Clayton Peak 2.0

On Tuesday my friend Casey and I headed out again to nearly the same place. Two weeks ago we parked at Brighton and headed West up to Mount Millicent. This time we went East to the top of Clayton Peak (Mount Majestic) on the Lake Mary trail.

We carpooled up the canyon and got a pretty early start. We were hiking by about 5:30pm and made good time up the first mile to the Dog Lake junction. With it being late and both of us being a bit out of shape we didn't even look out over the overlook because we knew we'd need to hurry to get back to the car before dark.

The trail is moderately steep until the junction with the Dog Lake trail, but after turning off on the trail to Dog Lake, then almost immediately turning left on the Clayton Peak trail, we hiked on relatively flat ground for almost a mile. The wildflowers and wildlife were all on display. One of the benefits of hiking during the week is that there's nobody around to scare the deer away.

We made great time between Dog Lake and Snake Creek Pass. Casey had never hiked this trail and was very impressed with the views from on top of the pass. We were able to see most of the Heber Valley (which may just be the most beautiful valley in the state) including some of Deer Creek Reservoir.

The pass sits at 10,019 feet according to my GPS, even though the sign at the top says 10,200'. Looking up at the 10,700 foot peak from the pass made it painfully obvious that the GPS was right and we still had 700 vertical feet to climb. At least we didn't have to walk far for all that climbing. Most of it was done in less than 1/4 mile.

We had great views from the top, even being able to see the Easternmost tip of Jordanelle Reservoir to the East. We saw more lakes from the top of the peak than we saw people on the trail.

The hike back down was uneventful (except for my slight detour to check out the trail up from the other side of the pass). We hiked about 6.5 miles and climbed about 2000'.

Silver Lake (American Fork)

To round out the week I participated in the hiking portion of our yearly ward outing.  This year the ward camped at the Granite Flat campground in American Fork Canyon. We hiked from  Silver Lake Flat Reservoir (a couple miles up a dirt road from Granite Flat) to Silver Lake.

I didn't count how many of us went on the hike, but it was a lot more people than I'm used to hiking with. You could safely say it was the largest group I've hiked in since I was a scout decades ago.

It hardly felt like we were in a big group, though. We pretty quickly spread out with the teens leading the way and those from my generation lagging behind (mostly because they were carrying kids of various sizes). I was somewhere in the middle.

I had never really hiked in American Fork Canyon before (except my nearly annual hikes up Mount Timpanogos) and I loved it. It's much more foresty than most of the other canyons around here. The trail was well-maintained and there were incredible views of Mount Timpanogos (that you never get while hiking the mountain itself).

The trail starts pretty flat but gets quite a bit steeper for the last 3/4 mile or so. It could also be that it just seems that way because you get start getting tired by then. Either way, it's not a terribly difficult hike.

 There are many places where it seems like you should arrive at the lake just over the next little hill, only to discover another hill beyond that one.

Silver Lake itself is worth the trip. It has some beautiful still waters with high peaks and cliffs all around, as well as an incredible view down the canyon from on top of the dam.

It was 2.33 miles to the top (nearly 5 miles for me, total) and a climb of about 1,700 feet.

Mount Millicent

One of the best things about our new house is having a next-door neighbor that also likes to hike, and who has been to places I've still never been. Casey (my neighbor) and I have decided to try to hike every other week through the rest of the summer, and our first hike was up to the top of Mount Millicent. 

Milly Express

This wasn't a hike that I even had on my list. I'd never considered it before. It seemed a little dangerous with all the rock hopping near the top. Casey had already climbed it, though, and he was still alive so it couldn't be too bad, right?

View of Mount Millicent from way down below

We started at the Brighton parking lot and headed up the service road to Twin Lakes (this was my contribution; by taking this road instead of the trail that Casey would normally take we saved a mile each way). It was a relentlessly steep climb, but before we even stopped to take a rest we arrived at the lake. After a few pictures of the lake and the dam we continued up the winding service road to the top of the ski lift.

Twin Lakes from the Dam

As we left the dam we heard a metallic banging noise coming from near the lake. We looked through the trees and saw some guy with a metal baseball bat hitting dead branches of downed trees. After having scenes from horror movies flash through my mind we realized he was gathering firewood, but didn't have an axe (or much sense).

We continued up the hill to the top of the lift and that's where the fun began. This was the part that I was most nervous about. We had to pick our way up a steep, rocky slope, as you can see in the picture below. It was like walking up a very irregular staircase.

Casey looking for the best way up the mountain

About 1/4 of the way up I actually started enjoying it. The rocks were pretty stable (every now and then one would shift) and it went much better than I thought it would.

After a climb of 600 vertical feet we reached the top, and as we were taking in the impressive views the mosquitoes came out. We didn't see any near the lake, but a thousand feet higher at the top of the mountain they were everywhere.

Lake Mary with Clayton, Pioneer, and Sunset peaks

We spent quite a bit of time up on top identifying all the other peaks around us, making plans for future hikes. I think I was putting off climbing back down due in part to the fear of descending on the rocks that we had climbed up. My fears were unfounded, though, as I quickly discovered it was easy to climb down the rocks.

Meese

As we returned to the trail (or road, or whatever) we started making good time down the mountain until we suddenly looked up and saw two moose 100 feet in front of us on the trail. We quickly backed up and wondered how to get around them. Wee shouted at them, clacked our trekking poles, anything we could think of to get them to move.

They didn't move. Had they been 50 feet off the trail we might have tried to cautiously get around them, but being close enough to the trail that we could poke them with our trekking poles we decided to backtrack up the hill a bit and find another way around.

We made it easily back to the lake, and from there back to the car and headed home. It was a great after-work hike that took us 1,900 feet up in a total of 3.6 miles. Yeah, that's steep.

Lake Catherine (From Brighton)

The day after Independence Day we were invited to hike up above Brighton with some friends. Normally I try to stay away from the mountains during holiday weekends, but I really like hiking with these people and I figured it would be a good hike to take Titan on.

Titan at Lake Mary

I had planned to carry Titan the whole way up the mountain, and I probably could have. He was able to walk about a half mile or so, though, which gave me a bit of rest in the middle of the climb. 

Lake Martha

I've been up this trail a few times and have a few other more detailed blog posts about the trail, so I don't have a lot to say about the trail this time.

It was a bit of a struggle to make it to Lake Mary, but having been up the trail in the past I reassured everyone that the hard part of the trail was already done. Most of the group continued on to Lake Catherine (passing Lake Martha on the way). We found a snow bank just off the trail and had a snow ball fight (in July!)

Panorama of Lake Catherine

The bugs hadn't been bad at all the whole way up until we got within 10 feet of Lake Catherine. Wee were instantly swarmed. Oddly, though, there were places with bugs, and places without bugs. The bugs seemed to just stay in place. I picked up a few mosquito bites while spraying Titan with some Deet.

This was actually the first time in all the times I've been to Lake Catherine that I actually sat down at the water's edge and enjoyed being there. I'm always quick to arrive at my destination and then move on. It was nice to have the time to enjoy the moment a bit.

The hike was right near 4.5 miles, if I remember correctly, with about 1,700 feet of elevation gain.