park city hike with mike

After far, far too long, we finally synced up with Captain Mike again for a Park City hike.  We met up with him and five of his friends in the Old Town part of Park City, ascending the stairs on Woodside Avenue to some of the myriad hiking/MTB trails that crisscross the area.  Those Park City trails are so amazing: well-marked and in great shape.  We went up Sweeney's Switchbacks for a while, crossing the Flat Cable trail and then meandering back and forth under the Town Lift (Park City Mountain Resort's chairlift that takes folks from downtown PC up to the mountain).

The gang, heading up the trail

The trail we followed went in and out of the woods and crossed several ski trails, following the old tram line, the rusted metal towers straining to be seen amongst the aspens.  We followed some sunny, south-slope facing switchbacks above the old Silver Queen mine, ending up at the yurt above PCMR's Bonanza Lift for lunch, looking out over the trails and glades of the adjacent Deer Valley Resort.

Park City Mountain Resort, shining in the autumn sun

We backtracked a little on our return, but the prettiest part was a new bit of trail, following the serpentine John's Trail through a gorgeous grove of aspens.  The descent was gentle, the packed dirt path cushioned with fallen leaves, and the afternoon light filtering through the gold of the aspens - just beautiful.

Everything's golden

After the hike (9.3 miles RT, 1700 ft. elevation gain), we stopped in at Hope and Sandy's Old Town home (lot originally sold in 1887 for $150; worth considerably more now) for a beer on the deck.  This was a congenial group of Utah transplants Captain Mike had put together: everyone was interesting, fit and excited about living here and being outdoors as much as possible.  Hopefully we'll get together again for another outing soon, before the snow flies (again).