Skiing and Canyoneering

To say that I live a unique state with lots of contrast is a huge understatement. Here is an example of some of the contrasts this state has to offer recreationists. On Friday I had an appointment with a customer in Mountain Green a small community near the Odgen mountains (north end of the Wasatch). My client's home was only 10 or so miles from Snowbasin ski resort which just got the majority of the precipitation that the last storm brought through. Because of the temperature drop with this storm Snowbasin had about 30 inches of new snow. After my appointment I drove up to the lodge and hiked up the mountain to get excellent powder turns. I have 25 months of consecutive skiing in the Wasatch mountains. This was my official start to the 2012-2013 ski season.

Early Saturday morning (really still night) I got up and met Bill and a couple other hikers just off I-15. We loaded into Bill's Exploader and headed south. I-15 to Hwy 6 south to I-70 west to Hwy 24 south to Hanksville. At Hanksville we refueled, went potty and bought convenience store food and drink. We continued further south on the Scenic Byway Hwy 95. A few miles out of Hanksville we turned off on an unmarked gravel road heading west. We snaked alone this road that is in the Poison Springs area for about 4 or 5 miles till we came to a few vehicles with tents nearby. We unloaded here, talked to the two souls that were awake and getting geared up. We quickly geared up too and headed for our first canyon. We were looking for the opening into Constrychnine. We hiked up and down over the rolling terrain looking for a GPS waypoint that would be the start of the adventure. The opening to this canyon was a huge surprise. All of a sudden we were upon a gaping hole in the earth. There was some webbing wrapped around some rocks signaling this as the first rappel of a little over 100 feet. Once down in the canyon I was delighted with the beautiful smooth sandstone rock walls. We hiked along to the next rappel a bit longer at almost 200 feet. The bottom of the canyon was open for easy hiking with a few obstacles along the way. The next rappel was into a dark hole. After hiking through some narrow, high walls the canyon opened up. What done already? We followed the GPS waypoints for the long climbing hike back to the car.

After a drive south to a road side picnic area we had our lunch and rested a bit before driving back north to our next canyon the Leprechaun. This canyon was different in a lot of ways but the first difference was that we had the long climbing hike to get to the head of the canyon. Leprechaun Canyon has three branches. We were headed for the start of the West Leprechaun Canyon. It was like hiking in Snow Canyon in St. George area in that we were hiking over and around sandstone hills. After our first short 60 foot rappel I quickly learned why we had brought knee and elbow pads. We used them to add to our leverage as we down climbed short obstacles and got into increasingly narrow slots. We used shorter ropes to down climb along our route. One of the narrow wall sections lasted for about 100 yards but I may be exaggerating a bit. That section took the longest to negotiate for me being a newbie and all. When we exited the narrow canyon we were in a beautiful creek bed with high walls. We had an easy walk back to the car. One of the hikers in our party had completely worn out the rear section of his pants. Mine were in pretty rough shape too. We changed into comfortable cloths and drove back to Hanksville for burgers, fries and shakes. Then the long drive home.

Lone Peak

When I look east from my front porch I look directly at Lone Peak. It rises almost 7,000 vertical feet from my front porch to the peak. I have become somewhat fixated on it over that previous year since I watched this video. http://youtu.be/TwYIbafCEnc One summer Saturday night after I got the honeydos done I hiked up the Bear Creek trail toward the summit. I was treated to the most beautiful sunset over the Great Salt Lake and the Oquirrh Mountains. Continuing up I could see into Utah County. I saw some fireworks in Utah County as it got dark. I turned around and headed down but got a good taste of what would be in store for an assault on the peak. The trail was loose and steep. Actually was easier going up than going down. So when Connie went to Disneyland with the Hunts I had a Saturday to myself. I started up the Jacobs Ladder trail early and hiked in the dark with a headlight for about 20 minutes before the sun started to lighten my way. Turns out it was the opening day of deer hunting season. As I ascended I past abandoned 4 wheelers and I could start to pick out orange jacketed hunters perched over the side of the lower mountain. Also as it got light guns started to fire. At one point I observed a hunter taking aim and firing. I could also see his target - a deer. It took a couple of shots but I think he got it. I didn't wait to see, I kept hiking. Eventually I came to the Draper Ridge trail junction. The trail was not as steep at this point making for very pleasurable hiking. The terrain also changed to a more alpine environment. Eventually I came to the upper cirque. It is loaded with large granite boulders. I thought I was following the main trail but ended up scrambling over these big boulders in an inefficient way. Once I got to the end of the upper cirque I started to ascend to the final ridge to the peak. I met 3 hiker at this point a Dad and two adult daughters. The Dad had summitted Lone Peak an astounding 29 times. Both daughters had also summitted before. I joined their group and followed them to the summit. The Dad's trail knowledge made the final scramble easy and fun. This summit is absolutely incredible. Getting to it is one thing but actually standing on it is something else. It's like standing on your kitchen table with dangerous drops on all sides. And the view is the best - in all directions. I was starting to chill so I didn't stay long on the summit. I stayed with the daddy daughter group all the way down. Turns out there is a better route up through the cirque. By staying higher on the west side of the cirque there was a pretty smooth trail back to the alpine meadow area. Then the fun begins. The steep decent on slippery trails made for slower going than I anticipated. Trekking poles helped but only somewhat. Our little group took a few breaks on the way down including our lunch break in the upper cirque. The Dad and daughters were such good and nice people. It was a real pleasure hiking with them. I had thoughts of bolting ahead but didn't. I was pretty worn out at this point but mostly I enjoyed their company. We said our goodbyes at the trailhead and I drove on home total exhausted. About 10 hours of hiking. The only picture I got was the picture of me on the summit. The rest are from the internet. I’ll check my batteries before my next hike up to the summit of Lone Peak. Yes I want to do it again.