Frary Peak - Antelope Island

While not on my "official" list of hikes I want to do this year, I was able to get in a bonus hike on Saturday. I had never really considered hiking up Frary Peak on Antelope Island, but my friend Tyler suggested it as a possible early season hike. After studying up on the trail a bit (I like to be prepared) I suggested that we do it last Saturday before the bugs come out for the year and before it gets too hot.We decided to get an early start and made it to the trailhead just before 9:00am, and it's a good thing we did. It was a beautiful morning and we were able to do all the climbing before it got too hot to be comfortable.

I've been told that I went out to Antelope Island once when I was really young, but I don't remember it at all. I was amazed at how big the island is. It's also a lot prettier than it seems from farther away.

Our route is shown on the following screenshot in light blue. The trail goes southwest for the first mile, then follows the ridge south from there.
Notice the elevation profile above. Many trails are a constant, even slope from start to finish. The Frary Peak trail alternates between being very steep, level, and downhill. It made for an interesting hike.
Most of the scenery looks about the same. One surprise was how green things are on the island. Sure, it's still pretty brown, but it looks a lot more green up close than it does from the city.
About 3/4 of a mile into the hike, the trail splits. The left trail continues up to Frary Peak, and the right goes up to Dooly Knob, which, in my opinion, is one of the coolest names for a geographic feature that I've ever heard. I'll have to go back another time to hit Dooly Knob; I couldn't talk my feet into it.
One highlight of the trail is going through a "cave" about 1 1/4 miles into the hike. It's really just a few giant rocks together making a smallish opening (okay, so I had to duck, but most people probably don't). It does provide a little shade, which is nice, but it also marks the point in the trail where you start the steep ascent to the top of the ridge.

It was at about this point that we noticed hundreds of runners down on the dirt road on the west side of the mountain. Apparently we were there on the day of the Buffalo Run. Maybe we were a little crazy for climbing to the peak, but there were hundreds of other people who were completely insane running around below. (By this point we were so far up that the people just looked like dust specks in the pictures.)
Up near the top of the mountain there are actually trees. A lot of them are dead, like this one, but there are a quite a few that are alive and doing fine.

Throughout the hike the scenery stays pretty much the same, just from a higher elevation. The nice thing, though, is you switch sides of the mountain multiple times. You start on the East, climb over to the West, back to the East, back to the West, and so on. There are quite a few places where you can see both sides of the island.

On the last push to the peak the trail gets really steep. It's not like a rock to rock leaping sort of thing, but it's almost uncomfortably steep. In just 1/10th of a mile we climbed 280 feet. It was steep, but the view from the top and the sense of accomplishment were worth the effort.
It was such a perfect day for the hike. It was cool enough on the way up that we never really got too hot. I'm not even sure I even started sweating until the last little push to the peak. There was very little smog, hardly any clouds, and we could see for miles in every direction.

Going down was quite a bit hotter, and there were people everywhere. When we started at 9:00 there were only a few cars in the lot. When we got back down there were dozens. It was an amazing hike; maybe one to add to my regular rotation. If nothing else, it's a great hike to do early in the season when everything else is covered in snow.

2012 Hiking Preparation

To prepare for my adventure on the Pacific Crest Trail in (hopefully 2015) I've decided to dedicate myself a bit more to hiking locally. I figure there's no better preparation for a hike than hiking. So for this year (2012) I'm planning to do the following seven hikes. I could do more, but at the very least I want to accomplish these hikes.

Why am I posting this? Two reasons:

1. If I post it, I'm more likely do it.
2. You're invited!

Really, if you'd like to join me on any of these hikes, let me know. I don't have firm dates set for any of them, but will probably do them in roughly the order they're listed, just due to snow levels in the various canyons.

Desolation Lake

There are many ways to get up to Desolation Lake, but the route I'm planning starts about halfway up Big Cottonwood Canyon and ends a couple more miles up the canyon. I'm not sure when enough snow will have melted to get there, but it's likely to be one of the first areas that I want to hike to lose its snow. Also, with how dry this winter has been, I'm hoping it will be accessible earlier than usual.
The route I'm planning to take is about 6.7 miles, 4.5 of that uphill. It's not a huge elevation gain though; only about 2500 feet for a slope of 10.6%. See the following Google Earth screen shot for the route and elevation profile of the hike.

Lake Blanche

Also up Big Cottonwood Canyon, the trail head for Lake Blanche is at the bottom of the S curve. Annie and Titan and I attempted it last year but Titan was only a couple weeks old and we didn't have water. The 2 miles we did on the trail were beautiful though.
This hike climbs about 2700 feet, and does it over about 3 miles, giving it a slope of about 17%. Hiking just a little farther you can get to lakes Florence and Lillian. I'm not committing to those lakes, but there's a good chance I'll see them too, making the hike a little longer.
Ben Lomond Peak

The first peak that I think will be accessible is Ben Lomond Peak above Ogden. This is a ridiculously long trail, but it doesn't climb much. It's just over 8 miles each way, but only has an elevation gain of 3500 feet. I've never done any hiking in the Ogden area, so I'm excited to stretch my comfort zone a little. You can read more about Ben Lomond here.

Deseret Peak

It has been a long time since I've climbed Deseret Peak, and I'm excited to head back up there. It's accessed from South Willow canyon in Tooele County. The trail climbs about 3600 feet, about the same as Ben Lomond, but it does it in half the distance (about four miles) giving it an average slope of 17%.
One nice thing with hiking Deseret Peak is that you can come back down a different way than you went up. It's always nice to have a change of scenery on the way down. You can read more about it here.

Catherine Pass

Going back to Big Cottonwood Canyon, this is another hike Annie, Titan and I did last year. It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. You actually pass by 3 lakes on your way to the pass (4 in a really low water year).
To get to Catherine Pass you can either go up Big or Little Cottonwood Canyon. I'm planning to go up Big and come back down Little to have a change of scenery on the way down. It's only a 1500 foot elevation gain, or an average slope of 11%. I'm pretty sure it starts out at 20-25%, but it levels out pretty good at the top. You can read more information here.

The Pfeifferhorn

This is likely to be my biggest challenge this year, but I'm excited to give it a try. The most common route starts in Little Cottonwood Canyon and heads up to Red Pine Lake. From there the trail becomes more imaginary and you have to find the best route to the top. The last few hundred feet are very steep over difficult terrain. It should be a blast.
The trail climbs 3600 feet over about 4-5 miles, depending on how you go above Red Pine Lake. The average slope is about 15%, but there are a lot of areas much steeper than that. There are great views from the top and it should be a great adventure. You can read more about it here.

Mt Timpanogos

I've lost count how many times I've climbed Mt Timpanogos. It could be anywhere between 7 and 9. However many times I've climbed it, it's still not enough. I've always started at the Timpooneke trail head, and I'm not about to change that, but, if I can make it work, I'd like to take the Aspen Grove trail back down.
The Timpooneke trail is about 7 miles long (there's a lot of dispute about that, but I'm pretty comfortable with the seven mile estimate). It climbs 4400 feet, but because it's so long it has an average slope of only 12%. I'm tentatively planning this as a fall hike--late September or early October--and the last hike of the season. You can read more about it here.

That's my plan for the summer. Just let me know if you'd like to come along; I'm sure Annie would prefer that I have some company. I'll most likely do these starting early on a Saturday morning, but I'd consider doing some of them as an overnighter.
And if there's a hike you're planning and you'd like some company I'd be happy to go with you.