. The picture to the left is of Nate and I on the north peak trail. The trail leads up the ridge you can see behind us in the picture. It then moves behind the north peak and continues up to the summit.

From the summit our plan was to traverse the ridge from the top of Nebo to the south peak. This is the part of the trail that was not really a trail at all. There was no maps saying it was possible, but we had read of people doing it. So, that was our plan. Get up there, figure out how to get across and then come down the other side of the mountain following the south peak trail.

As you can see from the remaining pictures this turned out to be a little more technically challenging than we expected. The ridge in places was literally less than a foot wide and a few hundred feet down on both sides. It was a very fun hike, but with my fear of heights, I spent most of the climb on both my hands and feet moving quite slowly. The approximately one mile between peaks took us a little over two hours to traverse. This included about a half hour of deliberation on whether we should continue on or turn back. At one point the trail went straight down for about 100 feet and was covered in loose shale. Of course one can easily sit down and slide to the bottom, but it was unclear whether we could get back up the other side of the trail or not. From where we sat, it looked very steep and nearly impassable. Finally Nate decided the only way to know was to go look. So down the trail he went. In a few minutes he yells back that the trail look fairly easy to climb. So down we go. The impassable trail was relatively easy to cover. In another half hour or so we were on the top of the south peak.

By this time my legs were killing me. I was dead tired. I no longer wanted to climb anything. My lack of preparation through out the summer was shining through. I didn't even want to stand up for a photo op. I just sat on a rock and rested...hoping my body would forgive me for torturing it. I am writing this four days after the hike. My thighs are still killing me.

The trail down the south side of Nebo was nice. The were lots of wild flowers and other plants that lined the trail. It was fairly steep and about twice as long as the trail up the north side. Going up the north side and down the south side was definitely the right way to go.  By the time we got down I just wanted to sit down, but my legs hurt so bad that it was hard to do.

After an hour drive home, a warm shower, and dinner, I spent the night...hiking. Grandpa and Grandma were in town and we had free tickets to see the Thanksgiving Point Gardens. So we all went and walked around some very beautiful gardens for the evening. It was wonderful, but I sure slept well that night.

I learned a lot of things from this hike. I learned about consequences and preparation. But I think the most poignant thing that I learned was about perspective. The pictures you see give a glimpse of what we saw as we hiked, but they lack perspective. It is hard to tell from the pictures what the mountain was really like. Each hike I go on I notice that things change dramatically based on where I am at on the trail. The same mountain or the same valley may look completely different from a different point on the trail. As we sat and wondered if the trail to the south peak was passable or not the trail looked very steep and dangerous. As we drew nearer to the actual place we had to climb it became simple. I think in life we need to take the time to look at things from different perspectives. We need to see things from different angles before we pass judgment. Before we decide to turn back, before we decide to avoid a challenge, we need to move in close and find out what is really before us.

You can find more pictures of the hike in Matt's picassa web album.

Big Baldy Hike

I made it to the top of big baldy this morning. I started at the trail head at 6:00 AM and made it to the summit at 8:15. Wow am I sore! The trail I took was only about 3.5 miles but it was straight up. No switch backs, no flat spots. Just straight up, and on the way back it was straight down. It was beautiful though. Big Baldy sits right below Mt. Timpanogos on the East side. When the trail curves around to the back side of Big Baldy you find yourself in a beautiful valley. Tempanogos towers above you on one side and Big Baldy stretches up on the other. I would have taken pictures, but I can't find our camera.

There was a lot of wildlife out this morning as well. I ran into all sorts of different birds, including something that looked like a mix between a pheasant and a turkey. It looked like a pheasant except it's tail fanned out when it took off. There was a blue jay on the very top of the the very tallest tree. Lots of insects were buzzing around by the time I got to the top. I met a black snake. I think we scared each other. I think it was just a garter snake, but I have never seen a black one before. I saw quite a few ground squirrels. I saw a large deer jump across the trail abut 100 yards in front of me. Then there was all the things I couldn't see. I could hear things moving around in the brush from time to time, but it wouldn't come out for me.

I have been looking at Big Baldy for the last six months. Ever since we moved here, I wake up each morning and look out our bedroom window at Big Baldy. Circumstances being as they have been I have not been able to make the climb until now. Well, that is not entirely true. I have started up the trail twice now, but have not had enough time to finish. I like to go hiking early in the morning before work, but that means I only have a few hours to hike.

Here is a map of the trail I took. You might have to zoom in a little bit to see the terrain better.

View Larger Map

2007 Backpacking highlight video

I created a short highlight movie of some of the backpacking trips I went on this summer with our boy scout troop. I created the movie with iPhoto and iMovie. It was surprisingly easy. After finishing I remembered one of the apple ads. “Better Results” is the personification of how easy it is to create a very nice movie. There is sample music, useful clip transitions, easy music adjustments, clip effects, and many more useful tools. The tools are available, but more than that, they are easy to use. It took only about an hour to build the movie, and upload it to YouTube. It was fun to waste the hour creating the movie.

paul

Mt. Timpanogos Hike

This weekend I spent 3 days backpacking around Mt. Timpanogos. It was a great trip. My neighbor and I took 5 boy scouts on the trip with us. We left from our homes on Thursday about 7:00am. We parked just above Aspen Grove and began our hike.

The first part of the trail is actually paved. Some time ago there was a one foot wide trail of blacktop laid. It turns out that this is not very nice on sore knees. Shortly after the pavement ends you come to a nice waterfall. This is a great place to refill you water (make sure you filter any water you plan to drink).

We hiked about five miles up the canyon to a hidden valley. The valley is just off the trail. It is a beautiful place to stay. It must be a favorite spot for the mountain goats too. They frequented our campsite. Many of them walked right through our camp.

Hidden lake is at the back of the valley. The second day we were there we spent an hour or so swimming in the lake. The lake was about 100 yards by 20 yards and only 1 yard deep. A little deep after you sink into the 6 inches of mud that forms the bottom of the lake. The water is run off from a glacier which sits at the South end of the lake. A truly breath taking experience.

About a mile up the trail from our campsite is Emerald Lake. Emerald Lake sits in a valley overshadowed by the Timpanogos summit.

From here you can see the shack that sits on top of the mountain. A small shelter was built at the lake about 50 years ago. About a 1/2 mile past the lake you get your first view of the American Fork canyon. As you climb over a small hill the canyon opens up before you.

The trail then lead over a large rock slide. This is a fairly rough trail. There is no flat spot to walk on. You only have rocks. At the far side of the rock slide is a steep trail covered in shale rocks. This is perhaps the hardest part of the climb. A series of tight switchbacks follows this to the top of the saddle. Following the saddle and then maneuvering up the side of the mountain brings you to the Timpanogos summit. I was dizzy for most of the final climb. You are literally standing on the edge of the mountain. The peak is only a few feet wide and very steep on both sides. The clouds were coming up from the valley floor by the time we reached the summit limiting our view some. But it was a beautiful site.

You can view a slide show of the hike if you would like.