Wagner Spring

This is another Hike of the Week from the Salt Lake Tribune, originally published 5/6/2012. It is easy, and would be fun for children.  It is a  little under 3 miles round trip, and took me 1 1/2 hours, but that included finding 4 geocaches.  If you are a Geocacher, be sure to download the geocaches in the area. There are some cool ones. ( You can use GC1KCQ3 as a target geocache  for your Pocket Query  http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC1KCQ3_solsbury-hill-wasatch?guid=123daf70-f583-439a-a62b-db9d4e81568a. Click to see some cool pictures of the area. That cache is at the destination, the top of a hill.) The trailhead is right across the street from Hogle Zoo on Sunnyside Avenue. Turn left into the first possible parking lot after you pass Pioneer Trail State Park. The trailhead parking is immediately to your right after you turn in, next to the Zoo North Lot. (GPScoordinates N40 45.054 W 111 48.693) Park your car and walk through the gap in the fence. If you go left, you will be on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, but instead go right, and up the hill. You will come to a trail junction at .23 miles. There is a sign post, but no sign. Go to the right.  Now just follow the trail for a while. If you are a geocacher, be sure to look for the geocache called Big Beacon 2. http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC2GD1Q_big-beacon-2?guid=7858280a-dbce-4b75-a1b0-8ac465120771 It has a very cool container. Even if you are not a geocacher, you can look for it; Here's how: Less than 1/2 mile from your vehicle, you will have a great view of what looks to be a dog park down below on your right.  When you are about even from the restrooms at the dog park, you are maybe 100 yards from the cool geocache. After a clear, straight portion of trail, you will come to a Gambel Oak maybe 5 feet tall on your right. Below that Oak is a rock, pictured below. Turn the rock over and you will be surprised. It is one of my favorite geocaching containers!  Be sure to reposition the rock the way you found it!  If you have children along, that would be a fun thing for them to look for. If you find it using my description, please let me know!  About 1/2 mile into the hike, you will see a large concrete tank on your left. This is Wagner Spring.  It has kind of a cool view.  If I were a Freshman at the U, I would set up a candlelight dinner here for a fun date!   There is another pretty good geocache maybe 20 feet North of the tank. http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GCWKYN_wagner-springs-tank-cache?guid=851af906-f7f4-4795-b7d1-d7d351f1369e
     Continuing past the tank, in a couple of minutes you will reach another junction. Go to the right up the hill.  At the 1 mile point, you will reach a buried crude oil pipeline, marked by several signs.
Apparently, the owner of a black wide tip permanent marker, who has anger problems and a foul vocabulary, does not like the oil pipeline for some reason.  (He missed a few of the signs farther up the hill though.)  At the pipeline, turn right and head up the hill.  At the top of the hill, you will come to another intersection. Go right, and head toward the higher hill that has a dirt road going straight up it.  It looks like it should be difficult and tiring, but I found it to be quick and easy. There is a bright yellow bike trail marker on top, and another geocache. http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC1KCQ3_solsbury-hill-wasatch?guid=123daf70-f583-439a-a62b-db9d4e81568a I enjoyed the view, but did not stay too long, because there was some lightning headed that way, and I did not want me and my aluminum trekking poles to be the highest things around!  I went down the way I came. At the trailhead, I noticed a hand written sign that I had not seen at the beginning. It said, Caution. Mountain Lion was seen on trail on 8/22/14 at 2:15 PM.  One week almost to the minute, from when I hiked this trail!

Trailhead

Wagner Spring Tank

Oil Pipeline

Second to last hill. Watch for cacti on sides of road

Almost there!

Trekking poles enjoying the view.

View from top of  hill.

The cool geocache. Trekking poles give perspective
of size of rock.

The cougar warning that I saw after the hike.

