High Uintas Wilderness, Utah – 8 Day, 95 Mile Solo Hike Aug 2015

High Uintas Wilderness Hike Overview

View ALL my pictures from the hike here: High Uintas Wilderness Photos

View a HD video of this hike on youtube: High Uintas Wilderess 8 Day Solo Hike

• Location – High Uintas Wilderness, Utah
• Park Type – National Forest, Wilderness
• Park Administration – Ashley and Wasatch-Cache National Forests
• Trailhead – Start & end at East Fork Black’s Fork trailhead
• Fees & Permits – No fees or permits needed for hiking. Parking pass may be needed depending on the trailhead
• Length Of Time Hiked – 8 days, 7 nights
• Trail Type – Loop
• Miles Hiked – 95+
• Trail Difficulty – 7.5
• Solitude – 7.5
• Scenic Beauty – 9
• Fires Allowed – Yes, with some restricted areas

 

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About The High Uintas Wilderness

In 1984, congress set aside 456,000 acres in the Uintas Mountains in northeast Utah to become the High Uintas Wilderness. Along with the Transverse Mountain ranges in California, the Uintas are the only mountain range in the lower 48 that runs east to west, and is certainly the largest of them all. The Uintas contain the tallest peak in Utah, King’s Peak (13.527ft), all of the 13,000ft peaks and half of the 12,000ft peaks in the state. There are over 1,000 lakes in the Uintas wilderness, and about half of them contain trout.

High Uintas Wilderness Maps

Here’s my Caltopo map, where I created the route:

 

High Uintas Gear List

Osprey Exos 58 pack
Warbonnet Outdoors Riderunner Hammock
Warbonnet Outdoors Superfly Tarp
Warbonnet Outdoors Lynx underquilt – full length 20°F
Hammock Gear Burrow 40 top quilt

Clothing:

Footwear – Inov 8 Roclite 295s
Dirty Girl gaiters
Insulation – REI Rauk jacket
Base – Patagonia Capilene I top and bottom
REI zip off shorts/pants
Nike Dri-fit shirt
Outdoor Research sombrero
Outdoor Research rain jacket and pants

Camera gear:

Sony Nex-7
18-55mm lens
16mm lens
3 batteries
Home made 4.7oz tripod
A couple filters, remote shutter control, extra SD card, etc
GoPro Hero4 Black Edition
6 batteries
Flow-Mow time-lapse panner
Head and chest mounts

Garmin Oregon 450 GPS – It takes 2 AAs… I use Energizer Ultimate lithium batteries and had 4 extras. I usually get about 3-4 days out of a pair.

Cookware – I normally go stoveless, but after catching fish and having no wood for a fire in the Winds last year I decided just to bring the stove so I had a sure fire way to cook fish if I caught them.

Knock-off MSR PocketRocket stove
Propane/Butane mix fuel
Small non stick frying pan

And all the other typical extra stuff… firesteel, headlamp, cordage, first aid kit, toiletries, etc.

I did bring my cell phone but only used it a few times to play music.

Getting There

The Uintas Mountains are in northeast Utah, about 1.5 hours east of Salt Lake City. Highway 150 (Mirror Lake Scenic Byway) runs from the town of Kamas on the westerly end of the wilderness north through Hayden Pass and on into Evanston, Wyoming. FR-58, or “North Slope Road” is the main road that run east and west on the northern slope of the mountain range for access to the north slope trailheads, such as West Fork Black’s Fork, East Fork Black’s Fork, Henry’s Fork, and others.

 

Day 0 – Travel Day

Today I flew in to Salt Lake City, arriving around 8:30pm.  My previous two flights on American Airlines, they lost my luggage. The first time it took them a day and a half to find it, delaying the start of my hike. The second time wasn’t for a hike but still ruined my first day. Between both those flights, I only received a $50 voucher as compensation. Pretty insulting if you ask me. However, this time they delivered my luggage as expected, bringing them up to a laughable 1-for-3 record. Yay. After picking up my bag, I got in my little Toyota Yaris rental car and headed towards the Uintas. I made a quick stop in Park City along the way at their 24 hour Walmart and bought some fuel for my stove, since I can’t bring that on an airplane. That, and a case of water. I ate at Five Guys, a nice big burger for my last hot meal for 8 days. With all that done I continued on to the town of Kamas where I picked up hwy 150 and headed into the Uintas, in the darkness.

The plan for tonight was to drive a ways on hwy 150 and find a place to camp along the road once I got near Hayden Pass, which is over 10,000ft. Since I’m coming from about 500ft elevation, I really need to get one night of sleep in up here before I can think about beginning to hike at this altitude. Normally I give myself a little more time to acclimate, but this time I was trying to squeeze a lot into a limited amount of time.

I went over Hayden Pass and ended up finding a spot shortly after. It was about 11:30 pm at this point. With the car at my disposal, albeit a poor choice for a night’s sleep in the event of rain, I setup the hammock without the tarp overhead and just marveled at the stars above. The new moon is tomorrow so this is about as bright as they’ll be in this area for a while. Ah, I slept great.

Day 1 – Thursday August 13th, 2015

Miles Hiked – 8.5
Route – East Fork Black’s Fork trailhead to 10,400 ft mark in Little East Fork drainage
Day 1 Map

I woke up at 7:45 this morning, in no hurry to get moving. Since I’ve only been up here at altitude since 11pm last night, I figure I’ll wait til at least noon before I begin hiking. Once I got back on hwy 150 north, I had to stop for a heard of sheep just hanging out in the middle of the road. Little did I know that wouldn’t be the last I’d see of sheep. Eventually I hit FR-58, North Slope Rd and headed east. After driving 18 miles or so, I made a right on FR-65 which takes you to East Fork Black’s Fork trailhead and campground. FR-65 is really, really rough. It’s really rocky and has lots of big craters. My little Toyota Yaris rental car made it, but damn was I scared of getting a flat. And it’s painfully slow going. So you can take pretty much any car out here I guess, but have a spare on hand just in case.

