Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Little Cottonwood Canyon

I make a fair number of business trips to the Salt Lake City area. It's just a beautiful location, with the Wasatch Mountains overlooking the valley. I've been meaning to go hiking out here but either the weather or my schedule never allowed for it. With the Mt. Whitney hike coming up this weekend I decided to see if I could sneak in an after-work hike while I'm out here this week.

One of my work friends suggested Little Cottonwood Canyon (thanks Shannon!). I checked online and settled on a short-ish hike to Cecret Lake (not a typo). It was a little, um, warm today. Like 101 degrees when I left the office. So I wasn't planning on doing anything too adventurous. By the time I finished driving up the canyon, past two ski resorts, and a couple of miles of gravel road, the temps had dropped to a perfect 81 degrees.

So I start hiking along a trail straight out of the Sound Of Music. Mountain wildflowers everywhere, babbling brooks, unreal scenery, and of course the fresh mountain air. The thin
air doesn't seem to affect me much, and before long I've finished the mile long hike to Cecret Lake, a beautiful little alpine gem. I wander around the lakeshore, take a couple of pictures, and decide that I haven't really done enough hiking. I see the ski lift from the resort off to the side and decide to follow it for awhile.

As I'm hiking straight up the access road I'm pleasantly surprised at how little effect the altitude has on me. I see the top of another lift off to the side and make a detour over to it. 10,200', it says on the lift. I see another trail to the very top of the ridgeline and the highest ski lift, so I head off in that direction. Before I know it I'm at the very top, 10,500 feet, and shoot this video.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxtVTiqM3Uo

Wow, what a special spot. So I start heading down the mountain and I see a little shortcut trail running through the trees. As I get about half way down the trail I look off to my left and see a full grown female Moose, literally 50 yards from me. I'd prefer to not get

trampled by a spooked moose, so I casually snap a couple of pictures, avoid direct eye contact, and make my way the rest of the way down the trail. The adrenaline rush from my wilderness experience gradually wears off, and I start to think..."Hmmm, a full grown moose out at sunset. I wonder what else might be out here. Bears, perhaps? It seems like every other school out here is named Cougars, or Pumas, or some other euphemism for a mountain lion. I wonder if there are any of those???"

I get a little spooked and decide to high-tail it down the mountain. It's not quite trail running, but it's pretty close, and I don't see another soul until I'm almost back to the lake. Once I make it to the lake I exhale a bit and figure I'm probably not going to die a horrible mountain death at the hand of a wild predator. At least not yet.

I also can't find the trail from the lake. So I start wandering down in the general direction it's supposed to be. I finally realize my only option is to boulder-hop down a pretty steep mountain wall in order to get back on the trail. I don't know where the normal trail was, but let's just say I couldn't find it. Death-defying stunt #2 in the books, I finally sync back up with the trail, and make my way back to the car.

All in all, not a bad way to blow off a little steam after work. With the Mt. Whitney climb coming in 5 days I'm feeling pretty good about things!





Monday, August 8, 2011

Human Pincushion

So it turns out that tropical Africa has some pretty nasty diseases. I knew we'd have to get some inoculations before going over there, but I wasn't quite prepared for the variety. After my second visit, and 5th injection, I told the receptionist "I don't really like coming here. Every time I do I get stabbed. Repeatedly". She thought that was amusing. I wasn't sure I was kidding...

We went to the International Travelers Medical Clinic in San Ramon, an imposing sounding name, but in reality a doctor's office staffed by a lady who specializes in figuring out which countries have what life-threatening diseases, and what to do about it. I appreciated her thoroughness, but watching her struggle over whether we'd need an inoculation for Yellow Fever didn't exactly set my mind at ease.

In the end we settled on this list to be treated for

1) Hepatitis A (3 shots over a 6 month period)
2) Hepatitis B (Same shots)
3) Measles, Mumps, Rubella booster (shot)
4) Polio booster (shot)
5) TDAP booster - Tetanus, Diphtheria, Pertussis (shot with an extra large needle)
6) Typhoid - 4 pills taken 2 days apart

In addition I got prescriptions for

7) Diamox, to help dealing with altitude
8) Ciprofloxacin, a broad spectrum antibiotic, just in case
9) Malarone, for Malaria prevention

The good news is that after pumping my body full of all these toxins I can probably have sex with a promiscuous Rhinoceros and not have to worry about catching anything.


Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Mt. Tallac

3 short (like one minute) Youtube videos on the way up the mountain.
Making the Ridgeline

Greg joining the party and celebrating

Panoramic view from the summit




It's been a LOOOONG time since I've stood on the summit of a High Sierra mountain. Too long.

We're climbing Mt. Whitney in 4 weeks. At 14,400 feet, dealing with the altitude is the toughest part of that trek, so we decided that some high-altitude training was required. Mt. Tallac, at 9700 feet, is the tallest and toughest hike we could find that we could do as a day hike.

3:45 a.m. came really early. Driving to Bev's house I could tell that most of the cars on the road were going home, and the lane markers on the freeway were mostly for reference only. After driving to Tahoe and getting set up we were out on the trail at 8:00 a.m.

Mt Tallac sits on the western shore of Lake Tahoe, straddling the western shore of the Lake Tahoe basin and the Desolation Wilderness. With roughly 3500 feet of climbing in the 4.5 miles to the summit, it's pretty much straight up the entire way. We started off hiking through the alpine forest, in the cool, crisp mountain air that just feels like it refreshes your soul.

Greg and Bev's friend Lora met us at the start and stayed with us up to the point where the trail started getting dicey. Good choice on her part. The girls told each other girl stories and I kind of went the other way with Greg, passing on quite possibly the funniest and most disgusting story ever. I'll leave it at that.


As we climbed higher the views kept improving. From the first glimpse of Fallen Leaf Lake, all the way to the summit, the views just got better. A brief rest at Cathedral Lake gave Greg the opportunity to capture our amazing glutes for all posterity.

Shortly after the rest stop the fun really started. We left the forest canopy for good and entered the high country. The trees thinned out, eventually fading away entirely. The trail took a quite noticeable turn upward, and eventually just disappeared. The snowpack had come down to meet us, and had swallowed up what probably was a trail. Instead we were free scrambling over loose boulders. The hiking poles were useless, so we put them them away and grabbed for hand holds and tried not to slip on the loose rocks. At over 8,000', and attempting to boulder scramble up about a 30 degree slope, we were seriously huffing and puffing. Not knowing if this was even the route to the top made the trek even more, uh, dicey. We saw two guys coming down, and they did confirm that we were on the trail. After quite a long and vigorous struggle we eventually popped out of the Talus field and had made the ridgeline. That's the first two videos above.

From there the trail was much easier to follow. There was still plenty of snow on the ground, and we had to make our way across multiple snow fields. The poles were a big help here.

Finally, one more talus field, fortunately much easier than the first one, and we were at the summit. 9700 feet in the air, with a panoramic 360 degree view, was unlike anything I'd ever experienced. The struggles of the climb were all worthwhile as we sat on the summit enjoying our sandwiches (thanks Bev!).

All in all, the altitude hadn't proven to be much of a factor. Very mild dizziness and a slight headache were all the ill effects anyone suffered. That's very encouraging. Whitney is obviously much higher, but the trail is nowhere near as difficult. So we'll see. But for now, mission accomplished on Mt. Tallac!