Sid's Mountain Invite

[Udink]

I'm planning a hike to Sid's Mountain on March 3rd. If anyone here is interested, you're more than welcome to come along. It'll be a long slog (about 13 miles), but it's in a wilderness study area and the place is absolutely beautiful. There are more details here (http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=GC107FV), and you can PM me for any additional info.

[tanya]

I'm planning a hike to Sid's Mountain on March 3rd. If anyone here is interested, you're more than welcome to come along. It'll be a long slog (about 13 miles), but it's in a wilderness study area and the place is absolutely beautiful. There are more details here (http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=GC107FV), and you can PM me for any additional info.


Where is Sid's Mountain?

[Udink]

Where is Sid's Mountain?
It's in the northern part of the San Rafael Swell. If you've ever stood at the Wedge Overlook, you can see Sid's Mountain from there to the southwest. It's surrounded on all sides by huge cliffs, and there are only a couple of ways to get up on top. This map should give you a good idea where it is in relation to a couple of more well-known places:

[R]

I can't make it because I live 18 hours away, but let me be the first to say that I've had my eye on that spot for years, and how jealous I am. I know you'll have a great time. :nod:

[Scout Master]

Bump
I am going to try and make this one.
Come on everyone Lets go Hiking.
http://img.groundspeak.com/cache/8cf5c300-ed94-46fc-905e-ef4e8210f137.jpg

[Udink]

I am going to try and make this one.
Awesome, I hope you can make it! :nod: Counting you and AD0OR who is still tentative, that makes 10 people so far who have expressed an interest in going. I think Shaker still wants to go, and I might have to get ahold of him to find out 'cause I haven't heard from him since the Swell in October.

[Udink]

Update 2/17/2007

I've already had two people from UUtah say that they're coming, so here's an update.

I drove to the trailhead today to check out the condition of the road. You can get to within about four miles (as the crow flies) of the trailhead in just about any vehicle, but after that you need a high-clearance 2WD vehicle to get the rest of the way. Any SUV or truck should be able to handle the last part of the road, but the going will be a little slow.

Here is a GPX file (http://www.udink.org/sids_mtn/sids_mtn.gpx) containing some waypoints for the trip. You'll have to right-click that link and choose the "Save as" option in order to download the file. The "Turn" waypoints will lead you from Ferron to the trailhead. Just follow the waypoints (Turn 1 through Turn 4) in order and you should easily be able to find the trailhead, which is called "Park." "Turn 3" is the waypoint at which the road gets rough, so anybody driving a car should stop there and carpool the rest of the way.

There is a little bit of water in the bottom of North Salt Wash, which we'll have to cross on the way to Sid's Mountain. It shouldn't be a problem, and at worst we can throw some rocks out in the water to use as stepping stones, but I thought you should be aware of the possibility. In all likelihood, we'll be able to simply hop over the water without getting wet.

I had good reception on my cell phone at the trailhead, so if you run into any delays or need directions or other help, you can call me at (435) 650-0839.

Also, unless I hear otherwise from anybody, I'll plan on meeting everyone at the trailhead. If you'd like to hitch a ride there, or at least follow the rest of the group down, post a note here and we'll make arrangements to meet up.

Here are some pictures from today:

The trailhead
Nothing spectacular, but the view south from here is!
http://img.geocaching.com/cache/log/ad24fbcb-8ffa-4f11-8278-bbabf01cdc3e.jpg

The hike down into North Salt Wash
http://img.geocaching.com/cache/log/f9d95fda-94cc-435f-8123-362bcceeb094.jpg

The hike up onto Sid's Mountain (http://img.geocaching.com/cache/log/0d9c7848-8dec-4a74-b20d-5fc9a858e8f6.jpg)
I'll just hyperlink this one since it's a wide panorama. After hiking down into the bottom of North Salt Wash, we'll hike up the ridge beginning at the bottom of the cliff in the far-left of the photo near the sharp bend in the wash. This short (1/2 mile) ridge will be the steepest part of the hike, and after that it's relatively flat all the way to the benchmark.

[Udink]

Weather Update 2/26/2007

The weather forecast for Ferron (the nearest town) currently calls for a chance of snow (about 20%-30%) on Wednesday and possibly Thursday. I'm hopeful that it won't snow, or at least not too much. My plan is to drive out near the trailhead on Wednesday as soon as I get off work (around 3:00pm) to check out the road conditions. If the roads are good enough on Wednesday afternoon and there's little or no chance of snow Thursday through Saturday, we'll go ahead with the hike. I'll post an update here either way so that everyone knows what's going on.

[Udink]

Let's do this thing! I drove my Taurus to within 3.3 miles of the trailhead this afternoon and the roads were great. Everything is perfectly dry, and the chance of snow is very slim for the next day. Saturday should be partly cloudy with highs in the upper-40s, so it should be pretty decent weather. See you all there! :D

Eight miles from the trailhead:
http://img.geocaching.com/cache/log/52f33fdc-63a8-4607-b00d-14d7659df76c.jpg

Four miles from the trailhead:
http://img.geocaching.com/cache/log/dc9080c3-3d6f-43b2-a2cd-6197a80347f3.jpg

[Scout Master]

Here you go

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkr2AdzQbAc

[Scout Master]

I guess I should wait a while before posting new video's

[Udink]

Thanks for the video Scout Master! :smile: The hike was awesome, I'll probably write up a trip report and post some pictures in a day or two. I've just barely gotten around to getting online and logging the geocaches we found and catching up on my Uutah.com reading. :2thumbs:

[AD0OR]

Sorry I missed it, I hope you do it again :nod:

[Udink]

Sorry I missed it, I hope you do it again :nod:
I'd like to do it again someday soon. Now that Google Earth has updated their aerial photos for Utah, I think I've been able to find the "Boy Scout Trail" up onto Sid's Mountain from the southeast side, which would cut about 3 miles off the round-trip hike to DeViDe's $100 cache.

I'd like to do it as an overnighter, camping near the cabin and doing some exploring during the day. We saw a couple of nice Indian sites with lots of chipped flint and arrowheads, and a good amount of petroglyphs. I'm sure there's a lot more up there to be found.