Mineral Fork Hike

The last few weeks have been C-R-A-Z-Y! I packed up all my stuff and moved to a new apartment (pictures to come once it's all put together), and in between packing and moving, I spent a week at home in California (pictures to come soon). I had to do this quick little post about a hike I did because it was sort of a momentous life experience.
In early June, my friend, Michelle, and I attempted to hike the Mineral Fork trail in Big Cottonwood Canyon. We had fun, but we were only able to go a little over a mile up the trail before we hit major snow. I guess we were a little early in the season for hiking this one. So supposedly there was an abandoned mine at the end of the trail, but we weren't able to make it that far. We were telling people about our hike the next Sunday at church, and one of my friends said that it was one of his favorite hikes in Salt Lake and there really was a mine. I wasn't so sure I believed him, so he and I hiked it a couple of weekends ago. There were actually three mines, and an indescribable view of the Salt Lake Valley. Who knew?!
This is me at the beginning of the hike. Apparently there are wild raspberries that grow in this area, but someone or something had already eaten them all. Bummer!
This is how we dined on our Subway sandwiches. This is my friend, Brett. Who needs a recliner when you have a couple of good rocks?!

Brett at the first mine. It is sort of crazy to think that people really came up here and worked back in the day. Did they ride horses? Did they walk? Was the mine active when cars existed so maybe they could drive up to it? I need to know the history of these things! It's times like these that I wish I could travel back in time and see this place in its prime.

Yeah! We made it to the first mine! Pardon the wild hairdo on my part! Note to self....wear bandana next time like Brett! It eliminates wild hairdos, soaks up the sweat (I am a sweaty hot mess when I do any sort of physical activity), and it prevents sunburned scalp which I experienced firsthand after this hike! Not so fun! It's not dandruff, I swear! Just chunks of my crisped, dead scalp skin!

When we got to the first mine, we met an ATVer who said there was a second mine up the trail a ways. We didn't have anything better to do that day, so we pressed on. At the second mine, we could see up at the end of the trail that there was a third mine. There was only a few switchbacks up to the third mine, so we pressed on. On our way to the third mine, another ATVer said that there was a little steep trail up from the third mine to the ridgeline and that there was an amazing view that we couldn't miss. So when we go to the third mine, we scaled a very steep mountainside (without injury or death thankfully) for about 100 yards to see this view...

What?! How can such beautiful things exist? That is Lake Blanche in the foreground, with the Salt Lake Valley and Great Salt Lake off in the distance. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry or shout for joy. It was quite the trek and worth ever step for this view. I really couldn't believe that I was standing on top of a mountain. Those of you who follow my blog know of my little personal journey to get healthy and take better care of my body. This was just another huge step in that journey. Six months ago, I would never even entertained the idea of going on a hike like this. I would have been dead on the trail long before the first mine, and here I was standing on top of a mountain and I felt pretty dang good!

This is a shot of the last little stretch of the hike. The second mine is darker brown blob at the beginning of the switchbacks. The third mine is down at the end of the switchbacks where we started our scaling of the mountainside.

And another bonus of this hike was that I made a pretty good friend in the process. Thanks for being a great hiking partner, Brett! You get to know a person pretty well after hiking for 9+ hours. Originally we thought we would only be hiking for 3-4 hours to the first mine. He was even nice and let me set the pace. I may be in decent shape now, but parts of this hike kicked my bootie! I can't wait for my next hiking adventure! I see mountains now and just want to climb to the top of them. What has gotten into me?! :)

End of summer goal = hike Mt. Timpanogos

P.S. The Forest Service says the Mineral Hike trail is 4.5 miles oneway. It felt like a lot more than that, but still quite an accomplishment! My muscles felt every step of those 4.5 miles that night!