Since most of the snow had melted on the higher peaks, I thought that on my next day off from work, I should attempt my first 11,000er. Since Provo Peak is the closest to me, I thought I would start there.
Although eventually I would like to make an attempt from the valley floor, until I gain my hiking legs for the season, I thought I better make the attempt from the trail head off of Squaw Peak Road.
A Spring avalanche, still blocking the road, made the hike just a bit longer - about 1.2 miles longer round trip. Hiking the Squaw Peak Road, however, actually turned out to be a good warm up for what was in store for me.
About 3.9 miles from Rock Canyon Campground there is a small turnout/parking area. Across the road (to the east) is where the trail to Provo Peak starts. Although unmarked, it is impossible to miss as it actually starts as a four wheeling trail.
The trail starts east - northeast for a little bit and is pretty easy to follow. It eventually runs into a terrace which was carved by the CCC in the 1930's to prevent erosion. The terrace heads north - northeast and was a sharp left from the four wheel drive trail I was just on. The terrace made for easy hiking on a steady uphill grade, but nothing overwhelming.
At about 8800 feet altitude, a cairn and an arrow made with rocks stand in the middle of the terrace apparently to mark the place to turn east off the terrace and start up the hill. I followed the arrow and left the terrace, but didn’t see anything that remotely resembled a trail so I went back to the terrace and continued on for about 60 more yards. Sensing that I needed to start heading east, up the mountain, I decided to leave the terrace here since it appeared that other people had done the same in the past.
Still, even at this point there was no apparent trail. It was pretty obvious where I needed to go to gain the west ridge, so I decided to try my first attempt at bushwhacking. It was pretty easy to navigate my way through aspen trees and other shrubs as it was still pretty early in the season and the bushes and shrubs hadn’t grown very big yet.
At about 9300 feet, I found the trail again. This gave me peace of mind knowing I was going the right way, despite the fact the trail let me straight up hill at an insane grade. This is how the rest of the climb would be - straight up the west ridge of the Provo Peak. This trail made the "Y" trail look like a piece of cake. There were, however, several small break off trails that all seemed to reconnect a few yards later.
As I approached the summit, the wind started gusting so I took my hat off, stuffed some large rocks in it and left it on the trail to pick up on the way down. At this point also, my hands were just about numb as the temperature was dropping and clouds were rolling in. I knew I better hurry before the weather really started to deteriorate.
I reached the summit about an hour and a half after leaving my car. Unfortunately because of the clouds blowing in, the views of Timpanogos and other mountains were obscured. Actually seeing the clouds blow by me was quite a scary sight. They were moving fast and although obviously they wouldn’t hurt, the velocity at which they blew by my face was a little unnerving. It also started to sprinkle. So I grabbed my camera, snapped a few pictures, signed the logbook which was stowed under a pile of rocks at the summit, and hurried down the mountain.
It started raining hard for a few seconds which made me a little uneasy as the down-climb was very steep and I was nervous as to the condition of the road since my pathfinder is only a 2 wheel drive.
I ended up losing the trail again at the same spot that I picked it up on the way up, but accidently ended up taking the same route down as I did up, judging from spotting a couple of my footprints going up the Peak.
I made it back to my pathfinder and started the bumpy trek back. The longest part of the whole trip was having to wait four hours while construction crews worked on the Road. I guess there are worse places to be stranded, but I was too worn out to do any more exploring.
My original plan was to also climb to East Provo Peak but because of the deteriorating conditions and the steepness of the down climb to get over to the peak, I decided not to make the attempt. I was caught a little unprepared on this hike, as I didn’t expect the temperature to be so cold at the summit.
Equipment used: Camelback, waist pack with two 16 oz bottles of water, GPS, two hiking poles, Camera, and two granola bars.
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Friday, March 24, 2006
Y Mountain elev 8568'
My Brother-in-law Jeff, and I had planned this trip to the top of Y Mountain for quite sometime and had actually tried it unsuccessfully about a week and a half earlier. This time, equipped with snow shoes and with a better knowledge of where the Y Mountain trail broke off from the Slide Canyon trail, we hoped we would fare better.
