Moments in Dirt and Ink

Ashley National Forest Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest (pink line, map link ) DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 I woke up to another frosty morning, at least outside the area of the trees. I tried to follow trail out from the established camping area north of Pine Island Lake, but it hits a downed tree and runs out. There's no hint at the trail that people walk that way. Still frosty in the shade on the way out from Pine Island Lake. The trail crosses another bit of rock smoothed by glacier. Along with the trail signs at the north end of the Palisade Trail, I found a notice about "boreal toads", which it says have been vanishing. I think it looks like a western toad except that surely those aren't endangered. Well, it is the subspecies found in Utah and Colorado and they are endangered. (All of my observations of them have been in California and presumably the subspecies referred to as California toad. They're not endangered. Yet.) I wondered why th...

Ashley National Forest (blue-green line, map link ) DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 It was icy when I woke, but things thawed quickly as the sun hit them. Frosted blueberries. The creek flowing from Dale Lake to Daynes Lake had spots of ice. Packed up, I headed back to follow the Four Lakes Basin Loop Trail to join up with the Hades-Rocky Sea Pass Trail again. Since I was heading away from Rocky Sea Pass, I must be heading toward Hades. I was actually headed for a lot of lakes, some of them quite grand. I followed the arrows for Rainbow Lake at first. Daynes Lake from a camp along the main trail. A meadow where one of the tributaries of Fish Creek starts. It looks quite lush with the water, but all yellowed with the season now.

Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest Ashley National Forest (orange line, map link ) DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 Much of the parking along the Mirror Highway (UT-150) requires a permit. For short term, you can buy 3 days for $6 or 7 days for $12. I wanted 4 days and since this forest claimed they were honoring the fee free day on Saturday (AKA "tomorrow"), I should have been able to get it. Nope. I got to pay for the free day, too. It doesn't seem honest to me. So I had a 1 week permit to park for 3 days plus an extra night at Hayden Pass, the western terminus of the Uinta Highline Trail. I couldn't find my GPS anywhere, which was disturbing. In fact, I remembered that I had set it on top of my pack in the passenger seat one day and then hauled the pack into the trailer, forgetting about the item sitting on top of it, the next. I was worried I would have to drive back to Wyoming to find it as I swapped out the lighter extra AA NiMHs for my brick of a charger ...

Ashley National Forest Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest (blue line, map link ) DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4 My sunny third morning started off clear enough. Once the sun started hitting the wet valley, the clouds billowed upward and filled it. The upper valley of Yellowstone Creek before the morning sun hit it. View down the glacial valley of Yellowstone Creek before the clouds took over. Kings Peak (high point of Utah) showing itself before the clouds fill in. I dallied a bit in starting in hope it would clear again. That didn't include drying the tent. Some things take far too long. I had to shake a thick layer of ice of the rain fly to pack it. Clouds filling in (and camera fogging up in solidarity) as the morning wears on. I found little streams higher up. They weren't any closer than what I'd collected the evening before, but would have been less climbing with the weight. They came off small waterfalls further up.

Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest Ashley National Forest (orange line, map link ) DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4 My start was slow because it was a short day anyway. Foolish human. It was a short day because the second half of it was expected to be stormy. Don't waste the bright, sunny bits! And it was bright and sunny, at least to the north. There were two trails across Lower Red Castle Lake. I took the upper one the day before. I decided to backtrack slightly so I could take the lower one back. My deep suspicion that it would be muddier was confirmed. Some of it even has creeks flowing down it. I saw a lot more people. Apparently everyone I'd seen coming up the trail were camped down along this lower route. They were the last people I saw. A smaller two toed ungulate: mule deer . The watery trail to Lower Red Castle Lake. Rather cloudy to the south past Red Castle. Lower Red Castle Lake.