A couple of Sundays ago, when Milton and I had gotten back from our 3.5 mile Dimple Dell walk, H said, "You wanna go do something?" Unless it's pouring rain, I usually do want to go do something (and Milt is always up for anything), so that's how we ended up hiking Mt. Olympus again 10.5 years after we did it the first time.
Make no mistake: this is a hard hike (you can hit the link above for a more detail hike description). On the way up it is all up, very steeply in spots, averaging over 1,000 feet of elevation per mile. From the newly revamped trailhead - when we were there in 2010, it was a small dirt lot; now it is paved, one-way traffic only, with a (pretty filthy) restroom, and they are working on improving the start of the trail - it is steep and loose underfoot. Then there are broad, sweeping switchbacks up to the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. It's not too bad from there to the Tolcat Canyon spring, although it is still clearly going up, but after the creek crossing the switchbacks get much steeper. At the second (dry, at this point) creek crossing, the switchbacks just disappear and the trail goes straight up the drainage. It's rocky too, for more fun.
As Milton and H ground on ahead of me, I started to struggle right around the Tolcat creek and then I really slowed up after the second creek, with an odd combination of sweating like crazy coupled with cold hands. It was in the low 50s, with in and out sunshine, so the weather conditions were decent. My fingers just tend to shut down when it's in the 50s.
There was a group of young women having snacks at the saddle. They really liked Milton and one asked if he'd been named after the English poet, John Milton; there was a lot of laughter when we explained he was actually named after a burger joint.
We didn't attempt the summit like we'd done in 2010: the last 600 feet are scrambling and a bit technical, not ideal for dogs. So after some snacks and layering up, we started back down. My knees were twingeing so I took a couple of elderly Motrin from our first aid kit (note to self: update first aid kit) and those definitely helped and the descent was much faster than the climb up.
Because Mt. Olympus is basically an urban trail (and SLC has gotten so populous), we saw lots more people than we often do on our hikes: trail runners, groups of all sizes, folks with dogs. Still, because it wasn't all that nice a day, traffic was likely less than it is on pretty spring mornings. It's funny that so many people hike this trail because it is just so dang steep and such a grind; I think a lot of people just go up to the Tolcat spring and call it good. It was even steep for Milton - you could tell he was tired by how close he stuck to H.
For apres, we dropped by the Hog Wallow - which, funnily enough, is exactly what we'd done in 2010. We split a pitch, inhaled a basket of fries and, as our quads slowly tightened up on us, wondered if it would be another ten and a half years before we hike Olympus again. (That puts us in spring of 2032, in case you're wondering. Check back then.)
Hike stats: 6.32 miles (plus Milton and I had already done 3.5 before the hike even started); 3.1 hours/2.0 m.p.h. moving; 4.02/1.6 overall (so slow!); 3,580' elevation
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