Signboard at the Brighton parking lot showing various trail mileages - highlighting of the Clayton Peak info was added.  Click in image for a view of the entire signboard.

Images (111-1488k, .JPG):

• IMG03634 - Along the trail, through the trees.
  
• IMG03637 - Mike, arriving at Snake Creek pass.  Similar is #3636.
  
• IMG03641 - Purple thistle flower.
  
• IMG03642 - Nearing the top of the Clayton Peak climb.  Mike is in the foreground and Randy is on the summit.
  
• IMG03646 - Mike, on the summit, with the smoke-yellowed sun in the background.
• IMG03648 - The rest of the group on final approach to the summit.
• IMG03649 - Randy, on the summit.
• IMG03653 - Bruce, resting on a familiar rock (see the 2004 hike) upon reaching the summit.  #3655  is similar, but it more clearly shows the clouds of mosquitoes swarming around our heads.  (No, I didn't add those specks...)
  
• IMG03657 - The obligatory group picture.  L->R:  Gordon, Bruce, Tim, Mike, Randy, and Clint.
• IMG03658 - A view of the setting sun, with Tim and Mike.
• IMG03663 - One of the chalet-style buildings at Brighton at night.
  

This is a composite of several smaller pictures.  Please note that due to size, it may not display properly on some browsers and you may need to use an image viewer like Irfanview to view it properly and zoom in on some of the details.  Note that details (exposure, time, location, etc.) are noted in file's EXIF "Comments" field.

• Clayton Pano- A wide-angle shot from along the trail to Clayton Peak.  The peak is to the right-of-center and a view down-canyon is on the left side of the picture. (2599k)  I'd planned to take a panoramic picture from atop Clayton, but in the time between when this picture was taken and when we got to the peak, the haze moved in, greatly reducing visibility.
  

• 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, 1884k)
  

This is the first of the year's Wednesday Night Hikes that has broken 10,000 feet and also the first in the Brighton Bowl.  Only a few snowbanks were noted - all on north-facing slopes and in areas at least somewhat shaded by trees.

This was one of the hotter days seen in the valley this year and, with plenty of sunlight remaining, we decided to do Clayton Peak - one of the higher (and cooler) yet longer hikes of the season.  This was one of the suggested destinations for last week's hike, but with the possible threat of thunderstorms, we'd voted for Beartrap Fork instead, not being able to find a volunteer for someone to be a lightning rod.

The four of us piled into Mike's car and we left the parking lot - just before a familiar vehicle with a familiar face behind the wheel zoomed by - both appearing to belong to the "Good Doctor" a.k.a. John, WB7SUB.  Eventually catching up to him, Mike beeped "HI" in code on his horn and then held five - then four - fingers up on one hand stuck out the window - and John replied in-kind.  Shortly thereafter, we were communicating on '754, detailing each others' plans until he pealed off to get to his destination - a cabin in one of the canyon's forks.

Upon arriving at the Brighton parking lot, another familiar vehicle appeared - this one belonging to Randy, who decided to go to Clayton Peak anyway after I'd suggested to him (earlier in the day) that it was our likely destination for this week's hike.  The five of us then started up the trail which had been rerouted yet again since last year.  Before we'd gotten too far, Tim appeared on the air having overheard enough of the QSO on '754 to be able to divine our intended destination:  And then there were six.

Before too long, Randy, who likes to maintain his own pace, moved to the lead of the group and by the time any of the rest of the group reached Lake Dog, he had disappeared from view entirely:  It seemed unlikely that he'd suddenly moved fast enough to go out of sight even on some of the straighter stretches, but it also seemed even more unlikely that he could have taken a wrong turn as he is quite familiar with the area.  (As it turned out, the former was true.)

