We've had a prolonged Indian Summer here in Utah with temps pushing 90 under bright sunshine for weeks. But with a major cool-down in the forecast this weekend was likely to be our last chance to overnight comfortably in the mountains, so Skidog, Tcope and I headed up Little Cottonwood Canyon yesterday afternoon en route to the Maybird Lakes.
Maybird Gulch is the third drainage west of Snowbird's Gad Valley. It's directly across Little Cottonwood Canyon Road from the massive Tanner's Gulch avalanche path. To reach Maybird Lakes you park at the White Pine trailhead and ascend White Pine Gulch before branching off west to wrap around the north side of Pink Pine Ridge, then ascend further in Red Pine Gulch before branching off westward once again to wrap around the north side of Red Bird Ridge to enter Maybird Gulch. Maybird Lakes, which is more a series of puddles than lakes, lie in succession in upper Maybird Gulch at 9600-9800 feet.
It's four miles each way, ascending some 2,000 vertical feet to reach the first lake. En route we walked through golden aspen stands, although higher up many of trees are already largely bare.
Leaving White Pine Gulch and ascending Pink Pine Ridge we got a view back to the Birthday Chutes on West Twin, site of our ill-fated ski day in White Pine a couple of seasons ago when Ben got swept up in an avalanche (the video from which is at http://www.firsttracksonline.com/Video/ ... ideoid/119 in case you haven't seen it).
The White Pine trail is a road, while once you head off toward Red Pine Gulch the route is more a traditional hiking trail. It climbs steeply and steadily up Red Pine Gulch, and again around Red Bird Ridge after negotiating a bridge that crosses Red Pine Fork. The trail thereafter is largely underutilized and not terribly well defined in a few places, which hinted that we'd truly be alone at Maybird Lakes even though we were less than five miles away from the city limits in the Salt Lake Valley.
When we reached the first Maybird Lake it became obvious that smooth, flat campsites above there would be at a premium. Not due to competition from other people, but rather due to competition from scree.
There was a flat grassy area just below the outlet from the lake, and lacking any other options we chose to pitch there, even though the legality of doing so was somewhat questionable. For those who know popular backcountry ski routes in Little Cottonwood we were directly below the Hypodermic Needle, at the foot of the Pfeifferhorn.
We ate dinner watching the last rays of the afternoon sun striking the stunning Pfeifferhorn, named by early German miners as a "Little Matterhorn).
We called it an early night at 9:30 p.m. It was a restless night. When we went to bed the air was completely still, but by shortly after midnight the wind was howling. A couple of hours later it was dead calm again, followed by more howling wind a couple of hours later.
We awoke shortly before 8 to temperatures in the 40s. We ate breakfast, broke camp and hit the trail shortly after 9, motoring back down to the car in less than 90 minutes, pausing only briefly to photograph snap a few photos including one of the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon with the road far below from Pink Pine Ridge.
The wind overnight had stripped more trees of their color, but some protected aspens still yielded warm yellows in the morning sun.
Skidog was a bit ahead of Tcope and myself, and was rewarded for his speed by a moose grazing in the meadow near the road and a herd of deer that crossed his path. Neither Tcope nor I got to see either.
OK now, enough of the summer stuff...bring on winter!
Maybird Gulch is the third drainage west of Snowbird's Gad Valley. It's directly across Little Cottonwood Canyon Road from the massive Tanner's Gulch avalanche path. To reach Maybird Lakes you park at the White Pine trailhead and ascend White Pine Gulch before branching off west to wrap around the north side of Pink Pine Ridge, then ascend further in Red Pine Gulch before branching off westward once again to wrap around the north side of Red Bird Ridge to enter Maybird Gulch. Maybird Lakes, which is more a series of puddles than lakes, lie in succession in upper Maybird Gulch at 9600-9800 feet.
It's four miles each way, ascending some 2,000 vertical feet to reach the first lake. En route we walked through golden aspen stands, although higher up many of trees are already largely bare.
Leaving White Pine Gulch and ascending Pink Pine Ridge we got a view back to the Birthday Chutes on West Twin, site of our ill-fated ski day in White Pine a couple of seasons ago when Ben got swept up in an avalanche (the video from which is at http://www.firsttracksonline.com/Video/ ... ideoid/119 in case you haven't seen it).
The White Pine trail is a road, while once you head off toward Red Pine Gulch the route is more a traditional hiking trail. It climbs steeply and steadily up Red Pine Gulch, and again around Red Bird Ridge after negotiating a bridge that crosses Red Pine Fork. The trail thereafter is largely underutilized and not terribly well defined in a few places, which hinted that we'd truly be alone at Maybird Lakes even though we were less than five miles away from the city limits in the Salt Lake Valley.
When we reached the first Maybird Lake it became obvious that smooth, flat campsites above there would be at a premium. Not due to competition from other people, but rather due to competition from scree.
There was a flat grassy area just below the outlet from the lake, and lacking any other options we chose to pitch there, even though the legality of doing so was somewhat questionable. For those who know popular backcountry ski routes in Little Cottonwood we were directly below the Hypodermic Needle, at the foot of the Pfeifferhorn.
We ate dinner watching the last rays of the afternoon sun striking the stunning Pfeifferhorn, named by early German miners as a "Little Matterhorn).
We called it an early night at 9:30 p.m. It was a restless night. When we went to bed the air was completely still, but by shortly after midnight the wind was howling. A couple of hours later it was dead calm again, followed by more howling wind a couple of hours later.
We awoke shortly before 8 to temperatures in the 40s. We ate breakfast, broke camp and hit the trail shortly after 9, motoring back down to the car in less than 90 minutes, pausing only briefly to photograph snap a few photos including one of the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon with the road far below from Pink Pine Ridge.
The wind overnight had stripped more trees of their color, but some protected aspens still yielded warm yellows in the morning sun.
Skidog was a bit ahead of Tcope and myself, and was rewarded for his speed by a moose grazing in the meadow near the road and a herd of deer that crossed his path. Neither Tcope nor I got to see either.
OK now, enough of the summer stuff...bring on winter!
