Mount Aire and Unnamed Peaks 8490 and 8319 Lollipop Loop - June 12, 2021

[scatman]

After hiking Mount Olympus the Saturday before last, we returned to the Millcreek Ridge again, this time hiking a lollipop loop, beginning at the Maple Grove Picnic Area in Millcreek Canyon, hiking first up to Mount Aire, then following the ridgeline east to unnamed peaks 8490 and 8319, then bushwhacking our way back to the Lamb's Canyon Trail, and then back to the Mount Aire Trail to complete the loop, and finally back to our car which completed the lollipop portion.

Upper Millcreek Canyon is closed (gated) to vehicle traffic (unless you own a cabin there) until July 1st, so that means if you want to summit Mount Aire or use any of the trails above the gate, one must park at the Maple Grove Picnic Area and walk approximately 1.5 miles up the road to reach the official trailhead at Elbow Fork.

Wildflowers and blooming shrubs were out in force again this week along our entire route. The pictures that I took in the early morning light didn't turn out very well, so it you shake your head a bit, or blink repeatedly, they just might be in focus for you. Sorry about that.

The hike we did is just a smidgeon over 8.5 miles, but unlike our last ridge hike from Grandeur to Church Fork, this one had a lot more bushwhacking through scrub oak and snowbrush ceanothus to contend with. Even though this hike was 2 miles shorter than the one two weeks ago, if took us almost the same amount of time to complete.

Here's some shots of our hike.

Route overview map

Where we parked

Red Osier Dogwood

Thimbleberry

Millcreek

Arrived at the official trailhead

Wild Strawberries - remember to shake your heads and blink your eyes

Hookedspur Violets - Shake and blink!

Heartleaf Arnica - still shaking and blinking?

Watching for the ever elusive bull moose, on the Mount Aire Trail

Norther Black Currant

Bluebells - Whole lot of shaking going on! -
Come over baby whole lot of shakin' goin' on
Yes, I said come over baby baby you can't go wrong
We ain't fakin'
Whole lot of shakin' goin' on

Twinberry Honeysuckle

Chokecherry

A group of Solomon's Seal

Bonneville Pea

Mount Aire Trail

Common Snowberry

Looking up at Mount Aire from the pass

Millcreek Ridge towards Upper Burch Hollow

View of Gobblers knob and Mount Raymond from the pass

Lupine beginning to bloom

Sticky Geranium

Wasatch Beardtongue

Some Arrowleaf Balsamroot still doing well at 8200 feet

Scarlet Gilia (Skyrocket)

More beardtoungue

Sheila, making her way up from the pass

Western end of the Millcreek Ridge with Grandeur Peak the west bookend

Sheila,, on the summit of Mount Aire with Broads Fork Twin Peaks along the Cottonwood Ridge in the far distance

Deer leg on summit of Mount Aire

Daisy

A look to the east along the Millcreek Ridgeline and unnamed peak 8490

Caterpillar nest

Utah Serviceberry on the ridgeline

Lots of scrub oak to contend with on this section of the ridge

Small bump along the ridge

Looking south, down Elbow Fork from the ridgeline

Are we making any headway? Unnamed Peak 8490, with Millvue Peak in the distance

Hawksbeard

Almost to the final push to Peak 8490

Scatman down! @Rockskipper, I need some advice on how to keep on my feet. Don't hold back now, give it to me straight.
Nothing like scrub oak up your kilt to make your day.

Sheila, working her way across the ridge, with Mount Aire behind her

Alexander Basin across the way

Looking down on Peak 8319

Swallowtail

Horned Lizard once again

The only paintbrush that we saw on our entire hike

Creature from the Black Lagoon. A second horned lizard that we ran into along the ridge.

On Peak 8319

Bushwhacking heaven as we were coming off Peak 8319

Pass full of Mule Ears

A look back up and to the west of Peak 8490 and Mount Aire beyond

Millvue Peak ahead

Nearing the end of the bushwhacking on our way to the Lamb's Canyon Trail

Black Bear scat

Lots of aspen groves in this area

Stickseed, back on the Lamb's Canyon Trail

Mountain Ash

Snowbrush Ceanothus - nice to walk by instead of going trough as we did on the ridgeline

Cinquefoil

Western Valerian?

Purple Clematis

More clematis

Western Wallflower

The Lamb's Canyon Trail and a portion of the Mount Aire Trail are part of the Great Western Trail

Back to Millcreek

On the road again
Just can't wait to get on the road again
The life I love is hiking with my friends
And I can't wait to get on the road again
On the road again
Goin' places that I've never been
Seein' things that I may never see again
And I can't wait to get on the road again

End of the Lollipop Loop. The gated road up Millcreek Canyon - I forgot to take a picture of this earlier in the day.


The End.

 

[regehr]

love it!
but hey-- a friend and I were right nearby yesterday. we had wanted to hike up Alexander Basin but forgot the road isn't open yet. so we parked at the locked gate and hiked up Bowman Fork to Baker Pass and then Gobblers Knob, then down to Alexander Basin and back to Bowman Fork using that weird little connector trail from Alexander Basin. so there's every chance either you're in a picture I took yesterday (as maybe 1 pixel) or else I'm in one of yours, at same scale!

 

[scatman]

love it!
but hey-- a friend and I were right nearby yesterday. we had wanted to hike up Alexander Basin but forgot the road isn't open yet. so we parked at the locked gate and hiked up Bowman Fork to Baker Pass and then Gobblers Knob, then down to Alexander Basin and back to Bowman Fork using that weird little connector trail from Alexander Basin. so there's every chance either you're in a picture I took yesterday (as maybe 1 pixel) or else I'm in one of yours, at same scale!

Did you see me waving to you across the canyon? I'm thinking about doing Bowman Fork up to Mount Raymond this Saturday. I really enjoy Bowman Fork, it's such a pretty hike. How was the snow coming of Gobblers down into Alexander Basin before hitting the connector trail?

 

[Rockskipper]

Scatman down! @Rockskipper, I need some advice on how to keep on my feet. Don't hold back now, give it to me straight.

OK, but you have to really focus on this one, Scatster. No messing around with bicycle hats or trying on bog boots while we're doing this, and no Polygamy Porter or Evolution Ale.

First, it helps to understand Newton’s law of universal gravitation, which says that the gravitational force between two objects is proportional to the mass of each, and inversely proportional to the distance between them. It is usually written like this (G is the gravitational constant):

F = Gm1m2/r2

Another, common gravity formula is the acceleration due to the gravity of the Earth on a mass. This is, by convention, written as g, and is easily derived from the gravity formula above (M is the mass of the Earth, and r its radius):

g = GM/r2

So, what this really means and what you HAVE to understand, is the concept of gravitational torsion flux, which is what happens while you're falling.

F=Gm1m2r2 / height of Buckaroo Bonzai X the fluxinator constant / root ball mass X shoe-sole friction X mass of your pack squared

If you understand gravity, the above formula will reveal itself to you, if not, it will appear in an off-color font. Now, the off-color part is important, because if you cuss gravity, it will always, and I mean ALWAYS get you back, so you have to be respectful.

Glad to have helped.

 

[regehr]

Did you see me waving to you across the canyon? I'm thinking about doing Bowman Fork up to Mount Raymond this Saturday. I really enjoy Bowman Fork, it's such a pretty hike. How was the snow coming of Gobblers down into Alexander Basin before hitting the connector trail?

yeah I had been a bit worried about that snow so we brought axes, and in fact we walked on intermittent snow for maybe 15-20 minutes, but it wasn't on the steepest parts so we never actually used the axes.
and then that connector trail is disconcertingly uphill from the Alexander Basin side, argh!
but yeah that whole area is just so pretty -- feeling kind of silly that I hadn't hiked it for several years.

 

[scatman]

That's what I'm talking about @Rockskipper. Hold no punches. You're like an Ali jab or a Frazier left hook. You know it's coming, but there is nothing you can do about it except take the pain and try and stay off the canvas.

Um, I lost you at OK. You know a lout like the Scatster has difficulty focusing. Thinking to myself, "Where can I get a pair of bog boots?" And you know I'm worthless without a cycling cap on me noggin. Gravity shmavity I say.

Now at this point @Rockskipper, you'll want to put on some Willie Nelson for some background music - Waylon Jennings might do in a pinch - and take what I'm about to tell you all in.

