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Thread: Uinta Highline Trail

  1. #1

    Uinta Highline Trail

    A friend and I hiked a section of the Uinta Highline Trail on August 5-7, totaling 26 miles in about 48 hours. This was my first backpacking trip, and I was nervous about covering so many miles. We met in Duchesne at 8:00AM on Friday then set up a car shuttle. We dropped his car off at Chepeta Lake, then drove my truck around to the start of the hike. Although we were starting 13 air miles east of Chepeta Lake, it was about 90 road miles to get there, so we didn't start hiking until about 1:30PM.


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    The hiking was fairly easy for the first day. We hiked through both old and new timber, as the area had been logged sometime in the past, and the trail was fairly easy to follow. It was cairned in places, with trees blazed in others. We made about five miles and gained just over 1,000 feet of elevation before setting up camp just below the treeline east of Leidy Peak. We could have made a few more miles, but we wanted to camp where there was water and shelter from the wind.


    The start of the hike


    Following cairns


    Blazed trail through the trees


    Marshy ground along an old logging road


    The trail is indiscernible through this meadow


    Trail meets road near Hacking Lake


    A stream from which we pumped and filtered our drinking/cooking water


    Makin' dinner


    Camp between Hacking Lake and Leidy Peak


    Clouds at sunset


    View east from camp after sunset



    Saturday was a tough day. We made 13 miles, mostly above the treeline, with a lot of elevation gain. After cooking breakfast and packing up camp, we filled up our water and started hiking at about 9:00AM. We skirted around a 3/4-mile long snow drift on the northeast side of Leidy Peak, then took the east ridge up to the peak. From Leidy Peak we continued west and stopped for lunch in the saddle between Leidy Peak and Mt. Untermann. Somewhere in the saddle we saw a group of backpackers ahead of us working their way up to Gabbro Pass. Just below the pass was a huge snow drift covering the trail, and we watched as the group dropped down several hundred feet to Lake Wilde, then climbed back up and crossed the drift in its thickest spot. We stuck to the trail, and when we reached the snow drift we scrambled up the steep hillside above the trail, just on the edge of the drift, then crossed at its thinnest point by kicking in some footholds. We stopped for another break near Gabbro Pass, and by that time I was beat. I was content to hike until we were just below the treeline again near Whiterocks Lake, but after thinking it over for a while, I talked myself into pushing myself pretty hard and trying to make it to Chepeta Lake, even if it meant hiking in the dark.


    Early morning after the first night's camp


    Making breakfast


    Almost above the treeline on the way to Leidy Peak


    Hiking up Leidy Peak


    Chris and Torrey


    Leidy Peak


    King's Peak way off in the distance


    Heading down the western slope of Leidy Peak


    Flat area on the way to Mt. Untermann


    Almost to the saddle between Leidy Peak and Mt. Untermann


    From here, the trail leads straight up to the large snow drift


    Another group of backpackers crossing the snow field below Gabbro Pass


    Mountain goats


    Approaching the snow drift


    Climbing up the edge of the drift


    Cutting a trail across the snow drift


    Lightning Park


    Dry Fork in Lightning Park


    View east to Gabbro Pass


    View into the Whiterocks Lake drainage


    Whiterocks Lake


    Creek crossing near Whiterocks Lake


    Along Whiterocks Lake


    Stream crossing


    Elk


    More elk


    Trail across a meadow


    Time to use the headlamps


    Approaching Chepeta Lake



    We eventually did make it to Chepeta Lake at around 10:00PM and hastily set up camp, ate dinner, then crashed. The following morning, Sunday, we were on the trail by 9:00 on our way to bag Eccentric Peak. The first mile and a half was easy and pretty level, but rounding the north end of Papoose Lake we had to do some boulder hopping and bushwhacking. After that we had some pretty steady elevation gain for the rest of the hike to Eccentric, gaining 1,600 feet over the course of two miles. I was still dragging ass from the previous day's death march and it took over three hours to make it to Eccentric Peak, and my knee was hurting on the way down. While doing the boulder hop around the north end of Papoose Lake again, I had muddy shoes and slipped and fell, scraping and bruising my forearm. We got back to camp about five hours after setting out that morning, ending our backpacking trip after 48 hours. We still had to drive the 90 miles again to retrieve my truck, but it felt great to have completed the trip.


    Chepeta Lake


    Boulder hopping at the north end of Papoose Lake


    Papoose Lake


    The beginning of the steep part to Eccentric Peak


    Hiking up to Eccentric Peak


    Chepeta Lake


    Loooong boulder field going up to Eccentric Peak


    Daggett Peak


    Hikers on Daggett Peak


    View west from Eccentric


    Nearing the high point on Eccentric Peak


    The high point on Eccentric Peak


    Summit register and survey marker on Eccentric Peak


    Finally back at camp at Chepeta Lake, after 26.1 miles



    More photos here:

    https://picasaweb.google.com/1154790...HighlineTrail#

    Blog entry:
    http://udink.org/2011/08/12/uinta-highline-trail/
    Blog | FB

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  4. #2
    Excellent! I bet you'll be doing MANY more trips after this epic.


  5. #3
    awesome uintah stoke! nice to see the east end get some lovin'. mountain goats are cool. thanks for sharing.

  6. #4
    That is one hell of a good first backpacking trip man. So what did you think? Itching for another or not so much?

  7. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by ibenick View Post
    That is one hell of a good first backpacking trip man. So what did you think? Itching for another or not so much?
    Definitely itchin' for more. Western Uintas, or maybe some desert if I don't make it back soon enough. I need a new backpack and maybe some other lighter gear (or maybe I should just get my ass into better shape ), but I'm up for more.
    Blog | FB

  8. #6
    Looks like an awesome trip! Congrats on you first backpack. I'm looking forward to giving it a go myself next year.

  9. #7
    Thanks for the report.

  10. #8


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