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Back in late June my son called me and told me he'd found a hike that he thought I'd enjoy. This was a first so I got my schedule covered and made plans to join him the week after July 4th. He lives down in Bishop which is on the eastern side of the Sierra just a bit south of Yosemite and Mammoth Mountain. I didn't get much info,...didn't figure he was out to kill me...just that we would be hiking up past Lamarck Lake, spending a night, then hiking out. I looked it up on the map just to...

Jim and I were going to do a five night, six day hike up Cache Creek (Yellowstone), and back. Then a heat wave arrived. So we made alternate plans, hopefully to someplace higher, and cooler. We ended up hiking the Chain of Lakes, which probably was cooler, but it was still hot. But when you make your plans two days ahead, you get what you can. I had been doing early morning walks in preparation for the hike. This was the reward one day. These happen every day. Every. Day. And they...

Seven years since my last summit of Timpanogos. Where has the time gone? Yesterday on my 62nd birthday, I headed back up to see if I could reach the summit one more time. Started out at the Timpooneke Trailhead with my family and our friend Jon who has been doing my birthday hike with me for a number of years now. We left just after 6:00 am for the 7.3 mile trek to the top. Along our way the wildflowers were everywhere, and we got to see some mountain goats up high. Katie and I were the...

Weather was good, flowers are out. Decided at the last minute to take a 4 day trip. Starting at Darby MT, taking the Magruder Trail to Elk City ID. Then backroads to Kamiah, ID to pick up the Lolo Motorway. The Magruder splits the Frank Church Wilderness, 101 miles. The Lolo Motorway, 90 miles, follows fairly close to the Trail Lewis & Clark blazed out west in 1805. Plenty of flowers, blue sky, few people. From Nez Pearce pass on the Magruder Along the Magruder Hell's Half Acre...

After a couple years without any meaningful back country adventures due to my wife's declining health, I've been sneaking out a day or two at a time in an effort to preserve whatever sanity I have remaining. Last week it was a drainage sandwiched in between a couple I've frequented many times but never set foot in the middle. Some real Jeep trail followed by a somewhat invigorating bushwhacking hike. The cirque was just gorgeous and more than a little mining activity remains...

Day 1 - Chepeta Lake to Fox Lake (9.4 miles) Day 2 - Fox Lake to Painter Basin (11.8 miles) Day 3 - Painter Basin to Oweep Creek Basin (15.2 miles) Day 4 - Porcupine Basin to Fork Lake Drainage (9.9 miles) Day 5 - Lake Fork Drainage to Moon Lake (9.8 miles) Total Mileage - 56.1 miles Chepeta Lake Day 1 My dad dropped me off at Chepeta Lake on June 23rd. I had food for 7 days, and a pack weight of about 35 pounds (without water). I was behind schedule due to Apple Maps taking us on the...

At just over 235,000 acres, the Flat Tops Wilderness ranks as the 3rd largest wilderness area in Colorado. The eastern portion of it is accessed via the Flat Tops Trail out of Yampa along CO-131 north of Vail, and I'd seen the massive White River Plateau from that state highway multiple times. I'd seen it on the way up to Dinosaur National Monument to its west, to Steamboat and the Mount Zirkel Wilderness to its north, and even from its west along CO-13 south of Meeker on a circuitous drive...

It's been three years since I last summitted Mount Raymond, so yesterday I decided to give it a go and see if it is still in my wheelhouse. The approach was my usual one from the Bowman Fork Trail in Millcreek Canyon. Total miles on the hike was approximately 11.4 to the summit and back. The wildflowers were special throughout. The Millcreek approach never lets you down this time of year. Review Image: Overview map Getting a 7:00 am start Upper Millcreek is closed due to...

6/17 - 6/23/26 Trailhead: Cottonwood Pass I've gone over Cottonwood Pass a couple of times and each time I looked down on Big Whitney Meadow and thought it looked interesting/appealing. I've always thought it would make a good early season trip and this year was a very low snow year so I started researching flights. My youngest two kids are 13 and 15 and are capable hikers so I thought this would be a good chance to introduce them to the Sierra even if it wasn't the High Sierra. Day 0...

Got up early this morning and headed to Mount Van Cott to see what the fire had done to it from last weekend. Review Image: Overview map Mount Van Cott is the ridge just east and above the hill with the "U" on it. I'm walking along 11th Ave. to get to the trail. This is new, some bike lockups and restrooms at Popperton A deer looking at me through the fence wondering, "What is he doing up so early in the morning?' The burn line of the Bonneville Fire Dropping down to the...

