Having just come off a two-week bout of bronchitis that would've killed a mere mortal, it's been a while since I've gotten out. Combine that with the heat and the Uintas were just begging for my first visit this season to Utah's highest mountain range. Even if you don't live in the West you've likely heard about our current heat wave. On Friday our home weather station above the valley at 5,000 feet hit a remarkable 101.1 F, a full three degrees hotter than our previous record in roughly six years of record keeping. At 10,000 feet-plus of elevation in the Uintas, however, it only reached the high 70s.
So Skidog, Stephan and I met at my house shortly after 9 a.m. today and headed east. A little over 21 miles east of the small town of Kamas on UT-150, and after picking up the requisite sandwiches and homemade beef jerky at Samak Smokehouse, we turned right onto Murdock Basin Road.
Now, the term "road" is a bit of a misnomer. For the first mile or so it's graded dirt, ending at a trailhead popular with off-road vehicle enthusiasts, but even the ATV'ers complain about the rocky, bumpy ride past there. Those who venture further in an on-highway vehicle do so at their own peril. Ever since the untimely demise of my dear beloved Land Rover Discovery (may she forever RIP) I've lacked a vehicle to get up into the Murdock Basin, so while I've wanted to explore that area of the western Uintas I haven't been able to do so until I picked up a used Toyota Tacoma a few months back. Now armed with a 4WD high clearance vehicle, however, I was ready.
Ready? Yeah. Ready for a full seven miles that all look like this? Not entirely.
Jimmy, can you say, "4WD low"?? Murdock Basin Road is unrelenting -- it's basically 7 miles of what you see above, punctuated by a couple of stream crossings to boot.
There is no let-up, no relief whatsoever in that seven miles from the bone-jarring, kidney-bursting, rock-hopping bounce-fest that they call Murdock Basin Road. Hitting only a few momentary and short-lived bursts of up to 8 mph felt like driving on the freeway.
Our plan was to venture about five miles up the road to Echo Lake and begin our hike there. Our route would be a trail-less one, bushwhacking our way around Echo Lake, scrambling up a couple of cliff bands to an unnamed lake, and then angling eastward to the top of a cliff overlooking the four-pack of Marshall, Shepard, Hoover and Maba Lakes before following the ridgeline to the summit proper of Murdock Mountain, elevation 11,212 feet.
The last 100 yards was the toughest part of the drive, but we made it, pulling into the brush to park about 50 feet from some folks camping by the lake. The campers' dogs came over to greet Jake, and their owner came over to retrieve his dogs with a sidearm at his waist -- this is Utah, after all. We exchanged brief pleasantries before setting off in our intended direction.
Now, every now and then I genuinely enjoy a trail-less hike. It puts a premium on your route-finding and navigation skills, although that's a lot easier with today's technology than it has been in the past. I pulled topo maps before the trip and looked at Google Earth. We used a topo mapping program on my smartphone to ensure that we were on the right bearing, although we of course had an old-school compass and paper map with us as well, just in case. It all went off without a hitch.
Echo Lake with our destination, Murdock Mountain, in the background
Jake in Echo Lake
I had surmised that by venturing east from the northern end of Echo Lake we could head toward a clearing visible on the topo map, and then turn north to find a route through the cliffs that run along the west and north sides of the lake. I was right. There was some scrambling involved, and Skidog had some unjustified concerns about Jake's ability to negotiate the tougher spots, but we made it without much problem. Once we reached the top of the cliffs we found a small pond to take a rest and give Jake a chance to drink.
Jake can't find a body of water he doesn't want to swim in or wade into!
We pressed on northward and up a second, only slightly shorter cliff band to top out on another shelf below Murdock Mountain that hid one of the prettiest lakes I've seen in a long time. It's unnamed on the map (I've marked it with a yellow flag on the map above) and as there are no trails nearby I'm reasonably certain that it sees few humans.
This lake was my landmark to turn northeast and then east, up a small vale to what was to be our four-lake overlook. What I didn't count on, and what couldn't be seen on Google Earth was the scree field from hell. We're talking a nasty, steep tangle of giant, tippy, unstable boulders that continued upward as far as the eye could see. I'm sure that we humans could've negotiated this in a reasonable manner but there was just too much risk of injury to Jake, and none of us relished the thought of carrying out an injured 75-lb. Labrador retriever. We turned back right around where the red flag is marked on the map above. I know that Skidog took a photo of Jake and his proud papa at this point, so hopefully he'll add it to this topic.
We lunched at the aforementioned beautiful lake below us, and then returned to the truck. I still wanted to do some recon up the remainder of the Murdock Basin Road, so I got behind the wheel and we all continued north to where the road ends at Maba Lake.
The road gets even worse north of Echo Lake, as if that's even possible. This was a test for both the new truck and its driver, but I'm happy to report that both succeeded. Marc_C, if we could survive this, the White Rim this November will be a piece of cake!
Maba Lake
As long as we were in the Murdock Basin I wanted to follow the equally rough road that descends to the Duschene River near the east portal of the Duschene Tunnel and explore Cataract Gorge, but with the time lost on the Murdock Basin Road the afternoon was getting late, and with Skidog therefore about to turn into a pumpkin that was out of the question. Cataract Gorge will have to wait for a return visit. Some photos are here:
http://backcountrypost.com/forum/thread ... intas.953/
If anyone wants to see the remainder of my photos from the day, they're all geo-tagged in a Picasa album that's publicly viewable at https://picasaweb.google.com/104320561789112490385/20130630UintaMountainsUtahMurdockBasin.
