20 August 2005:
Cecret Lake and Sugarloaf Mountain, 11,051 feet/3,368 meters above the sea levelAlta, Utah (28 mi./45 km. from home)
This hike was a totally unexpected hike for me. I actually was supposed to meet this group of deaf people at Albion Basin for a wildflower hike, where we would walk around the Albion Basin and identify the wildflowers. However, I did not seem to see any deafies around in the area, so I decided to go on my own and to hike around. I hiked through the Albion Basin which is a cirque at the terminus of the Little Cottonwood Road.
The trail was a bit tricky to find. One would see a sign saying the Albion Basin trailhead is over there, where cars are parked. Then in an opposite direction, there is a sign saying "Trail" pointing to the other way. It was a bit confusing, but it wasn't a long hike through the Albion Basin before arriving at the Cecret Lake. The Albion Basin had an abundance of wildflowers, which was probably most definitely in peak blooming time. I suppose with the winter ending so late, that the wildflowers would peak much later, like it did this year at mid-August.
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The trail was pretty much level until the last part of the trail, which gently climbed this hill towards Cecret Lake. Here, there is a sign that indicates that the trail continues to the other side, not straight on. As I continued, I kept taking more pictures of the flowers on rocks. I'm not sure what they were though! About 5 minutes later, I was already at the lake. Cecret Lake was in an ugly shade of blue-green, and despite the "no swimming" signs, I fail to see how anyone would want to swim there! In the middle, there were two separate snow sheets floating, so obviously it had to be cold as well!
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Not being satisified with my hike so far, I decided that I would like to ascend one of the mountains surrounding the cirque. The choices were: Devil Castle, Sugarloaf Mountain and Mount Baldy. In the guide book, it indicated that Devil Castle had a lot of exposures, which I really didn't want to deal with today. Mount Baldy was a bit out of the area, and Sugarloaf Mountain seemed like a logic choice for me, since it was right in front of me. If I had some time, I could always follow the ridge to Baldy Mountain.
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I had to walk back to that sign where they indicated the direction and trail, and continued straight onto towards the mountain. The trail crossed the water stream, and on the other side it led to the massive talus field in front of the mountain. This was one of the two difficult parts of the hike. Some of the rocks were not stable, so I had to concentrate a lot on traversing the talus field without falling down on rocks that gave way. This part was also pretty steep, so I had to stop a few times whilst going up the field.
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After crossing the talus field, I was faced with three potential ways to climb. The first one was to ascend via more scree to this pass between Devil Castle and Sugarloaf Mountain. That was the furthest from the summit and more to my left. The other two were wide slanting chimneys leading to the summit. I decided to take the chimney most close to the summit and what a challenge it posed to me! The chimney was approximately 6 to 10 feet wide, being the narrowest at the bottom and widing up at the top. The chimney also had a lot of scree on its slant, which made it difficult to hold onto anything but the rock formations on either sides.
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I wasn't too concerned about this until when I noticed something that looked like a red rocket. I realised all of a sudden that it was an unexploded avalanche rocket lying on scree. If the scree was to be disturbed, I pictured seeing that the rocket falling down below me and exploding. Not exactly a great scenario. I was able to climb on rocks on my left side and to avoid touching any of the scree rocks. As the chimney widened up, I went to the other side and all of a sudden there was a huge risk of exposure which startled me. Being enclosed in a chimney, one could feel safe (despite the avalanche rocket lying there!) then coming out to an opening with sheer dropoffs was a bit disorientating for me. I sat down for a while to regain my composure and energy, then climbed some more rocks towards the summit. About 10 to 15 minutes later, I arrived on the top of the summit.
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On the summit, I looked around and took in the magnificent views, especially these of Mount Timpanogos and Cecret Lake. I observed from the summit that I had taken a very difficult route up the mountain, as the actual trail actually went much more to my left towards Devil Castle (and the pass). Devil Castle was nothing but a very jagged ridge of summits not being no wider than like a table. It is no wonder some people say that it takes a lot of nerves to climb Devil Castle. Sugarloaf Mountain, on the other hand, has a very big summit, which could, in theory, easily accommodate about 50 people or more. There were some rocks that were placed upon each other like a huge cairn, marking the summit of the peak. Besides the cairn, there was a National Geological Society black circle marker indicating the summit as well. There were quite a bit krummholz (small trees that survive above the treeline in the alpine zone).
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I decided that I would rather not descend back via the same route, but rather to follow the ridge line towards Mt. Baldy. Much to my astonishment, this was quite an easy trail that even children could hike up to the summit without any problem. I had taken a very difficult route up the mountain. Wow... Seeing that I had stayed up all night before at work, and going off to hiking right after work, I decided not to hike up Mt. Baldy, but to return home and sleep for work. I descended via Germania Pass, which was a very pleasant hike. There were an abundance of wildflowers as well, and I noticed some other species that I had not seen before, such as pedicularis groenlandica (elephanthead lousewort), rudbeckia occidentalis (western coneflower), rumex hymenosepalus (wild rhubarb) and so on.
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My impressions on Sugarloaf Mountain is that it is a very easy hike if one takes the route from the west via Germania Pass. Although I did not come via this route, it was a very nice hike, keeping me on the edge and making my brain work constantly to manoeuvre my way up the talus field and the chimney. It was a good experience and a departure from the normalcy of a worry-free hike, which I welcomed.
