2019 Highline Planning - Leidy to Mirror Lake

I never have done a through hike in the Uintas because of those "zero days" I have enjoyed so much doing day hikes, checking out all the epic country around the base camps, the fishing, the R & R, and just "being out there". But these these TR's have looked so fun I hope to be hiking through the Uintas this year also! If I see you up there @DrNed , maybe I'll bring you a birthday cupcake or something. :)
 
When I have done longer backpacking trips I have found that I regretted planning a day with 0 miles. It is just my opinion, but it seems a lot easier on my body to cover some distance every day and never too much distance in any one day; kind of like the tortoise and the hare. I find that I still have to eat on the days when I don't hike so I am carrying extra food and then I get restless in camp all day. Then I tell myself since I am going to have a lazy day I might as well take fishing gear or a book and other things to do and I end up taking more gear/weight.

Good Luck. I hope to do this hike this year as well (from 191) so I will be watching this thread for ideas as well. Maybe I will see you out there.
 
I'm right there with you on zero days. They can be super fun on river trips and similar when you don't have to worry about what to carry, but I much prefer to mosey along than sit around somewhere when backpacking point-to-point. An easy pace makes the whole trip so much better.
 
I agree with that. I find it almost impossible to take long breaks. Zero days on the trail/camping are only enjoyable with others and if there's something else to do
 
I have kind of pieced the information below together from various maps and different sites. I am curious if anyone has any feedback on how accurate it is and where the major mistakes are.

  • Highline Trailhead West
  • East Park Reservoir (water) 4.4 miles
  • Lonesome Park
  • Manila Park
  • Lost Park
  • Summit Park (water) 20.50 miles
  • Leidy Peak Trailhead ~24.50
  • Gabbro Pass ~29.50 miles
  • Deadman Lake ~30.75
  • Dead Man ~31.75 miles
  • White Rocks Lake
  • Chepeta Lake ~38.25 miles
  • Lower Reader Lake
  • North Pole (12, 217 feet) ~44.25 miles
  • Fox Lake ~47.50 miles
  • Bowden Lake 55.45 miles
  • Painter Basin
  • Anderson ~62.25 miles
  • Yellowstone Creek ~65.00 miles
  • Tungsten Pass ~67.00
  • Tungsten Lake
  • North Star Lake
  • Porcupine ~70.25 miles
  • Lake Fork River ~81.00 miles
  • Red Knob
  • Dead Horse Lake
  • Dead Horse ~86.76 miles
  • Ledge Lake
  • Rock Sea ~95.00 miles
  • Highline Trailhead West ~104 miles
 
#PackGoatMafia said:
I have kind of pieced the information below together from various maps and different sites. I am curious if anyone has any feedback on how accurate it is and where the major mistakes are.

  • Highline Trailhead West
  • East Park Reservoir (water) 4.4 miles
  • Lonesome Park
  • Manila Park
  • Lost Park
  • Summit Park (water) 20.50 miles
  • Leidy Peak Trailhead ~24.50
  • Gabbro Pass ~29.50 miles
  • Deadman Lake ~30.75
  • Dead Man ~31.75 miles
  • White Rocks Lake
  • Chepeta Lake ~38.25 miles
  • Lower Reader Lake
  • North Pole (12, 217 feet) ~44.25 miles
  • Fox Lake ~47.50 miles
  • Bowden Lake 55.45 miles
  • Painter Basin
  • Anderson ~62.25 miles
  • Yellowstone Creek ~65.00 miles
  • Tungsten Pass ~67.00
  • Tungsten Lake
  • North Star Lake
  • Porcupine ~70.25 miles
  • Lake Fork River ~81.00 miles
  • Red Knob
  • Dead Horse Lake
  • Dead Horse ~86.76 miles
  • Ledge Lake
  • Rock Sea ~95.00 miles
  • Highline Trailhead West ~104 miles
Click to expand...

That seems pretty close to what I came up with when I was planning. I created routes for my Delorme Inreach Explorer by tracing trails on their maps. I then refined them using satellite imagery. I'm pretty sure I came up with 104 miles, too.
 
A couple of things on the east end...

Once you leave East Park Reservoir, heading north along Little Brush Creek, there are no reliable water sources until you get to at least Summit Park. There maybe water in Summit Park where there is a lot of cattle grazing so your MMV there. We only found two options in that stretch.

One, dropping down the north side from Manila Park to Leona Spring, an almost four mile detour and a bit of a climb back up. The other, which we did, was dropping south along forest service road 037, just west of Trout Creek Peak, to Lost Park where we were able to get water from Center Creek. This was about a two mile detour but not knowing the terrain we could have shortened that by going off road into Lost Park but it was late, we were out of water and didn't want to take any chances. The water was good and we spent the night there. After this point water sources start to become more available. We spent the next night at Hacking Lake where water was no problem. In retrospective if we had known we would have carried a lot more water on that stretch.

One little tricky part is after you have left Lonesome Park (which is appropriately named by the way) you're going to cross forest service road 678 from south to north. The trail does not go directly across the road to the other side but rather about 120 yards to the west. It took us bit of time to locate it.

One last thing on the east end. Watch your rock cairns and tree blazes. They are pretty consistent but its easy to lose them. We only got off trail a couple of times but I'm sure glad we had our track on the InReach to help get us back on the trail by back tracking.
 
Perry said:
A suggestion @#PackGoatMafia ... Why don't you start a new threat for planning your trip so we don't hijack DrNed's thread any further.
Click to expand...
PLEASE NO!! :uhhuh:

I love getting the action on one of my
threads and I’m more likely to see all the input
on this topic.
 
Can anyone tell me if there are reliable
water sources between Whiterocks &
Chepeta? If so where? Thanks
 
There should be some water in the marshy area on the quads south of the Chipeta Eccentric. That said... it's marshy and may not be the most appetizing.
 
LarryBoy said:
There should be some water in the marshy area on the quads south of the Chipeta Eccentric. That said... it's marshy and may not be the most appetizing.
Click to expand...

I was afraid of that. Thanks
 
I seem to remember a couple of stream crossings along that way.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Capture.PNG

Plus its only like three miles to the Whiterocks River below Chepeta. I think you'll be fine.
 
Perry said:
View attachment 76913

Plus its only like three miles to the Whiterocks River below Chepeta. I think you'll be fine.
Click to expand...
Yep. The stream crossing at N 40° 46.815' W 109° 58.141' (pictured below) has plenty of clear-running water, as does the spot @Perry mentioned. And it's such a short stretch that if you're planning on camping through there you should have plenty of water from Whiterocks Reservoir anyway.

IMG_5950.JPG
 
@Perry @Udink Thank you!

Apparently if I'd looked closer at the map I'd have seen these streams.

I want to give myself some camping options for day 1.

If I'm feeling ambitious I'd like to push past Whiterocks
but if I do, I don't want to be committed to Chepeta

Thanks again!
 
There were several streams I crossed between Whiterocks and Chepeta. And some very nice-looking camping spots in the those meadows...elk too.
 
@LarryBoy I was reviewing your Highline map and I noticed
on your route you go down and then back up as shown in your
map here:
LB Highline.jpg

Does that bypass not really exist? Some other reason?

Thanks
 
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