Blood Work Results

I had some blood work done to make sure everything is in order for the trip.  Looks like our high elevation training has been working well as my red blood cell count looked great.  Just slightly high on potassium.  Everything else is great. 

Blood Glucose: 80 mg/dL (normal is 65-99)
Red Blood Cell Count:  4.99 10*6/uL (normal is 4.00-5.20)
White Blood Cell Count:  4.7 10*3/mm3 (normal is 3.6-10.6)

Butler Fork

We left the dogs home today to do the Butler Fork Trail up Big Cottonwood Canyon.  They don't allow dogs up Big or Little Cottonwood Canyons so it is a rare occasion we ever get up these canyons.  We took the Butler Fork Trail up Mill A and did the left fork up to All Circle Peak topping out at 8,707'.  It was a gorgeous day and a bit hotter than we expected.  This used to be one of my favorite hikes.  Although I will admit it was steeper than I remember.  We explored the trail out to Bakers Pass for a ways but decided we couldn't make it to the pass and turned around.  My Garmin was on the fritz, so I just had to estimate the data.

Trailhead Elevation:  7,107 feet
Highest Elevation:  8,707 feet
Total Elevation Gain:  1,600 feet
Total Distance:  5 miles
Total Time:  3 hours

Meadow Lake

The hike to Meadow Lake from the Pass Lake Trailhead is a long slog on a rocky, boggy, game trail.  It starts out with 3.5 miles of fairly gentle downhill.  Then turns off on an uphill cut off to the Notch Mountain trail.  The cut off is marked pretty well at the start, but requires some route finding with cairns along the rocky climb.  Meadow Lake is a big lake with gorgeous views making the hike almost worth it.  It would have been better if we hadn't missed the cut off on the way back (which added a couple extra miles to an already long hike). 

Trailhead Elevation:  10,087 feet
Highest Elevation:  10, 344 feet
Total Elevation Gain:  2,480 feet
Total Distance:  12 miles
Total Time:  7:15 hours

Ruth Lake

For our second hike of the weekend, we opted for the nice and easy hike out to Ruth Lake.  It was a crowded day on the trail, but it was gorgeous.  We did the entire hike around the lake and then explored a spur trail that ended a very popular climbing wall.  We all did pretty well (including the dogs) after our really long day yesterday.

Trailhead Elevation:  10,059 feet
Highest Elevation:  10,367 feet
Total Elevation Gain:  390 feet
Total Distance:  3.63 miles
Total Time:  1:45 hours

Bench Lake

For our second hike of the weekend we hiked out to Bench Lake from the Bald Mountain Trailhead.  The Trailhead starts at 10,720' and the trail goes downhill first, which isn't optimal, but we decided some days in Nepal we will start out going downhill.  The hike is just gorgeous.  We passed Clegg Lake (about 1.5 miles in) and then Notch Lake (about 2.3 miles in) and finally Bench Lake (at 3.4 miles in).  Notch Lake was the listed hike in the book, but we thought Bench Lake was prettier and worth the extra mile.

Trailhead Elevation:  10,720 feet
Lowest Elevation:  9,945 feet
Total Elevation Gain:  775 feet
Total Distance:  7 miles
Total Time:  3:30 hours

Cuberant Lake

We went camping in the Uintas this weekend along with everyone else.  The campgrounds were packed! We had a great time though.  For our first hike of the weekend we hiked out to Cuberant Lake from the Pass Lake Trailhead. Cuberant Lake is a good hike for some uphill climbing.  The hike goes past a number of lakes and ponds.  Near the end you have to climb up over a pass and then down to a pond and back up to Cuberant Lake.  But the effort is worth it as the lake is just gorgeous with flowering lily pads.  

Trailhead Elevation:  9,320 feet
Highest Elevation:  10,420 feet
Total Elevation Gain:  1,100 feet
Total Distance:  6.22 miles
Total Time:  3:50 hours