I pulled into the trailhead just before noon and started doing the final loading and checking of my backpack. Pack weight was pushing 50 pounds with about 20 pounds of food and a full load of water. I was planning on 2 pounds a day for 9 days, plus some extra stuff. This was in response to losing 15-20 pounds during an 8 day hike in the Wind River Range last year, when I ate all of my 13 pounds of food. I didn’t want to be hungry again. By 12:30 I was on the trail, excited for the adventure that lies ahead. The first step of a journey like this is always profound… I’m excited, anxious and apprehensive about the things I might have forgot to bring or about the possibility of something going wrong along the way. But that’s what I love about doing this… no matter what happens, it’s always an adventure.

After registering at the trailhead, I proceeded across the foot bridge and made a right, heading into the Little East Fork drainage. Here I saw the only other person I would see today, heading back to the trailhead. Shortly after, the trail crosses several smaller streams and then a few wider ones. After a mile or so, the trail splits off; East Fork Black’s Fork to the right, and Little East Fork to the left. I’m staying to the left the way in, and finishing the loop by taking EFBF back.

Now I’m making my way up the Little East Fork drainage. The trail winds through pine forests and some meadows with an occasional stream crossing. None are deep but at least two of them I was not able to hop rocks across, and had to ford. I didn’t see any established campsites the whole day while I was hiking through here. This drainage was not spectacular but had some pretty sections closer to the top. It didn’t look it was very well traveled though.

After hiking 8.5 miles I called it a day. I made it to the 10,400ft mark. I planned a short day here because I know I need more time to acclimatize, and not to push it too hard on the first day. Just in time too, as it was beginning to sprinkle. There really weren’t a whole lot of good spots to hang my new hammock, a Warbonnet Ridgerunner. Either the trees were too small, too close together or too far apart. Eventually I found an area on a bit of a hill that would work. Having set up the hammock in the field only once, and spending two nights in it, I was still learning my way with it. I spent quite a while setting up the tarp, a Warbonnet Superfly. After getting the hang of some knots like the slipped buntline hitch and slipped truckers hitch I had the thing up ready for the rain.

I decided to take a nap in the hammock for about 45 minutes until the rain let up. It wasn’t raining hard at all but enough to make me wait it out. Today was a little harder than I expected. I did a really good job staying hydrated all day until I reached camp. When the rain stopped I headed down to Little East Fork creek to filter some water. Mosquitoes were not too bad, only a couple bites occasionally. After getting water and washing up I headed back up to camp. I wasn’t too hungry tonight though. High altitude and exertion seem to suppress my appetite. I made myself eat what I could. I didn’t seem nauseous or physically bad in any way, just no desire to eat. And foods taste more bland.

It still looked stormy when I went to bed at 9:30 tonight. Hope that clears up. The real views start tomorrow.

 

Day 2 – Friday August 14th, 2015

Miles Hiked – 11.1
Route – 10,400 ft mark in Little East Fork drainage to Yellowstone Creek campsite below Anderson Pass

Day 2 Map

I slept pretty good last night. The sun was shining and the storms had passed, but everything was still pretty wet. I got on the trail around 8am this morning and continued uphill. It wasn’t long before I was nearing the treeline and those big views I’m looking for. As the trees petered out, I caught a glimpse of two large black animals. My first thought was moose, but I didn’t get a good enough look at them. Shortly after I saw another group of animals, 2 black and 2 white, that I think were sheep. They ran off before I could tell for sure. Again, not that last I’d see of sheep this hike.

By 9 am I was standing on Squaw Pass with my first “big” view. Once at the top of this pass you are greeted with a cairn as expected as well as the skull of a horse, I believe.  The view to the north where I came from off into Wyoming was impressive, however, the real jaw dropper was the huge open valley below. This is where I’ll be descending in a minute, after a some pictures and a quick break.

The weather looked like it wants to rain eventually, so I made my way down the pass and out of the wind. Squaw Pass isn’t as tough as many of the rest of the passes along this trip, but since I had 3 passes to traverse today I wasn’t complaining! The trail down Squaw Pass heads southwest, but I want to be going northeast, towards Porcupine Pass. Once I dropped some elevation I left the trail and cut across the hillside, taking what I always perceive to be a shortcut; the most direct path. Here in this open valley, it probably did save me a little time even though I didn’t catch up with the trail again til the base of Porcupine Pass.

Hiking through this valley was cool. To the southeast and parallel to my route was a very impressive chain of mountains ranging from 21,100 – 12,800 ft. They are unnamed on my maps, except for Stone Peak.

The trail up Porcupine Pass was not visible until you’re right up close to it. On the way up the pass, I came across and area where trail workers had just dug out a good section of trail along the upper stretches of the pass. Shovels and pick axes were left at the turn in one of the switchbacks. I was on top of the pass by 11:15, but the threat of rain loomed. It was windy and sprinkling up here so I didn’t stay too long.

After descending Porcupine Pass and continuing east, the trail winds through Garfield Basin. This area was pretty barren, and somewhat reminiscent of the Wind River Range in that way. Still, it was surprisingly beautiful. It was pretty easy hiking through here, all the way to Tungsten Lake where I stopped for a quick break. I hear this lake is great for fishing, along with Superior and North Star if I remember right. However, I didn’t do any fishing here. I was more focused on getting to camp and beating the rain, which I thought was inevitable. I took my shoes off to air out my feet and ate some food before it started sprinkling again. As soon as I get everything packed up and moving, it stops. Not complaining!

Now leaving Tungsten Lake, it’s time to head up Tungsten Pass. Approached from the west as I did, this pass was a joke compared to the others, at about 60ft elevation gain above Tungsten Lake. Nice, since it was my third pass of the day. The colors of the mountains were really cool up here. Not red like you think of when someone mentions Utah, but different.

Descending Tungsten Pass now, a new valley opens up to me. Through here flows Yellowstone Creek. The trail I’m following stays high up in the basin and works it’s way towards Anderson Pass and King’s Peak to the northeast. Starting from a high of 11,400ft at Tungsten Pass, the trail dips as low as about 11,000ft on the way to Anderson Pass, so it does a fairly good job of maintaining elevation through this area.

My intended campsite for today is the last patch of trees before the climb up to Anderson Pass. The satellite view of this area shows trees but it was difficult to tell whether or not they’ll be suitable for hanging. Once I reached the area in question, I could see that hanging the hammock would not be a problem. However, it still took some effort to find a spot to hang from. Setup time was faster today.