Hiking along with Mike in fairly close proximity, I noted to him that it seemed that earlier in the day, the sunlight had a yellowish cast to it and that, especially at the lower sun angle, it seemed to be more obvious now - yet there hadn't seemed to be an obvious haze or pall of smoke in the air to explain it:  With several large wildfires currently burning (hence, the question-of-the-day) in California and Nevada we thought that it seemed likely that some smoke particles had drifted in from those. (Later, I saw from the weather reports that confirmed that this was, in fact, the case.)  When we broke out into the clear at Snake Creek Pass and could finally see down-canyon and across into the Heber Valley it became quite evident that in the two hours that we'd left the valley that a plume of smoke had, indeed, moved into the area on the wind:  The Oquirrh's and the Great Salt Lake - normally features easily seen from the peak - were completely obscured.  The haze density was even enough that crepuscular rays were easily visible from shadows of local features within the canyon.

Once in sight of the Clayton Peak summit cone, we caught sight of a "Randy-Like" figure climbing up and when he arrived on the peak at twenty after eight he'd already been there for 20 minutes, fighting off clouds of mosquitoes.  It would seem that our arrival brought with it additional clouds as well, so we all "re-DEETed," having already applied one layer at the base of the summit cone:  This second application seemed to keep the blood loss to a minimum.

After everyone else arrived, we seemed to be having fun staring at the sun, which was now very low in the sky, intermittently obscured by clouds, and making for warm, dramatic lighting - a contrast to the welcome, but chilling, breeze that, shortly thereafter, picked up and had blown the clouds of mosquitoes away.  Finally, the sun disappeared for good behind the clouds (just before "official" sunset) and we headed down.

The descent was rather uneventful:  Aside from having to pick one's way amongst the rocks on the trail up and down the summit cone (which we did while there was still plenty of light) this trail is very easy to follow - provided that one notes where the path picked up again where it crossed some of the ski runs.  In past years, we'd lost the trail during these traverses across these open areas but more recently, the path has been made more obvious due to traffic by the hikers as well as the abrasive effects of "bike scat" (e.g. tire tracks.)

During the drive back down, on the highway a fairly short distance below Brighton, we noticed a number of cars off the left side of the road and as we passed we noticed that one of them had most of its right-front side bashed in.  Since no-one in the surrounding crowd seemed to be agitated or laying on the ground (and there seemed to be quite a few people already there) we figured that the emergency services had already been called and there was likely little more to be done.  It turned out that we figured correctly:  Passing us on the way up there were at least three fire responders, a large number of police cars, at least one ambulance, and quite a few other passenger cars (which we figured had to be the lawyers...) and once again, the question-of-the-day came to mind.  (After returning to the parking lot Gordon reported seeing at least two of the emergency vehicles that had passed us as we had come down the canyon re-emerging from it:  They must have turned around before getting to the scene of the accident as there was no way that they could have gotten to the accident scene, done anything, and then been able to make it back down...)

Upon arriving at the parking lot at the mouth of the canyon, we noticed that it was devoid of the presence of the canyon patrol (not surprising...) but it was, once again, a bit too close to 11pm to visit one of our traditional after-hike dime-lime haunts, so we parted company for the week.

According to Keller, Clayton Peak is named after Professor J.E. Clayton, a mining engineer who lived in the Salt Lake area during the 1870's and 1880 and it was the Emma Mine (near Alta) for which he did much engineering work - both for its one-time British owners as well as for the later congressional investigation concerning the scandal involving that mine.

Clayton Peak acquired that name while Prof. Clayton was still in the area, but many locals referred to this same mountain (and still do) as Mount Majestic.

BTW, the lake just "below" Clayton Peak (to the East-Northeast) is Lake Lackawaxen.

Dog Lake is the body of water found at the top of Mill-D North Fork.  It is not to be confused with the "Dog Lake" found in the Brighton Bowl but referred to on these pages as "Lake Dog."  Both lakes are so-named because they once harbored "Dogfish" - the 19th-century common name for Salamders.

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.

Historical info about Clayton Peak was taken from "The Lady in the Ore Bucket" by Charles Keller