Three’s a Charm and one for Good Measure

June 29^th, Peak #1 of the Utah Six Pack of Peaks. Today’s goal was to summit Deseret Peak in Utah. An 8.3-mile loop with 3792 feet in elevation gain or a 7.8-mile loop with 3600 feet in elevation gain. I opted for the latter today since I knew the heat was coming in even with an early start.

So, once again I got up early, ate, packed my hiking gear, and drove about 45 minutes to the trailhead. The final 5-miles of the mostly single lane road leading to the trailhead is a dirt road (at times rough) that leads to several campgrounds. That said, I’m happy I chose not to take the trailer up there. That would have been interesting!

Anyway, I arrived in the dark and stepped off right around 0500. Being the prepared hiker that I am, I pulled out my trusty headlamp. Battery operated. Put it on. Turned it on, and the lamp was really dim. Someone didn’t op check their gear. No worries, I just whipped out my spare (a chargeable headlamp). Turned it on. It worked great. And began my hike. However, about 5 minutes into the hike my chargeable headlamp went dead. Again, with the prepared hiker not op checking his gear. So, I went back to my initial headlamp, for which I carry 3 spare AAA batteries. I put them in, and the spare batteries were dead. Back to the original setup with the dim batteries. Which meant for at least the first hour of the hike, I would have to hike with a very dim headlamp. Needless to say, since I finished the hike, I have already charged my spare headlamp, and I have bought 6 new AAA batteries for the other headlamp. ???? ????

Okay, back to the hike. The first mile gained about 540 feet in elevation and went by pretty easy. At .7 miles the trail crosses a steam, and the loop fork is right after that. I decided to head to the left for my out and back hike. The trail at this point and for the better part of the lower half of elevation gain was mostly a single-track trail that was a bit overgrown and was set in a forest setting.

As the sun was coming up and just before mile 2, I ran into five deer who didn’t seem to be too bothered that I was there. Mile 2 gained another 800 feet in elevation, and again it seemed to go by pretty easily. Same with mile 3 but now the gain was 976 feet in elevation and the ground was getting a little less overgrown and the dirt under foot turned into rocks. By mile 4 I had made it up to the ridge line and had gained another 1180 feet in elevation.

Along the ridgeline I was mostly above 10,000 feet. I summited East Deseret Peak at 10,674 feet in elevation, unplanned and off trail for about .2 miles. Then continued to Deseret Peak at 11,004 feet in elevation. My distance to the summit was right at 4.25 miles. As always, it was a little bit more than the Alltrails distance. Even if I had done the extra .2 to East Deseret Peak.

I ran into an ultra-runner at the summit of Deseret Peak. He passed me as I detoured over to East Deseret Peak. We chatted for a while and then he headed down. I on the other hand, looking over at North Deseret Peak, had decided to just go ahead and summit that one too and do the full loop. Why not? It was my first hike ever in Utah, might as well make it a little more epic. ???? ????

It wasn’t too hard of a traverse. First descending from 11,000 feet and then ascending back up to 10,525 for the North Deseret Peak summit. After that I continued my loop, thinking the hard parts are over. It’s all down hill from here. But, as I was descending to right around 9800 feet, the Big Creek Canyon Deseret Peak at 10012 feet in elevation was calling my name. So, up I went. I took a pretty easy slope (no trail) to get to the summit. Silly me decided to take the short route back to trail and not the easy slope I had come up. I found myself in a mix of loose rocks and boulders on a very steep descent. It was about 102 feet in elevation loss in about 75 yards. I’m not ashamed to say that I spent most of the descent on my ass sliding down the slope.

Once back on trail I continued to follow the trail to a saddle between Pockets Peak (I thought seriously about this one too) and South Medina. From here, I had 6.25 miles and I had gained a total of 4154 feet in elevation.

Time to head down! This was a very easy descent. I ran into a lot of other hikers coming up this route. Even ran into a family of 3 who were hiking with their “pack” mountain goats. I think they had 6 in total. They for training for the upcoming fall and hunting season.

It goes without saying that my hike was a little longer than I had planned. I ended with 9.25 miles and a total of 4193 feet in total elevation gain. Peak #1 of the Utah Six-Pack of Peaks in the books.