recovery

Being old and broken, H and I were still pretty sore on Memorial Day Monday and my hike request was for "something easy."  And breakfast first: we thought we'd give the Silver Fork Lodge a try.  I've lost track of how many people said "you've just got to try the Silver Fork" (many-many) and we kept passing it this winter every time we skied at Solitude and Brighton where it seemed busy no matter when we drove by - so I had a feeling it was going to be good.  Busy too, what with it being a holiday and all.  The outside deck - which will be glorious come summer-time, overlooking the stream below - was full, despite the chill in the air.  We sat inside since there wasn't a wait for a 2-top table there plus see above re: chill in the air.

Service was good, efficient and friendly.  H had a chile verde omelet - good-sized and served with crispy hash browns and sourdough toast - and I had their famous sourdough pancakes, made with a 50-year old sourdough starter.  There were three ginormous pancakes, served with a warm apple compote: the pancakes were light, fluffy and flavorful and I came very, very close to polishing them off.  Our server was impressed; I think H was slightly horrified.  I don't normally order pancakes since I find they're often soggy and tasteless - but not these - they were really good pancakes.

After breakfast we needed to walk a little and, keeping my "something easy" request in mind, H found us a very short hike to Willow Lake, just up and across the road from the Silver Fork.  Our guidebook told us how to find the trail: up a residential drive and when the pavement ends, the trail begins.  It went up gently but steadily through aspen groves that will be lovely this fall, to a meadow with a beaver dam-choked lake. 

We headed down across the meadow and started to bushwhack through the woods instead of returning the way we'd come up, following footprints in the snow.  Soon enough we came upon a fairly well-used trail and, following that down, soon came across quite a few other people heading up towards the lake.  When we got to the road, we were surprised to find a sign announcing the Willow Heights trailhead, as well as parking places and an official map.  Apparently the residents of the drive we walked up got fed up with hikers traipsing up their driveway and made a new Willow Heights trail.  What's curious is that the sign for the trailhead was dated 2001 and our edition of the hiking book is from 2008 - perhaps the author needs an email before the next printing!

This was actually our least favorite hike in terms of the view because it was all still winter-kill: spring has not yet arrive so far up Big Cottonwood Canyon - and the lake, although punky, was still iced over. It will be interesting to try again later this summer as I suspect the meadow is full of wildflowers.

P.S. - The Silver Fork is also open for lunch and dinner (and has recently instituted a no corkage fee BYO policy even tho' they have a full bar, so we'll have to go check that out) and have eight B&B rooms on the second floor as well.  It's a cool little place for sure.