We got to the trail head just a couple of minutes past 8:30 in the morning. We had just had two large snow storms two and three days before we went, so we wanted to get an early start before the ground thawed and the switchbacks to the Y became extremely muddy. It was supposed to be a warm day, with highs reaching into the 60's and when we got started, it was well on it’s way.
The switch backs to the Y are the most difficult and probably the most boring part of the hike, aside from the excellent views offered of the valley below. They are also the most tedious in the spring after a snow storm because of the before mentioned mud and occasional ice that freezes over night. We hit the switchbacks with full force, not resting until "mile marker 4" (there are signs marked with numbers 1 through 12 to mark your progress to the Y. They obviously aren’t mile markers, but we called them mile markers at one point and the name stuck). We made it to the Y in 36 minutes which wasn’t bad considering the slick hiking conditions and factoring in that we still are in winter shape.
Once we passed the Y, we could tell that someone had already started up the trail before us which meant that we wouldn’t have to break the trail. We took the trail to the south of the Y and up through Slide Canyon. A few hundred yards after we started heading east through the canyon, we saw a recently killed dear carcass. It was a rather eye opening reality check for both of us as to the fact that we weren’t alone in the wilderness.
The trail through the pine forest was especially pretty as there was still snow on many of the branches. Once we made it to Bear Flats (sometimes just referred to as "The Meadow"), we decided that it was time to don our snow shoes. It was the first time I had ever worn them and although at first I was skeptical as to how much of a difference they would really make, I soon discovered that if I wanted to do a lot of snow hiking, they would be a great investment.
Soon after Bear Flats, you enter an aspen grove and it is in this grove that the trail to the Y Mountain Summit breaks off to the left. We missed the turn off in our previous attempt but on the way back, noticed where we should have turned. This time also helping us out was the hiking party that was already on the trail before us. Because the snow level was so high, after turning onto the summit trail we had to veer to the right of where the normal trail goes under the trees up a dry creek bed. Though steep, it meant less bending over to get under the tree branches and, besides, the other party had already broken the trail for us. It was at this point that we passed them on the way down. A man, his daughter and their Malamute.
We soon got to another snow covered meadow that I call the Meadow of Death (I’m not sure if it actually has an official name). I call it this because in the summer time, the meadow is filled with wild flowers and the sound of bees all around you is so loud it is very intimidating. The meadow also has a pretty steep grade So the combination of trying to hike as fast as I can through a bee infested steeply graded meadow is enough to warrant the name. This time, though, there were no bees to worry about and we could take our time as we made our way through.
There are two summits on Y Mountain, one to the east and one to the west. The trail takes you to a saddle between the summits and the more defined trail in the summer takes you over toward Rock Canyon and then up the West summit. The East Summit is actually a bit higher (maybe about 40 feet according to my GPS) and has better views of the surrounding mountains and valleys to the East. The West Summit has better views of the Utah Valley below. I had never been to the East Summit before, but since the party before us went that way, we decided we would follow since we wanted to hike both summits anyway. The views were spectacular! We also stopped and ate lunch on the East Summit.
After about 50 minutes of eating and enjoying the beauty, we decided to head over to the west summit. For this trip, we would have to blaze our own trail. Because the summits are so close together, knowing what way to go wasn’t an issue; the issue was walking through the deep snow. This is where our snowshoes saved us from probably turning back. We went straight down the east summit, hiked north toward Rock Canyon, where the normal trail goes, and then started the tough hike up the West Summit. Once we reached the summit, we called our wives so they could take out the binoculars and look for us from our homes (we live across the street from each other). Once we were spotted, we decided it was probably time to head back home.
The decent was quick and uneventful other than the occasional face plant in the snow as we were running down the West Summit, or the joint pain we experienced as we went back down the switchbacks after passing the Y.
It was a very fun hike that gave me my first experience in wearing snow shoes, and was made even more picturesque by the snow covered mountains and trees surrounding us. We finished the hike in about 8 hours, taking about and hour and a half total resting time on top of both peaks.
