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Images:
Notes:
Another beautiful day in the valley.
Unfortunately for us, other people thought the same, so when we got to the appointed parking lot it was already over-capacity. "Temporarily" a few of us blocked in some already-parked cars and since there was no sign of their occupants, we didn't worry about upsetting anyone.
Being a nice day - and the fact that the sunset is still late-ish - we decided to do Beartrap Fork, with other suggested choices having been Silver Fork and Honeycomb Fork. The weather was nice, the sky clear, and Gordon being absent, we chose Beartrap Fork.
Let me explain: Gordon doesn't mind going up Beartrap Fork, but he finds it less-enjoyable to come back down it. Last year, he managed to stress his knee and suffered for several weeks afterwards: This injury was not due to his being particularly maladroit (no editorial comments, please!) but the fact that it is quite steep and the trail is strewn with tree roots and rocks in many places. This, coupled with the occasional appearance of mud and the fact that it is usually getting quite dark by the time we start down makes the going treacherous - but I digress...
Having no-where to park, more cars went up the canyon that usual, and since Bruce lives very nearby, we simply left his car at his house while Mike went ahead in his car and Tim continued up on his motorcycle. At about this time, Dale was nearing the parking lot but since there was still no available parking place, we recommended that he just go up under separate cover.
As you might expect, Mike and Tim arrived near the trailhead first, but since Mike had never been there he parked just above the Spruces along the road while Tim scouted it out for the tell-tale gate. When I arrived, I did the usual maneuver: Drive past the spruces and go up another turn or two, see the closed gate whiz by and then do a U-turn, parking on the north side of the road - where Tim had already parked. Now, with recognizable vehicles marking the spot, Mike and Dale had no difficulty in finding the place.
The Beartrap Fork trail, more than many others, can be described as going up. After that, it gains some elevation, then it goes up some more, followed by a continued ascent. One of the welcome landmarks along the trail is the "lower meadow" where one experiences a welcome respite of relatively-flat (compared to the rest of the trail) ground in a shaded and remarkably verdant area. Walking through waist-high plants - a somewhat unusual sight along most of our frequented trails - we eventually re-entered the narrower drainage and resumed a now-steeper climb.
It seems that this year, we managed to time the wildflower show about right: The hillsides were, in places, exploding with small blue flowers, sticky geraniums, all punctuated by the occasional red flare of a desert paintbrush. At least these offered some visual distraction to the continual ascent.
Upon leaving the lower meadow, one passes through several stands of spruces (I think...) mixed with quaking aspen and, gradually, the aspen begin to dominate the landscape. Finally, one breaks through the final aspen stand and embarks on the final ascent toward the pass on a fairly rocky hill. In years past, the trail has more-or-less vanished at this point, leaving the hiker to finding their own path upwards, but in recent years, more-distinct trails have begin to appear... sort of...
Finally, we reached the pass, crossing a well-established bike path - the same one used by runners during the Wasatch 100 mile endurance run. From there it was an easy walk across the top of the bowl overlooking Desolation Lake to the "Red Lover's Leap" - a ridge from which we could see down toward Park City and sit on some dead trees while enjoying the spectacular sunset. Unlike our Clayton Peak trip, we weren't being swarmed by tiny, flying blood-suckers, seeing them in even small numbers only once the sun had started to set.
As we watched the solar disk disappear behind the clouds - and then below the horizon - I thought to myself that it probably wasn't a good idea to stare at the sun! Soon after that, we gathered for our obligatory group picture before shuffling off back toward the pass and down the steep trail. Along the way - just before dropping below the ridge - I took some pictures in the rapidly-fading light: Under these conditions, many flowers seem to fluoresce - although the effect is harder for the naked eye to see as it gets darker.
Bryan and Dale lead the way, with the rest of us, led by Bruce, catching only the occasional glimpse of their flashlights down-canyon as we descended the often-treacherous trail. On one memorable occasion, Bruce found him self suddenly sitting after a loud crash and a possible oath uttered under his breath: He'd managed to find the perfect combination of rock and mud to allow his feet to fly forward, propelling his posterior backwards. After getting up and dusting off, there seemed to be no permanent damage done, although he was expecting that his neck would be sore over the next day or two.
As the lead group passed through a lower meadow, they reported the tell-tale smell of herbivore, but saw none. As we passed through the same area a few minutes later, we observed the same smell, but saw nothing, either: On several of the occasions that we've hiked this trail we've seen deer and even the occasional moose - but nothing at all, this time.
We managed to get back down to the cars without any further incidents and which we piled in and descended the canyon, avoiding the occasional deer. At the parking lot, we went to our respective vehicles and parted company, after which I dropped Bruce off at his house.
(I must remember to return Bruce's Petzl next time I see him...)
None this timeMaps/profiles:
About Beartrap Fork:
According to Keller, Richard F. Burton - one of the principles of the Big Cottonwood Lumber Company - had been gone up Mill-E and wrote that, at that time, there was a small hut with one or two doors that fell when a bear tugged on the bait. While it isn't known if this trap was set by the same person, someone named Mag Littleford had a cabin near Beartrap Fork and was known in later years to trap bears there.
Above the top of Beartrap Fork (and "sort of" in Mill D North Fork) is Desolation Lake: The origin of the name of this lake is unknown.
Much of the above information was from the book "The Lady in the Ore Bucket" by Charles Keller.
Comments about pictures taken by Clint:
- All images taken using a Sigma Digital SLR camera and were taken using the lens noted in the EXIF data. (Usually, an SD-14.)
- 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. Additional suffixes of the image file name may include "sh" to indicate that some "de-blurring" was done, "mb" for correction of motion blur, and "crop" denoting that the image was cropped.
- If you took some pictures of the hike and send them to me, I'll post them - and give you the blame!
- The video clips, if any, were shot using a Panasonic DMC FZ-8 digital camera, have been re-compressed, and are of lower quality than the originals.
- Audio clips, if any, were recorded using a Zoom H-2 audio recorder.
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This page maintained by Clint Turner, KA7OEI and was last updated on 20090731 (Copyright 2009 by Clint Turner and those credited above. All rights on images and text are reserved.)
