alta with a side of cecret lake

After a nice Salt Lake Valley Saturday (trail run and road ride for H, Dimple Dell walk for A and M, evening backyard beers for H, A and M with friends in Sugarhouse), it was time for a little hike.  I have my usual "exercise loop" at Alta: park above Albion Base, walk up the Summer Road, go up the Albion Meadows trail through the ... Albion meadows to the Catherine's Pass trailhead parking, up to Catherine's Pass and across the top to Supreme, down Supreme via the access road to the campground, back to car through the meadows.

Looks like fall

It's a good loop and I like it, decent mileage (over seven), usually not too many people other than up at Catherine's Pass.  But for years I've seen but never tried a side trail that leaves the access road just before the road gets to all the residential cabins.  This time I tried it.

Heading towards Devil's Castle

After turning onto the trail, I found myself below the [winter] gates at the bottom of the Rock N Roll ski trail.  It was really pretty with all the jumble of rocks and earlier in the summer, when the flowers are full throttle, it must be spectacular.

Looking up towards the Apron

There were old mine tailings below the Apron and I could hear pikas chirping at me.  Just beyond that, the trail forked.  I took the high line, which ended up just above and to looker's left of Cecret Lake; I did notice some MTBers on the lower trail and I will try that next time.

Looking into the valley from below the Apron

I can't even tell you how long it's been since I was at Cecret Lake other than during ski season (possibly since 2016).  For good reason too, because there were lots of people hiking in, out and around that little lake - certainly more than I wanted to deal with.  I cannot imagine what hordes there must be when the wildflowers are good.

Looking back at Devil's Castle

I didn't spend any time at the lake but instead got down from there as fast as I could.  On my way out, along the Homerun Trail (Sunnyside area, below Alf's), I paused to watch a big hawk snatch something small and delicious out of the meadown, then continued on my way.

Cecret Lake with no people in the shot amazingly

Hike stats: 8.5 miles, 3 hours 11 minutes.  Next time we take the low road.

second half

 Those lovely cool temperatures didn't stick around through the whole weekend, unfortunately, and it steadily got warmer as time went on - although it never got out of the low 90s, so we were grateful for that.  Cooler weather is on its way and I'm sure we'll be bitching about how dang cold it is in January.  But for now, I feel like I can't even remember what being cold feels like.

Mile 6: Pipe Dream and Hidden Valley done

After H's big Saturday, it was time for A's big Sunday: another Pipe Dream/Hidden Valley/Moab Rim trek.  It was still pretty quiet out there.  There were three cars in the Hidden Valley trailhead parking lot and only a couple of people on the trails with me.  

Mile 8

I went just a smidgen longer than last time, opting to stay on the rock/Moab Rim trail proper, rather than going down Sand Hill to the wash.  I didn't want to have to dump sand out of my shoes after Sand Hill.  And funnily enough, it turned out to only be two-tenths of a mile longer, although it sure seemed like more than that.  Hike stats: 10.3 miles, 3:48:56.

Mile 10

While A was tromping around in the desert, H did a "recovery" road ride of 24+ miles.  He and Milton came to pick A up at the Moab Rim trailhead parking lot (with beers) and we stayed there a little while, watching some jeeps and other rigs make their way up the gnarly trail.

Needing a bit of a trim

After a nap for A that afternoon, we humans walked to our friends C and F's house for yard beers.  Which turned out to be kitchen beers because we all thought the A/C felt nice, despite the lovely shade in their backyard.

Skulls and sunflowers

And then it was Monday.  We did a bunch of chores around the house: weeding, trimming back trees, re-caulking some door frames.  Then we got back on the road bikes for the now traditional H 24/A 21 mile ride on the bike path.  Drinks at Woody's seemed to be in order for late afternoon, and then it was early to bed.  We're not stupid enough to drive back north through Spanish Fork Canyon on the evening of the last day of a long weekend; we did that once, getting stuck in traffic for over an hour, and now we wait and get up wicked early Tuesday morning for the drive back to SLC.

first half

 As is our wont, we skeddadled out of SLC and went to Moab for the long Labor Day holiday weekend, rolling into an unexpectedly quiet Main Street a little after 7 p.m.  Later, when we asked some friends in hospitality if things were slow, they said no, hotels were pretty well booked; I dunno, it sure seemed quiet.  And that's okay.

