The Dude Abides - The Dude Benchmark - January 30, 2022

scatman

Member
.
Joined
Dec 23, 2013
Messages
3,629
I heard on the radio Sunday morning that this was the 5th driest January in Salt Lake since records have been kept. This is probably why I've been able to hike every weekend this winter so far. Yesterday's hike was to the Dude Benchmark with sits about 5.5 miles from the Ensign Peak Trailhead along the north ridge of City Creek Canyon. We've had another high pressure move in, so once again we have an inversion in the valley, and Sheila and I were hoping to get above it along the ridge.

The route is pretty straight forward: once on the ridge, just follow the old Jeep road to just below the summit of Dude Benchmark, and then take the trail to the summit. Now while the route is simple enough, the ridgeline has many hills along it, which makes for a up and down kind of hike. Once we reached the communication Towers on City Creek Benchmark, the road/trail was snow covered, and on the north side of the hills we encountered some deeper snow. We took our microspikes, but we never used them. The trail was frozen most of the way up, but softened up on our way down.

Now I had played two hours of basketball on Saturday, so I was pretty sore on this 11 mile jaunt, and was even sorer by the time we finished. :moses:

01.jpg
Ensign Peak

02.jpg
Looking back on Ensign

03.jpg
Enjoying the flat spot while it lasts

04.jpg
We are heading towards the communication towers above to left

05.jpg
View up City Creek Canyon, where the haze has made its way up the canyon. The Dude Benchmark is at the upper left with just a
touch of snow at the summit. From there (L-R) are Burro Peak, Lookout Peak, and the Black Mountain Ridge which forms some
of the southern ridge of City Creek Canyon

06.jpg
After the towers, the trail was snow packed for the most part. Lookout Peak at the head of the canyon above my head

07.jpg
The Wasatch Front above Woods Cross, Bountiful and Farmington comes into view

08.jpg
See the guy sitting there? Maybe looking out over the canyon? Keep him in mind.

09.jpg
More Wasatch views

10.jpg
Black Mountain Ridge

11.jpg
Snow covered road, but melted along it at this point

12.jpg
Dude Benchmark. We are still a couple of hours from reaching its summit

13.jpg
Unnamed ridge that runs towards North Salt Lake

14.jpg
Time for a fig newton. :thumbsup: Dude Benchmark above.

15.jpg
Beginning our climb up the Dude.

16.jpg
Looking back the way we had come

17.jpg
Sheila, making the curve coming up the mountain.

18.jpg
The Sessions Mountains

19.jpg
View down into City Creek

20.jpg
Moose on the loose! The cow was on the ridge east of the Dude

21.jpg
Moose. We watched her while we ate our lunches.

22.jpg
More moose

23.jpg
Burro Peak

23b.jpg
Grapefruit and the Sessions Mountains. My last week to purchase grapefruits.

24.jpg
Literally on the Dude Benchmark

25.jpg
The Dude Benchmark

26.jpg
Summit shot

27.jpg
Moose track on our way down

28.jpg
Oak and snow

29.jpg
Remember that guy sitting and looking out over City Creek? We'll he had to be Life Flighted off the ridge.

30.jpg
Life Flight coming in

32.jpg
Life Flight

33.jpg
Landed

34.jpg
The south ridge of City Creek Canyon

35.jpg
Life Flight taking the patient to the hospital

36.jpg
The last snow of the hike

37.jpg
Back to Ensign and the haze.

38.jpg
On our way home we stopped at Katmandu for some Indian food. We enjoyed some Baigan Bharta with some garlic naan.
When we left the restaurant, Sheila had to help me up out of the booth. :moses:

And now on this last day of January, here are some facts that may interest only me: :)

1. We have gained 49 minutes and 13 seconds of daylight since December 21st.
2. We are gaining more that two minutes of daylight per day now.
3. This Thursday, the average daily temperature will reach 40 degrees here in SLC.
4. By mid-February, the sun angle will be high enough to begin breaking up these inversion cycles that settle in when we don't get storm fronts that move through the region.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is that old man winter is beginning to loosen his grip - at least here in Salt Lake.


The End.
 

Attachments

  • 12.jpg
    12.jpg
    139.5 KB · Views: 3
Last edited:
yay, this is one of my wintertime favorites. have you continued on to Rudy's Flat from Dude? it's a very nice walk but fairly upsy-downsy and the snow can be pretty onerous (wouldn't have been yesterday!)

do you know what happened to lifeflight guy? is he ok?
 
scary, hope the guy is ok.

You have been super active this winter @scatman . Great photos of the infamous SLC inversion. And is that you smiling (!) next to Sheila?

also I was -- yet again -- photobombing y'all yesterday, I was off-trail on the north side of City Creek's south side. sorry to ruin your pics
@regehr - you can make up for it by posting your photos of @scatman and Sheila photobombing your pics….
 
