Above Rock Canyon, between Cascade Mountain (10,908') and Provo Peak (11,068') sits Lightning Pass. A year and a half ago, after riding motorcycles for 8 hours behind Timpanogos and then up Provo Canyon's Left Fork and Big Springs, Darin Vandecar and I attempted to ride over the top of the mountain, but didn't make it. We got stuck behind two other bikes spinning their wheels up a few hundred feet of steep, loose switchbacks. By the time they reached the top, my time was up (had to go float the Provo with a bunch of friends) and we had to turn back.
I've craved another shot at the pass ever since. This time I planned to try from the front (west) side. Whenever I mentioned it, I heard stories of a steep, difficult, and possibly impassible scree field near the top and few of my riding buddies seemed very enthused about it.
Olin Johnson and Curtis Dudley tried with me once, but we missed the turn off from the road, explored several other trails (or non trails) before getting stuck behind slow horses on the correct trail. By the time they let us by, Olin's bike was overheating, he was running out of time, and we decided to turn back.
I finally went up by myself. It turns out that the trail is a very easy ride - though just rocky, dusty, curvy, and side-hilled enough that you won't get out of second gear. So it's not a super-fun ride, but the beauty makes up for that. The ride was also a lot shorter than I expected. You climb a winding trail through aspen and a few pines for a while and then suddenly you break into a small meadow and then a large meadow and there's the summit ridge straight above you. A 1/2 mile switchback to the south puts you on the old CCC-cut horizontal shelves and the trail occassionally climbs from one to the next.
I pulled in the clutch or turned off the bike from time to time to take a picture, and sent one through my phone to let everyone else know what they were missing.
Anyway, to make a medium story short, I rode to the top, rode down Big Springs to where Darin and I stopped last time, found a pair of x-c skis stashed in the trees, worked the bike back up some steep, loose sections, then tried exploring the Shingle Mill trail, which also leads into South Fork - or to Wallsburg as Chris Johnson, Brent Ripley and I discovered on an eventful 11-hour ride several years ago.
That trail was too steep and loose for my worn rear tire to climb without digging deep holes in the trail, so I parked and went for a "little" hike, just to see where the trail connected so I'd know my way around if I ever needed to go there.
Well, I covered a lot of ground. I hiked till after sunset. I followed giant cairns (rock piles to mark the trail), crested another high ridge, and the trail just seemed to vanish. I've checked maps online since I got home and none of them make any sense - apparently sending the trail down impossibly-steep cliffs. I'll figure it out later.
My buddies are relieved to know there's no scary scree field and now several of them want to try the ride, so maybe we'll go back within the next week or so, while the leaves are still brilliant and colorful and hanging on the trees.
For now, here's my computer wallpaper (click on the photo to see the full-size version) so that even when I'm sitting in the library grading papers, I can keep a little taste of autumn in my mouth and hopefully, when it's over, not feel wasted, not feel like it passed me by unused and unnoticed.
Click image for 1280x798 size
Above Rock Canyon, between Cascade Mountain (10,908') and Provo Peak (11,068') sits Lightning Pass. A year and a half ago, after riding motorcycles for 8 hours behind Timpanogos and then up Provo Canyon's Left Fork and Big Springs, Darin Vandecar and I attempted to ride over the top of the mountain, but didn't make it. We got stuck behind two other bikes spinning their wheels up a few hundred feet of steep, loose switchbacks. By the time they reached the top, my time was up (had to go float the Provo with a bunch of friends) and we had to turn back.
I've craved another shot at the pass ever since. This time I planned to try from the front (west) side. Whenever I mentioned it, I heard stories of a steep, difficult, and possibly impassible scree field near the top and few of my riding buddies seemed very enthused about it. Olin Johnson and Curtis Dudley tried with me once, but we missed the turn off from the road, explored several other trails (or non trails) before getting stuck behind slow horses on the correct trail. By the time they let us by, Olin's bike was overheating, he was running out of time, and we decided to turn back.
I finally went up by myself. It turns out that the trail is a very easy ride - though just rocky, dusty, curvy, and side-hilled enough that you won't get out of second gear. So it's not a super-fun ride, but the beauty makes up for that. The ride was also a lot shorter than I expected. You climb a winding trail through aspen and a few pines for a while and then suddenly you break into a small meadow and then a large meadow and there's the summit ridge straight above you. A 1/2 mile switchback to the south puts you on the old CCC-cut horizontal shelves and the trail occassionally climbs from one to the next.
I pulled in the clutch or turned off the bike from time to time to take a picture, and sent one through my phone to let everyone else know what they were missing.
Anyway, to make a medium story short, I rode to the top, rode down Big Springs to where Darin and I stopped last time, found a pair of x-c skis stashed in the trees, worked the bike back up some steep, loose sections, then tried exploring the Shingle Mill trail, which also leads into South Fork - or to Wallsburg as Chris Johnson, Brent Ripley and I discovered on an eventful 11-hour ride several years ago.
That trail was too steep and loose for my worn rear tire to climb without digging deep holes in the trail, so I parked and went for a "little" hike, just to see where the trail connected so I'd know my way around if I ever needed to go there.
Well, I covered a lot of ground. I hiked till after sunset. I followed giant cairns (rock piles to mark the trail), crested another high ridge, and the trail just seemed to vanish. I've checked maps online since I got home and none of them make any sense - apparently sending the trail down impossibly-steep cliffs. I'll figure it out later.
My buddies are relieved to know there's no scary scree field and now several of them want to try the ride, so maybe we'll go back within the next week or so, while the leaves are still brilliant and colorful and hanging on the trees.
For now, here's my computer wallpaper (click on the photo to see the full-size version) so that even when I'm sitting in the library grading papers, I can keep a little taste of autumn in my mouth and hopefully, when it's over, not feel wasted, not feel like it passed me by unused and unnoticed.
Click image for 1280x798 size
Beautiiiiiful!!
I figured out where the Shingle Mill trail goes. All the maps are out of date. The red line on this one: http://www.summitpost.org/images/original/116807.jpg shows where the trail goes now. I missed the turn off (dotted line at the top of the map) and followed the Freedom Peak trail, then bushwhacked across other terraces.
Hiking in MX boots is not the best/easiest idea, but at least when I came down, they were great for “skiing” down the scree.
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