Oh

We got really lucky with the weather for the first two days especially.  A cold front rolled in and it was in the 70s (!!!!!!!) on Friday.  Delightful!  While H did a three mile trail run that morning, A and M did a 3.5 mile hike on Pipe Dream.  It was quiet out there too: we saw one dude on a MTB with his dog.  Late morning, A and H got on their road bikes for a ride on the bike path.  A did 21 miles (it had been about a month since I'd been on the bike and I could feel that fact in my sit bones) while H stretched a little further to make it 24.

Lawd

On Saturday, H had planned to do a long run and strung together 13.1 on Pipe Dream, up to Hidden Valley, through Hidden Valley and over the pass a little ways towards the Moab Rim trail.  He ended up with just barely under 2,000 feet of elevation gain too, and finished in 2:46:47, so it was not an insignificant run.  

He

While he was doing all that, Milton and A went to Millcreek.  We went a little longer than we usually do (5.7 miles) and found ourselves a preying mantis.

Comin'

Amazingly, H had not done quite enough by late Saturday morning.  We decided to take advantage of the still fairly cool temperatures (slightly warmer than Friday but it still did not get out of the 80s) and did a road ride.  This time he "just" did 21 miles.  That's plenty of miles for one day.

Mantis

Except that we did walk to Woody's and back for cocktails and that's another 1.75 miles roundtrip.  Not that we're weirdos who count everything.

csa summer: tenth box

 Wicked nice variety in this week's box - bravo, Tagge's!  We got two cartons of raspberries, a couple of corns, green beans, green peppers, shishito peppers, peaches, tomatoes, pluots, nectarines, onions, a cucumber and, for squashes: zucchini, summer and a pattypan.

Can't wait for those pluots

As we do, we had the corn and half of the green beans the first night.  I must say, both veggies are past their prime by September: the corn was a bit starchy and the beans were tough.  I think I may blanch the rest of the beans and stick them in the freezer for soups.  We had onion, pepper and the pattypan squash in a chickpea curry; put the very delicate and squishy raspberries in our oatmeal; had more peppers and onions with vegan sausages; gave away the zucchini, cucumber and summer squash*; and ate a bunch of stonefruits just as soon as they ripened.  The massive amount of plums from last week are just getting ripe now and their flesh is the most amazing, vibrant purple-red I've ever seen.  I am planning to turn most of them into a cinnamon-plum sauce (for desserts and oatmeal) to freeze because try as we might, we will never be able to eat all of them in time.

* And I don't even feel guilty about it.  We have so much shredded squash in the freezer - I ate 1.5 cups in my morning green smoothies this week.  

csa summer: ninth box

This box was so heavy!  Kind of a weird one, but super heavy!  We got five huge onions, two Anaheim peppers, some jalapeno and serrano peppers, twelve (!) huge tomatoes, so many plums and so much garlic.  Plus I supplemented with three ears of corn because Utah corn's days are numbered.

Not a huge variety but lots of it - 

those onions are massive

We ate the corn right away, of course, and the bigger ears were a little starchier but the smaller one was quite good.  I chopped up half of the tomatoes to freeze for soups; the other half was eaten as-is, dressed with a touch of extra virgin olive oil and some sea salt - yum.  The plums were all underripe but once they soften, we'll eat a bunch and then freeze the rest for future compotes, crumbles and galettes.  I'm psyched about the plums - we didn't get any last year.  (Are stone fruits an every other year situation?)  The peppers and an onion were sauteed up and used to top some vegan Italian sausages.  And the garlic: there was really SO MUCH garlic that I gave half of it away to work friends.  The other half will be preserved somehow - pickled, or roasted, mashed and frozen - to extend its lifespan.

foiled (but not complaining)

 We may finally be seeing a shift towards monsoonal weather here in Utah, which should bring some desperately needed rain (but hopefully not too much lightning).  Of course, the pattern shift came on a weekend, when we would like to be weekending, but at this point in the drought complaining about rain - any rain - is not allowed.

