Images (.JPG format):

• IMG_0831 - At the trailhead in the Brighton parking lot.  L->R:  Bryan, Clint, and Mark.  (Photo, courtesy of Gordon)
  
• IMG04684 - Clayton Peak, as viewed from near Snake Creek Pass.
  
• IMG04685 - Bruce, about to smear himself with DEET to ward off the clouds of mosquitoes.
  
• IMG04687 - The Heber valley, a short while before sunset.
  
• IMG04688 - A view toward the south and west, showing the Salt Lake Twin peaks, as seen from partway up the Clayton Peak cone.
  
• IMG04691 - Chris checking out his coverage of a few repeaters, with Bruce looking on.
  
• IMG04694 - Bryan, just coming into view below the summit.
  
• IMG04695 - From the summit, another view toward the Twin peaks.
• IMG04697 - Bruce, on the summit with Timpanogas in the background, getting ready to have a small snack.
  
• IMG04698 - The obligatory group picture.  L->R:  Gordon, Bryan, Mike, Clint, Bruce, Chris.  (In the future, I need to make sure that the camera has really focused on the people, rather than at infinity, as in this picture...)
  
• IMG04703 - Sunset, with Silver Lake and Twin lakes in the foreground.
  
• IMG04706 - Silhouette of a tree against the fading twilight.

• A detailed map with the GPS track of the hike (plus surrounding landmarks, 1019k)
• The elevation profile of the hike - This shows the ups and downs of the trail. 
  

It was yet another hot day in the valley and this time, the sunlight was slightly tinged with smoke from wildfires elsewhere in the western U.S.  As you might expect, we chose a higher-altitude hike, and because the sunset is within a few 10's of seconds of being as late as it will get, we chose to do Clayton Peak - one of the longest and steepest hikes in our WNH repertoire.

Upon gathering at the parking lot, we had been surprised to hear from Mark, WB7CAK, who had arrived in town a few days earlier to visit his family and had decided to join us for the hike.  Also joining us for the first time this season was Chris, KF7P (ex. KE7FYP.)  After deciding on the destination (the other proposed choice was Beartrap Fork, overlooking Desolation Lake) we piled into our vehicles and headed up the canyon.  Partway up, Chris heard, via the radio, from Mike, who had been running a bit late from work and planned to meet us en-route up the trail.

Starting up the trail, Mark soon realized just how much living at low altitudes (in Bellingham, WA) had disadvantaged him when he was trying to hike at 9000+ feet - so he faded back a bit rather than slow the group.  At about this time, Mike was in simplex range and advised us of his ETA:  He planned to hoof it uphill quickly upon arrival (running across Mark in the process) and hoping to join the main group for the assault on the Clayton Peak mass.

Along the trail, there were a few patches of snow and a surprising number of felled trees, requiring frequent off-trail detours to get around them.  Upon reaching Snake Creek Pass, Bruce and Chris (both of whom had arrived at the pass a few minutes earlier) were relaxing for a few minutes, getting prepared for the trek up to the peak.  By this time, most of us had also started smearing ourselves with DEET to ward off the swarms of mosquitoes - but we'd also noticed that the swarms weren't nearly as bad as we had seen them in some years past.  Also, at about this time, we'd gotten a report from Mike that he'd been making good progress, but that he had not overtaken Mark.  We had began to worry that Mark had inadvertently taken the wrong turn, perhaps at the Lake Dog/Lake Mary junction - but our worries were over when Mark finally appeared, trudging up the trail:  He announced that this was about as far as he was planning to go due to his lack of high-altitude acclimatization.

That was the last time that we saw Mark.

After a few more minutes, Mike appeared and following a brief respite, we continued onwards and upwards, lagging behind Bruce and Chris who'd had a few minutes of head start.  As observed on previous hikes, this was one of those trails that is "steep, but it's long" and the final 500-ish feet of ascent up Clayton peak follows a rather steep, circuitous (and sometimes vague) trail where, in some places, it can be pretty easy to wander off for short distance - or lose it altogether (the trail, that is...)  Fortunately, this trail was seared into our minds well enough from past years that we didn't have much problem in repeating past mistakes and after a while, we made it to the peak, with Mike and Gordon bringing up the rear.

At about this time, Mark, who had been hanging around Snake Creek Pass being dessicated by mosquitoes, decided that he was going to start down while there was still enough sun to see without a flashlight, so we kept in touch via radio.  After spending a few minutes on the summit, lathering ourselves with a bit more DEET and taking the obligatory group picture (sans Mark, of course) we decided that it was time to head down.  Chris decided to go straight down the side of the mountain toward the ski lift and it was our understanding that he wanted to make sure that he was off the summit block before it got very dark.  A short time later, however, just as the lot of us had made it down toward Snake Creek, Chris reported that he had been following lift - then the service road - downwards.  After what seemed like just a short time after that, we heard from him again and this time, he was at the parking lot with Mark, where it was made known that he and Mark would head down the canyon at that time - something that was made possible by Mike's vehicle now being available to ferry the rest of us down.

For the first little while, I hung out near Mike and Gordon as they headed down, but I gradually outpaced them, eventually catching up to Bruce and Bryan at about the top of the ski run, just before the trail steepens on its ascent toward Lake Dog and Lake Mary.  Working our way down in the dark, we eventually arrived at the parking lot, followed a while later by Mike and Gordon:  It seemed that Mike's exertion on catching up with him (plus the fact that it was, in fact, one of the more difficult Wednesday Night Hikes) had taken its toll, so Mike was happy to take his time in making as graceful descent as possible.

After regrouping, we headed down the canyon, passing numerous deer foraging along the side of the road.  By the time we arrived at the parking lot at the bottom of the canyon, it was too late for any of our usual dime lime haunts, so most of the group headed home while Mike and Gordon headed over to the Belgian Waffle and had a late night meal.

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.

Comments:

• 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.
• Because all of the images were originally taken stored in raw binary format, they have been down-processed to .JPG for web posting:  If requested, different color/contrast/brightness may be applied and/or higher-quality uncompressed versions may be available for most of these images.
• 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 numbered 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.
• If you took some pictures of the hike and send them to me, I'll post them - and give you the blame!
  

We went to Clayton Peak in 2006 - click here to read about that hike.

Go to the 2007 Wednesday Night Hike page, or main Wednesday Night Hike index page.