Uinta Highline Trail Trip Report, Labor Day weekend 2023

Day 0 (mile 0-5) New York-Denver-Vernal-East Park Reservoir - Walk. Train. Walk. Bus. Walk. Plane. Walk. Plane. Hope to walk a lot more on the 105 mile Uinta Highline Trail. This trip is an effort to moderate my life. To hold a job, be there for my partner yet still have hiker dreams that occasionally become reality. I’ve never been very good at moderation but maybe it’ll work this time. Walk past the terminals in Denver Airport, think I should study this place in more detail. DEN is a portal to many places in the America west I would like to go. Not much of a view outside, inside I’m rocking secondhand clown shoes and MYOG backpack, sun hoody and shiny 2 oz windpants. “Most people call months in advance” says Vernal taxi driver Brad, as I repackage my haul from Walmart in the backseat on the way to McKee Draw. 4 days of food, water bottle and Ozark Trail trekking poles. I examine the plastic flick locks and frown. We talk winter weather, passport bros and Ley lines. I laugh and nod. Half a mile in, Vince from West Virginia sits astride a four wheeler smiling. He reminds me of my dad. Vince has cancer and is selling his houses and seeing as many wild places and animals as he can with the time he has left. The sky is clear and the sun hangs low in the thin, cool air. The silent pines surround me in this alpine oasis above the harsh desert below. 5 miles in I hit the reservoir, get water and make camp, anchor my tarp to a pine tree and recline on the duff. I eat, massage my sore feet and lay peacefully listening to the nothingness. Making it all the way here in one day was my best case scenario and I drift off delighted.

UHT Day 1 (mile 5-27) East Park Reservoir, Leidy TH, Gabbro Pass - As I walk down to East Park Reservoir at dawn to fetch water, 3 large birds take off from the lake, bellowing like dinosaurs as they rise. Their calls reverberate off the surrounding hills. 19 miles to Leidy, long water carry. Camel up freezing cold water. Ice cream headache. Head hazy from the altitude. Right hip gives me trouble all day, must’ve slept on it weird. Slower going than expected due to altitude, blowdowns, navigating the sometimes-disappearing trail and rocky terrain. Meet Alder from Colorado Springs, habitual sectionhiker on day 4 of his eastbound thru-hike. He’s going about my speed in the opposite direction. Says he’s had good weather and seen 2-3 westbounders and a handful of section hikers per day. Why go eastbound? “2,000 ft less elevation gain.” 😆 At Leidy TH meet Walt from SLC, on his annual pilgrimage to Leidy Peak, this year recovering from knee surgery. Still made it all the way up. Slept last night in a jacket in his truck. Around Leidy to Gabbro the wind is relentless and the trail rocky and elusive. Wind so strong you can’t even stop and take a break, reminds me of the PCT. Must keep going. Tough end of day. Want to climb Gabbro to Deadman but it’s 5 miles and I lose light and willpower. Camp at marginal site nestled amongst wind-beaten shrubbery.

UHT Day 2 (mile 27-41?) Gabbro Pass, Deadman Lake, Chepeta Lake, North Pole Pass - Wind howled all night and brought scattered showers. Tarp pitched storm mode. Wake with clear head and fresh legs. Today I get to “the good stuff”. Go over Gabbro, lovely breakfast at Deadman Lake. Reflected ripples of sunlight dance in the trees. Feel distinct sense of gratitude during pleasant morning hike to Chepeta Trailhead where I meet thru-hiker Justin trying to bail out due to altitude sickness. On the way to North Pole Pass meet local Randall who says next 3 days will rain, with snow likely above 10k. Shit. Meet father and son bow-hunting who repeat forecast. Shit. Start going through scenarios. Walk in intermittent rain until I can see North Pole, socked in at 12:04pm, way too early. Shit. Shit. North Pole is 4 miles long and totally exposed. I am prepared for rain and waiting out thunderstorms but not 3 days of cold rain and snow. If I go forward I will walk for 2 hours through a rainstorm, and bailing out becomes significantly harder from Painters Basin on the other side. Nothing to do but bail out now. Turn around, walk back to Chepeta. It’s windy, cool and overcast. Find Justin and wife Jen trying to stay warm sitting on a log wrapped in foam pads and tyvek. Rains off and on, start getting cold about 2pm. Move to more sheltered location, still near the road so we can flag down cars. Start boiling water to stay warm. Only a few cars at trailhead, hope someone stops. Check map to see how far the walk out is — it’s far. Randall stops by at 3pm and drives us down. We talk fishing, cars and tribal politics. Drops us in Roosevelt, eat pizza and try and fail to rent a car within a 30 mile radius. Justin’s dad Grandpa Jerry drives 3 hours from SLC to pick us up. Talks nonstop on the ride back, lovely man and crystal clear at 80. Watch dark stormclouds wrap the Uintas as we drive west on 40. Get into SLC around 10pm. Shower. Borrow clothes. Cotton feels good, feet do not. Pet dogs. Sleep in camper van. What a day. Still a bit in shock and saddened to have picked such a rotten weather window. Hope everyone still up there is OK.