After making camp I set up the GPro to try my hand at a time-lapse. I used my new Flow-Motion time lapse panning device to get that slow, smooth pan during the time lapse. The wind knocked the tripod over halfway through it’s pan though. Since the time lapse mode requires the camera to be on for so long, battery life is the biggest hurdle. I did have 6 batteries for the GoPro, but at least one was for a night lapse later on, and the other 5 for the 8 days of hiking.

It was a pretty decent afternoon despite the constant perceived threat of rain. Fishing was not possible here through due to the size of the creek, which was just a trickle really.

After that I decided to lay down in the hammock while I reviewed my maps for tomorrow. So there I was, just laying there, and all of the sudden the hammock drops about a foot. It turns out that one of the tips snapped off on my trekking pole, which is being used as a spreader bar on the head end of the hammock. This was completely my fault as I would soon learn. For now, I told myself it was a fluke incident and began to look for a way to continue using the pole as a spreader bar. If this doesn’t work, I’m pretty much screwed. First thing though, I had to find the pole tip adapter piece which was nowhere to be found. I eventually found it laying in the dirt more than 20 feet away.

I shaved off the remaining plastic around the end of the broken pole tip, exposing the metal pole’s end. This still fit into the trekking pole tip adapter piece that I was using before, but it was looser than before. With this pole all fixed up, I moved the good pole from the foot end spreader bar over to the head end, and the broken pole over to the foot end. It was only a minute or two before the one remaining good pole had it’s pole tip snap off as well. What the hell?
With both poles broken now, I was forced to take a closer look at what was causing this to happen. After all, everything worked fine the last 2 nights I slept in the hammock using the same setup. The problem ended up being that I made the spreader poles too wide. I measured the existing spreader poles at home, but never made any markings on the trekking poles to indicate the correct length. I really didn’t think it would be an issue if either pole was an inch or two too long or short, but it makes all the difference. I made the poles too wide, which made the angle at which the pole tips sit in the metal brackets on the rigging lines off enough to put a tension on the tips, snapping them off.

I saw a deer grazing a few hundred feet away as I got my fire lit that evening. The sky cleared and the stars were out again as the sun set. I was nervous about my hammock holding up for the night, and the rest of the trip for that matter, as I hopped into bed.

 

Day 3 – Saturday August 15th, 2015

Miles Hiked – 10.3
Route –  Yellowstone Creek campsite below Anderson Pass to Milk Lake

Day 3 Map

My trekking poles held up through the night with no issues, thankfully. When I woke up this morning though, the sky was pretty cloudy and it looked like it was building. Since the weather looked so bad I didn’t want to head off to Anderson Pass and get caught on top during a lightning storm, so I waited. This was really threatening my Summit attempt of King’s Peak as well. Fortunately, the clouds broke some after about an hour and I decided to break camp.

Immediately after leaving camp the trail heads uphill for a while. I couldn’t believe it to be honest, but the clouds kept dissipating, revitalizing my mood. It wasn’t long before blue skies were the majority. Soon the treeline was below and I was on the final “shelf” leading up to Anderson Pass. Looks like I may be able to summit King’s Peak after all!

The trail up Anderson Pass wasn’t visible until I got pretty close to it, then the switchbacks became apparent. The trail itself was in pretty good shape but it was a tough climb. As I approached the top of the pass I could see people up there, and heading up King’s Peak. From the hike up Anderson, I could barely spot King’s Peak. It doesn’t tower above the surrounding ridgeline. You would never know it’s the tallest peak in the state from this vantage point.

When I got to the top of the pass I was not alone. There were 7-8 other people up here, with many more headed up the pass from the other side, and many more headed up King’s Peak above me. This was quite the influx of people compared to what I’d seen the first 2 days. I also noticed nobody had more than a small daypack on. I was the only one up here out of about 50 people I saw that had a fully loaded backpack. It turns out many of them were part of two separate large groups camping at Dollar Lake, and it seemed the rest were trail runners that had ran up here from Henry’s Fork Trailhead I believe.

Anderson Pass offered some great views. Many of the ridges in this area looked like a plate had been uplifted, and is overhanging the opposite side of the ridgeline. Pretty cool looking. I’m sure there’s a term for this but I don’t know what it is.

I took a break for a few minutes after that long climb up here before heading up to King’s Peak. I brought a small compressible backpack (2-3oz I believe) that I used in place of my Osprey pack for the climb up, and left the pack down at Anderson Pass. I set it out of the way a little bit since there were so many people, not that anyone would want to lug that pack around.

The climb up King’s was not bad. Since I had all that weight off my shoulders it felt like I was flying up there. The terrain was mostly a class 2 with some easy class 3 spots. Great views all the way up. At the top there was consistently about 15 or more people up there at any given time. We had to take turns at the summit block. But at least up here, I had someone to take my picture instead of using my tripod. That can be pretty awkward on thee types of boulders.

 

I stayed on the top for a while. No rush to leave a view like this. Plus, with the weather constantly changing, so do the photographic opportunities. The clouds grew darker and darker just beyond Anderson Pass, and rain was not far off in the distance.

When the weather finally convinced me it was time to go, I made it back down to the pass pretty quick, and without getting wet. People were still headed up to summit King’s as I descended Anderson Pass into Painter Basin. Many of the people camping over at Dollar Lake were taking a shortcut back. Instead of going down Anderson and up Over Gunsight Pass, they headed down a rock chute at the 12,450ft mark on the map about a 1/4 mile northeast of Anderson Pass.

I enjoyed the hike coming down into Painter Basin. All around me it seemed to be raining but never actually on me. It was as if there was a clear spot overhead following me around, while anything outside of my radius saw rain. Not complaining! Plus, it allowed for some cool pictures of the rain coming down, without me (and the camera) being in the rain itself.

The further I hiked into Painter Basin, the larger it looked. It looked like a full day’s hike on the map. Fortunately I was only headed to Milk Lake, which most of the people I spoke with on King’s Peak weren’t familiar with. It’s a little off trail, just below the Crest of the Uintas tucked away out of sight a few miles into the basin. Eager to get to my destination, I decided a shortcut would be the quickest way to get there. I had my doubts about a trail running form the main trail over to Milk Lake once I got near it, and so a direct off trail route didn’t seem like a bad idea.

