Weather:  Warm-ish, but not hot;  A few clouds, but no rain.
Present were:  Mike, K7DOU;  Gordon, K7HFV;  Clint, KA7OEI;  Bruce, KI7OM.
Destination:  The Salt Lake overlook.
Question of the day:  "Haven't we been here before?"  This trail, more than most, switches back and forth repeatedly to gain altitude so it seems as though one is simply walking back and forth again and again and again and...
Total distance:  Approx. 3.69 miles round trip.  (The signs say 2 miles each way.)
Times:  Depart vehicle:  1854;  Arrive at overlook:  2008;  Depart overlook:  2039;  Return to vehicle:  2145.  (We weren't in a big hurry...)
Altitudes in feet ASL (approx):  Vehicle/parking:  5700;  Overlook:  7100
Elevation gain/loss:  1400 ft. (approx.)
Local sunset on this date:  9:01 pm (almost 4 minutes later than last week)

Images (344-558k each, .JPG):

Not many pictures this time:  Most of the time we went back and forth along switchbacks that all looked alike...

• IMG02436 - "Jesus Beams" over the Great Salt Lake as viewed from the overlook.
• IMG02438 - Mike, in the process of rehydration (at the overlook.)
• IMG02439 - Mike and Bruce, at the overlook.
• IMG02440 - The four of us, at the overlook.

• The recorded GPS track of the hike.
• The elevation profile of the hike (downhill)
• A more-detailed map with the GPS track of the hike (plus surrounding landmarks)

It is starting to resemble June:  It was not hot, but warm enough that shorts would be preferred over jeans.

This was a rather leisurely stroll up the trail and with Bruce in the lead, we never went fast enough for anyone to have to stop and rest.  We did have to stop fairly often to let the groups of people (with their dogs) come down the trail.

We got to the overlook in time to see the sunbeams illuminating part of the lake, but leaving well before actual sunset so that we'd not have to do our final stumbling down to the trailhead in complete darkness.

Afterwards, we verified what we'd feared:  The Pizza place at which we'd congregated last year closes at 10:00 PM, so we sent to the TGI Friday's instead...

• If you want one (or more) of these images and wish some sort of adjustment (color, brightness, exposure, etc.) please let me know:  All of these image have been processed in some way.
• These images are 344-558k in size, .JPG and are in chronological order.
• No-one ever said that all of these images (or any of them) were good.  Some of them may have definite focus/exposure "issues."
• EXIF data is present for most of the images, showing time, date, and precise exposure conditions.  Recent versions of Irfanview will show this in the "View->Image Information->EXIF" tab.  Note that cropping/noise reduction required the use of another program which may have removed some/most of this EXIF data.
• Images suffixed with "h" are half-size.  This was done for images that were somewhat out of focus (due to misfocus or camera/subject movement associated with long shutter times) or those that required some extra noise reduction and had lost some detail anyway.
• All images taken using a Sigma SD-10 camera using the 18-50mm zoom lens.

Additional notes:

• Elevations/distances may vary as compared to maps or previous years' hikes owing to slightly different routes, quality of GPS data, or just plain screwing things up.

Go to the 2005 Wednesday Night Hike page, or main Wednesday Night Hike index page.