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View Full Version : Trip Report Mount Cardwell - TR



Mtnman1830
11-15-2007, 05:41 AM
Myself and a buddy took off to bag the highest peak in Wasatch County.

After dropping the kids off at school, we met at a park and ride in Mountain Green. It had rained the day before in the Ogden area, and we were hoping for some snow to play in.

We made good time, with a bit of clouds near Evanston. When we made it to the Mirror Lake Highway, the skies were blue and the snow was, well, almost there.

http://a167.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/49/l_27304069b532d8778ee0005d0556e66e.jpg

Being mid November, it is evident that something is going on. As a kid I remember snow on the ground on Halloween - Here we are over 10,000' and the snow is this sparse? Could it be Global Warming, or we still coming out of an ice age?

Anyway, back on track. We parked near milepost 28. From this turnout, the peak is 1.3 miles away. We did end up using snowshoes for the first part, but gave up on it before too long.

http://a735.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/61/l_59665687c98d6e476cd5d20d99d92cd6.jpg

When you are about 1/2 mile into the hike, you hit the talus field. I was glad we had a bit of snow to make travel easier, but every now and then we would break thru the snow and end up in a hole up to our knee. (Going was slow thru there, we didn't want to twist a knee. We both said we would leave the other)

http://a143.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/8/l_b43257bec746a3283091db5913e37866.jpg

http://a566.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/57/l_092b3cdef896f6cac00899020177e4c5.jpg

Anyway, we made it to the peak with out a problem and easily found the geocaches that are on top. We hiked back down to the truck, making good time (the snow was melting pretty fast, too) and found a few caches on the way home and made it in time to get the kids from school.

http://a605.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/40/l_ca5a6431edcc65fc03a98916197c338c.jpg

Udink
11-15-2007, 07:40 AM
Nice TR. :2thumbs: Did you get the high "point" as well as the peak?

Cardwell was the first Utah high point I ever hiked to (I had driven to Monument the week before), and it was in early October. The boulder field between the high point and the high peak seemed pretty treacherous--I couldn't imagine doing it with snow on the ground. :eek2:

accadacca
11-15-2007, 11:16 AM
Awesome! How many of the 29 have you bagged? And how many just this year?

Mtnman1830
11-15-2007, 02:47 PM
Awesome! How many of the 29 have you bagged? And how many just this year?

I am now half way done. There are 26 of them (three share the same peak) This year, I have done
Thurston Peak (Davis and Morgan)
Bridger Peak (Rich County)
Naomi Peak (Cache County)
Ibapah Peak (Juab County)
Brian Head (Iron County)
Bluebell Knoll ( Wayne County)
Fish Lake Hightop (Seiver County)
Monument Peak (Carbon County)
Mount Cardwell (Wasatch County)




Nice TR. Did you get the high "point" as well as the peak?


Yeah, I am more into peak bagging, though. We got the highpoint of Kane County as well.

Next year should see me finishing up with the highest peaks. Then I guess I will chase the prominent peaks.

James_B_Wads2000
07-15-2008, 04:21 PM
Thanks for the TR Mtnman1830, I have added it to the Utah High Pointing Index (http://uutah.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=14340). Cardwell is a great little hike but once you have done Kings you pretty much have seen the diversity of the Unitas and all the other peaks are very similar just smaller.

Sorry I am a little slow to get to some of these.

James