Wednesday
Night
Hike
July 19, 2006
Wanderings
somewhere
around Twin Lakes
(Big
Cottonwood Canyon)
Signboard along the Twin Lakes trail -
just before it starts climbing. Click in image for a view of
the informational
signboard.
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Weather: Cloudy, cool, and
rainy - threatening thunder and lightning.
Present were: Gordon,
K7HFV; Bruce, KI7OM; Tim, KK7EF; Mike,
K7DOU; Ron, K7RJ; Clint, KA7OEI
Destination: In the Twin
Lakes area - sort of...
Question of the day: "Does
this look like it could be the place?"
Total distance (GPS):
3.18
miles, round trip for Ron, Gordon and I; Probably about 3.75
miles or so for those who circumnavigated the lake.
Times: Depart vehicles: 1851; Begin climbing
trail to Twin Lakes: 1905; Arrive at Twin Lakes Dam:
1934; We decide to go to the south shore of the lake:
2019; Group reunites: 2045; Start back down the
trail: 2100; Reach Silver Lake: 2126; Arrive at
vehicles: 2132
Altitudes in feet ASL (GPS approx):
Trailhead (parking lot): 8750; Base of Dam:
9450; Water level: About 9490
Distances (approx) from trailhead in miles: Past
Silver Lake, where the trail to Twin begins to climb: 0.4;
To the base of Twin Lakes Dam: 1.15 miles.
Altitude gain/loss in ft (approx.): 800.
Local sunset on this date:
2053 (we've lost about 8 minutes of sunlight - we are losing
nearly 1 minute per day now)
Total 2006 WNH mileage (if you've gone on all of the hikes
thus far): 31.0 miles approx.
Total number of footsteps
(estimated - I forgot my pedometer again...): Approximately
7200 (about
28 inches/step) This makes an estimated 76240
steps hiked during this WNH season.
Images (.JPG
format):
- IMG03671
- Mike, stretching in preparation for the hike.
- IMG03672
- A moose, just off the boardwalk near the trailhead.
- IMG03673
- Silver lake.
- IMG03676
- Silver lake and surrounding buildings, as viewed from the
trail. See below for comparisons of the old and new pictures.
- IMG03684
- Most of the group, standing in the rain near the dam on the south
shore of Twin Lakes. L->R: Ron, Tim, Gordon, Bruce.
- IMG03686
- Mike, having a private conversation...
- IMG03689
- Clint, near the dam, looking at the old pictures.
- IMG03690
- Waiting for the moose to move along before we stated down the trail...
Comment: Being that it was
fairly dark and rainy, fewer pictures were taken than normal. Of
those that were, more than the usual number of them suffered from
technical problems such as blurring due to long shutter times, slight
misfocus, or the fact that the lens had water on its objective, thus
blurring the image. For this reason, many of these images have
been reduced to half-size and/or have been processed in some way to
reduce the effects of the blurring due to motion or misfocusing.
Maps/profiles:
Notes:
In the parking lot, the two
popular choices were Catherine Pass/Sunset Peak (maybe taking a pass on
the peak if the weather threatened too much rain or lightning...) or to
do the Twin Lakes-Lake Solitude loop: We chose the latter,
initially...
Several years ago, in digging around through some family picture
archives, I ran across some photos taken up Big Cottonwood Canyon in
the Brighton area. In the early 1900's, some of my relatives (on
my mother's grandmother's side - the Cutler and Felt families,
specifically) would regularly get together in the Brighton area for a
sort of family gathering. The photos that I have found were taken
in various places near the Brighton Bowl - some atop mountains, and
several taken in areas of the lakes.
The photos in question were taken in July of 1913 see
below - just before either
the Lake Mary or Twin Lakes dams were built: I was curious to see
if I could figure out exactly where the photographer was when three of
these pictures were taken - or if it was even possible to do so.
One of these pictures was apparently taken from the trail to Twin Lakes
and looked down upon Silver Lake and the then-extant Balsam Lodge on
its shore while the other two were clearly taken of the Twin Lakes
themselves. The first picture - the one of Silver Lake - is, I
believe, fairly well-matched and the vantage point is along the trail
to twin lakes (although up the road a bit to provide clear view of the
lake) which was, at one time, probably the main road to the
Black Bess shaft and other workings.
