Notch Peak Day Trip

After much debate I will not be going with my friends canyoneering this weekend. Family commitments, no money, no skills, blah blah blah.

But I did manage to free up Sunday for a day trip. I am planning on doing Notch Peak way out in the west desert of Utah. I am planning on doing a different route instead of the "classic" route up the South Fork of Sawtooth Canyon. It involves an additional one hour 4X4 drive up to ~9,000ft to Pine Peak on the summit ridge just north of Notch. Then bushwhacking around four minor peaks and up to the summit. I have only scouted out about 1/4 of this route and it had a lot of bushwhacking and a couple spots of third class scrambling to do and a sh** load of great views off a 2,000ft vertical clifface.

So here is the invite to all who is interested, I will probably have a spot open in my truck or if you have one of your own you could follow.

JBW

I would really like to go. But I cant go that day? :frustrated: Be sure to take some photos and share. I would like to do that hike this summer. A different route might be a good challenge. Let us know how you do in the trees. :flag:

Didn't make it out due to lack of responce and bad weather. I have pushed it back to next Sunday(weather permitting) if anyone is intrested. I have done all the leg-work for this route, it looks awesome can't wait to go out and do it.

JBW

Man, I wish I could go, but I don't think I can. Take some pictures though, and show us how it went. I'd like to check it out someday.

Have a safe trip.

Well I went this time and it was a hard one. More details and pics to follow but the short version go like this:

This route is too long for a day-trip starting and ending from Salt Lake. Maybe you could do half the drive and the hike in a day but even that is a BIG day.

As for us, it took just under five hours drive from Salt Lake to the trailhead in the upper Amasa Valley. Most time was lost do to extra poor road conditions in the valley due to higher than normal runoff. Though there was hardly any snow, the ground was still very wet in places and the streams were running higher than normal. About two hours in the hike my niece and I turned back because of all the bushwhacking and the extra distance we had to hike because the road was undrivable. My friend and my nephew made to the summit and back in just less than seven hours, but about 1-1.5 hrs was lost waiting for us not knowing we'd turned back (last time I ever hike without my two-way radios).

Driving out of the canyon I got stuck, epically stuck. After two hours the sun went down and we gave up digging. Luckily I was able to get cell phone reception and I called my wife who called my sister who called SAR. The found us a 3:30am and drove us down on there ATV's to the tow truck at the mouth of the canyon. There we waited until someone with a 4X4 with a winch was able to come out and winch my truck out, this happen at about 9:30am.

In the end everyone was ok (I had brought sleeping bags, MRE's and extra water). Truck took only minor damage to the skid plate in front of the front axle. My friend and I missed work Monday and we all were very tired.

JBW

Great story! Sounds like you had a few technical difficulties to say the least. Those are the trips that everyone remembers. I hope you have some pictures of your truck in the hole. I got my truck stuck on the beach at Bear Lake last year. Hell of a deal! :scared:

I had to get a tractor to come pull me out. It was freaking quick sand! You really just feel helpless in those kinds of situations. I cant wait to see any pictures that you guys have. :popcorn:

Ah yes...those are the epic ones. Even though it sucked at the time, you will always look back on that and laugh.

A good friend of mine still looks back and laughs about a time years ago when he got his jeep stuck in the Muddy Creek, and had to pay the tow truck driver from Green River a 200% "off-road" fee for towing him out. :haha:

That sucks, but thanks for the report.

I know this is an old thread but it caught my interest since Notch peak is on my agenda this spring. Your stories of getting stuck really bad brought back memories of my friend and I getting stuck in the mud of Idaho as we were trying to get the county highpoint of Gooding county. I've reproduced the story from the cohp.org trip report I posted there. Anyone interested in getting both Swasey and Notch this spring, pm or email me.

The stuck in the mud story:

Gooding County Highpoint Trip Report

Date: April 17, 2004
Authors: Dean Molen and Bob Bolton
Brian and Toni, whom we met at Lincoln County, had just been to Gooding that day. We asked them if the north approach would work, and they said there was snow. But then they told us how they had approached.

Just a couple of miles south of the junction to Lincoln County on SR46 is City of Rocks Road. Go west on that road, then turn right at a major intersection with a sign to Davis Mountain. Drive that road to a junction with another sign to Davis Mountain and turn right again. Follow this narrowing and worsening road to the saddle mentioned in the other reports, from which you hike west to the HP. Toward the end this road is not suitable for passenger cars even in the best of conditions. I must say that in bad conditions it is only suitable for the most radical 4WD vehicles. These conditions occur when there is water on the road, either from a recent rain or from snow melt.

On Friday afternoon it hadn't rained but there was a stream in the road from melting snow above. That was enough to turn a meadow area into what we later learned is called "Idaho gumbo". To put it mildly, the stuff is NASTY. We wound up axle deep with no hope of extricating ourselves. After calling 911 we decided to hike the 0.8 mile up to the HP and get that taken care of.

Then, after the sheriff called to say they couldn't help us but he'd contact a towing company, we got a call from a guy in Twin Falls who knows a community of hard core 4WDers in the area who can get rigs out of Idaho gumbo and would be eager to help. However, they weren't available until after a street rod show on Saturday. We set up camp, then tried to get some sleep in the overnight storm that rendered the entire area, not merely the road, into a sea of that horrible stuff, while also worsening the road, if that was possible. Happily we had pitched the tent on somewhat protective grass, but there was no avoiding that mud.

To make sure they could find us, we hiked over 11 miles down the road on Saturday, then hitchhiked to SR46 where our rescuer Jeff met us at about 7PM. He said he had everything needed in his little pickup and not knowing anything about such things, we were amazed with the technique he used to yank us out. There were enormous tires on that truck that essentially floated on the muck and actually had a little traction on the stuff. Using a tough and springy rope contraption that looked more like a fire hose, he backed up to our rig, then drove off as fast as the mud would let him move, throwing it everywhere except on us, his huge mud flaps doing an amazing job of preserving the visibility of our windshield. When that "bungy cord" went taut, all the stored energy from stretching it out simply sling-shot us out of the hole we were in. Two more of those pulls and we were on dry land. Then we turned around and he pulled us down the hill through the entire section of bottomless mud until it became steep enough for gravity to do the job.

We still had to descend a river of mud, rocks, suck holes (our term) in order to get his vehicle safely to the bottom. It wasn't ten minutes after we were safely out when the daylight was gone, we couldn't have done it in the dark. A never-to-be-forgotten adventure for the two of us, for sure.

Hello Dean and welcome to the site! I have read your trip reports before on summitpost and cohp.org.

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