Bushwhacking my way towards Milk lake wasn’t terrible, but was no walk in the park either. Mostly it was a mix of some random boulder fields and choke points between the shrubbery that cut up my arms and legs a little. But that’s off trail hiking for you. Or, on trail hiking in Arizona, the “Stabby Cactus State”.

I got my first view of Milk Lake from a small hill above. I could see that finding a good set of trees to hang the hammock from might be a bit of a challenge. Definitely not going to get that near the lake itself which I was hoping for. I had to stay high above the lake on a hill where the trees were, which was a few hundred yard walk down to the lake. My spot wasn’t very aesthetically pleasing, but if I wanted to camp by this lake, this was my best bet.

Lots of animal crap around here in this area. Tons of it, really. I could barely find a spot to step without it. Elk and deer crap mostly. I got the hammock up and the tarp secured in place, ready for whatever the weather had in store for me. It still looked like it was going to storm at some point today.

After getting camp setup, I headed down to Milk Lake to get some water and do some fishing. I could see tons of fish swimming around the shallows, but they weren’t very big. Maybe 6 inchers. These little guys couldn’t resist my Mepps spinner, and I caught 10 or 12 Cutthroats in a half hour or less. I suppose I could have walked around the lake but I figured they were all going to be pretty small in here and abandoned the idea of eating fish tonight.

After fishing I decided to wash up. With nobody around, I stripped down and jumped in the water for a more thorough cleaning than the previous days. Yup, that water is just as cold as you think it would be. But, it’s undeniable how good it feels to rinse all the filth off from a couple of days on the trail.

I was going to cook a tortilla with cheese and pepperoni in the drying pan down by the lake but the weather didn’t look like it was going to hold out any longer, and I headed back to camp. Somehow the rain never came, and I ended up cooking a few hundred feet from camp instead. With no view from my campsite and the gusty winds, I just headed to bed shortly after sunset.

 

 

 

Day 4- Sunday August 16th, 2015

Miles Hiked – 12.9
Route – Milk Lake to Bear Lake

Day 4 Map

Most of the night the stars were shining bright above me, but lightning flashes flickered in the distance. The rain started sometime after 5am and continued for at least 2 hours, with some hail as well. Very windy too. After the weather had passed, I emerged from the hammock around 8am. With everything soaking wet now I packed up and was ready to hit the trail for another day. There was also some strange animal noise pretty close to camp alst night after I got in the hammock. I have no idea what it was, but at times it was really close.

I didn’t feel like hiking the off-trail route I chose yesterday back to the main trail, so I decided to follow a small gully that the overflow from Milk Lake would take downhill. I passed a small lake and then further downhill I came to an open rocky area with a good view. After I descended a short section of boulders, I picked up a trail which was heading towards the main trail.

Walking through the forest on my way back to the main trail I saw two elk scamper away as I approached. I’m always surprised at how little wildlife I see on journeys like this. Do I just make too much noise and they hear me coming? Am I out at the wrong time/place? Maybe I stink and they smell me coming from miles away. Either way, two elk under the belt. Hope to see more.

Eventually I hit the main trail and headed west towards Gunsight Pass. Even though I hiked through part of this valley yesterday coning down from Anderson Pass, the majority of this morning’s hike will be on a different trail. There was a big open meadow down in the center of the valley that had a couple of nice campsites along the tiny streams that ran through here. Later, I saw a few horses grazing along a lake below me, but no sign of people. Nice hiking through this section.

Next I approached Gunsight Pass, which didn’t appear to be as challenging as Anderson or Porcupine Pass. It sprinkled lightly as I made my way up. All in all it was about 5 miles from Milk Lake to the top of the pass.

There were two horses “parked” up here on the top of Gunsight Pass, a little bit above the area where hikers would walk through. I didn’t stay up here long, just snapped a few quick pictures and headed down into the new valley, Henry’s Fork. This is where those large groups of people were supposed to be camping, so I was expecting a lot of people.

The more and more I descended, the more I liked this area. I managed a few decent pictures through here but the sun washed out a lot of them. This is one area I wish I could have camped, and seen a sunset and sunrise from. But instead, I’m blazing through it, trying to get to Bear Lake. Still, excellent hiking this afternoon coming down from the pass.

A bit further down, I encountered my first herd of sheep on the trail. I could hear them bah-ing from a way away. I continued along my path on the trail and they scampered off as I approached them. There were at least several hundred of them.

 

 

There were some really nice campsites above Dollar Lake. I passed a few people through this area, as well as a few people earlier while descending Gunsight Pass, but still not seeing the large groups of people I was expecting. After passing Dollar Lake, I was looking for Elkhorn Crossing. I reached an area where the trail came right up to the river and wasn’t going to be cross-able without getting wet. I thought this was odd that Elkhon Crossing, a marked area on the map, didn’t have a footbridge here as I was expecting. After fording the river and walking upstream a bit, I saw a makeshift bridge wade from logs that would have been the actual crossing. Duh, I should have scouted the banks. Oh well, I used the horse crossing.

I had spent most of the afternoon walking downhill, and now had the final 400+ feet to climb for the day over thew next 1.5ish miles. Most of it was in the switchbacks right after crossing Henry’s Fork. This section wasn’t that great for views down in the forest, and so I was haulin’ trying to get to Bear lake.

 

When I reached the lake, I followed the hillside down to the shoreline and followed it around the lake. I settled for a spot near the stream outlet on the east side, where it drains into Sawmill Lake. There was a large boulder that would have been nice to have a fire behind, but instead I thought it would be best used to block the wind from my hammock. There were two trees behind the boulder that were perfect, and as windy as it was right now, this was important!

As I was setting up camp I was feeling a little sluggish. I had been going for a while now and so I took some time to eat a little, chug some water and put on some music. I don’t ever listen to music while hiking, but sometimes I get a song stuck in my head. This trip, it’s been Corrosion of Conformity – Seven Days. So I put that on as I set up the hammock, and along with the food and water, I felt a lot better.

I guy I spoke with up on King’s Peak was telling me to fish the north shore of the lake. The south and east shores didn’t look great so I figured that’s where I’ll start. It was a little deeper over there, and had a couple of areas where you could actually cast from. However, I only caught one fish, maybe 8″.