As mentioned before, we'd originally planned to simply do the "Twin
Lakes to Lake Solitude" loop - a route that (mostly) kept clear of
high, exposed ridges susceptible to lightning - but as we got to Twin
Lakes, it started to rain lightly. Also, Gordon and Ron,
intrigued by the three photographs (and somewhat swayed by the rain)
decided that the Lake Solitude portion could wait for another day and
that perhaps a circumnavigation of Twin would be an acceptable
substitute. At the end of the hike, we decided that this had been
a good decision as there are portions of the trail below Lake Solitude
that tend to be somewhat slippery even when dry and are treacherously
muddy when wet.
Ron, Gordon and I began to look for the site at which one of the
pictures (the middle set of four,
below) was taken while the rest of the group continued their
circumnavigation of the lake. One of the pictures was apparently
taken on the
North shore of the lake somewhere, looking to the South and West into a
bowl west of Millicent. We were (more or less) able to match some
of the background features of this picture and could tell that it was
most likely taken somewhere along eastern half of the north shore of
the lake, but we were unable to find the rocky outcrop in the
foreground.
From our best guess at the time, we finally figured that the picture
was most likely taken from a point a few hundred feet to the west of
the dam and that the rocky outcrop in the picture had probably been
quarried to provide aggregate for the dam and that finding the vantage
point was likely to be fruitless.
Upon writing this and more-closely studying the pictures (something
that could not be easily done by looking at the increasingly
water-soaked laser-printed copy of the picture) one can begin to see
the scale of the rock, its relative height above the pre-dam water
level, and the relative size of the features with respect to the four
people clearly visible in the picture. If you look at the man on
the left side of the outcrop, it is clear that he is sitting at a point
that is only about 15 feet above the water. Knowing that the
current water level of the Twin Lakes is at least 50 feet above it's
"pre-dam" water level, it's safe to say that we were right about not
being able to duplicate the vantage point of this picture for the
simple reason that this rocky outcrop - if it still exists - is under
the surface of the Twin Lakes.
Having decided that this second picture was likely to be
"un-reproducible" without the use of scuba gear or high explosives
(neither option was entertained seriously...) we moved onto the last of
the three pictures. Upon looking at this picture a year or so
ago, Gordon and I determined that it would have had to have been taken
somewhere along the southern shore of the lake - probably toward the
west end. In this picture, in the background, one can clearly see
Scott's Hill and some other features along that ridgeline.
Judging by where this distant ridge intersected with the nearer ridge
descending from Mount Evergreen, we hoped to be able to find the
approximate location of this picture.
Complicating this task was the fact that this was a "pre-dam"
picture: In the "mid-background" one can see the opposite (the
northeast) shore of the Twin Lakes in a (more or less) pristine state
and how the ridge from Mount Evergreen intercepted the shoreline.
With the dam present and with the higher water level, this geometry is
disturbed, making a direct comparison impossible, requiring the
observer to visualize how it might have been.
Originally, we thought that this vantage point was from the large rocky
outcropping in the middle of the south-southeastern shore of the lake,
but before we got to this rock along the trail that follows this
shoreline, we could see that we were already too far along the shore
and the that picture had clearly been taken at a spot much closer to
the dam. Backtracking, we move toward the north and east along
the lake and, at a place a few hundred feet behind the dam, along the
shore, we found what we believe to be about as close to the spot of the
original picture as one could get.
Interestingly, it would seem that the original Twin Lakes extended
farther to the east than it does now: If you look at the old
picture carefully, you can see that the northeast shore is a rocky
ridge - and this is probably the same ridge (or the remains of it - it
is possible that some or most of the original shore was quarried
or removed during the dam's construction) on which the ski lift now
sits - which means that the lake itself probably went a few hundred
feet farther in that direction. This also means that the water
level of the present Twin Lakes reservoir is higher than the original
Twin Lakes by nearly the height of the dam itself, which means that the
water is at least 50 feet higher than before.
At about the time that we decided that we were in about the same place
as the original photographer (or as close as we could get to it,
judging from the now nearly-disintegrated copy of the picture) the rest
of the group (with whom we had maintained radio contact) completed
their circumnavigation of the lake and met up with us. Starting
down from the south side of the dam, we stopped, not being able to
avoid noticing a large bull moose happily munching away along the side
of the road that was also our trail. After several minutes of
staring at the moose, we started moving toward it fairly slowly:
Before we were within a hundred feet or so, it began to move off, down
the road, so we maintained our pace: Ultimately, he didn't seem
to want to get any closer to us than we did to him, so we simply
steered clear of each other.
