June 4th

Was Dad’s birthday and it seems that everyone had their own idea on how to celebrate the day. In our area one of the great volunteer organizations is called the Trails Foundation of Northern Utah and they do an amazing job maintaining trails and educating the public in our area. Last year they started a Peak Challenge where you have five months to climb four prominent peaks in the area. I decided to join this year and the challenge started on June 1st. I thought to myself, “Why don’t I do the four peaks in fours days and end on Dad’s Birthday?” Seemed fitting so I signed up. I brought along Ron, the Jackalope. Joel climbed Lewis Peak with me but opted out for the others.

June 1 – Peak # 1 – Malan’s Peak – elev. 6,980′ , 6 miles, and 2,241′ ft’ elevation gain

June 2 – Peak # 2 – Lewis Peak – elev. 8031′ , 10.9 miles, and 2,,822′ ft’ elevation gain

Baby rubber boa doing everything right … curl in a ball, hide/protect the head and poop. He was on the trail and I heard motorbikes coming up the trail so moved him into the bushes.
A few snow traverses, but not bad.
Looking out with Ben Lomond in the background.
Tomorrow’s objective, Mt. Ogden in the distance.

June 3 – Peak # 3 – Mt. Ogden – elev. 9,579′ , 12.8 miles, and 4,777′ ft’ elevation gain

Beautiful waterfalls and flowers for the first two miles of the hike.
The weather forecast didn’t call for rain until the afternoon – I beg to differ! Spend hardly any time on the summit and it was so cloudy and overcast that there were no real photo ops!
Four snow traverses to get to the summit ridge – this was the most challenging – looking up. Once you got to the rocks you then turned right and got on top of the ridge to the summit a couple miles away.
And looking down.
Longhorn Steer’s Head Flower – probably one of the most bizarre flowers I have ever seen. I had to do a double-take when I first saw it as it looked like a skull. Only one flower like this on the entire trail today … WEIRD!
When I got back to the car, 1/2 of the parking lot was blocked off for some tree trimming in the area.

June 4 – Peak # 4 – Ben Lomond – elev. 9,716′ , 13.5 miles, and 2,936′ ft’ elevation gain

I got up early, excited to be able to finish the 4-Peak Challenge in 4 days, on Dad’s Birthday. After a great mountaineering breakfast of coffee, PopTarts and a banana, I was up to the trailhead. Well, as Dad and Mom used to say, “Discretion is the Better Part of Valor…” I got up to the saddle after four hours of hiking, looked and tested the snow conditions of the next 1,000′ and decided “Not Today!” The snow is melting very fast and it took me longer than I thought to get to the saddle so I didn’t feel comfortable. Although people had been up the day before, I decided it was not a good idea for me, especially climbing alone. So I headed down and enjoyed the rest of the day!

From the North Skyline Trail on Ben Lomond, Mt. Ogden on the left and Lewis Peak on the right.
After four+ miles, you finally get to see the summit of Ben Lomond. The “winter” route follows the snow ridge on the right hand side up to the summit.
Perfect day with views over North Ogden, Ogden, Willard Bay and part of the Great Salt Lake.
Near the top of the ridge on the way down, I was going to sit on a rock and have a snack. I then discovered that there was an anthill around the chosen rock so I turned around and almost sat on this other rock – ARGHHHH

All in all a great four days. Not too terribly disappointed that I didn’t make #4 – lots of time left until the deadline in October. Figured Dad would appreciate the ability to assess the situation safely! Plus, great training for my upcoming climb on Mt Olympus, hiking part of the Wonderland Trail (understand that Larina and Bob bailed on that adventure!) and Ecuador Volcanoes in January.

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