As soon as the sun went down behind the mountain, the wind died down with it. I finished getting water and washing up and headed back to camp. I was able to have a fire now, and promptly got one going. As soon as the stars came out I was off to bed.

 

Day 5 – Monday August 17th, 2015

Miles Hiked – 11.6
Route – Bear Lake to Lower Red Castle Lake

Day 5 Map

I woke up at 6:45 this morning to catch the sunrise over Bear Lake. It was a pleasant sunrise but not as photo-worthy as I hoped. I went back to camp and finished packing up everything for the day. By 9am I was working my way along Bear lake towards the north shore, where I came in yesterday afternoon. 

Next up was hiking to the top of Flat Top Mountain. The trail going up was nice, with good views of Henry’s Fork Basin.

At the top, it’s just like you’d expect from the name; very flat. Pretty cool up here though. Looking back the way I came up, the flat ground looks like it just drops off, with mountain peaks sticking up beyond that.

Now to descend Flat Top Mountain and hook up with the East Fork Smith’s Fork Trail. Eventually the flat open land gave way to forest as it sloped downhill. At first the trail was easy to follow, but after a while it became more elusive. I knew where I should be but the trail I was on was taking me further from it. Eventually I was forced to head down a hillside with a decent slope and laden with fallen trees to take the most direct route to it. This brought my to a marshy lowland area. I worked my way around and up onto slightly higher ground where I was relieved to finally be reunited with the trail.

I walked a short ways before finding a spot to take a break. After this I didn’t take any pictures for several miles. This was one of my least favorite sections of my hike. There just wasn’t anything to see, being in the forest the whole time. The trail was really rocky for a large sections of it. Of course, after hiking in the high country for a few days, everything else looks less impressive. Either way I tried to haul ass through here and get to Red Castle.

Once I finally reached the East Fork Smith’s Fork trail, it was pretty obvious. The trail was now wide enough for a car to drive on, although still pretty rocky in spots. Lots of horse traffic too. They really tear up the trail. All the muddy areas were trashed, and tons of horse crap all over. Ha, so much for “leave no trace”. That goes for the sheep too.

The trail was now inclined at the perfect level for me to keep moving without being tired and needing to stop. I covered some good ground through here. At round 10’360′ there’s a bridge that crosses the river. Right here is your first view of Red Castle. Finally, destination in sight. My campsite I ended up picking on the north shore of the lake ended up being about 2.2 miles from here.

Shortly after the bridge I hit some switchbacks that go up about 300ft. Now the lake is really close. I wasn’t entirely sure where I’d end up camping, but I wanted to try the north side for a nice view of Red Castle. The trail winds around the west side of the lake, so I had to cross the creek again. Fortunately there was a good crossing spot near the mouth with some rocks to hop across on. It was around 2pm when found a good spot a little up hill from the lake to pitch the hammock.

After getting everything set up at camp I headed down to Lower Red Castle Lake which was only a few hundred feet away from camp. The shoreline here on the north side near the mouth wasn’t great, kinda soggy, few boulders to step on, shallow water and pretty much no fish. I worked my way around the shoreline clockwise until I found a good spot on the northeast side. There is one area here where a rocky outcrop butts up to the water, and it’s much deeper than everything else. I figured this would be a good spot to fish, or if nothing else, wash up and get water.

I got a couple of bites fishing here but didn’t catch anything. Really though, I didn’t care. It was just so damn nice out, I was content just being here. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the temperature was really nice, in the sun anyways. I just relaxed on this rock by the water for a couple hours. This is what it’s all about, seriously.

I only saw 4 people today. I thought I’d see more by Red Castle, although today is a Monday. I can hear sheep in the distance though, across the lake. I wonder, do they make noise all throughout the night? I guess I’ll find out later tonight.

Later on I walked along the lake back towards camp and continued on along the west side of the lake. I talked to a a guy fishing here for a minute. He mentioned Red Castle Lake, next next one up in the chain, is much better for fishing. It’s the largest natural lake in the Uintas Mountains, actually. I explored the shoreline a bit and didn’t see any areas that looked great for fishing, so I turned around and headed back to camp.

Back at camp I decided to cook a quesadilla for dinner… 100% whole wheat tortillas with cheddar cheese and pepperoni, sauteed in my frying pan with butter. Mmm, beats those Mountain House meals any day.

Since the sky was so clear today/tonight, the sunset was a little lackluster compared to what I had imagined before starting the hike. Fortunately I’ll be spending the whole day here tomorrow so I have another chance. I normally don’t take an off day on my hikes in favor of covering ground/seeing more, but this time I thought I’d camp 2 nights somewhere awesome like Red Castle.

No fires allowed near Red Castle although from all the fire pits around, you’d never know that. When the sun went down I went to bed shortly after.

Tonight I planned on trying my hand at a night-lapse using my GoPro. As bright as the stars have been here I figured this would work great. I got up around midnight and set up the GoPro with a full battery on my Flow Motion panning timer and went back to bed. It’s going to use a full battery anyways so I might as well leave it be.

 

Day 6 – Tuesday August 18th, 2015

Miles Hiked – 8+
Route – Day hike from Lower Red Castle Lake to Red Castle Pass

Day 6 Map

I got up at 6:30 this morning for the sunrise. I have no idea how my night-lapse turned out from last night, but now it’s time to try and capture a time-lapse of Red Castle during sunrise. After playing with the cameras for a solid hour I went back to camp and ate breakfast.

After enjoying a relaxing morning I decided to head out at Red Castle Lake and explore. I’ll take my fishing pole, of course. Actually, I took my backpack filled with pretty much everything except the bulk of my food, and my shelter system. Who knows what I’ll get into today!

I left camp around 10:30 and headed around the west bank of the lake. The sheep were back today and grazing right along the trail. I headed fright through them as if I didn’t see them and they got out of my way promptly. The sheep dog was staring me down good though. Almost did’t notice him, being white, among all the white sheep. Many of the sheep decided to run along the trail and got forced into a 3 foot wide pathway between some shrubs. It was a sheep traffic jam, as they got backed up behind this bottleneck.

After passing the sheep herd, the trail leaves Lowed Red Castle Lake behind and goes through a woodland area. Red Castle towers above some of these trees as the trail passes closer to the mountainside. After climbing about 250ft the trail emerges from the forest. There’s a small lake right before the final push up to the top of the shelf where Red Castle Lake sits that was very photogenic.

