Results 1 to 11 of 11

Thread: Lone Peak!

  1. #1

    Lone Peak!

    Hey guys, we are planning to hit Lone Peak over Labor day, spending the night on the mountain somewhere. -> likely in the meadow by the Outlaw Cabin...?

    We've hiked a few hours up the "Cherry Canyon trail" that leads east off of the BST before, and I think we'll continue that way up to the summit. I put Cherry canyon in quotes b/c I think it can also be called Bear Canyon Trail..? I found a great map on climb-utah.com so I have a basic idea of where we'll be going.

    Anyway, just wanted to throw this out there and see if anyone who's done it before has any good tips or advice.
    We plan to leave early Saturday and set up camp in the "meadow area". I guess we could either summit that night sans bags or do it in the morning and then hike all the way down afterword.

    I can't wait!

  2. # ADS
    Circuit advertisement
    Join Date
    Always
    Posts
    Many
     

  3. #2
    Trip report: kinda long!

    Well, we did it. What a fantastic experience. For our first Utah summit this was an awesome one!

    Four of us started at 7:30am Saturday 9/3 from the Corner Canyon trailhead in Draper. (Signed as Orson Smith trailhead)

    From here we hoofed it up to the benches to the BST, then headed up the Cherry Canyon (or Bear Canyon) trail. For the most part this trail is well maintained and is always easy to follow, but very steep. I mean steep. The first two miles are pretty unrelenting, and exposed to the sun (well, not for us at this time in the morning though), but the pitch does ease up a bit as you near the intersection of the Draper Ridge trail and head toward the spring. This is where the trail gets really beautiful, heading into stands of pine trees intersparsed with gigantic mounds of granite and tons of rocks begging to be climbed!

    I believe this trail is the longest of all four routes, but you are guaranteed fresh water at the year-round spring about 2/3 of the way up. We took a few short breaks and one quick rain delay on the way up and then stopped for water at the cold, refreshing spring. The views on the way up are spectacular since you are out on the open face of the mountain!

    Then from the spring, it's about another 3/4 mile of hellish steep up/down trail to the meadow area. The meadow is beautiful and there are plenty of nice camp spots, including the outlaw cabin. For a frame of reference, I believe it took us 5 hours to get to the cabin with full camping packs. Our mileage was 4.4 miles, with total elevation gain about 4400 feet.

    We set up camp and relaxed for a few hours after lunch, exploring the meadow and amusing ourselves with the treasures left in the cabin for the next weary travelers (peanut butter/jelly, tarp grommets, ramen noodles, hatchet and saw, skis, and a potbelly stove and misc. cookware)

    We set off from the cabin with daypacks about 2:30 and headed Northeast toward the cirque directly under Lone Peak. All the maps say it is self explanatory from this point on, but naturally we took the bass-ackwards way and added an extra 1/2 mile of difficult scrambling and a lot of vertical, but we ended up at the summit about 2 1/2 to 3 hours later.

    The actual summit of Lone Peak is a large flat boulder, at 11,253 ft. On the way there though is some pretty intimidating scrambling over and around huge boulders that look like they are just waiting for you to touch them so they can fall... The exposure was pretty scary at times and made you realize just how small you are in the grand scheme of things. Literally one slip on this stuff and you are gone. dead. Fortunately the granite is very sticky and abrasive so grip was not usually a problem. The last 1/4 mile of the ridge you climb to the top is a knife edge, with one side looking down to the upper Bell's Canyon resovoir and the other dropping into the cirque below the peak.

    However, when you finally get to the top you feel like you're looking down on the whole world and it's an incredible rush
    You can see WAY out in the Salt Lake and all the way past the south end of Utah Lake. I wish I knew the other peaks of the Wasatch better, but you can basically see everything to the top of BCC and LCC, far north toward Bountiful, and down south of Mt. Timp too.

    There is a plaque at the top for the two hikers who were struck and killed by lightning on the summit a few years ago. We are looking at this as the rain clouds and lighting are hammering Herriman across the valley. eeck. Time to go! Unfortunately we only felt comfortable with about 10 mins at the summit b/c of the incoming clouds, but fortunately for us they were moving very slowly!

