MerlintheMad
10000 Posts Club!
My oldest friend (length, not age, since the second grade) and I gave up trying to hike in the Uintas today and drove back and arrived in his driveway in Murray at c. two o'clock, iirc. We missed the window of opportunity by one week. Damn.
The driving itself was fun, for me. But he was seriously put out by the deteriorating weather. I told him to not open his trail mix and save it for next spring/summer. I promised to go again and make a full hiking day out of it. He is very familiar with the Mirror Lake area and suggested a number of trails and lakes (by name) to see. But alas! at c. 10K feet the clouds came down to meet us coming up and started to rain. Sections of the road already had some lingering slush from the storm the night before which had laid down a couple of inches of wet snow, very pretty, but dissuading to hikers. The gates were closed. We saw few people; mostly congregated in the Provo River falls overlook, one sensibly equipped with a large umbrella. We did get out and walk a few places. At first I put on my hiking boots, anticipating a hike c. a mile in to a lake a few miles beyond Mirror. But the trail looked muddy. So we started back toward Mirror lake, abandoned the idea of parking outside the locked gate, and got out to look at Moose lake (shaped like moose antlers, at the base of Mt Baldy), across which we could barely see the water, which tells you how junky the air was getting with precip and dragging clouds. At the overlook to Moose lake it was actually impossible to see the lake at all. By then the Uinta weather and its sudden shifts had made hiking that high up impossible. We went toward Kamas and pulled off to park and walk over to the dam at Trial reservoir. It started to rain for real before we got back to the car and I was damp through my outer shirt, but the T was still dry enough. Inside the car I dried out quickly. We stopped at the Provo River overlook (not to be conflated with the "falls overlook" earlier), and I was glad to find the restroom still unlocked. From that final stop we drove straight back to Murray and chatted for c. ten minutes. That idling of my car dropped my average mpg from over 25 down to 24.7. When I got home I washed off the back end and sides of the Stinger; the rest looks quite passable.
The driving itself was fun, for me. But he was seriously put out by the deteriorating weather. I told him to not open his trail mix and save it for next spring/summer. I promised to go again and make a full hiking day out of it. He is very familiar with the Mirror Lake area and suggested a number of trails and lakes (by name) to see. But alas! at c. 10K feet the clouds came down to meet us coming up and started to rain. Sections of the road already had some lingering slush from the storm the night before which had laid down a couple of inches of wet snow, very pretty, but dissuading to hikers. The gates were closed. We saw few people; mostly congregated in the Provo River falls overlook, one sensibly equipped with a large umbrella. We did get out and walk a few places. At first I put on my hiking boots, anticipating a hike c. a mile in to a lake a few miles beyond Mirror. But the trail looked muddy. So we started back toward Mirror lake, abandoned the idea of parking outside the locked gate, and got out to look at Moose lake (shaped like moose antlers, at the base of Mt Baldy), across which we could barely see the water, which tells you how junky the air was getting with precip and dragging clouds. At the overlook to Moose lake it was actually impossible to see the lake at all. By then the Uinta weather and its sudden shifts had made hiking that high up impossible. We went toward Kamas and pulled off to park and walk over to the dam at Trial reservoir. It started to rain for real before we got back to the car and I was damp through my outer shirt, but the T was still dry enough. Inside the car I dried out quickly. We stopped at the Provo River overlook (not to be conflated with the "falls overlook" earlier), and I was glad to find the restroom still unlocked. From that final stop we drove straight back to Murray and chatted for c. ten minutes. That idling of my car dropped my average mpg from over 25 down to 24.7. When I got home I washed off the back end and sides of the Stinger; the rest looks quite passable.
Dinner at Denny's afterward provided an opportunity to share Stinger stories and get to know each other a bit. Maybe we can grow this into a Utah Stingers meet. He says that another Black and a Blue live somewhere in his neighborhood. And a Red and a White park near where he works. Of course, he's seen at least seven Stinger's In The Wild, and I've seen exactly two. This is the second time I've seen his: by arrangement, so not "in the wild" exactly. (Which is why I am not posting to that thread.)
It's very useful.
Doug Smith, that's who I got my Silky Silver from (a trade with Jerry Seiner). What dealership did you get yours from?