I made it up to the lake in a little elss than an hour. From here I could see about 3 people spread out around one side of the lake fishing. I decided to let them have the north shore and I took the west. This lake is really big!

I caught a nice sized trout on my first cast. Maybe 12 inches. I threw it back and cast a few more times with some nibbles before moving to the next spot. Caught another one about the same size or larger. At the time I wasn’t sure what kind of fish it was to be honest. They didn’t look like Rainbow, Brook, Brown or Cutthroats. I found out later they are Tiger Trout, a hybrid between the Brook and Brown trout. I threw that back as well since I had proved “proof of concept”… I can come back here later and catch fish for dinner, quickly.

Now it was noon or so and I decided to head up higher towards Upper Red Castle Lake. I was mostly curious about going over that “pass”, which was not named on any maps I saw, and because I’d be hiking over it tomorrow. One thing led to another and the next thing I know I was almost at the top! There was actually a decent set of cairns up here up until the final 200+ feet of elevation gain. From this side, it was not bad at all, and I wondered why this isn’t a named and more traveled route.

Once at the top I had a view of Upper Oweep Basin. Not far from here is Porcupine Pass and Squaw Pass, which I had already traversed on day 2. The route down looks pretty doable from here as well so I should be good for tomorrow.

It was about a 2 hour hike back to camp from here. It was still pretty early in the afternoon and I had nothing to do later except fish. With an empty agenda I sat down and enjoyed the scenery for a while. Usually when I get to the top of a pass or some other high point, I need to keep moving, or the weather is bad. This time, neither was an issue. It was really nice to just sit up here for a couple hours and gaze out over the vast landscape below.

The rocks up here were mostly sedimentary. The purple in some of these rocks make them stand out quite a bit. I even found a coral fossil up here at 12,000ft! I thought that was pretty cool.

After I got my fill of the scenery, I headed back down off the pass. It was about an hour’s hike before I reached the north shore of Red Castle Lake, which was now empty. I accidentally left my GoPro on for about 45 minutes and drained most of the current battery that I had just popped in earlier today. Bummer, only one left after this.

I went straight to the area I saw a guy catching fish at earlier. Sure enough, I had another fish on the line almost right away. Now I’m saving them for dinner. I figure one more ought to be good. Fished for another 5 minutes max and caught another one. I filleted them with my pocket knife, which is always a bit of a pain. After seeing how much meat I was left with I should have caught a few more, but I didn’t.

It was really windy up here by the lake so I had to cook behind a patch of shrubs that offer some protection from the wind. I brought Zatarain’s fish breading mix to coat the fillets with and cooked them up on my frying pan. 1 hour from the lake to my stomach. Can’t get any fresher than that. And fish caught taste better than fish bought! Damn, I wish I had like 5 more of those guys. And I could have, but it was time to head back to camp.

There were some really nice campsites up high, between Red Castle and Lower Red Castle Lakes. I would definitely consider camping up here instead if and when I ever make it back here.

The sun was going down fast by the time I reached camp. In fact, I got back just in time, because I took most of my best pictures of the Red Castle area tonight just after I returned. I set my backpack down and looked over at Red Castle, and it was illuminated perfectly. I ran down the hill to snap a few pictures while the limited window of optimal lighting still allowed.

After the sun went down I had nothing left to do tonight. I think I was in bed by 9 tonight.

 

Day 7 – Wednesday August 19th, 2015

Miles Hiked – 13.1
Route – Lower Red Castle Lake to Lambert Lake

Day 7 Map

Woke up around 7:15. It was cold last night, and it was 33°F when I picked up my watch in the morning. I left camp by 9am. Since I had been camping in this area for 2 days now I didn’t take too many pictures on the way up to Red Castle Pass. The sheep were gone today and I didn’t need to walk through their herd again. It was another nice day, just blue skies and haze from distant forest fires, although no smoke smell.

There were no people fishing up at Red Castle Lake today when I got up there. I continued along the west shore of the lake through the boulder fields and started the climb up Red Castle Pass. I made it to the top of the pass by 10:50am, which was about a 4 mile hike. Since I didn’t have my GPS running yesterday I needed to use this number to figure out how many miles I actually hiked. So, about 8 miles yesterday. So much for a zero day! I just can’t contain the urge to explore sometimes, even on my “day off”.

Man, the haze is thick, and really going to interfere with my pictures. You can actually see the smoke in certain photos. I was pretty bummed about this but it’s just one of those things you need to expect and deal with on hikes like this. Most multi-day hikes are going to have a few days of less than desirable conditions for photography… rain, overcast, forest fire smoke… it’s always something.

Well, the trail up Red Castle Pass from Red Castle was pretty easy, now to go down the other side, into Oweep Basin. From the top of the pass, your path is blocked in most areas by a 20ft cliff. The northwest part of the pass(to your right if you came up from Red castle) is where you need to be to descend this pass. Here, the cliff is less pronounced and the slope is more gentle. However, it’s not long before you realize you’re on a little hill that looks like it just drops off on all sides. Walking the edge I found a bit of a trail down this thing, albeit pretty steep in spots.

As I worked my way down from the pass, I could see others coming up and going down Porcupine Pass, which was not all that far away from me now. They could probably see me, and I wondered if they thought “what the hell is that guy doing, coming down from there”? Fortunately the steep section was fairly short and soon enough I was on my way into Oweep Basin, looking for the main trail that runs through it.

This section of Oweep Basin, between Squaw and Porcupine Passes, was just huge looking. It’s completely wide open and you’re surrounded by some pretty rugged looking peaks and ridgelines. Looks like easy hiking for a while.

 

As I hiked west past Squaw Pass, I was entering uncharted territory for me. When I went over Squaw Pass on day 2, I headed east towards Porcupine Pass. I found that the more I headed west the more I liked this basin.  To my south, the entire time I’ve been hiking in this basin I’ve been paralleling this long, towing ridgeline. It runs pretty straight, and forms an impressive 5+ mile wall. These are all unnamed peaks on the map, extending southwest from Porcupine Pass.

