Weather:  Warm and cloudy, threatening with thunder, lightning and rain - but only a few random drops noticed on the peak.
Present were:  Ron, K7RJ;  Gordon, K7HFV;  Randy A., N7BRP, Randy L., KG7GI;  Chris, KE7FYP;  Clint, KA7OEI.
Destination:  The minor peak between Butler and Mill-A forks called "Circle-All Peak"
Question of the day:  "Is the top of a mountain really a good place to go in a thunderstorm?"
Total distance:   2.96 miles, round trip
Times:  Depart vehicle:  1830;  Junction of Butler Fork/Mill A Basin trail:  1855;  Arrival Peak:  1949;  Depart Peak:  2009;  Junction of Butler Fork/Mill A basin trail:  2045;  Return to vehicles:  2059
Altitudes in feet ASL (GPS approx):  Vehicle:  7130;  Butler Fork/Mill A Basin junction:  7575;  Circle-All Peak:  8704
Altitude gain/loss (approx.):  1574 ft 
Local sunset on this date:  2056  (we'll get 7 more minutes at the solstice)
Total 2006 WNH mileage (if you've gone on all of the hikes thus far):  2.96 miles

Images (239-1080k, .JPG):
 

• IMG03420 - Chris, KE7FYP, looking at the information sign at the Butler Fork Trailhead.  #3421 is Gordon showing where Circle-All Peak is, as it is not shown on the map.  #3419 is a full-view of the information panel, in case you are interested in reading about the area.
• IMG03426 - Gordon, K7HFV, crossing the stream on a makeshift bridge consisting of slippery logs.  At this time of year, the stream flowing from Butler Fork is relatively large as the spring runoff is still occurring.  Gordon pointed out that it was handy that Mayor Rocky's use of safety flags was apparently carried out up here in the form of there having been an abundance of sticks near the stream used to aid those crossing.
• IMG03427 - Gordon, K7HFV, coming up the trail.  (Kessler Peak is in the background.)
• IMG03429 - Ron, K7RJ, looking at a waterfall that isn't normally seen roaring when we have done Circle-All Peak in the fall.
• IMG03430 - A view toward the northeast (into the top of Butler Fork) from the switchbacks leading to the ridge between Butler and Mill A forks showing the underlit rainclouds.
• IMG03432 - Randy, Randy, and Ron atop Circle-All Peak.
• IMG03434_nr_db - The entire group (except for Chris, who had to leave early) atop Circle-All Peak.
• IMG03435 - Gordon watching as Ron uses technology to talk to and send a picture to his wife, Elaine - who was across the country at the time.
• IMG03452 - A view up-canyon as a bit of alpenglow briefly illuminates.  Similar is #3453.
• IMG03456 - A glimpse of Kessler Peak, across the canyon from the trail while on the way down.
  

This is a composite of several smaller pictures.  Please note that due to the size, 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 (exposure, time, location, etc.) are noted in file's EXIF "Comments" field.

• Circle-All Peak Panorama - This is a composite of 14 pictures encompassing over 180 degrees of view from atop Circle-All peak.  (2.43 meg)

• The elevation profile of the hike - This shows the ups and downs of the trail.
  
• A detailed map with the GPS track of the hike (plus surrounding landmarks, 1.82 meg.)  A similar map with less detail is here (75 kB)
  

This was the first "official" Wednesday Night Hike of the 2006 season:  It appears that pretty much all of the snow is gone from south-facing slopes that get direct sun and that most north-facing slopes are clear of snow below 8000 feet but with some still having significant snow above about 8500 feet.

After meeting at the park-'n-ride at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon, the lot of us piled into cars and went up to the Butler Fork trailhead, having decided to visit Circle-All Peak.  This relatively minor peak (typically a staple of the near end-of-season hikes owing to its relatively short distance) was chosen owing to the fact that the weather was uncertain:  The meteorological predictions seemed to indicate a fairly high likelihood of rain - and this, being a relatively short hike on a well-established trail - seemed like a reasonable choice.  At the trailhead, however, the the wisdom of choosing a peak as the destination when thunder and lightning was likely was questioned - but we continued up, anyway.

The hike up was uneventful, for the most part, not seeing any obvious signs of wildlife (Mooses... Meese... have been observed on this trail in past years, albeit near the end of the Wednesday Night hiking season) but it was noted that certain large, shaded patches on north-facing portions of the trail were only very recently free of snow as evidenced by the presence of winter's detritus and the fact that recently-germinated plants were only just beginning to poke through it.  As far as real snow goes, there were only a few fairly small patches to be found - one or two on some of the switchbacks near the top, and another patch just barely down from the peak itself.

The first group of hikers (the Randys and Chris) got to the peak first and about the time that Ron and I arrived, Chris departed, needing to get back for a date:  He seemed to have gotten back down fairly quickly as he arrived at his car just after we departed the peak.

Once on the peak some light clouds started to move across the canyon and the wind picked up somewhat, slightly chilling everyone left on the peak (Ron was prepared for this, of course, changing to a warm, dry shirt) with the moving clouds throwing the odd water droplet on us - which was as close as it got to raining.  As for lightening:  There might have been some off in the distance, but there was none in the canyon itself nor did we hear any thunder.

The Randys left the peak a few minutes before the rest of us (Gordon, Ron and myself) and appeared well-rested by the time we met them at the car.  The amazing thing about the end of the hike was that it was still fairly light - which was rather unusual for an early-season hike:  The earliest hikes are usually quite a bit longer, requiring the return trip to be carried out by flashlight.

After driving down the canyon several of us convened at the Rocky Mountain Pizza Company (a side-effect of the fairly short hike) and enjoyed the food, accompanied by the usual Wednesday gathering of the bluegrass music folks - a nice commencement of the 2006 Wednesday Night Hike season.

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 2006 Wednesday Night Hike page, or main Wednesday Night Hike index page.