Signboard at the trail junction just below the Lake Mary dam.  Click on image for full-sized version.

Images (.JPG format):

• IMG05290 - Bruce and Dale, preparing for the hike at the trailhead.
• IMG05293 - The head of Lake Mary Dam, showing the lower water level against the dam.
• IMG05296 - Looking toward Mount "Tuscarine", another view of Lake Mary.
• IMG05308 - A look along the narrow channel that separates Lakes Mary and Phoebe.
• IMG05309 - A wider view of the Lake Mary area, showing Lake Phoebe in the background.
  
• IMG05326 - The obligatory group picture.  L->R:  Clint, Gordon, Bruce, Ron and Dale
• IMG05328 - From the far northern short of Lake Mary, a view across the lake toward Pioneer and Sunset peaks.
• IMG05333 - After dusk, from along the traverse trail, a view toward Brighton and Clayton peak.
• IMG05335 - From along the traverse trail, a view down toward Solitude.
• IMG05338 - Long after sunset, the still (and low) waters of Twin Lakes.
  

• Lake Mary Pano 1 - From near the cabin, Lake Mary.  (1.68 Meg)
• Lake Mary Pano 2 - Another view of Lake Mary from near the cabin, including Dale and Rons. (1.43 Meg)
• Lake Mary Pano 3 - From farther along the short, yet another view of Lake Mary.  (1.23 Meg)
  
• Lake Mary Pano 4 - Yet another view of Lake Mary.  (2.08 Meg)
  

• A detailed map with the GPS track of the hike (plus surrounding landmarks, 727 kB)
• The elevation profile of the hike - This shows the ups and downs of the trail.  The elevation readings during the latter part of the hike were a bit spotty owing to southern-sky blockage along the trail, prevent a solid GPS lock.
  

This was the second-to-last Wednesday Night Hike of the 2007 season.

With only minor threats of inclement weather earlier in the day, the sky was "pleasantly cloudy" by the appointed time:  It is those "somewhat cloudy" days that tend to provide the most spectacular display of both direct and indirect sunlight.  After all, without a bit of cloud cover, one would not have those instances of dramatic, warm, alpenglow on the ridges.

When we gathered, we were slightly surprised to hear from Bruce:  He'd undergone minor carpel-tunnel surgery and, being on short-term disability, was (unusually) free for the evening's hike:  Fortunately for him, hiking does not require the use of a keyboard or mouse.  After deciding on the Lake Mary to Twin Lakes "loop" trail, we piled into two cars and headed up to Brighton.

After arriving at Brighton, we piled out of the vehicles and immediately noted the loud noise of a large helicopter that had been involved in the installation of a new (and location yet unknown) ski lift.  After pausing briefly to look at the assortment of tower and pulley parts in the far end of the parking lot - plus a lot of workers that seemed embroiled in its assembly - we started the ascent to Lake Mary.  By that time of day - and this time of year - it already seemed like it should be much later than it really was, as the Brighton Bowl was already in deep shadow, with only the higher ridge tops and peaks still being lit.  We headed up the Lake Mary trail, seeing a few deer bound off in the distance, and before too long, we arrived at Lake Mary.

Even though the sluice gate had (apparently) been closed, the water level in Lake Mary was noticeably lower than it had been just a few weeks ago, further revealing the long-hidden ancient shoreline as well as century-old tree stumps that had been well-preserved at the bottom of the lake.  Even more prominent with the lower water level was the narrow channel that separated the lower Lake Mary from the upper remnants of Lake Phoebe, the once-separate and distinct lake - now only visible during when the water level is extremely low.

After pausing a few minutes at the Lake Mary cabin - the only one remaining of several built during the 1914 and 1915 construction of both the Lake Mary and Twin Lakes dams - and taking pictures (including the obligatory group) and enjoying the final glimpses of alpenglow in the surrounding peaks, we began the trek across to Twin Lakes on the traverse trail.

This trail was original constructed at the time of the dams' construction:  After completing the Lake Mary dam in 1914, the workers - many of whom lived in the cabins near Lake Mary - would commute to work on the Twin Lakes dam via this thoroughfare.  Today, the trail (mostly) follows the original alignment, crossing a large boulder field along the way, finally ending at the southern end of the Twin Lakes dam.

By the time we arrived at Twin Lakes the light was quickly fading.  Earlier, I'd handed to Ron an inexpensive, lightweight 60mm Meade telescope for possible use for the upcoming optical QSO attempt:  He produced this and we turned it skywards, revisiting the four Galilean moons of Jupiter.

By the time we left the dam, it was getting to be very dark, so wielded our flashlights and headed down the Twin Lakes service road.  Almost immediately there was a crash as Gordon found himself abruptly and involuntarily seated, a victim of the steepness of the road and its ball-bearing pea gravel.  After a moment of recovery, he staggered to his feet and we all proceeded down more carefully, not wishing to repeat Gordon's sudden loss of potential energy.  While there were many slips and near-repeats of Gordon's acrobatics, no-one else's dignity was impugned during the remainder of the descent.

Eventually, we arrived in the Brighton parking lot, emerging surrounded by the mechanism the yet-to-be-installed ski lift, pausing momentarily to look at the parts that would normally be seen only by riders of the lift.  Crossing the parking lot, we completed our loop.  Before getting in the car, Gordon had to "de-dust" himself as much as possible, having collected a lot of it during his fall.

The drive down the canyon was (fortunately) uneventful and upon arriving back in the parking lot, most of us wandered over the Rocky Mountain Pizza company for pizza and Bluegrass music.

The Lake Mary dam was constructed in about 1914 (with final completion in 1915) at a cost of $69,000 and is owned by the City of Salt Lake:  Although originally scheduled for completion in 1914, considerably more excavation was required at the dam site to reach suitable bedrock, causing delays in its final completion.  Materials for the dam were first taken to Park City via rail, then transported by wagon to Brighton, and then by light wagon and pack animal up to the construction site.

Lake Mary is part of a protected watershed with a capacity of approximately 600 acre-feet (about 196 million gallons) - about 2/3 that of Twin Lakes.  Lake Mary is actually two lakes, but the smaller one (Lake Phoebe) is normally merged with Lake Mary and is only visible during very low water years - like this one...

Lake Mary, originally called "Granite Lake," gets its name from New York artist Hartwig Borneman naming it after his wife in 1872.  Lake Martha was named by Alfred Lambourne, after his mother, while Lake Catherine got its name from William Brighton (yes, that Brighton) who named it after his wife, but it wasn't until after 1890 that this name came into common use.

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.   It was during this period that the familiar Lake Mary to Twin Lakes trail was built.

Comments about pictures taken by Clint:

• 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!
  

Go to the 2007 Wednesday Night Hike page, or main Wednesday Night Hike page or the Wednesday Night Hike Cross-Index page