Weather:  Moderate temperatures (low 90's) that day in the valley, a few clouds in the sky.
Present were:  Ron, K7RJ;  Brett, N7KG;  Bryan, W7CBM;  Gordon, K7HFV;  Clint, KA7OEI.
Destination:  To Sugarloaf Peak via Cecret Lake.
Question of the day:  "What are these round plastic things?"
Total distance:   4.26 miles, round trip
Times:  Depart vehicle:  1903;  Arrive, Cecret Lake:  1923;  Arrive, Germania pass:  2001;  Arrive Sugarloaf Peak:  2017;  Rest of group arrives on peak:  2045;  Entire group departs peak:  2050;  Return to Germania pass:  2107;  Return to Cecret Lake:  2136;  Depart Cecret Lake:  2153;  Return to car:  2222
Altitudes in feet ASL (approx) from GPS:  Vehicle:  9350;  Parking lot:  9370;  Cecret Lake:  9880;  Germania Pass:  10532;  Sugarloaf Peak:  11052
Elevation gain/loss:  To the peak (from the car):  1702 ft.
Local sunset on this date:  8:41 PM - (We've lost 7 minutes of daylight since last week - about 22 minutes since the solstice.)

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

Images (322-771k each, .JPG):

• IMG02695 - Information at the panel at the trailhead.
• IMG02696 - Ice-logged Cecret Lake.  #2699 is Cecret Lake as seen from the trail to the bowl below Germania Pass.
• IMG02700 - Mineral Basin, as seen from Germania Pass.  #2701 shows Ron trying to send a picture from the pass.
• IMG02702 - Ron, atop Sugarloaf Peak, with Timp in the background.  #'s2703 and 2715 are similar. This picture is one that was taken and sent by Ron's phone from the peak.
• IMG02704 - Devil's Castle in the waning sunset.  #'s 2707, 2708, 2709, and 2710 are similar.
• IMG02706 - Clint atop Sugarloaf Peak with Devil's Castle in the background.
• IMG02711 - Cecret Lake and surroundings after sunset, as seen from Sugarloaf Peak.
• IMG02712 - Twilight on the clouds.  #'s2713 and 2714 (which shows the Hidden Peak tram) are similar.
• IMG02716 - Brett, having just arrived on Sugarloaf Peak
• IMG02719 - The entire group atop Sugarloaf Peak.  L->R:  Brett, Bryan, Ron, Gordon and Clint.
• IMG02721 - Toward the West-Northwest, from Germania Pass after sunset.

Note that GPS elevation data is sometimes a bit "ratty" due to frequent blockage and degradation of the satellite signal.

• The elevation profile of the hike
• A detailed map with the GPS track of the hike (plus surrounding landmarks)

On this fine day, we decided to try something we'd tried to try in a previous try - Sugarloaf Peak.  As you may recall, we'd considered this on our July 13 hike, but upon our arrival in Albion Basin, it was clear that there was still too much snow to comfortably attain this goal.  We figured that an extra 2+ weeks of snowmelt and high temperatures would be enough to assure a clear path - and we were right.

Another reason for going to this place was to observe the still-running show of wildflowers.  We were not disappointed, as there was a spectacular mix of them, along with the moose in the field of flowers, happily munching away.  Of course, I never managed to take any pictures of these...

Getting to the trailhead parking lot in Albion Basin, we couldn't help but notice that it was full, with several people circling and waiting, hoping to grab the next parking space that became available.  Ron, our driver, simply dropped us off in the parking lot and parked along the road several hundred feet away something that probably took less time than would have been spent waiting for a parking place to become available.

One of the first things that we noticed upon starting up the trail was how many others seemed to have the same idea:  Gaggles of people were seen wending their way up to Cecret Lake.  It was surprising to see that the lake itself was, perhaps, 10=15% filled, by volume, with ice and debris from the winter.  From looking at it, it was hard to tell if this was just remaining snow or (more likely) if an avalanche had dumped its load into the lake all at once.  If the latter is true, it's likely that the volumetric capacity of the lake has been somewhat reduced because of the amount of debris from the slide and it's also unlikely that it will completely melt this year.  In looking at past records on the web, it seems that Cecret Lake's filling with avalanche debris is a fairly common occurrence, with a similar event happening at least as recently as 1986.  There's also a Cecret Lake Blog that contains pictures from this area as of a week or so ago.

Passing Cecret Lake, we went up into the bowl below Sugarloaf and were all by ourselves.  It seems as though those that went to the lake had little interest in going any further - either that or they had enough sense not to press on so close to sunset.  In the bowl, the wildflowers were just starting to come up, having just been freed of their icy cover in the past several weeks.  Ron and I, being ahead of the group, shortcut the road a bit following a trail and observed dozens of round plastic caps with wire bails littering the ground.  While not absolutely certain, the fact that they were in a line with the gun mount and one of the steeper cliffs makes us think that they were probably caps on the avalanche control mortars that had been blown off when they were fired.  Rejoining the road, we observed that it looked as though it has been recently plowed upon and would otherwise still have been under several feet of snow.

Reaching the pass, we took a few more pictures and began trudging up the rubble and scree slope of Sugarloaf Peak, arriving well before local sunset.  The cool wind felt good after the climb up the hill - and then it began to feel cold, causing us to add layers to retain heat.  As it turned out, Ron had never visited this particular peak and was impressed by the views into the Brighton Bowl, to the east and north toward the Uintas, and south to the backside of Timpanogos - and the lengthening shadows and warming light of the setting sun further enhanced the visual experience.

Just after the sun sank behind a ridge to our west, we donned our packs and started down, but we hadn't gone more than a few feet when the rest of the group appeared.  Of course, this required us to grab the obligatory group picture before it got too dark before we headed down for for real.

It was getting to be quite dark by the time we (Ron, Bryan and I) reached Cecret Lake, so we waited near its shore while we waited for Brett and Gordon to catch up, their progress being illuminated by the distinctive green glow of Gordon's LED flashlight.  We couldn't help but notice that until Gordon and Brett arrived, we were the only ones still at the lake...

One of the traditional activities at Cecret Lake - especially after dark - is to bash rocks against each other.  Years ago it was noticed that doing this caused some pretty obvious sparking, so this property was demonstrated to those who might have not seen it before. Images of the sparking rocks may be seen in last year's images.

As a group, we wandered the rest of the way down the trail to the car and piled in, with Brett riding in the very back behind the rear seat, having swapped places with Bryan, who'd ridden there on the way up.  Returning to the parking lot at the mouth of Big Cottonwood, we noted that it was almost 11 PM - too late for the (now) traditional dime lime at TGI Friday's, so we went our separate ways.

• Some of these images - particularly those taken near the time of sunset-  are fairly strongly cast yellow/orange.  This is due to the atmosphere being very hazy because of large fires in the western U.S.
• 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 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" (if any) 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 and were taken using the 18-50mm zoom lens, except as noted in the EXIF data.

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