Easy Day the Alternate Way

July 3rd, Peak #5 of the Utah Six Pack of Peaks. Kind of an easy day today. I opted to hike the lone alternate peak, Mount Kyhv. Mostly because today was my 5^th day in a row doing a hike and because the distance to the trailhead wasn’t too bad.

I was surprised when I arrived at 0545 by the amount of hikers and trail runners already there. It kind of reminded me of an early morning at Cowles Mountain in San Diego. Lot’s of people and lots to do. Later in the morning, as I was finishing up, there were families taking walks, bike riders, rock climbers and all sorts of other things going on.

The parking lot was pretty good sized, no parking fees, and fairly clean restrooms at the trailhead. And, there was a lot of history provided about the area, the watershed, and the Indians that occupied this area.

As far as my hike goes it wasn’t too bad. Mile 1 took place mostly on a gravel road and then lead into a gravely wide foot path. My elevation gain for mile 1 was a modest 542 feet. Mile 2 continued on the gavel path but then narrowed to a dirt/rock foot path. My elevation gain for this mile was 671 feet. Mile 3 is where most of the hikers and trail runners struggled. The foot path was now a single track with some rock and the total elevation gain was 932 feet. My kind of gain! ???? ???? The final .8 miles gained another 650 feet in elevation, but it also had a few flat areas that opened up to “mini” meadows.

The summit was nice, but there were about 10 or more people there at any given time. From the summit I could look down into the canyon and see the gravel road from mile 1. When I first reached the summit there was only one person there. We chatted for a few minutes. Turns out he was originally from Seattle and at some point he was a police officer in my hometown in Beaverton Oregon. Small world!!

Anyway, the descent was uneventful. Just a lot of people. I finished hike #5 of the Utah Six-Pack of Peaks Challenge with 7.68 miles and 2,819 feet in elevation gain.