@scatman why was this the last week for grapefruit? Do the stores in SLC stop selling them after January 31st?

And good choice on the fig newtons! On this we can heartily agree.

Nice moose sighting, Jackie is very jealous. Although we did see a bald eagle today which made her day.
 
WOW- love the photos! Great TR @TractorDoc

Thanks.

yay, this is one of my wintertime favorites. have you continued on to Rudy's Flat from Dude? it's a very nice walk but fairly upsy-downsy and the snow can be pretty onerous (wouldn't have been yesterday!)

do you know what happened to lifeflight guy? is he ok?

As we were hiking by them, he was wrapped in an emergency blanket, and I heard them call him Tom. They then said that they were going to have Life Flight dispatched to their location, and one of the rescuers said that he had been up there for two days. I'm guessing that he will be alright. We continued on down the trail, and stopped when the helicopter arrived.

I felt kind of bad that I hadn't gone over to him when we hiked by in the morning. We could have got help to him about seven hours earlier if I had. Normally, I head over that way to get a nice shot up City Creek Canyon, but this time I decided not to. :(

also I was -- yet again -- photobombing y'all yesterday, I was off-trail on the north side of City Creek's south side. sorry to ruin your pics

No problem. You add character to my shots. :D You do know that one day we will meet up on one of these ridges? :thumbsup:

scary, hope the guy is ok.

You have been super active this winter @scatman . Great photos of the infamous SLC inversion. And is that you smiling (!) next to Sheila?


@regehr - you can make up for it by posting your photos of @scatman and Sheila photobombing your pics….

I think he will be.

It can't be because I don't smile. :scatman: Perhaps Sheila has found a kinder and gentler Scatman. :)


kilt must have been at the cleaners???:)

Still a bit cold for me to don the kilt. It was 22 at the trailhead. I'm not sure what it was at the Dude though because I forgot to transfer my thermometer to the bigger day pack that I took. It felt like it was in the upper thirties at the top.

@scatman why was this the last week for grapefruit? Do the stores in SLC stop selling them after January 31st?

And good choice on the fig newtons! On this we can heartily agree.

Nice moose sighting, Jackie is very jealous. Although we did see a bald eagle today which made her day.

A bald eagle is always a good sighting.

I told this story a couple of trip reports ago. My uncle from Florida used to bring us up a big box of in season Florida grapefruits around Christmas time when I was kid back in North Carolina. The box would last us through January usually, so I stick to the same time frame now. I'm peculiar that way. I do the same with peaches. I only purchase peaches from the farmers market August through September and I eat one with my breakfast every morning. I just love a fresh peach. :heart_eyes:
 
Scatman, Love these trip reports from you on your hiking. Gosh, what haziness is there in the Salt Lake area right now. Yes spring is coming and the days are getting longer.
 
As a Utah person, I appreciated those latter facts. Never knew there was a Dude above SLC you could stand on top of. That'd be fun. Hope all turned out well for the other dude that had to be flown off.
 
yay, this is one of my wintertime favorites. have you continued on to Rudy's Flat from Dude? it's a very nice walk but fairly upsy-downsy and the snow can be pretty onerous (wouldn't have been yesterday!)

do you know what happened to lifeflight guy? is he ok?

I forgot to respond to this earlier. I have been to Rudy Flats once when I attempted to reach Grandview Peak from the Ensign Trailhead back in May of 2020. A spring snow storm turned me back on the ridge just short of Grandview that day. :( I wasn't dressed for it. Twenty miles with nothing to show for it. That still kind of sticks in my craw. I was worn out after that attempt. Maybe if I leave at 4:00 am, and the conditions are perfect, I might give it another attempt this coming May. You in? :D
 
Scatman, Love these trip reports from you on your hiking. Gosh, what haziness is there in the Salt Lake area right now. Yes spring is coming and the days are getting longer.

We got about an inch of snow here overnight, so the inversion has cleared out this morning.
 
@scatman I assume there was no need whatsoever for snowshoes up there? thinking about maybe heading to dude tomorrow
 
So did you do the marathon mountain thing today?
 
So did you do the marathon mountain thing today?

No, I played basketball for two hours and fifteen minutes yesterday morning, and then that afternoon donated a pint of blood. So I did a nice easy hike this morning - about three miles roundtrip. See The Members of BCP for images.
 
Last edited:
Similar threads
Thread starter Title Forum Replies Date
regehr Dude Where's My Arch Hiking & Camping 8
Seldom Seen Anderson Dude, You're Screwed Utah Episode General Discussion 27

Similar threads

Back
Top