So Skidog, Stephan and I met at my house shortly after 9 a.m. today and headed east. A little over 21 miles east of the small town of Kamas on UT-150, and after picking up the requisite sandwiches and homemade beef jerky at Samak Smokehouse, we turned right onto Murdock Basin Road.
Now, the term "road" is a bit of a misnomer. For the first mile or so it's graded dirt, ending at a trailhead popular with off-road vehicle enthusiasts, but even the ATV'ers complain about the rocky, bumpy ride past there. Those who venture further in an on-highway vehicle do so at their own peril. Ever since the untimely demise of my dear beloved Land Rover Discovery (may she forever RIP) I've lacked a vehicle to get up into the Murdock Basin, so while I've wanted to explore that area of the western Uintas I haven't been able to do so until I picked up a used Toyota Tacoma a few months back. Now armed with a 4WD high clearance vehicle, however, I was ready.
Ready? Yeah. Ready for a full seven miles that all look like this? Not entirely.
Jimmy, can you say, "4WD low"?? Murdock Basin Road is unrelenting -- it's basically 7 miles of what you see above, punctuated by a couple of stream crossings to boot.
There is no let-up, no relief whatsoever in that seven miles from the bone-jarring, kidney-bursting, rock-hopping bounce-fest that they call Murdock Basin Road. Hitting only a few momentary and short-lived bursts of up to 8 mph felt like driving on the freeway.
Our plan was to venture about five miles up the road to Echo Lake and begin our hike there. Our route would be a trail-less one, bushwhacking our way around Echo Lake, scrambling up a couple of cliff bands to an unnamed lake, and then angling eastward to the top of a cliff overlooking the four-pack of Marshall, Shepard, Hoover and Maba Lakes before following the ridgeline to the summit proper of Murdock Mountain, elevation 11,212 feet.
The last 100 yards was the toughest part of the drive, but we made it, pulling into the brush to park about 50 feet from some folks camping by the lake. The campers' dogs came over to greet Jake, and their owner came over to retrieve his dogs with a sidearm at his waist -- this is Utah, after all. We exchanged brief pleasantries before setting off in our intended direction.
Now, every now and then I genuinely enjoy a trail-less hike. It puts a premium on your route-finding and navigation skills, although that's a lot easier with today's technology than it has been in the past. I pulled topo maps before the trip and looked at Google Earth. We used a topo mapping program on my smartphone to ensure that we were on the right bearing, although we of course had an old-school compass and paper map with us as well, just in case. It all went off without a hitch.
Echo Lake with our destination, Murdock Mountain, in the background
Jake in Echo Lake
I had surmised that by venturing east from the northern end of Echo Lake we could head toward a clearing visible on the topo map, and then turn north to find a route through the cliffs that run along the west and north sides of the lake. I was right. There was some scrambling involved, and Skidog had some unjustified concerns about Jake's ability to negotiate the tougher spots, but we made it without much problem. Once we reached the top of the cliffs we found a small pond to take a rest and give Jake a chance to drink.
Jake can't find a body of water he doesn't want to swim in or wade into!
We pressed on northward and up a second, only slightly shorter cliff band to top out on another shelf below Murdock Mountain that hid one of the prettiest lakes I've seen in a long time. It's unnamed on the map (I've marked it with a yellow flag on the map above) and as there are no trails nearby I'm reasonably certain that it sees few humans.
This lake was my landmark to turn northeast and then east, up a small vale to what was to be our four-lake overlook. What I didn't count on, and what couldn't be seen on Google Earth was the scree field from hell. We're talking a nasty, steep tangle of giant, tippy, unstable boulders that continued upward as far as the eye could see. I'm sure that we humans could've negotiated this in a reasonable manner but there was just too much risk of injury to Jake, and none of us relished the thought of carrying out an injured 75-lb. Labrador retriever. We turned back right around where the red flag is marked on the map above. I know that Skidog took a photo of Jake and his proud papa at this point, so hopefully he'll add it to this topic.
We lunched at the aforementioned beautiful lake below us, and then returned to the truck. I still wanted to do some recon up the remainder of the Murdock Basin Road, so I got behind the wheel and we all continued north to where the road ends at Maba Lake.
The road gets even worse north of Echo Lake, as if that's even possible. This was a test for both the new truck and its driver, but I'm happy to report that both succeeded. Marc_C, if we could survive this, the White Rim this November will be a piece of cake!
Maba Lake
As long as we were in the Murdock Basin I wanted to follow the equally rough road that descends to the Duschene River near the east portal of the Duschene Tunnel and explore Cataract Gorge, but with the time lost on the Murdock Basin Road the afternoon was getting late, and with Skidog therefore about to turn into a pumpkin that was out of the question. Cataract Gorge will have to wait for a return visit. Some photos are here:
http://backcountrypost.com/forum/thread ... intas.953/
If anyone wants to see the remainder of my photos from the day, they're all geo-tagged in a Picasa album that's publicly viewable at https://picasaweb.google.com/104320561789112490385/20130630UintaMountainsUtahMurdockBasin.
