Bogley

[FirstTracks]

It was Thursday evening, and Todd and I were sitting in a Cottonwood Heights sports bar playing a trivia game when talk morphed to the weekend's plans. I had to be back in the Salt Lake Valley for a committment on Saturday evening, but why not try to head out Friday night after work for a quick overnight? It had to be somewhere close, so we called Skidog, pored over maps and made plans: Lake Catherine.

We met up at 5:45 pm Friday at the Big Cottonwood park 'n ride, piled gear into my truck and headed up to Brighton. The first quarter of the trip is hardly a wildnerness experience as it passes underneath Brighton's chairlifts, but the wildflowers more than made up for the chairlifts' distraction. As we got higher and outside the ski area boundary the flowers became more intense -- even though they're past peak -- and as we neared Lake Catherine we saw two separate pair of large bucks near the trail. Hummingbirds worked what remained of the red flowers. A pile of snow obscured an abandoned mine tunnel. The sun had already dipped behind Tuscarora as we set up camp at the north end of the lake.

We dropped a couple of lines, and Todd snared four brookies, but none was large enough to keep. After about 45 minutes I'd only caught a sunken tree, and with hunger getting the best of me I put the rod away and cooked up some chicken quesadillas.

It was odd not having a campfire, but nice to not have to collect wood. After dinner Todd retired to his tent while Skidog and I donned headlamps and hiked to Catherine's Pass to see the lights of the Salt Lake Valley. Skunked once again, we were too far up into Albion Basin to get a clear view down Little Cottonwood Canyon and headed back to camp. There were a few others camped nearby, but none so close that it became an annoyance, save for the pair who stumbled through camp around 2 am looking for a place to pitch their tent.

This morning, after breakfast we opted to bag a couple of peaks as long as we were in the neighborhood: Tuscarora and Wolverine. We left camp set up and headed back to Catherine's Pass, then north up the ridgeline to Tuscarora for stunning views down to Lake Catherine, Lake Martha, Lake Mary and Brighton below. Todd stayed at Tuscarora while Skidog and I headed to check off Wolverine, too, with its precipitious views down into Wolverine Cirque, along the Patsy Marley Ridgeline to the backside of Honeycomb Cliffs, and down Little Cottonwood Canyon past Mt. Superior to the Salt Lake Valley below. The hiking was pretty easy, with only a short scramble en route to Tuscarora, and is more than worth the effort if you're in this part of the Wasatch.

We returned to Lake Catherine, broke camp and headed down. As expected, on a Saturday the trail was a touron highway with folks little prepared for hiking out for a weekend stroll in the mountains.

[FirstTracks]

I almost forgot about the topo map with the GPS track on it. 7 miles not including last night's headlap hike to Catherine's Pass, 2,175 total elevation gain.

[spiraleyes]

Excellent trip report! Beautiful scenery as well.

[accadacca]

We Salute You!!! :hail2thechief:

[Sombeech]

Very nice pictures. Well done, and thanks.