late for snow, early for flowers

It has been hot and dry this late spring-into-summer and the snow has melted quickly up at Alta.  I'd been keeping an eye on their webcams to see if hiking was feasible.  It was and, on Sunday, after taking Milton for a 3.25 mile walk around the neighborhood while H did a road ride, I drove on up there.  There were already a lot of cars parked above Albion base: I got there at 8:30 a.m., which is close to 1.5 hours later than I usually go.  But it was 64 F, cool and sunny, and a perfect day to be up there.

The flowers are just starting up at Alta

From the parking area about Albion, I walked up the Summer Road to the connector trail to the Albion meadows.  From there I went up the main meadows trail to the Catherine's Pass trailhead (1.5 miles), then continued up to Catherine's Pass (another 1.5 miles).  There were a number of other folks out on the trails, although not like the hordes that will show up in July for the wildflowers.  Although I wonder how that is going to work: Alta is replacing the Supreme lift (again), which means heavy equipment all through the campground area and I can't imagine they'll let tourists drive up while the work is going on.  I may have to reroute my regular exercise loop too - guess we'll see how it goes.

Well, my hat is gross

From the pass, I continued up and across Catherine's Area to the top of Supreme.  It looked weird with the lift towers removed.  I descended via the access road and at mile 4.5 finally got passed by two trail runners (about H's and my age) who'd started out when I had.  When I said that I knew they'd catch me eventually, they grinned and said I had been setting a pretty good pace up to Catherine's Pass.  I'm definitely better going up than down!

Gentian - one of my favorites

I took the Homerun trail down through the meadow and back to my car, finishing up the 7.25 miles in just under 3 hours.  As I changed my shoes and chugged a surreptitious beer, I copped to the fact that I might have overdone it a wee dite, with 10.5 miles before lunch.  I've been doing okay on mileage this spring but being up at elevation (8,000 - 10,500 feet) is for sure more taxing.  Nothing a nap wouldn't fix though.

The new cut for the replacement Supreme lift

(should have stuck with that old triple chair)