return to the (wasatch) front

After being away for the last five, it felt a little weird to stayed based in Salt Lake City for a full weekend.  We tried not to hang around the house much, however (the heat and the wildfire smoke, from both Utah and California fires, made it a bit uncomfortable), instead heading out to the mountains.  Our friend P had moved from Maine to Midway two weeks ago and we hadn't really seen him yet, due to our crazy schedules; we asked him to come over to the Wasatch Front for a hike and a bit of Tour of Utah watching.

Note: Usually I detail the Tour of Utah pretty closely here but we just didn't keep up with it this year, although we did watch the finishes of the last two stages.  Our travel and work schedules just got in the way.

We picked P up at a lot at the intersection of Wasatch Boulevard and 9400 South in Sandy, then drove up Little Cottonwood Canyon (nicely paved now) to Snowbird.  The drifting wildfire smoke had even infiltrated all the way up the canyon, which massively curtailed the views: we couldn't see the Oquirrhs at the other side of the Salt Lake Valley and, from the top of Hidden Peak, we couldn't even see down into Heber.  Thus, not so many photos for this hike.

Thanks to P, an actual photo of H and me together

Deciding to throw P right into the deep end steep-wise, we went up the Peruvian Gulch trail from Snowbird base (very steep, right from the start), then connected with the Peruvian Ridge trail (very steep, right at the end).  There were a few other hikers out, but not many.  We saw pikas and marmots and were able to spot some past-their-prime wildflowers (elephant heads, Lewis's monkeyflower, paintbrush, coneflowers,  gentians), still hanging on despite the hot and dry conditions.

P and me and the smoke-filled Heber Valley

At the summit, we paused for a bit to see what little we could see, then walked down to the tunnel and the Peruvian chairlift for a ride down the hill.  We had plenty of time to go back to the car to change out of our hiking stuff, eat our packed lunches and then walk back up to the finishing area for the last bit of Stage 5.  The crowd didn't seem as big as it sometimes does and we were able to get spots at the railing a little way from the finishing line, with a good view as the cyclists came barreling down the chute.  American Sepp Kuss handily won the stage, nearly 40 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher.

Mineral Basin

Another sign that the crowd wasn't as big as years past: it took us hardly any time to get out of the parking lot and onto the road heading down the canyon.  The smoke grew thicker as we re-entered the valley.  None of us wanted to linger out in it so P headed back to Midway, with plans for MTBing and more Tour of Utah for the next day.

Hike stats: 3.76 miles; 1 hour 48 minutes; 2.1 m.p.h. moving average speed; 2,670 feet climbed