The hike back down to Silver Lake was uneventful except for the fact
that it, being only 9 pm, was still light enough to follow the trail
without need of flashlight - a strange occurrence, it seemed. At
about the time we reached the vehicles, it had mostly stopped raining
and Tim, who had met us at Brighton because he had already been staying
up there, continued to stay there while the rest of us wandered down
the canyon, to the parking lot, and then most of the remaining group
had a dime-lime at the TGI Friday's near Cottonwood Mall.
Pictures:
Now and then:
Below are some old pictures were
taken in the
vicinity of Twin Lakes during the summer of 1913 - about 2 years before
the dam was built. In each case, the old image is shown on the
left while the newer images
have been converted to black-and-white, contrast-adjusted, and then
cropped to more-closely resemble the view and tone of the old images.
The old 1913 image of Silver Lake and a
newer image taken from approximately the same location. The large
building in the old picture is the "Log Cabin Hotel" - also known as
variously as the Balsam Inn or Balsam Hotel. Built around 1910,
it operated until it burned to the ground on March 21, 1937
Various incarnations of this structure were built and rebuilt until it
burned for the for the third and final time in 1959 - after which the
owners opened the "Balsam Embers" restaurant in Salt Lake. Click
on either image for a full-sized version.
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In the above picture, it is apparent that the "new" vantage point is
somewhat higher in elevation and farther to the south and west than
that from which the old picture was taken: To take a picture
closer to that of the original location it would be necessary to be
farther down the trail and bushwhack a bit to find a clear vantage
point.
If you look carefully at the
original picture, you can see four
people on the rocky outcrop: Looking carefully at the person on
the
far left, you can see that he is sitting only about 10-15 feet above
the waterline. Because the dam raised the water level by 40
feet or more - and most certainly increased the size of the lake itself
- it is
unlikely that the original vantage point can be replicated easily, not
knowing where the now-underwater rocky outcrop might be - assuming that
it still exists. In looking at
the original 1913 image, it is
possible to just make out the large rock, across the lake, through the
tree in the foreground. Compare, in this picture, how far above
the
waterline that this rock sits - and then compare it to how far above
the water the rock is today.
The other three images are various attempts to
find, as best as can be done, a vantage point similar to the
original. It is likely that this image may have been taken very
close to what is now the shoreline of the reservoir - but until/unless
the water is low enough to possibly see the outcrop, we probably won't
know...
The image on the left was taken in July
of 1913 while the one on the right is a very recent picture. In
the background, one can recognize Scott's Hill and other features
nearby. Click on either image for a full-sized version.
Original July, 1913 picture.
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Update: After looking
at the photographs, we determined that the above picture could not have
been Twin Lakes, but was more likely to be Lake Mary. This
suspicion was confirmed on our August 16
Catherine Pass hike.
The right-hand image shows a view of
Twin
Lakes looking toward the northeast with the recognizable features of
Scott's Hill and some of the other distant features in the
background. In comparison of the new and old images, one thing
becomes readily apparent: The northeast boundary of the lake was
likely farther to the north and east than the current dam.
Although it's difficult to tell, it's likely that the rocky ridge
making up
the far shore seen in the center and right of the old picture are those
close to where the current ski lift sits - but it is also likely that
their height was considerably reduced to prepare the base for the dam
as well as to provide building materials for the dam itself.
In closely scrutinizing these last pictures, it would appear that the
"new" picture wasn't taken from quite the right location: Ron
opined that the old one may have been taken from a vantage point still
higher up the side of the mountain - and maybe somewhat farther to the
south and west - and I suspect that he may be right...
About Twin Lakes dam:
According to Keller, Twin Lakes
dam was constructed in the summer of 1915 at a cost of about $72,000
and it has a full-pool capacity of about 300 million gallons (approx.
921 acre-feet.) With much of the infrastructure to haul the raw
material already having been put into place during the construction of
the Lake Mary dam which had been mostly finished the summer before, but
not completed until that summer. The raw materials were first
shipped by rail to Park City and then hauled to Brighton by wagon - and
then by light wagon or pack animals from Brighton to the construction
site itself. It was during this period that the familiar Lake
Mary
to Twin Lakes trail was built.
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.
Wanna
send email?
Go to the 2006
Wednesday Night Hike page, or main Wednesday
Night Hike index page.
Historical info about Twin
Lakes was taken from "The Lady in the Ore Bucket" by Charles
Keller
This page maintained by Clint Turner, KA7OEI
and
was last updated on 20070611 (Copyright 2006-2007 by Clint
Turner. All
rights on images and text are reserved.)
