Weather:  A little bit of rain at first, but it cleared up soon after starting.
Present were:  Gary, KK7DV;  Randy, KG7GI;  Clint, KA7OEI;  Bruce, KI7OM.
Destination:  The Wasatch Mine up the Mineral Fork of Big Cottonwood Canyon.
Question of the day:  "Are you OK, Bruce?" (see below)
Total distance:  Approx. 3.69 miles round trip.  (The signs say 2 miles each way.)
Times:  Depart vehicle:  1850;  Arrive at turnaround point below the mine:  2015;  Depart turnaround:  CHEC PIC;  Return to vehicle:  2140.
Total distance:  Approx. 5 miles round trip.
Altitudes in feet ASL (approx):  Vehicles, parked on the road:  6720;  The split in the road/trail below the mine:  8180;  The turnadound below the Wasatch Mine portal:  Approx. 8500
Elevation gain/loss:  1800 feet, approx.
Local sunset on this date:  9:02 pm - about one minute later than last week

We went to this same place in 2004 - click here to see pictures from that trip.

Images (102-1233k each, .JPG):
 

• IMG02456h - Bruce and Gary looking at the trailhead sign.
• IMG02457 - Magenta flower along trail, below switchbacks.
• IMG02458h - Mr. Lawrence hopping along a stream/trail crossing, one of the lower switchbacks.
• IMG02459 - Cascade of water at trail crossing, one of the lower switchbacks.
• IMG02463 - Stream crossing at the log bridge.  Similar is #2464.
• IMG02465h - Gary, crossing the log bridge.
• IMG02466 - A view up canyon, just after exiting the trees.  Similar, slightly farther up-canyon is #2468.
• IMG02467h - Gary, just below the stopping/turnaround point.
• IMG02486 - Looking up toward the top of the canyon, from the turnaround point.  Notice evidence of avalanches.
• IMG02487 - Looking down canyon from the turnaround point.
• IMG02488 - Bruce, standing by the impromptu marker (see below.)

• gary_stream_crossing.mpg - A sequence of 15 stills of Gary's splashing across the stream at the road junction, put together as an MPEG1 movie.

Maps/profiles:

I managed to forget to bring the GPS receiver on this trip:  Refer to tracks from the June 9, 2004 Wednesday Night Hike.

Notes:

We expected there to be quite a bit of snow higher up in the canyon - and there was.

The snow wasn't a problem until after we emerged from the trees into the open area - about the point where the road diverges.  We chose not to try to follow the route to the east where crossed the somewhat-swollen stream - except for Gary, who tested the waterproofing on his boots.  We proceeded up the road along the west side of the canyon until we were faced with a large snowfield in an open area, as which point the road mostly disappeared.  Because the rest of the distance to the mine itself would be uphill and involve one or two stream crossings (over snow bridges) we decided that we'd gone as far as we'd wanted.

One "discovery" was an apparent impromptu monument that, at the time, we'd presumed (aided by vague recollection) to mark the site of an accident over the past winter.  We quickly realized that one of the reasons for there still being snow in this exposed, open area was because it had been in the run-out zone, as evidenced by "fresh"-looking broken trees sticking out of the snowfield and rather obvious signs of snowslides higher up.  Later checking on the internet showed that two snowshoers had, in fact, died near this spot:  They had apparently triggered an avalanche farther up the canyon and were subsequently buried in the snowslide.  Read about the December 11, 2004 Avalanche on the avalanche.org website.

Our trip down was mostly uneventful.  On the way up, we'd passed a man on a (then-parked) motorcycle who'd been grading the trail near the first switchback:  We suspect that he was doing this work to maintain the mining claim, but did not ask.  As we were coming down, he passed us again on his way up.

Just as we emerged from the trees (just past where the stream that had been along the west edge of the trail disappears into a cascade) Bruce suddenly found himself a short distance downhill against a tree.  What had apparently happened, according to Bruce himself (and Randy, who had been behind him) was that both of Bruce's feet happened, at that instant, to be on unstable rocks in the road.  He (apparently) slipped sideways, off the road toward the downhill side and (fortunately for him) soon crashed into a tree on the slope, just a few feet down from the road:  Had this incident occurred a few feet before or after this point, he would have rolled much further down (and likely gained momentum!) this very steep slope before hitting anything.  As it was, he was only slightly bruised and had minor cuts on one hand and leg from the impact.  (This explains the Question of the Day...)

• 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 102-1233k 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.

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