A little late to posting... but had a great trip to Cedar Mesa area May 20-25. We planned to do another loop but because of a water concern, we decided to do Fish and Owl canyons, where we knew there had been recent reports of decent water. We had a great time and are really excited to explore again! Day 0 My partner and I drove down from Jackson, Wyoming where we live. We picked up friends from Seattle who flew into Salt Lake. On the way through Moab, we had to take a quick stop to show...

After 40 years of remote backcountry trips (mostly in Southern Utah), I've finally joined this site and am writing a post. I'm starting with my most recent trip, hiking the SE rim of Neon Canyon in the Escalante. It was supposed to be a loop... up Neon, crossing a pass at the head, and descending the SE rim of Choprock. Along the way I was wanting to rap into the canyons to explore and reascend with a 100' rope. Alas, the canyon was at least twice as deep in the lower and central sections...

Yesterday, the Scat family found itself in the beautiful Cache Valley to attempt a summit of Logan Peak. I went to college in Logan (Utah State University) back in 1982 through 87 and I never hiked to the top of Logan Peak while I was there, so essentially this is making up for a wrong when I was young and stupid. Now I am just old and stupid. :D We drove up to Logan Friday night and stayed overnight so that we could get to the trailhead early enough so that I could get up and back down...

Wasn't sure we were going to make our usual 'end of school' trip up to Yellowstone this year, but glad we did. Grabbed a last second site at the Mammoth CG - I must say, it's a much more pleasant spot with the new north entrance road largely avoiding it. I spent some leisurely time around the park with the family, but took one day to hike up and over Mount Everts. For the last few years, I've enjoyed taking a day on our frontcountry trips to hike from our campsite - no cars, no shuttles -...

In September 2014, Chris, Peter and I did a 47 mile traverse of the Sawtooth Range in Idaho. We had a shuttle drop us off at Grandjean, and from there spent 7 days crossing the range to Pettit Lake. The weather was perfect, and since then this trek has been the benchmark for excellence for all that followed. I recently re-edited my photos from that week. Below is the route. Hopefully some of you can follow our footsteps across this land of jagged peaks and brilliant lakes. PS: According...

I was on my own last weekend so I decided to try a hike that Mrs. TractorDoc would be less than thrilled to join me on. We had a good amount of rain days prior, and I decided to find my way to Contour Falls in Cuyahoga Valley National Park. This was not that long of a hike at about four miles; half of it follows the canal towpath trail so that portion is quite easy. The other half involves making your way up the walls of a steep ravine (or walking up the creek bed) to reach the waterfall...

Intro After reading the post from @Kullaberg63 on his Stevens East Benches route, I immediately put it on my to-do list. Allen's Stevens/Fold route ranks high among my all-time favorite routes, and I was anxious to try the variation. In March I did a spring warm-up trip to scout the Stevens Arch descent into Stevens Canyon and do the normal Stevens/Fold route. Thanks to @Jammer for the helpful Stevens Arch descent beta (to the extent it's possible to describe that). Fast forward a few...

Took advantage of a sunny morning to hike up the Mastodon Trail (off the Chena Hot Springs road outside of Fairbanks) with my son and grandson. Saw sign of moose but saw no moose. Did see a porcupine as we were near the end of our adventure. Trailhead signage Trail starts out winding through tall spruce Trial starts to open up a bit Fuzzy somethings along the trail Lots of new growth along the trail. This area burnt several years ago. Moose sign Some water and old corduroy...

I put on my big boy shoes yesterday and headed to Mount Olympus to see if I could still make it to the top and back down again. I used to do Olympus two to four times a year, but as I've gotten older and my knees, feet and hips have begun to wear down, it has become more difficult for me. Even for the young of mind, body and soul Olympus is a tough hike. It was forecast to reach 85 in the valley yesterday, so I got up early and took advantage of the shade of the mountain so that I...

Yesterday was my 29th wedding anniversary, and to celebrate Sheila and I managed an anniversary hike to the top of Grandeur Peak. At 8299 feet in elevation, Grandeur would be the highest that I have hiked since my knee surgery last October and I was interested to see how the knee would hold up on this one. Wildflowers haven't been that spectacular this year, due to the record warm winter we had here in Salt Lake, but there were some along the trail that kept me busy taking pictures all the...