Mount Van Cott - February 15, 2015

[scatman]

Another nice, easy, early season hike is Mount Van Cott which is located just north of Mount Wire across Red Butte Canyon. The peak is only 6348 feet high and it takes less than an hour to hike to the top.

I started out at 10:30 am just south of the Huntsman Cancer Center and hiked up to the Shoreline Trail. Once on the trail, I headed north and just before Dry Creek picked up an old Jeep road that turned back to the south before rounding the ridge, and then made its way east as it climbed to the ridge. Once on the ridge, the old track took me all the way to the top. It took me about 58 minutes to get there but I was taking pictures along the way. It can easily be done in 45 - 55 minutes depending on how determined you are.

At the top, I had the whole mountain to myself as a sat down to eat a Cliff Bar while looking out over Red Butte Canyon. It's funny, I like peanut butter but I don't particularly like things made out of peanut butter. Go figure. The Cliff bar that I ate was the crunchy peanut butter, which is my least favorite Cliff Bar. I had one left and decided to finally get rid of it on this hike. It took a lot, along with plenty of water to get it down. After eating, the clouds started blocking the sun while the wind picked up a touch and I got a bit of a chill so I started back down. My route back brought me down Battle Gulch and from there back to my Jeep.


Looking up towards the top of Mount Van Cott from the Shoreline Trail


The Shoreline Trail


Old Jeep track heading up the to the top of the ridge


Looking towards the summit


Dry Creek Canyon - Avenues Twin Peaks, top just left of center


Approaching the only steep section of the trail


A stand of scrub oak


Black Mountain Ridge


Mount Wire to the south


Time for that damn Cliff Bar!


Red Butte Canyon


A tent I saw on the way down.

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[Joey]

Nice! You should have called me. I would have gone with you.

 

[Ben]

great. also the best description of eating a cliff bar i've ever heard. if you'd called Joey, may be he could've helped you with it.

 

[scatman]

@ben cowan - @Joey would have thrown me off the mountain if I had given him any of it!

There is a funny story behind my dislike for crunchy peanut butter Cliff Bars. Back when Cliff bars had just come out, I was on a seven day backpacking trip in the Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana. Our group was hiking out on the last day and it was cold and wet. We had just come to Gibson Reservoir and stopped for a break when I realized that I was out of food. I think the reservoir was about six miles long and I knew that I couldn't make it without more food. I was affectionately known as "Burger Boy" at the time for the amount of calories I could consume. Now I need to describe the condition of the trail before I continue. Like I said, it was wet and the trail was in horrible condition. The mud was sticking to our boots in gobs. I mean big gobs! With each step each foot had to way five additional pounds. The going was rough and slow with no way to avoid the continuous quagmire. Well one of my hiking partners offers me a Cliff Bar at this break; crunchy peanut butter to be exact. Of course I was grateful, but when I took that first bite a shock spread through my entire body. I started laughing uncontrollably. When my partners asked what was wrong, I told them that this is was the worst tasting thing I had ever eaten! It seemed to suck all the remaining (not that there was much) moisture out of my body. How I made it that last six miles on that bar is beyond me but to this day they still give my grief about how the crunchy peanut butter Cliff Bar saved my life.

Now don't get me wrong, I actually like some of the Cliff Bars and most I can put up with but the crunchy peanut butter is awful. Cliff Bar used to make a Lemon flavored one that I really liked which I believe was replaced by blueberry, but why they didn't get rid of that awful peanut butter is beyond me.