Informational sign near the bottom of the trail that climbs to Cecret Lake.  (Picture from 2008.)
Click on an image for a full-sized version.

Images:

• SDIM2874 - Devil's Castle, as seen from the area near the campground.
  
• SDIM2875 - Tim, on rocks just above Cecret Lake.
  
• SDIM2876 - Gary, on an outcropping into the lake, taking some pictures.  #2877 is a wider view, showing the larger area.
  
• SDIM2878 - The ascent toward Germania pass.
  
• SDIM2879 - Tim, standing at the "sunset line" most of the way up toward Sugarloaf Peak.
  
• SDIM2882 - The last of the sun's rays on Devil's Castle, as seen from the peak.
  
• SDIM2884 - As the last bit of the sun's disk disappears behind the nearby peak.
• SDIM2888 - Time exposure of Albion Basin, as seen from just below Cecret Saddle.
• SDIM2889 - Time exposure of Cecret Lake.  A campfire may be seen across the lake.
  
• SDIM2891 - The obligatory group picture.  Since this was taken after dark, a 30 second time exposure was required - but that wasn't enough:  Further "push processing" was required, so the effective ISO was likely in the 3200-6400 area.  Since it was a 30 second exposure, there was some movement of the subjects, hence the blurring.  L->R:  Gordon, Mike, Gary, Ron, Tim and Clint.
• SDIM2892 - Just after the above picture, Ron noted how easy it was to make the rocks spark simply by rubbing them on the ground.  Another time exposure was taken with most of the people sparking rocks on the ground.
  

Notes:

Being a nice day in the valley, but with the sun setting more than 15 minutes earlier each week, we decided on Germania Pass above Cecret Lake.  Eventually, everyone piled in my car and were about to inform Tim, who had been running late, of our decision when he appeared so some of our number "un-piled" and went up with him.

Arriving at the Cecret Lake trailhead in Albion Basin we donned our gear and started up the trail, not seeing any moose along the way.  When we arrived at Cecret Lake we found that its water level was much lower than it had been in some recent years and passing the lake, we took a route that, in those recent years, would have likely involved swimming.  Pausing only long enough at the lake to take a few pictures, we proceeded up the trail toward "Cecret Saddle" (or should it have been "Cecret Cadle" to match the spelling of the lake?) - so the sign said...

This trail cuts diagonally upwards along the steep ridge above and to the south-ish of Cecret Lake and one soon arrives at the saddle, most-obviously marked (other than being the saddle...) by the Germania ski lift.  Rather than taking the road, most of us simply struck out up the hill, mostly paralleling the ski lift and after some claiming and breathing, arrived at the windy pass.

Eyeing the terminator as it slowly crept skywards toward Sugarloaf Peak, we vacillated in our decision to try for the peak.  Tim, not being bothered by matters of time or practicality, simply continued upwards.  Since he was going, I decided to follow and since I was going, Ron followed me and since Ron was going, Mike followed Ron... sort of...

Trudging up to the peak from Germania Pass, one more-or-less goes straight up the hill, taking occasional, slight meanders through the occasional sea of broken rocks and ground-hugging shrubs until one sees that one is near the top.  Shortly after this, you can see that you are not at the top - but having made it that far, you continue upwards anyway until you find Tim standing there, on top - that is, if Tim was in the lead and had already gotten there.

I arrived at the peak, finding Tim or course and was followed by Ron:  Mike, it seemed, had decided that he wasn't likely to make it before the sun set so he turned back and sauntered down.  Upon arriving at the peak, I reflected aloud that it would make sense that Tim would be the first to arrive because, as we all know, Tim waits for no man!

It was likely fortunate that no-one had quite-yet recovered after the climb so I did not get pushed off the nearest cliff.  With the cold, stiff breeze on the peak, we quickly changed out of our wet shirts into dry ones (if we had them) and put on jackets and windbreakers.  We then took a few pictures, stared into the sun, as one seems wont to do at that time of day, and then thought about going back down - everyone else taking less time to think than I.

After sunset, I wandered down, arriving at the ski lift in the deep shadows of the mountain.  In the distance we could see two figures walking along the road - Mike and Gordon - so we struck back down the ski run, paralleling the lift, more-or-less following course that we'd earlier ascended, the idea being to meet Mike and Gordon roughly where the trail passed under the ski lift.  As it turns out, they were somewhat ahead of us as we got down that far, but we met again at Cecret Saddle.

Crossing over the saddle onto the trail overlooking Cecret Lake we could see the shimmering waters in the gathering darkness along with a campfire above the distant shore.  Stopping there to take a few pictures, the rest of the group went on.  In the gloaming I passed again the lake, noting that now - unlike on our ascending trip - it was now quiet, being devoid of almost everyone except for those in our group.

A short distance below Cecret Lake along the trail, the rest of the group had stopped - presumably to demonstrate the "sparking rocks" to those in the group who had not previously seen them.  At this time, I took the opportunity to take the obligatory group picture.  Since it was now very dark, a long time-exposure was needed, so I set the camera for 30 seconds at F2.8 with an ISO of 400 - which turned not to be nearly enough, requiring some additional "push processing" to reveal the image.  As we were about to leave, Ron noticed that one could most-effectively spark the rocks not by dashing them on the ground with a glancing blow, but simply by scraping them against the ground.  Of course, we had to take another time exposure - this time with everyone (except Gordon, who refrained - possibly out of dignity) dragging their own personal rocks on the ground to make as many sparks as possible.

Having done that, we continued back to the vehicles in the dark, arriving without incident.  Piling into them, we wandered back down-canyon, meeting briefly at the parking lot before going our separate ways.

• None this time
  

• None this time

None this time

• A detailed map with the GPS track of the hike (plus surrounding landmarks)

• The elevation profile of the hike - This shows the ups and downs of the trail.
  

According to Keller, Cecret Lake gets its peculiar spelling from mining claims made in the area in 1905.  At that time, this body of water was known as "Flora Lake" - a name used on county maps at least until 1937 and even some local maps as late as 1980.  The "Flora" name (precise origin unknown) was one of several names for this lake:  In the 1860's, it was also known as "Mountain Lake" as well as "Little Cottonwood Lake" - not to mention "Lake Minnie" named by Lambourne and Culmer who had been wandering around the Wasatch naming things.  After about 1885, it was also known as "Cases Lake" after George Case, a long-time miner in the area.

The "Cecret" name comes from a number of claims filed in the area by the "Secret Mining and Milling Company."  Since many of those making the claims weren't particularly literate, it wasn't all that unusual that some of the names were "creatively spelled" - and since it was recorded in that way in the mining recorder's books, it was etched in stone, surviving much longer than the company that (almost) bore its name.

I'm not sure where the name "Germania" comes from, but it's worth noting that a large smelter of the same name was built in Murray in 1872, close to the site of the former Murray smokestacks (approx. 4900 South and West Temple.)

About Albion Basin:

The basin is named after the Albion Mining Company, incorporated in 1898 from other mining properties in the area left abandoned or little-used after being repeatedly wiped out by snowslides in the 1870's.  This company was extant until 1921 when its name disappeared, having been absorbed by the newly-formed Hecla Mines Company.

Some of the above information was from the book "The Lady in the Ore Bucket" by Charles Keller.

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Comments about pictures/video/audio 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 20090824 (Copyright 2009 by Clint Turner and those credited above.  All rights on images and text are reserved.)