You know, I know this not so famous scientist whose name is Fig Newton. That's Dr. Fig Newton to you. I can call him Fig, because he lets his friends call him Fig. He studied at the world renowned Nabisco University, and while there, he did extensive research on the perils of ridge hiking and his universal law for staying afoot is in the glutes. That's right, the glutes.

Any physicist worth his/her salt knows the following:

TF = (WC X Age)/r*2

Where
TF = Tuchus Factor
WC = Wobble Coefficeint
r = radius of said behind

WC is directly proportional to the amount of Polygamy Porter or Terminator Stout one has consumed. Lighter ales or lagers will not do! Childs play I say!

Obviously the higher the TF value, the more apt one is to land on ones derrière while ridge hiking.

While I have calculated my TF, I shall not reveal it on this forum for the shameful consequences I will certainly have to endure.

So there you have it, two competing laws on the art of falling along a ridge, which will survive the scientific rigor, only time will tell. So if you want to stay on your feet, drink less porters and stouts, be one of the younger generation, and having a smaller radius of ones backside should do the trick.

 

[Rockskipper]

Scatstermeister, I hate to tell you, but you're confusing what the TF factor is for - it's for winter tobogganing, though it possibly does figure into gravitational pull. Even though the two are eventually mathematically equivalent, they depend on the season.

"Do not keep saying to yourself, if you can possibly avoid it, 'But how can it be like that?' because you will get 'down the drain,' into a blind alley from which nobody has yet escaped. Nobody knows how it can be like that." —Richard Feynman

"At a certain point, it's probably best to just git yerself into town and get a new pair of boots." —Biscuit McGee

 

[scatman]

Scatstermeister, I hate to tell you, but you're confusing what the TF factor is for - it's for winter tobogganing, though it possibly does figure into gravitational pull. Even though the two are eventually mathematically equivalent, they depend on the season.

"Do not keep saying to yourself, if you can possibly avoid it, 'But how can it be like that?' because you will get 'down the drain,' into a blind alley from which nobody has yet escaped. Nobody knows how it can be like that." —Richard Feynman

"At a certain point, it's probably best to just git yerself into town and get a new pair of boots." —Biscuit McGee

Sound advice from Biscuit.

A seasonal approach for TF. Interesting. So if I were making the ridge walk in winter, I wouldn't have fallen? And would that be with or without the toboggan? What about a fall in the fall?

I forgot to mention in my previous reply (told you I had focusing issues), that I saw Buckaroo Banzai when I was a sophomore at Utah State. They had a small auditorium in the student center where they would show movies every week. I wonder if that small theatre/auditorium is still there? Your mentioning of Buckaroo brought back a flood of memories. I hadn't thought about The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai across the 8th Dimension in decades.

​

 

[kwc]

Sound advice from Biscuit.

A seasonal approach for TF. Interesting. So if I were making the ridge walk in winter, I wouldn't have fallen? And would that be with or without the toboggan? What about a fall in the fall?

I see a flaw in your formula and subsequent calculations as you are not factoring the effect of the kilt. There is the high likelihood of wind turbulence underneath said kilt which can obviously create an imbalance for the kilt wearer. Since a kilt is usually not worn in winter (I know I’m going out on a limb making this assumption) this would not be a factor during the winter months.

 

[Rockskipper]

Ah, the kilt, the kilt (cue Quasimodo)...

 

[scatman]

I see a flaw in your formula and subsequent calculations as you are not factoring the effect of the kilt. There is the high likelihood of wind turbulence underneath said kilt which can obviously create an imbalance for the kilt wearer. Since a kilt is usually not worn in winter (I know I’m going out on a limb making this assumption) this would not be a factor during the winter months.

My formula, or Dr. Fig Newton's formula? My formula is that Sheila pushed me down the hill!

Okay, so we have gravity, glutes and now the wind as possible causes. I believe that @Rockskipper needs to come up with a universal theory that takes into account all of the potential factors involved. I don't want the theory to be brought together with dark matter or quarks either. If you introduce any quantum physics, then I just might have to change bicycle caps.

 

[Rockskipper]

When you get into anything that requires a knowledge of things like higher-order math, I'm out - anything over 10, though sometimes I can go to 20 if I'm not wearing shoes.