The trail was difficult to follow in some spots just past Squaw Pass. It just faded away at times. Although still an easy hike, it was more rolling hills now than the Upper Oweep Basin. That was really flat, and nice to be able to cover ground so fast. Now the basin really opens and mountain peaks dominate the horizon in all directions. This was one of my favorite stretches of non-pass, non-summit hiking of the trip through here. Too bad the haze was so thick, as the pictures didn’t come out great.

By now, after a few days of such great weather, I had been out in the sun quite a bit. I had been wearing my hat much of the time so my face and neck weren’t bad, but my arms, hands and calves were getting pretty red. I put some sunscreen on my hands and calves for the first time all week.

The trail gains about 200ft as it skirts the end of a ridgeline just before Lambert Lake, my intended campsite for the evening. Great views up here. There was a small lake on the way up that was beautiful. A little higher up along the trail there is a pretty good view of the entire basin. You could see the lake I just passed and everything else I hiked today all the way back to Red Castle Pass.

After rounding the edge of the ridgeline, I set off on the final push to camp. Lambert Lake is set off the trail a ways, but I figured there would be a pathway leading to it. I never saw anything like that and ended up walking a ways past it, and had to back track. Back at the trail, I just headed straight over to the lake. The view is nice when you first reach the lake, as the northern shoreline has cliffs about 40ft high. There did appear to be a campsite up here. However, I was thinking about having easier access to water, and headed down to check out the shoreline on the other sides of the lake.

I started out on the east side of the lake and walked clockwise around the lake looking for a campsite. I ended up choosing a spot on the northwest side of the lake, below the cliffs and in the trees. The really wasn’t much in the way of good looking campsites around the lake. Much of the shoreline was soggy, and the the water was shallow. Not exactly good for fishing. The east side was a little better in that respect.

It was a bout 3:45 now as I began to set up camp. With another day of clear blue skies, I decided to leave the tarp off above the hammock for now. If it looks like rain before bed I can throw it up. Otherwise, I’m sleeping under the stars tonight.

I was sitting on a log by the fire pit writing in my journal in the early evening when a man on horseback and his dog strolled into camp. The man says, “Sheep”? Ah, so he’s a sheep herder. I told him that I haven’t seen any sheep around here, not since Red Castle. He didn’t speak English at all and so we had some short one or two word exchanges before he kept moving. I should have offered him some of my food since I was going to have so much left. At least I wouldn’t have to carry it any more. But, I didn’t think of that until he was gone.

Next I walked along the shoreline underneath the cliffs to find an area where I could access the water a bit easier. Near camp it was soggy and no rocks to just sit on or put your gear on. Here I found a spot where I was able to get some water and wash up.

Back at camp I got a good fire going, in the best fire pit of any campsite I had in the Uintas. It was out of the wind mostly and had great seating around it. I was a little disappointed in Lambert Lake though. People were talking this place up like crazy but I didn’t think it was worthy of the hype. I would have rather camped either somewhere along the Highline Trail in Oweep Basin where it skirts the treeline or near that small lake at the end of the ridgeline I passed by nearing Lambert Lake, if I had a tent instead of hammock.

I crawled into bed under the stars tonight and hoped it would remain clear all night.

 

Day 8 – Thursday August 20th, 2015

Miles Hiked – 18.6
Route – Lambert Lake to East Fork Black’s Fork trailhead

Day 8 Map

Sleeping under the stars went off without a hitch. The weather remains clear although it was very windy last night. The cliffs above me blocked the wind almost completely though which was nice.

I left camp at 9am. From here I went up the boulders above me instead of walking around the lake again. After a short off trail hike I was back to the main trail. After a couple more good views of the mountains, the trails dips down into the forest for a while after passing Lambert Meadows.

After dropping about 600ft down the switchbacks the trail meets up with the Lake Fork River trail. Now, the trail is following Lake Fork River uphill towards Red Knob Pass. It was a nice walk through here but I was looking forward to the last pass of the trip… supposedly good views from here.

Just another mile to go until the base of Red Knob Pass. The pass starts out with switchbacks snaking their way up the mountainside. Not far ahead of me is a couple and their dog, whom I had been gaining ground on since they passed me during my break earlier.

The view from the top was awesome. Really, just incredible. The way Red Knob jets out into the valley like that. The 360° view of mountain peaks. The multitude of colors making up the mountains themselves. This was definitely one of the highlights of the hike.

I was sharing the top here with the couple and their dog, so naturally we took turns taking photos of each other. Although I have my tripod this is much easier. We chatted for a while and they moved on, while I hung out and took more pictures. A sheep herder on horseback was also coming up over this pass while we were here. He dropped down into West Fork Black’s Fork basin towards Dead Horse Lake, and I went the other way, towards East Fork Black’s Fork.

The cool thing about Red Knob Pass is that it’s a ridge-walk as well, not just an up-and-over.  Once you reach the “top” of the pass you still walk along the ridgeline a good ways to get to the area where the trail drops down into the next basin. I really enjoy hiking trails like this, high up on a ridge.

After making my way past peak 12248 the trail runs across the top of a saddle. Great pictures from here. You can see the backside of Red Knob, which actually has a pink look to it. Looking towards Wasatch Peak was really impressive. In the foreground, the rocks and soil are red and a greenish color. Closer to Wasatch Peak and beyond, it was pink and white. I can just imagine this scene at sunset.

Slowly I kept working my way along the trail, which was still up on Red Knob Pass. I had spent about an hour and a half up here taking pictures and taking it all in. By now it was time to head down and into East Fork Black’s Fork basin below. As I approached the top of the pass, the wind really picked up. More motivation to head down quicker.

Coming down the pass was not bad. Some switchbacks at the top then the trail follows a faint high point downhill through a large, open meadow.

I continued on until I saw the couple I was talking to up on Red Knob Pass hangout out alongside the trail. We ended up talking for a solid half hour. They were from Colorado and had done quite a bit of backpacking themselves. This was their 10th annual summer hike, compared to my 4th summer hiking out west. But great minds think alike! It was nice talking with such cool people out here for once.

It was 3:30 when I moved on. My plan was to grab a campsite high up in the basin, and hike the remainder out in the morning. However, I hiked a bit too far and dropped down into the forest. Here, the trail just went downhill through a bunch of downed trees. Not really where i had in mind for camping. I kept moving, figuring I’d find some decent campsites along the river further downstream.