On Saturday, H did his longest trail run in almost a year: twelve miles, and then rallied for a short road ride just to shake his legs out.  He was pretty much done after that which, understandable.  And also impressive.  Meanwhile, Milton and I did our puny five mile Dimple Dell loop where he got to chase and be chased by a dog buddy and cadged trail snacks from two different dog walkers, and we saw three deers.  After that, things got domestic with laundry and cleaning.  I used up the last of the cherry tomatoes in a medium-spicy sauce (for tacos and burrito bowls) for the freezer.  I also did a batch of chickpeas in the InstantPot; disassembled and successfully reassembled said InstantPot for cleaning (hooray for YouTube videos!); and made a batch of black beans in the InstantPot.  And walk to the library got my day's mileage up to seven.

Saturday's walk

The plan had been for an Alta hike on Sunday but dark clouds and windy conditions threatened rain all across the Wasatch Front.  Milton and I did a slightly shorter version of the Dimple Dell loop, and got sprinkled on nearly the whole time, while H wrangled his slightly fatigued legs into an hour's road ride.  Back home, there was broccoli to blanch and freeze, breakfast oatmeal and lunch green smoothies to prep and, of course, more laundry while the weather persisted.  Around 11, the sun started trying to come out.  I put the dog on his tie-out so he could stare at the neighbors as I did some much needed weeding.  The weekend culminated with an in-garage tail-gating session to pre-celebrate our wedding anniversary with frozen watermelon margaritas.  What?  I needed to clear some freezer space.

csa summer: seventh and eighth boxes

 We had to skip our seventh CSA box so to make up for it, we got two boxes the following week.  Best part about that: DOUBLE THE BLACKBERRIES!!!!  In addition to four cartons of blackberries, we got doubles of cantaloupe, broccoli, purple and ivory peppers, summer squash (sigh), big peaches, tomatoes (cherry and full-sized) and a few apples.  The current corn variety was not quite ready for picking so fingers crossed we'll get some of that in box #9.

Double the fun

The melons were chunked up and eaten: they weren't the most flavorful but improved with a sprinkling of Tajin.  The berries were devoured fresh, plus I put some of mine in my breakfast oatmeal.  We put some broccoli and peppers in a stirfry and then blanched and flash-froze the rest of the broccoli.  More peppers were cooked up with onions for sandwich toppies.  Tomatoes were sliced and put on salads and bagels.  Some of the peaches were eaten fresh but the others were flash-frozen for future fruit cobblers and crumbles.  And, I'm sorry, but I took the squashes in to work and gave them away.  Too many squashes!

return to alta ridge run

 I knew it had been a while but I'm surprised that it has been since 2021 that I've done an Alta ridge run (note: no running).  Things haven't changed that much although that trail is definitely busier than when we first did it.  H didn't come with me this time, opting for a road ride, but the cold front that had rolled through had cleared and chilled the air, making it too nice to not get out for a hike. 

Fireweed says summer is

almost over

It was a brisk 46F at the Albion upper lot, when I pulled in at 7:45 a.m. Sunday morning.  There were not that many cars yet, likely as folks were waiting for it to warm up a touch.  I had long sleeves and my gloves on (which made it exciting to eat my bagel).  As I walked up the Summer Road towards the Albion meadow trail, a car pulled up next to me and the young women inside asked if I wanted a ride.  I thanked them, saying that it was my plan to kick H's butt in steps today; they laughed, gave me a thumbs-up and drove on.

View of Sunset Peak

from Catherine's Pass

It was two miles of climbing before my hands warmed up enough to take off my gloves.  Still cool in the shade, though, and I didn't take off my long sleeve layer until I reached Catherine's Pass at 9:06 a.m. (running total: 3.1 miles).  I ate a fig bar and put on some sunscreen, then tackled Tuscarora, passing a couple of hikers on the way up.  That climb to the top of Tuscarora is short but steep (3.4 miles, 9:28 a.m.).

