American Fork Canyon-Trying to Summit

Just this last weekend, I decided to head up American Fork Canyon, and try and get up to the summit of some of the peaks. Being July, I figured I may run into some snow, but it would be manageable. Well let me tell you... I tried to climb Mt Timpanagos and Box Elder Peak, and had to stop short due to all the snow. Since pictures are worth a thousand words, I will let them do the talking. It was beautiful and the weather was great...but that darn snow kept stopping me. Well I guess there will have to be next time.

Mt Timp - July 16, 2011

Mt Timpanagos Trip, July 16 2011

Box Elder Peak - July 17, 2011

Box Elder Peak, July 17, 2011

10 Camping Essentials... great link i found

BootsnAll-10 Gear Items You Need for Any Camping Trip

Cooking on the Trail

We have been out camping before many times, but usually weight was not an issue for us. So, we used to bring our single burner Coleman gas stove with one of those green propane cylinder or two. It worked great, made cooking easy, and felt almost as if we were at home. However, with a longer, more strenuous hike coming up, we decided that we would keep an eye out on weight. Knowing that there are smaller stoves available, we started looking around, and realized that even though they are not expensive, for the price of a new stove I did not mind carrying the Coleman stove. But we got lucky, one day while browsing the classifieds we came across an MSR Pocket Rocket with a few cans of fuel for very cheap!!! We ended up buying it. It has been used, but is in great shape and looks great. We have put it through a couple test runs at home, and no issues yet. This is going to be our backpacking stove. It is small, and fits into my pocket. The fuel can doubles as a base for the whole thing. The can says it provides one hour of heat, but we will put that to the test. Our next few hikes take us either past water, or up to the snow covered peaks, so we will mainly be using it to heat and boil water for our meals.

But now that we have heat, what will we eat...we will cover that soon.

Backpacking through Severe Weather

On Saturday afternoon, I got a call from some friends to join them on a hike that Sunday to Granduer Peak through Parleys Canyon. I was not able to go, but after Sunday came and went, I felt very lucky it worked out that way. It just happened to rain all of Sunday, causing some flash flooding, slick and muddy trails, and possibly other hazards up and down the trails. This did get me thinking though:

What do you do when severe weather hits, and you are out backpacking or hiking?

Of course, I jumped online and started searching. Everyone recommends checking the weather before you go...but what if the forecast looked great and you are half way up the trail. Well reading some of the horror stories of tornadoes and floods, first on the list would be know where you are going! If you are going into a desert, except temperature extremes and little precipitation, but do prepare for the fact that it might pour and there may be flash floods. If you are at 10,000 feet on a mountain ridge, prepare for winds and cooler weather, and maybe even a storm.

In the end, you can over prepare and under prepare. Neither is good, you don't want to carry stuff you won't use, and you don't want to get stranded either. Know where you are going, pay attention to your surroundings, and have some of the basics. Be ready to react to your surroundings. No matter where I go I always carry a few extra basic things in a waterproof container (like a water bottle or food container): compass, matches & homemade fire starters, the foil emergency blankets, flashlight & extra batteries, and some extra food (like gel packs or dehydrated).

Finding the Trail to the Top...

...or making your own??? Kings Peak, located in Duchesne County, Utah, is part of the High Uintas Wilderness in Ashley National Forest. Seems like getting to the top of Kings Peak though is not as easy as it might seem. From all the sources out there, it seems that there is a few ways to get to the top of the peak, but the most traveled trail runs from Henry's Fork Campground to the peak (31 miles long). We decided to follow this trail the first time out there, but its not like we can just pull it up on Google Maps. After some searching, we finally tracked down the USGS topo maps that have some piece of the trail on it. Turns out that the trail spans 4 7.5 minute maps from the 1990's (the new 2011 USGS topo maps have satellite imagery, but lack the trails). I ended up stitching the 4 maps together. I did also get some maps from the Forest Service and BLM Ranger Districts. With the USGS maps, we also realized that there is no designated trail to the top. The last 0.8 miles to the peak will be a scramble up some rocks and boulders from Anderson Pass. Depending on time, we may also try to cross down to South Kings Peak as well. The only problem with these maps is size...they are big (about 4x6 printed sheets all taped together on my wall). They will be great for pre-planing. We have a pretty good idea of our plans, but its better to be safe then sorry!

Source: http://store.usgs.gov ( Accessed June, 2011 - Bridger Lake, Gilbert Peak NE, Kings Peak, Mount Powell)

Our Next Big Trip

So after much thought and discussion, we are now putting together our next "big" trip. We had visited Moab last summer, and managed to hike most of Arches National Park. We where initially planning on returning to southern Utah this summer to visit the other national parks, maybe Canyonlands, Bryce, or Zion's. Since it was summer in Moab last year, it was hot (95°F +)  yet we survived and enjoyed ourselves. However, rethinking it, we decided to go north this summer and see what else Utah has to offer in terms of camping and hiking. We picked up a copy of David Day's book, Utah's Incredible Backcountry Trails. Looking in the Northern Utah section we came across Kings Peak, the tallest peak in Utah (13,528 feet) with about 32 miles of hiking and an elevation gain of 5,080 feet, spread out across 4 days. We decided that this would be our next big trip. Now, we must start preparing for the backpacking adventure.

Its Been A While

So it has been a while since we last had a chance to post anything, but summer is coming, and it is getting warm in Utah now. Just this weekend, we drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon in Salt Lake City and checked out some of the smaller day hikes. The water is rushing, but the weather is great at all the altitudes. Places like Hidden Falls look like massive white water rapids; however, once we hit the ski areas, we noticed the snow is still there...piled way up. We decided to hike around Silver Lake. We did not really get to far, with the 7 or so feet of snow covering the lake. We did however have a snowball fight in 60°F weather wearing shorts and sweatshirts. Also, we finally got a chance to walk out to the small random yellow signs close to the waters edge (that is when there isn't a ton of snow up there). It felt good to be back outside and planning for our next big adventure.