We got an afternoon of free time on the trip so the Canadian Contingency (minus one who chose to go golfing instead) decided to climb up Mt. Baldy. We started at an elevation around 4400 ft and got up to about 8000 ft ... or for us Canadians an elevation gain of about 1500 km. We ended up taking about 6 hours for the trip. The trail started pleasantly enough with lovely views of Orem and the surrounding mountains.
The view up to Mt. Baldy:
This is where it started to get a bit rough... we lost the trail heading up to Mt. Baldy and started bush-whacking from the base to the summit through some scratchy shrubs.
There was still a good amount of snow near the top so we paused for some scenic shots and a snowball fight.
A little further up we found a ridge that went up to the top. It was covered in a few feet of snow still but firm enough not to sink through... although the summit was still deceptively far away and difficult to run to on the snow.
View from the top of Mt. Baldy:
What else would we do up there except build a snowman?
We named it after the missing Canadian and left him up (minus the cowboy hat) there hoping we could see him from the bottom with our binoculars... never did get a chance to check it out though....
We couldn't see the trail from the top. Mark decided to take a short cut and used his rain jacket as a toboggan and slid down on his bum.
Part way down we came across a sign-post indicating we were on the right track.
There was a little bit of trail at first but we lost it again and ended up picking our way down the gully between the mountains...
When we got close to the bottom we found the trail again and came across this idyllic setting (and sign). Apparently we started the hike from the wrong side of the parking lot. The trail we started on didn't actually go to the summit... but it was an awesome hike anyway!!
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