Weather:  Cooler - in the 70's in the valley with very few clouds..
Present were:  Mike, K7DOU;   Dale, WJ7L;  Tim, KK7EF  Gordon, K7HFV;  Clint, KA7OEI.
Destination:  Circle All Peak
Question of the day:  "When is the last Wednesday Night Hike?"
Total distance:   3.11 miles, round trip
Times:  Depart vehicle: 1839;  Junction with trail to upper Butler Fork:  1854;  Beginning of switchbacks:  1905;  Spur trail to peak:  1926;  Arrived on peak:  1932; Gordon, Tim and Mike arrived:  Approx. 1941;  Departed peak:  1955;  Butler fork junction:  2044;  Returned to vehicle:  2059;  Rest of group arrived at vehicle:  Approx. 2118
Altitudes in feet ASL (approx) from GPS:  Vehicle:  7160;  Butler fork trail junction:  7650;  Beginning of switchbacks:  8050;  Spur to peak:  8565;  Peak:  8730  (USGS shows 8707)
Altitude gain/loss (approx.): 1570 Ft.
Local sunset on this date:  7:38 PM - (We've lost about 12 minutes of daylight since last week - about 85 minutes since the solstice.)

We went to this same place last year - go here to see pictures from that trip.

Images (334-534k each, .JPG):

With failing light, fewer pictures were taken this time.

• IMG03125 - Taken along the trail, up Big Cottonwood Canyon.  A road near Guardsman Pass may be seen toward the right of center.
• IMG03131 - From the peak:  Across the canyon and slightly to the west:  These are the peaks above Broad's Fork (Dromedary and co.) highlighted by the setting sun.
• IMG03133 - From the peak:  Across the canyon and slightly to the east:  On the far right is Kessler Peak and on the left may be seen glimpses of sunlight on Reed and Benson Ridge up Cardiff Fork

This picture is a composites of several smaller pictures.  Please note that due to the size of the bitmap, it may not display properly on some browsers and you may need to use an image viewer like Irfanview to view them properly and zoom in on some of the details.  Note that details of these images (exposure, time, location, etc.) are noted in their EXIF "Comments" fields.

• A wide-angle view along the trail up-canyon - This shows, in the distance, Guardsman pass and includes other familiar features in the neighborhood.  (1072 kB)

Maps/profiles:

Note:  Owing to the narrowness of the canyon and the body-shielding of the antenna toward the southern sky, the elevation readings of the trip to the peak are mostly bogus and are offset by several meters.  The "to" track is the "upper" one while the "from" track (the more accurate one) is the lower one.

• The elevation profile of the hike (As noted above, most elevation data is missing from the ascent.)
• A detailed map with the GPS track of the hike (plus surrounding landmarks)

This is expected to be the second-to-last Wednesday Night Hike of the 2005 season.  If one hurries, it is possible to get to Circle All peak just at sunset and, of course, one expects the trip down to be done in the dark - hence the need for flashlights.

This trail is one of the steeper ones done during the season, but it is fairly short and if you have been frequently going on these hikes all along it shouldn't be too strenuous on the muscles - although the strain on the knees on the way down may cause some people problems.

On this trip, Tim was running behind, so he met up with the group, bringing up the rear (with Gordon and Mike) and they all arrived at the peak together, within a couple minutes of sunset.  After staying on the peak for 15-20 minutes it had gotten fairly dark and the mostly-full moon was rising, nicely illuminating the landscape and portions of the trail on the way down.

The first vestiges of fall color are starting to appear, but it has yet to attain anything near the brilliance expected in just a few short weeks.  Another sign of the lateness of the season was the temperature:  From about sunset onwards, we were able to see our breath while on the peak.

After the trip, some of the party went over the Rock Mountain Pizza and enjoyed not only pizza and salad, but the gathering of the bluegrass musicians for their jam session.
 

Comments:

• 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.