Utah Day 3 Salt Lake City - Wake up in camper van in driveway, knock on house door at the polite time of 8am. Like me Justin and Jen are frugal but occasionally invest in something nice if it’s worth it — I start my day with an amazing cup of gourmet coffee from their prosumer-level coffee machine and proceed to cook up the cheap remains of my food bag: summer sausage, cheddar cheese and tortillas. Just pop tarts, tuna, ramen, sweets and trail mix left; this might be the first time I didn’t overpack food. I play with friendly cat Blackie and dogs Boots and Odin. Boots manically craves attention while Odin is a happy-go-lucky pup stuck in the body of a direwolf from Game of Thrones. We drive up to Hayden Pass to pick up J&J’s car and go from warm, sunny SLC to socked in, cool, all-day drizzle. Hypothermia weather. On the drive back Justin runs an errand a few blocks from his house, then hands me his car keys in the parking lot, tells me to be back by dark and then walks off. I try to figure out what hikes I can do in the Wasatch in a few hours and realize that everything is really high and really steep. The larger peaks are out of the question. I just want to get a decent view of the city so I settle on modest Ferguson Canyon and after the guys with beer bellies and families with little kids I scramble up as high as I can in search of a place that I can sit comfortably with a decent view, which is surprisingly hard to find amongst the steep, jagged, crumbly terrain. I drive back by dark and sit on the front porch with J&J. They’ve never even heard of the trail even though it’s 20 minutes away 😆 we debate dinner but Justin has been feeling off all day and turns in early. Jen and I eat pizza and share our life stories. I’m not really used to talking about myself much but I do my best. She has had things harder than I have. We talk and pet the animals for a few hours while we watch the neighborhood in the dark.

Utah Day 4 SLC, Antelope Island, Frary Peak - Eat breakfast out of my food bag, then at J&J’s suggestion head to Frary Peak Trail on Antelope Island, a rugged chunk of land an hour away in the Great Salt Lake, connected by causeway and host to its own herd of bison(!) Hit up Walmart for some sunscreen and an Arnold Palmer, pay the entrance fee and head up. First climb is through a sea of the unprepared who are walking up a steep, exposed trail in full Utah sun in t-shirts, no hat and some carrying no water. Crowd thins rapidly and only see a handful of the prepared afterwards. Trail is solid, the climb steady and the views expansive throughout, fantastic. Some fun twists and turns along the way with an absolutely banger view from the top. Make it up in time for a late lunch. The most scenic and enjoyable couple of miles this whole trip, Uintas included. Loved everything about it, except forgetting my lunch in the car. Whoops! Drink celebratory beverage, walk down, drive back, home-cooked pasta dinner, then figure out how to AirPlay photos to the TV and spend the night sharing pictures and telling stories. Supposed to rain tomorrow… considering Mt. Olympus but we’ll see what happens. Fall asleep to the pitter-patter of raindrops on the van roof.

Utah Day 5 SLC - Fly out tomorrow morning, on my trip’s downslope now. Rainy morning. Freezing rain in the Wasatch. Won’t clear up in time for any side trips today. Uintas have gone from bad to worse over Labor Day weekend with snow at Mirror Lake; the NWS describes “winter-like conditions” above 10k feet. Warm up with cappuccino. Jus still recovering from altitude sickness. We talk Grand Staircase and I try to soak it all in. Down the rabbit hole we go with trip photos, then YouTube videos, then Steve Allen guidebooks. Watch a documentary on legendary dirtbag climber Fred Beckey. Jen shares an Instagram story on Swiss via ferrata, I send her a link to via ferrata in Utah. “$109 to walk on some metal pegs? No thanks.” ❤️ eat some great Indian food and spend the night in the living room with the tv off, talking and occasionally sitting in silence, listening to the nothingness. Nice to find others completely comfortable doing so. Sort out morning plans, fall asleep reading Grand Obsession.