View of Brighton from Tuscarora

There were a couple of young women having a snack at Tuscarora.  I asked if they were the ones who'd offered me a ride and their jaws dropped: "How'd you get here already? Did you run?" I laughed, saying I'd just walked, but slow and steady.  One of them rolled her eyes: "Fast and steady, more like it."  [H says he doesn't believe any of this and that no one has ever called me fast.]

Woohoo Wolverine

The next peak is Wolverine, which I had to myself (slow and steady) (3.66 miles, 9:43 a.m.), and then it was time to go around Wolverine Cirque.  This was the busiest part of the whole hike, with multiple parties of multiple hikers, a number of trail runners and a busy little pika.  Some sections of the trail have been rerouted to the Alta side of the ridge, which is safer and less exposed than the cirque side.

Pikas look sooooo soft

I texted H when I finished the cirque (4.1 miles, 10:11 a.m.) and headed down.  That part of the trail, down off the ridge towards Twin Lakes pass, is my least favorite part: it is very steep and rocky, without the benefit of switchbacks.  But soon enough you're off the rocks and onto packed dirt - packed dust, actually, as it is very dry right now), which all the trail runners must appreciate.

On the far side of the cirque

From Twin Lakes pass (4.57 miles, 10:34 a.m.), all that was left was traipsing down the old mining roads through Grizzly Gulch.  Because it is so dry, the footing is slippery and loose; I was grateful to have my hiking poles a couple of times.  There were a lot of folks heading up in this stretch - hikers, runners and even a couple of MTBers - but no one passed me going down.

Some switchbacks would be helpful

Back at the car for a beer at 11:21 a.m., with a grand total of 6.4 miles.  I always think that trail is going to be longer than it actually is - I guess that last out through Grizzly Gulch just seems long.  Now in the sun, it had warmed up to 64F, with a light breeze, and it was just about as pleasant as you could ask for.  It was a good day to take a good hike.

Blue skies above Grizzly Gulch

neighborhood things

Summer colds are no fun.  Both H and I ended up with one - he says I gave it to him but then he gave it right back to me - and it kind of derailed our weekend.  Oh, we still got out for trail runs and bike rides (H) and five mile dog walks (A and M), but then there had to be naps to recuperate and we ran the house out of tissues and A didn't get up to Alta for a real hike.  Next time, I guess.

Sunflower in the morning

It was also bloody hot and windy.  Anything we got out to do, including the dreaded weeding, had to be done as early as possible.  The sun is coming up later, of course, but Milton and I still headed out for our Dimple Dell loop both Saturday and Sunday before it came over the mountains.  Even so, it was nearly 80 when we began, so I made sure to wear my hydration vest so I could give him water during the walk.

Young one, still growing

The sunflowers are getting into swing, which is so cheerful and also good for the birds.  The local bison were out, grazing in their pasture and entirely unimpressed with the people stopping to check them out.  M and I met up with a number of the regular early morning Dimple Dell dog walkers; M is becoming expert at wheedling treats out of them.  And, before the wind kicked up, there were hot air balloons wafting about over the Salt Lake valley.  Not for me, but also cheerful.

Oquirrh mountains in the background

Next time, I swear, there will be an actual hike.

csa summer: sixth box

Box #6 arrived and it was pretty dang good, although we miss the cherries and berries of the early boxes.  For fruit, we got a big canteloupe, donut peaches and regular peaches; for veg, corn on the cob, green beans (must be nearing the end of those but they're still good), green peppers, a couple of tomatoes (yes, technically fruit but), a cucumber, a zucchini, a summer squash and a green cabbage.  I feel like maybe a couple more tomatoes and/or peaches would have been okay.

I am officially over summer squash at this point

The corn and beans were eaten that night, as corn's sugars start turning to starch as soon as it gets picked, so the longer you wait, the less tasty it is.  I gave away the cucumber and the two squashes.  The melon got cut up immediately: it was pretty good, although not Green River good, and we ate it straight and also in some smoothies.  The cabbage got put into a dinner of gochujang noodles and also a batch of coleslaw, which went with BBQ vegan "pulled pork" (soy curl) sandwiches.

And, glory of glories, I traded all the remaining beets from prior boxes to a neighbor for homegrown tomatoes!  Win-win!