We got to the trail head just a couple of minutes past 8:30 in the morning. We had just had two large snow storms two and three days before we went, so we wanted to get an early start before the ground thawed and the switchbacks to the Y became extremely muddy. It was supposed to be a warm day, with highs reaching into the 60's and when we got started, it was well on it’s way.
The switch backs to the Y are the most difficult and probably the most boring part of the hike, aside from the excellent views offered of the valley below. They are also the most tedious in the spring after a snow storm because of the before mentioned mud and occasional ice that freezes over night. We hit the switchbacks with full force, not resting until "mile marker 4" (there are signs marked with numbers 1 through 12 to mark your progress to the Y. They obviously aren’t mile markers, but we called them mile markers at one point and the name stuck). We made it to the Y in 36 minutes which wasn’t bad considering the slick hiking conditions and factoring in that we still are in winter shape.
Once we passed the Y, we could tell that someone had already started up the trail before us which meant that we wouldn’t have to break the trail. We took the trail to the south of the Y and up through Slide Canyon. A few hundred yards after we started heading east through the canyon, we saw a recently killed dear carcass. It was a rather eye opening reality check for both of us as to the fact that we weren’t alone in the wilderness.
The trail through the pine forest was especially pretty as there was still snow on many of the branches. Once we made it to Bear Flats (sometimes just referred to as "The Meadow"), we decided that it was time to don our snow shoes. It was the first time I had ever worn them and although at first I was skeptical as to how much of a difference they would really make, I soon discovered that if I wanted to do a lot of snow hiking, they would be a great investment.
Soon after Bear Flats, you enter an aspen grove and it is in this grove that the trail to the Y Mountain Summit breaks off to the left. We missed the turn off in our previous attempt but on the way back, noticed where we should have turned. This time also helping us out was the hiking party that was already on the trail before us. Because the snow level was so high, after turning onto the summit trail we had to veer to the right of where the normal trail goes under the trees up a dry creek bed. Though steep, it meant less bending over to get under the tree branches and, besides, the other party had already broken the trail for us. It was at this point that we passed them on the way down. A man, his daughter and their Malamute.
We soon got to another snow covered meadow that I call the Meadow of Death (I’m not sure if it actually has an official name). I call it this because in the summer time, the meadow is filled with wild flowers and the sound of bees all around you is so loud it is very intimidating. The meadow also has a pretty steep grade So the combination of trying to hike as fast as I can through a bee infested steeply graded meadow is enough to warrant the name. This time, though, there were no bees to worry about and we could take our time as we made our way through.
There are two summits on Y Mountain, one to the east and one to the west. The trail takes you to a saddle between the summits and the more defined trail in the summer takes you over toward Rock Canyon and then up the West summit. The East Summit is actually a bit higher (maybe about 40 feet according to my GPS) and has better views of the surrounding mountains and valleys to the East. The West Summit has better views of the Utah Valley below. I had never been to the East Summit before, but since the party before us went that way, we decided we would follow since we wanted to hike both summits anyway. The views were spectacular! We also stopped and ate lunch on the East Summit.
After about 50 minutes of eating and enjoying the beauty, we decided to head over to the west summit. For this trip, we would have to blaze our own trail. Because the summits are so close together, knowing what way to go wasn’t an issue; the issue was walking through the deep snow. This is where our snowshoes saved us from probably turning back. We went straight down the east summit, hiked north toward Rock Canyon, where the normal trail goes, and then started the tough hike up the West Summit. Once we reached the summit, we called our wives so they could take out the binoculars and look for us from our homes (we live across the street from each other). Once we were spotted, we decided it was probably time to head back home.
The decent was quick and uneventful other than the occasional face plant in the snow as we were running down the West Summit, or the joint pain we experienced as we went back down the switchbacks after passing the Y.
It was a very fun hike that gave me my first experience in wearing snow shoes, and was made even more picturesque by the snow covered mountains and trees surrounding us. We finished the hike in about 8 hours, taking about and hour and a half total resting time on top of both peaks.
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