Deaf Smith Canyon

This was a "Hike of the Week" in the Salt Lake Tribune on 8/14/14.  It is a fun little hike, but  it is not heavily travelled and there is not much of a trail for a lot  of the way. I did not see a single piece of litter on this hike, and that is very rare!  The trail is  less than 2 miles each way, but seems a little longer! You have to go over/under several fallen trees, and you will swear  that you have lost the trail, but as there is no other option, you keep going, then find remnants of a trail again.  If you are too preoccupied  trying to follow the trail, you may forget to look up at the gorgeous huge, towering pines and aspen.  If you bring small children, you will be helping them much of the way.
     To get to the trail head, from the stop light at the bottom of Big Cottonwood Canyon, head toward Little Cottonwood Canyon along Wasatch Boulevard.  After about 1 1/2 miles, you will see a fire station on the left.  Just past the station, turn left onto Kings Hill Drive. Drive 1/2 mile, then turn left onto  Golden Oak Drive.  Park along the road, and go through the gate at the end of the road.  There are "No Trespassing " signs all over, but the trail is open to the public, so don't let that deter you, just stay on the trail.  After a few minutes of trail, you will come to another neighborhood.  I guess somebody in this neighborhood had some influence to have the trail start in the other neighborhood!  Turn left up the paved road for a short distance, and you will again be on dirt trail, headed up the canyon.  A short way up the canyon, the trail splits. Stay to the right to go up the South fork.  Part way up, maybe 3/4 mile mark, I saw a lone apple tree with a nice crop of apples.  They looked very tempting, but they were just out of reach, even with my trusty trekking poles.  I wonder if some miner many years ago stopped to eat his lunch and threw his apple core there!  You will cross a couple of rock piles, again thinking you have lost the trail, but keep going, you are almost there.  When you come to a small bridge, you have made it.  There is a fire pit, wood bench, a place where the stream is dammed up to form a tiny pond, and a  cave with a rock wall to shelter it.  When you head back the way you came, you will see a trail off to your right that takes you to a nice view of the valley. Then you have to make your way back down to the trail.
     The rest of this blog is not about the hike, but here is an interesting story:  As I was about to return to my car, I heard a voice reading the description of the hike in the previous day's Tribune.  So I waited for them to arrive, and had a nice visit with  a retired pediatrician and his daughter.  When he told me his name, I asked if he knew anyone with his last name, and first name Rich.  He told me Rich was his brother.  It turns out that 23 years ago, during the Gulf War, I was stationed in the Army in a small town in Germany.  On Christmas Eve, I went to to the base to check my mail.  The place was locked up, and there was a soldier looking lonely and cold, sitting on his bags. I asked him what he was doing there, and he said he was a Reservist from Utah, activated for the war, and a bus had dropped him off, and left before he realized the place was locked up for the holiday!  So I took him home with me, and he spent Christmas with our family, staying two nights with us. We became good friends for the few months he was there, hiking to castles and doing Volksmarches on weekends. We lost contact with him when he went back home, and I was amazed to run into his brother on a remote hike in Utah!
     One cannot help but wonder where the name "Deaf Smith" came from.  I did a little research. In an excellent book by Charles L. Keller, called The Lady in the Ore Bucket, he says that nobody knows for sure, but the name was changed from Little Willow Canyon to Deaf Smith Canyon between 1952 and 1962. There is a Deaf Smith County in Texas, named after a deaf man that played an important role in the Texas Revolution.  There were many pioneers with the name Smith; maybe one of them was deaf.

The tempting apple tree

On the way up

Almost there

Bench and fire ring

Rock wall

Left by the person who built the bench?

View from detour on the way down

A beautiful hike!

Red Pine Lake (again)

I blogged this hike in August 2012 but decided to do it again.  This hike begins 7.2 miles up Little Cottonwood Canyon. The trailhead is on the right side of the road, and a sign says "White Pine Trailhead."  The trail starts behind the restrooms, and crosses over a bridge.  Along the sides of the trail were delicious ripe raspberries, so we spent 20 minutes eating them.  The first mile is quite level and scenic.  When you have gone not quite a mile, you will see a junction, where a dirt road on your left makes a sharp turn. This is the way to White Pine Lake, but continue another 20 feet or so to a trail that heads up, also to the left.  This is the trail to Red Pine Lake.  At about 2.5 miles, you will see an inviting bridge on your right. Do not take this. That will take you to Maybird Gulch.  As you approach Red Pine Lake, you keep thinking you are almost there, expecting to see the lake any second, but it is a little farther than you expect.  You reach the lake after hiking 3.3 miles, and it is worth the effort!

Bridge at beginning of hike

Delicious ripe raspberries

Bridge along the way

Almost there

Trekking Poles taking a rest

Red Pine Lake

Water is very clear and looks pretty deep

Lake Solitude

I have included Lake solitude in older posts, but have not done a post on this lake alone.  I have a geocache by this lake that I hid 9 years ago, and it was finally time to place a new paper log in it, as the old one was full and a bit damp after all those seasons covered by several feet of snow!
This is the hike that inspired me to do a hiking blog, as my wife and I hiked up to this lake and she asked if I would like to get some new trekking poles, and I responded that theses poles had a lot of stories to tell!
     To get to this scenic, easy hike, drive 9.6 miles up Big Cottonwood Canyon, park in the parking lot for Silver Lake, which is on your right near the beginning of the loop.  Take the boardwalk that goes around Silver Lake.  I went to the right, which is slightly shorter than the other direction.  At the far side of the lake, about 1/3 mile, you will see a trail and sign on the right. Take this trail a short distance to another sign that shows Twin Lakes to the left, and Lake Solitude to the right.  Go to the right, enjoying a beautiful, mostly shady trail. After maybe 3/4 mile of fairly level trail, the trail turns left and becomes steeper for about 200 feet.  Then you are treated to a beautiful lake, with majestic peaks in the background, plenty of rocks to rest on under the shade of huge pines.  You can walk completely around the lake and poke your head in an open mine shaft on the other side, and get a face full of cool, musty air.   If you have a gps you can search for my geocache, called Rock Solidtude,

http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GCQ6DG_rock-solidtude?guid=e40a7151-207c-4038-9949-191b2a35388a

The underside of my geocache

Trekking poles enjoying the view of Lake solitude

The inviting trail to the lake

Some nice wildflowers

Couldn't resist stopping for breakfast on the deck of
Silver Fork Lodge

Perfectly cooked bacon. (The sourdough toast arrived
after I took this picture)