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- Apr 20, 2013
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Perhaps since you can drive to the top, and even at the top be surrounded by radio transmitters, it may not truly be backcountry. However, when discussing possibilities for a quick weekend overnight hike where I had needed to be back early enough to help my parents move, the mountain behind my friend's neighborhood could not have been closer.
Lakeview Mountain is more known for target shooting, a low ridge on the west side of Utah Lake, an unremarkable, desert peak if you compare it to the more appealing ridges on the east.
Leaving work a little early on Friday, we got a ride up to the winter gate in Israel Canyon. The route was a steep climb up kind of a trail up to gain the ridge and then keep climbing the ridge till we came out on top and then find a place to stay the night.
Looking back down towards where we left the road and north towards the edge of Utah Lake. This area was burned by fire three years ago.
It does not really look like June.
You can also see the ridge we took to the radio tower in the top left.
The weather was perfectly windy. No flies, cooled you down immediately, occasionally hard to stand up straight... and no afternoon thunderstorms.
It was so windy that catching this was a feat. Some late spring beauty amongst the bones left by a fire.
Along the ridge we ran into a stubborn cow with a couple of calves. She didn't want to give up a spot of shade right on the ridge, and I did not want go down around her. So I "coaxed" her and two calves to go down and join another cow just off the ridge. I didn't take any pics of that rodeo, but maybe my buddy did. She won though... It was one of those moments where I looked down at a steaming pile and said, "Don't step there when you start walking," but by the time I started walking I had forgot my own advice...
Some views along the trail.
After a couple miles on the stair master slopes we were on top.
We were starting to lose daylight, and so we found a good place in some mountain mahogany with a view and a block from the wind, scared out the bunnies there, and dropped our packs to explore for a little while. There were some other areas in the aspens farther down the road, but we had a good spot with no one around...
Just before cooking a dinner of instant potatoes, topped with real cheese, a few tablespoons of butter, and about half a pound of ham and Canadian bacon, the sun set... and I took these:
The gusting wind was a bit chilly, so we soon went back to camp, where I found a set of keys in the brush that looked a couple of years old. Maybe someone a while ago had a hard time getting home.
I had hoped for a moonrise over the lake, but the clouds were too dense to the east, so the moon did not peek out until well after midnight.
Looking north again at suburbia below, and the streak above is the ISS. I took a few others with planes flying overhead, but this one was the most interesting.
Just working with the surroundings...
We turned in around 1am, my friend to his hammock, and me to a small nook under the trees. I pulled the hood and bag tight, and just as I was about to go to sleep, the silence was filled with the sound of pneumatic tools and corrugated steel being flapped around. It went on long enough that I fell asleep to it, but I guess when a tower needs repairs it gets them, even really early on Saturday mornings.
Morning came cold enough to make my 40d bag uncomfortable, and with plenty of dark clouds gathering to the south. So I found a place out of the wind, broke out some breakfast, and enjoyed the view.
The only morning color.
The pending rain led us to break camp and head back down. We eventually dropped back to the road, farther up canyon this time. Except for a spill I took on a slick rock, we went down canyon in an uneventful drizzle. Strangely for a Saturday, not a single vehicle passed us once we were on the road. As we hiked down, the clouds only allowed the sun to shine down in narrow columns on the lake, making nice pools of light. No pictures, but the movement of the light was a distraction from the trudge downhill.
Not really a destination hike, but since the weather was cool, the grass green, the bugs almost nonexistent, it aligned for a great, short trip.
Lakeview Mountain is more known for target shooting, a low ridge on the west side of Utah Lake, an unremarkable, desert peak if you compare it to the more appealing ridges on the east.
Leaving work a little early on Friday, we got a ride up to the winter gate in Israel Canyon. The route was a steep climb up kind of a trail up to gain the ridge and then keep climbing the ridge till we came out on top and then find a place to stay the night.
Looking back down towards where we left the road and north towards the edge of Utah Lake. This area was burned by fire three years ago.
It does not really look like June.
You can also see the ridge we took to the radio tower in the top left.
The weather was perfectly windy. No flies, cooled you down immediately, occasionally hard to stand up straight... and no afternoon thunderstorms.
It was so windy that catching this was a feat. Some late spring beauty amongst the bones left by a fire.
Along the ridge we ran into a stubborn cow with a couple of calves. She didn't want to give up a spot of shade right on the ridge, and I did not want go down around her. So I "coaxed" her and two calves to go down and join another cow just off the ridge. I didn't take any pics of that rodeo, but maybe my buddy did. She won though... It was one of those moments where I looked down at a steaming pile and said, "Don't step there when you start walking," but by the time I started walking I had forgot my own advice...
Some views along the trail.
After a couple miles on the stair master slopes we were on top.
We were starting to lose daylight, and so we found a good place in some mountain mahogany with a view and a block from the wind, scared out the bunnies there, and dropped our packs to explore for a little while. There were some other areas in the aspens farther down the road, but we had a good spot with no one around...
Just before cooking a dinner of instant potatoes, topped with real cheese, a few tablespoons of butter, and about half a pound of ham and Canadian bacon, the sun set... and I took these:
The gusting wind was a bit chilly, so we soon went back to camp, where I found a set of keys in the brush that looked a couple of years old. Maybe someone a while ago had a hard time getting home.
I had hoped for a moonrise over the lake, but the clouds were too dense to the east, so the moon did not peek out until well after midnight.
Looking north again at suburbia below, and the streak above is the ISS. I took a few others with planes flying overhead, but this one was the most interesting.
Just working with the surroundings...
We turned in around 1am, my friend to his hammock, and me to a small nook under the trees. I pulled the hood and bag tight, and just as I was about to go to sleep, the silence was filled with the sound of pneumatic tools and corrugated steel being flapped around. It went on long enough that I fell asleep to it, but I guess when a tower needs repairs it gets them, even really early on Saturday mornings.
Morning came cold enough to make my 40d bag uncomfortable, and with plenty of dark clouds gathering to the south. So I found a place out of the wind, broke out some breakfast, and enjoyed the view.
The only morning color.
The pending rain led us to break camp and head back down. We eventually dropped back to the road, farther up canyon this time. Except for a spill I took on a slick rock, we went down canyon in an uneventful drizzle. Strangely for a Saturday, not a single vehicle passed us once we were on the road. As we hiked down, the clouds only allowed the sun to shine down in narrow columns on the lake, making nice pools of light. No pictures, but the movement of the light was a distraction from the trudge downhill.
Not really a destination hike, but since the weather was cool, the grass green, the bugs almost nonexistent, it aligned for a great, short trip.