There was one good spot along the trail that I stopped at for a minute. Honestly it was great, except not much protection from the wind. But really, I was just using that as an excuse to keep moving. I was really toying with the idea of just hauling ass back to the car tonight, and give myself a full day in Salt Lake City tomorrow. After all, I missed the opportunity to camp in the high basin, so I might as well just wrap it up tonight. Unless I find a badass campsite on the way back.

So, I kept moving with a renewed sense of purpose. I hadn’t eaten much now in the past few hours, but didn’t want to stop now since I was so close. I actually had a lot of ground to cover, and wanted to get back as soon as possible so I’d have daylight while driving on North Slope Road. At the speed I was moving, I could be back at the trailhead by 7pm.

 

 

 

I did find another campsite that would have worked, although probably better for a tent. It was right along the river in a very small patch of trees, but surrounded by a soggy field. I passed and kept moving. However, there were a lot of soggy, muddy fields along the way this afternoon. It became a challenge to find a dry way around, and many times just had to walk right through them. This was the only thing slowing me down at the moment.

I passed the remains of a small log cabin on the way. Further up, I passed a group of people headed out for a horseback ride. They had just seen a moose a ways back by another log cabin. Still no moose for me, but I did see some deer earlier.

I finally came to a water crossing that I was not able to hp rocks or walk logs across. I was getting pretty close now, probably 2 miles or less from the trailhead. I didn’t feel like taking the time to take off my shoes and socks, put on water shoes, cross, dry my feet off, put on the shoes and socks, etc. Instead, I just walked right through the water. Now water was sloshing out of my shoes with every step. However, I’ll be back to the trailhead in a half hour or so.

Now I came to the point where the trail from East fork and Little East Fork valleys comes together. From here on out, it was familiar territory, as I’d hiked this on day 1.

The trail was really rough the remainder of the way. Lots of rocks and the horses really tore up the ground. I passed a sign that was not posted when I came through here last week about an aggressive Goshawk nearby. A mile up the trail, I was back at the final bridge crossing at the trailhead.

It was about 6:45pm by the time I reached the car. I hiked close to 19 miles today, with about 9 of the being in the last 3 hours. I was a little out of it from pushing it so hard on the way down, but it felt great to be back at the car.

Now it was time for the drive out of the Uintas and back to SLC. I was on the road by around 7pm, and hoped to make it to the paved road (hwy 150) before dark. The road is extremely rough close to East Fork Black’s Fork, but gets better on FR-58 the closer you get to hwy 150. There was a lot of traffic on North Slope Road though. More ATVs than vehicles though.

I made it onto hwy 150 with 20 minutes of remaining daylight. South of North Slope Road, I saw 2 moose off the side of hwy 150. I wish I could have seen some while hiking.

The smoke in the air made for some great sunsets. I stopped on Hayden Pass to take a picture of the pink glow that lingered over the mountains, my final photo for the hike. Now, it’s time to play dodge the deer until I get to Kamas. There were tons of them in and alongside the road when I was driving through here on the way in.

It was a 2.5 hour drive from East Fork Black’s Fork before I had cell phone service, in Kamas. From here it was another 45 minutes to SLC. Once in Salt Lake City area, I stopped at a Wendy’s for triple cheeseburger combo meal and some chicken nuggets to give me some much needed calories. Finally, my appetite is back! I found a hotel in Sandy and headed there for the evening. It was around 1am before I finally hit the sheets. Long day. Another successful hike under the belt.

 

 

Final Thoughts

I really wanted to hike the Highline Trail from hwy 191 to Hayden Pass, which would have been about 95 miles as well. However, without assistance from another person involving a second car, this is not possible as a point-to-point hike. Therefore I was forced to modify my route. This allowed me to see Red Castle, which I would not have seen otherwise.

Highlights of the hike for me were King’s Peak, Red Castle and Red Knob Pass. King’s Peak was an easy climb with a kick ass view. No wonder there were so many people up there!

This was my first major hike with a hammock. Finding the right trees to hang from was a little tougher than I thought but was never a serious problem. I did have some fairly heavy storms for a while on the morning of day 4, and the tarp held up fine. It was a little nerve-racking though because it felt like a giant sail in the wind, and being a newbie to hammock camping, was not sure just how much this thing could withstand. Set up time improved greatly as I got better at tying the knots. Still, setting up and breaking down the tent is much faster. Regardless, the hammock beats the tent for comfort. It still doesn’t come close to my bed at home, but it beats the ground any day.

The whole idea of replacing my hammock’s spreader bars with my trekking poles suffered a serious setback. I’m really surprised the pole tips snapped off like that. My fault for not marking the trekking poles at the correct length. Now I get to buy another set of trekking poles. I’ll likely continue to seek the right poles for replacements to the spreader bars that come with the hammock. I just can’t ignore the weight savings. With trekking poles for spreader bars, the new hammock/tarp/over quilt/under quilt sleep system weighs half a pound less than my tent/sleeping bag/air mattress setup. Using the supplied spreader bars, I’d be adding a few ounces to my tent sleep system.

Physically, I did really well this year. I had no knee issues whatsoever. I think I can attribute that to my training regiment, which was something new for me… hiking! Prior hikes I would do stair climbs with a weighted pack for up to 45 minutes, a little running, and more leg exercises like squats and leg curls. Sometimes I’d have knee pain while hiking and sometimes I wouldn’t. Usually though, a 15 mile day would have me hobbling on my feet in camp at the end of the day. Not so this time. For training this time I hiked with a 45 pound backpack around a nearby river, a loop about 7 miles. Usually I’d do this in about 2 hours, sometimes more or less depending on the route variations I took. I did this 4-5 nights a week for 6 weeks. Tough to find the time after work, but I made time. I’m glad I did, because my knees, legs and feet all felt pretty good at the end of each day. This has eased some of my concerns as to my ability to do a thru hike someday.

As always, questions and comments are welcome!

If you found my trip report useful, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment! Alternatively, if you feel you have any information you’d like to share with others regarding this hike, please feel free to leave that below in a comment as well.

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September 15, 2015 | Categories: Backpacking Trip Reports | Tags: mountains, peak bagging, rockies, solo hike, summit, utah, utah backpacking, Utah Hikes | 9 Comments »