The Lakeside Range - April 22, 2018

[scatman]

Every now and then the Wasatch Mountain Club has a hike on their event calendar that tickles my fancy and I will tag along with them for a day of hiking. Today, they were attempting to reach Peak 6551, second tallest, in the Lakeside Range which is located just west of the Great Salt Lake. The route to 6551 was off-trail up Vindicator Canyon which has a couple of old mine shafts that we will pass. Unfortunately, as we arrived at the beginning of the trail, one of the drivers who shuttled us to the trail, punched a hole in her oil pan and lost all of her motor oil. At this point, we had to use a tow strap and tow her back to pavement so that she could get AAA to come tow her. This cost us two hours of hiking time, and since people had to get back to Salt Lake before 6:00 pm, we did not summit. It was still perfect weather (maybe a little hot) for a hike with a good group of people.


View to the west from the beginning of our hike


Unnamed peak to the north of our route


Peak 6551 in the distance


Who the hell are these folks? Oh, that's right Wasatch Mountain Club members. A good group of hikers.


Craner Peak, which is the highest in the range


A fire at some point in the past had burned all the Juniper trees which made for heavy sun exposure the entire route


Another view to the north from Vindicator Canyon


Peak 5546


Peak 5927


A touch of red rock along our route


Some Mountain Mahogany in bloom


Old foundation at the first tungsten mine we passed


Sealed mining shaft


Wider view of shaft


View from the canyon


The Great Salt Lake and distant Wasatch Front coming into view


Looking northeast from the ridgeline


Peak 6551 - our hopeful destination


A look south at Craner Peak


Stansbury Island to the east.


Ben Lomond and Mount Ogden in the distance - distant left of image


A quick lunch before heading back. The lady second from the left is the third oldest female to climb Mount Everest! :twothumbs:


The guy in this shot is the 1st 53 year old not to summit Peak 6551!


The Cedar Range to the southwest


Can you make out the Gopher Snake we saw on our way down?

 

[regehr]

Looks like a fun day. Unless there's an earthquake Peak 6551 will still be there later. It could even be a little higher next time.

 

[Vegan.Hiker]

Still looks like a beautiful day to be out despite cutting it short. Are there any remains of old roads that go to those mining shafts?

 

[scatman]

Still looks like a beautiful day to be out despite cutting it short. Are there any remains of old roads that go to those mining shafts?

Good question. At the shaft itself there was an old track bed for ore cars. Donn, who led our hike and likes to poke around in the Lakesides, said there were remnants of the bed further up at another shaft which he called the Vindicator Mine. Unfortunately, we took a right along the canyon to head towards Peak 6551 instead of left towards the other shaft and Craner Peak. Did the track only run between the shafts? I'm not up on my historic mining operations and do not know if this is a likely scenario. On our way down, I could not see evidence of this track bed in Vindicator Canyon below the first mine shaft. Perhaps it contoured around the ridge and ran out in the canyon to the south of Vindicator. I should have been more inquisitive.


The old track bed can be seen in the lower part of the image below the tailings. I'm almost standing on it for the picture


Map of our hike - Peak 6551 is labeled as Black Mountain

 

[Vegan.Hiker]

Very interesting. I was curious about the road because there is a mine in Harriman State Park called Boston Mine that I’ve hiked to and I’ve always found it interesting how what used to be a road used by workers had been restored by time and nature to just a faint hiking trail.