WMC Cherry Canyon Hike

In the lead, Julie, Ieta and Liz. Valeta and
I are below them, quite a ways behind. Yeah, hard.

All week I have been looking forward to going on this hike with Julie Kilgore, one of the hike directors from the Wasatch Mountain Club, after listening to her fall hiking lecture at REI. To prepare I did a lot of research on daypacks. Why? Because the pack I'd bought a couple fo years ago and hadn't used for hiking was a pain in the back and shoulders for my hike with Jan last Friday afternoon.

First, I went to REI and tried on all the ones they had. I came home and read all the reviews online on the daypacks I was interested in. Then I went back to REI and tried them all on again. This time looking for the correct size and putting the sandbags (I didn't know they had the first time) in them to get a correct fit and see how it really felt. Then I came home, a little more research and I made the decision that yes, I would use it if I spent the money. Today, on my way home from a visit to the Salt Lake Bicycle Company, I stopped at REI in Sandy to purchase the daypack I'd decided on. No one in the valley had the purple one in.

Osprey Sirrus 24

So I could either wait or pick a different color. I could have bought it online and saved some money and gotten purple, but if I end up not liking it, even if I've used it I can return this one to REI.

On to the hike. This hike started from a point off of Highland Dr. called Orson Smith Trailhead, near 12601 South 2000 East - elevation 4,788. Well marked and easy to find, although the GPS would not take the address. I will mark it with the coordinates (N 40.31.297, W 111.50.32) after I get there so the GPS can find it next time. LOL. This trailhead has nice restrooms, a big plus before the hike.

Chip and Tinkerbell hiking.

Tonight 5 women and 4 dogs showed up to take this hike, this includes Julie and her dog CC.  It wasn't too hot and we had clear skies. Julie had labeled this hike NTD+ (Not Too Difficult) at a "moderate" pace. She explained it would be straight up but that we should hike at a pace that was comfortable for us. I was glad for my marathon training, hill training and just darn near all my training. Period. I don't think I've ever walked up something so steep. Maybe at Camp Wintaka when I was a kid once for a short distance but nothing like this. She said we would get a good workout. Did I come for a workout?

Julie got out a "hike form" and we all signed in for the hike and released the club of any liability. She then put the paper under the windshield wiper of her truck. Then I understood. This lets rescuers know you are on the trail in case you don't come back. Oh good, I didn't want to be lost tonight.

I was anxious to give my new daypack a try. I loaded all my 10 E's from my old grocery store $9.99 leaky hydration pack into the new one quickly because I was running a little late. Then I added all the stuff to the outside like dog bowl, poop bags, camera, fuel, water, phone, chapstick, etc. Let's go. 5:45pm. We took to the trail. Julie took the lead, followed by Ieta a 70 year old hiker. Yeah, no way I could keep up with the 70 year old. Because of the trail we were going on, Julie let us have the dogs off leash. Next in our hike line on this single track was Liz, I think her name was, she is living in Utah temporarily for business. She is from New York. She was an excellent hiker too. (She actually quit hiking early because she wanted to return to where she was staying while it was still light and she could find it. So when she got back down to the truck she signed herself out.)

Next was me and Chip and Tinkerbell followed by Valeta and her little Yorkie. That little dog could hike. Velita walks a lot so her legs were not sore but she was having a hard time with the cardio that was going on with this steep hike at the moderate pace. I was sucking wind too, although not quite as bad. And Chip and Tinkerbell, well they kept wanting to wait for Jan (who stayed home) so they could have a break from this uphill fun. I kept feeding them Zukes Power Bones to keep them going, their little pink tongues were hanging out. I also stopped to give them water two times on the way up. And me, well I was drinking water with Prolytes and eating Shot Bloks for my energy.

After a few minutes we crossed the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. Then we came to the sign for the trail we were taking up the mountain, the Cherry Creek Logging Trail. This is where the real fun begins. This trail is steep switchbacks through scrub oak and sagebrush. Along this trail you can see some of the burned scrub oak limbs from a fire in 2008.

When the trail got really steep Julie explained how to hike a steep incline. You take a step, lock your knee. Then take another step and lock the other knee. This transfers your weight on your skeleton and helps distribute the load. It seemed to work. Took my mind off the grade because I had to think about the knee locking since I don't normally hike that way. The views of the valley, well we could see everywhere pretty quickly at our rate of acent. I was very disappointed that in rushing to get over to Draper I'd forgotten my Garmin. Julie said the climb was about a mile and a half, 1500 feet of climbing. Hill work!

Julie and Valeta.

Valeta coming up the trail.

The rock. At goal of hike, me and Julie.

Our goal for the evening was a rock formation up on the mountain, and we reached it after an hour and ten minutes of hiking. Wow. It was a great view of the valley and the sun was getting close to setting. We spent a few minutes relaxing and visiting at the top and then it was time to head down the mountain before dark. Down was faster than up. Duh. But down is NOT easy. Much of the trail is loose gravel-sand-dirt and it is easy to slip and fall. Luckily none of us did, but their was some sliding. We moved at a very fast pace. When we were about half way down CC and Chip decided they wanted to play and have the zoomies. CC is a lab, greyhound and something mix. So she is bigger. Well, that riled up too much dust and made it hard for us to hike because they were running around crazy like so we had to put a stop to that. It was fun to see even the dogs made new friends.

Well on our way down the sun eventually set and we got a pretty pink sky and then it began to get darker. I eventually took off my sunglasses, although not until the very end. I like them for dust and bugs too. And they lighten as it gets darker, so I could still see. Done with the hike at 8pm.