LonePeak, Utah, USA - Outlaw Cabin

[ndhudson]

Distance: 19.3 km
Accent: 2038 m

One can only take so much of the political circus that is the US Government right now. Whilst Washington was deciding how much more of our money they should spend, Gale and I decided it was a good idea to get a little perspective. Wondering whether or not we might find a little clarity in the clouds, we thought this would be a great time for a scouting trip.

Early this fall we plan to summit Lone Peak (11,253 feet). It is one of the tallest peaks in the Wasatch Range and just happens to be in our backyard. There are three main routes up. We have chosen to use the Cherry Canyon Logging trail that spurs off from one of our evening stroll walking trails (Bonneville Shorline Trail). We thought we would scout out this trail before the big summit. The accent is a bit more steep (and starts at a lower elevation) than the more frequently used Jacobs Ladder trail. It also happens to be a bit longer by about 3 miles. Nevertheless, from the trip reports that we read, this trail sounded much more our style.

At the top of the Cherry Canyon trail, nestled in a beautiful meadow, is a very small log cabin affectionately called The Outlaw Cabin. It was built in 1960 by two local brothers and for the general use of all who happen by. This cabin provides a great base camp for hikers wanting to summit Lone Peak (about another 2.5 miles and 2,000 feet up) or for climbers who have the nerve to tackle the grand granite monoliths of the Lone Peak area. This would be our destination for the day.

It's a pretty straight forward accent...switch backs, switch backs, and more switch backs...a miniature Sherwood forest...a relentless ridge...more switch backs...a couple of very beautiful thick treed meadows with wild flowers galore...a very welcome spring with which to replenish our water...switch backs again, but around some very ominous granite formations...and then to top it all off, after a few more switch backs, one last high alpine meadow fit for any mountain man...or outlaw. The rain that had been taunting us all day finally descended upon us at the cabin and got very cold very fast, so we didn't spend much time there. (HA HA! Take that, funny hiker-guy who made fun of us for carrying rain gear!) Overall, this is a challenging trail, but very easy to follow and quite well maintained. A killer workout for the back side!!!

So I will leave it to the photos now. Please excuse all of the city view photos...the first 1/2 of this trail is so steep that the pictures of the trail would have just been pointed up at the sun. To help with relation, here is a photo of the area we hiked (or what you can see of it) taken from our back deck. The red line is our approximate trail and the red arrow is our destination (out of view). The beginning of the trail is also out of view, as is Lone Peak itself...it is further east from our destination.

Off we went around 7:30 am with the hills still shadowing the valley and the skies looking a bit...Scottish!

Looking South across the Salt Lake Valley

Looking North along the Wasatch Front towards downtown Salt Lake

The very Southern most end of the Salt Lake valley

Wild flowers!!!

Looking South West into Utah Valley.

Bad blown-out sky photo...but, the red arrow points to our destination

Nope, no outlaws here.

Washington obviously did not find their clarity, but we sure did!
Look for a trip report to the summit of Lone Peak early this fall.

[HighlandSC]

Looks like a fine trail - good report


I don't suppose you know of any sites that can explain to me what grid ref/coordinates system you use you map reading and GPS in America?

[kevsbald]

Damn those hills are big!

[ndhudson]

I don't suppose you know of any sites that can explain to me what grid ref/coordinates system you use you map reading and GPS in America?

In North America, the most commonly used “datum” is NAD 83. Also used are WGS 84 and UTM. We use NAD 83. UTM is what my dad likes, and swears is much more accurate for detail in small areas. Off hand, I don’t really know of a good site that explains this all – maybe Wikipedia –

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAD_83
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WGS_84
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Transverse_Mercator_coordinate_system

Which one is used depends on what the map is referenced in, or what the GPS is set to.

This may be helpful also...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Geological_Survey#Topographic_Mapping

Hope that helps!

[GarryH]

Another fascinating report,and if photo no.8 shows anything like the steepness you talk of,then it certainly is a challenging trail.Best of luck for the full summit attempt.

[ndhudson]

Another fascinating report,and if photo no.8 shows anything like the steepness you talk of,then it certainly is a challenging trail.Best of luck for the full summit attempt.

Thanks Garry! Had to do some downhill canyons this last weekend to give my back side a rest!

[ChrisW]

Fantastic as always ND - looks a great walk and some beautiful pics, I like the ones looking back over the city too. I've been out of the hills for ages now due to doing a little consultancy work but a couple more weeks and I'll be back

keep em coming

[rockhopper]

enjoyed that it must be great having this sort of thing "in your backyard" and I thought climbing a 4,000ft hill was hard enough

[ndhudson]

Fantastic as always ND - looks a great walk and some beautiful pics, I like the ones looking back over the city too. I've been out of the hills for ages now due to doing a little consultancy work but a couple more weeks and I'll be back

keep em coming

Hi Chris I wondered if you had given up the whole "walking" thing. Ha Ha
Well, good thing you have work to be done, there are many who don't...we can't play all the time. Hope you are able to get back to the hills soon...and when you do, don't forget your camera, I need me some more fabulous Chris pics!!!

enjoyed that it must be great having this sort of thing "in your backyard" and I thought climbing a 4,000ft hill was hard enough

Thanks rockhopper! I count myself lucky every day...although, I'm jealous of what you all have within a stone's throw. Grass is always greener, egh?