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Finally, a hike with a total lack of weather!
Well, there was weather, actually, but it wasn't the main topic of discussion or concern, for a change. Because of this, we decided to do a more-traditional "long-day" hike - the Mill-D to Dog Lake and Butler Fork loop.
The complication with this hike is that it requires a "car spot" - that is, because the starting and finishing points aren't the same, the latter being some distance down the canyon and because of this, it is necessary to leave a car at the finish point (Butler Fork trailhead) that will be able to ferry the driver(s) of the cars at the starting point (Mill-D North Fork trailhead) back down so that no-one has to walk home. Another slight complication, this time, was that Brett was running behind. Since our number was great enough, we needed to take enough cars that everyone could get to the starting point - which meant that there was going to be a total of 3 cars, so Brett.
On the way up, Gordon (who was driving) disappeared from the radio, not being reachable on either '62 (forward or reverse) or our traditional simplex frequency, but we heard from Brett (who was behind him) that he was continuing up-canyon. Since they had two cars, I continued up to the starting point and waited. The complication was that Brett's car was full of furniture and that there may not be enough room for three people - the minimum number to ferry either the necessary drivers or hikers up: Fortunately, a re-arrangement was done that allowed one more person to squeeze in, so I didn't have to make a run back down-canyon to fetch anyone.
Bruce started up first, I, accompanied by Bryan, followed some distance behind: We decided to take our time, not being in a great hurry. Just after starting the hike, we ran across a man and a young girl: The man, who seemed to be intently smoking a cigarette, also seemed to be intoxicated in some manner - or stoned - and asked us how far to the lake. When we mentioned that it was nearly two miles and about 1700 feet elevation gain, he suddenly lost interest in going anywhere - much to the dismay of the girl: After we were out of earshot, we figured that he probably wasn't in any shape to make it anyway, but were somewhat alarmed by the fact that this person was likely to be driving down the canyon soon...
Continuing to take our time, we occasionally saw glimpses of Bruce ahead, but didn't really make an effort to catch up. We also heard via radio that Gordon and the rest of the group had started on their way, too.
When we got to Dog Lake, we saw the usual compliment of floating logs and ducks - not to mention the swarms of gnats and the occasional mosquito. Settling down, we waited for the rest of the group to show up. Eventually, familiar figures appeared at the far side of the lake and we took the obligatory group picture.
Now, we began what, is for some people, the harder part: The downhill portion, after first making the transverse from the top of Mill-D to the top of Butler. This trail had its usual snowbank on the leeward side, not to mention a greater-than-average number of felled trees - some of them still green. At some point, one of those snags reached out and grabbed my drinking tube, dumping cold water down my socks while draining part of my water supply. Quickly, I snatched up the end of the tube, stopping the flow, and began to look for the "bite valve" - a blue, rubber-looking thing. Knowing about where to look helped narrow the search and Gordon soon spotted it. I was also looking for another portion - one that contained the metal clip that attached the tube to my pack, but a brief search did not turn it up on the trail: After I got home, I found it still attached to my pack... (I must remember to fashion together a new clip-thingie before next week's hike!)
We soon found ourselves at the top of Butler Fork, descending past the spring: At least this time, unlike some previous times, the trail down wasn't mired with the spring, so there were only the occasional muddy spots - but nothing of great consequence. On the descent, the two groups separated again: The "fast" group in front, and the "half-slow" group in the rear, but as usual, we kept in touch with the occasional radio transmission.
Of minor concern were several of the stream crossings in Butler Fork. With the recent rain, we were wondering how difficult they would be, but were gratified to note that they were comparable to last year - and certainly less-significant that the two in last week's hike in Deaf Smith canyon. On the trail down, some of those wearing shorts were also reminded of the fact that stinging nettle grows along the trail - but at least large patches of it were not encountered!
By the time the first group reached the vehicles, it was getting to be quite dark, but at least the weather was nice: Few clouds in the sky and a nice display of stars - the latter being things that we'd not seen much of recently! After about 20-25 minutes, the rest of the group arrived, announcing their presence with the appearance of bobbing flashlights.
After another quick car-shuffle, we headed down-canyon, avoiding the occasional deer, and back down to the parking lot, where we went our separate ways.
In the early days, Mill-D north fork was the source of a lot of timber for a mill established near there in 1855 or 1856: The actual mill was located along the main stream in the canyon, near the south end of the present-day Spruces campground. Interestingly enough, this mill apparently used a "sash saw" (a reciprocating blade) rather than a circular saw and its "rep rate" was supposedly about 200 per minute. Driving this machinery was a 9 foot diameter waterwheel fed with a penstock with a 23 foot head. In about 1861 Brigham Young - for reasons unknown - sold off the the assets of the Big Cottonwood Lumber Company and the different portions (one of which was the sawmill at "Mill-D") went to different investors.
As it turns out, after this sale, much of the output of the Mill-D sawmill was sold by its own lumberyard (owned by various people over the years - including a Charles Bagley and the once-mayor of Salt Lake, Francis Armstrong) in Downtown Salt Lake and its operation continued until the late 1870's. Apparently, the remains of the sawmill could be easily seen at least until the early 1900's
It would seem that very little prospecting or mining was done in Mill-D North fork.
The body of water called "Dog Lake" is one of three (originally) so-named lakes Big Cottonwood canyon. It derives its name from the presence of Salamanders that the early explorers and inhabitants of the canyons had noticed: The common name for Salamander at the time was "Dogfish" - hence the name. (There's a "Dog Lake" above Brighton, and one of the past names of Lake Solitude was also "Dog Lake" or a variant of that.)
This fork was named after the Butler Brothers - one of whom was named Philander Butler (yes, that was his name!) - who operated a mill in Mill-G fork, along with many other similar properties in later years, including a steam-powered mill in Butler Fork in 1877. The next year, they operated their mill near the mouth of the canyon.
The above information was from the book "The Lady in the Ore Bucket" by Charles Keller.
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