    We scrambled down and started the trek back to the meadow with already weary feet and backs. Then we somehow missed our turn on the way back and took the WAY long way around back to camp. Thank god for the GPS. It did lead us back to camp but none to soon before dark, after getting rained on, bushwacking up and over several more valleys through rediculous terrain, and watching an awsome sunset over the valley. We got back though - cold, wet, hungry and sore.

    There were a few other campers there by the time we got back and they had the fire blazing. I swear that was the most beautiful fire I've ever seen in my life! :)

    End Part one.

  4. #3
    A few pics attached:

    (oops, they're in reverse order)
    Attached Images Attached Images      

  5. #4
    next set
    Attached Images Attached Images      

  6. #5
    last bunch

    [edit: added the summit picture of Tammy, but it's out of order now - ?can you rearrange the order of the pictures w/out deleting and then adding them all again?]
    Attached Images Attached Images      

  7. #6
    Ok, two more :)
    Attached Images Attached Images   

  8. #7
    WOW!!!! Those are some AWESOME pictures man. Looks like a near perfect trip. The valley looks really clear and that makes for some great pictures. Sweet!


  9. #8
    Thanks! it was an awesome trip and I would definitely do it again. We got lucky with the weather but you realize when you're up there how quickly it can change on you. We only got wet a few short times and temps were mostly in the 70's up there.

    Part two of this trip report was just going to be the way down, but there's not much to tell. It took us 5 hours to get to the cabin, and only 2 1/2 to come down, including a 20 min water refill!

    It is so steep coming down we found that it was easier if you lowered your body a bit and sort of half-jogged down. it was much easier on the knees if you could travel fluidly than trying to stop your momentum abruptly with every step. You just let gravity do it's job and all you have to do it keep yourself from going too fast.

    I'll post back when I get the stats on total elevation gain/loss, etc.
    later!

  10. #9
    That's a cool hike, I'll have to do it some day. I love those boulders at the top. The granite looks a little like the wind rivers.

    Nice pictures.

  11. #10
    That looks liek so much fun I wish I could have gone but had the Fish Lake trip planned. Let's plan another hike sometime soon before the snow flies.
    Let's Roll

  12. #11
    Then from the spring, it's about another 3/4 mile of hellish steep up/down trail to the meadow area. The meadow is beautiful and there are plenty of nice camp spots, including the outlaw cabin. For a frame of reference, I believe it took us 5 hours to get to the cabin with full camping packs. Our mileage was 4.4 miles, with total elevation gain about 4400 feet.
    [quote]


    Sounds about right! I swear without full packs we only did about 1.5 miles an hour, but I don't remember accurately! That trail is a beast! I'll likely never do it again. I've done Jacob's, Draper Ridge, and the Bear/Cherry whatever canyon trail...Jacob's is certainly the best route, even with packs I'd say. A shuttle allowing for going down the Bear/Cherry canyon trail, creating a loop of sorts would be great! The main valley below the cirque should be experienced, AMAZING! Hope you took a detour!....Oh, and Draper, though shorter is awful too, like Jacob's it has mini sized shale, it grabs you and holds you on the way up and kicks up in clouds of deep dust on the way out!

Similar Threads

  1. [Trip Report] Lone Peak TR
    By JONBOYLEMON in forum Hiking, Scrambling & Peak Bagging
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 08-10-2009, 11:16 PM
  2. Lone Peak Q
    By DOSS in forum Hiking, Scrambling & Peak Bagging
    Replies: 13
    Last Post: 06-03-2009, 09:34 PM
  3. [Trip Report] Lone Peak
    By skytang in forum Hiking, Scrambling & Peak Bagging
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 10-15-2008, 02:34 PM
  4. Lone Peak
    By tallpaul in forum Hiking, Scrambling & Peak Bagging
    Replies: 13
    Last Post: 07-13-2008, 10:26 PM
  5. TR: Lone Peak
    By CarpeyBiggs in forum Hiking, Scrambling & Peak Bagging
    Replies: 3
    Last Post: 07-18-2007, 06:16 PM

Visitors found this page by searching for:

bear canyon to outlaw cabin cherry

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •