Hello all! We've decided to try posting something! So, why not start with our most recent outing.
Just yesterday Michelle and I went on hike with our friend Kim. Kim has a handy little trail guide of all the different hikes in Cache Valley (no matter how obscure it might be).
We had narrowed our choices down to two trails, one that none of us had ever been on, and another that Kim and Michelle went on last year. (Now I should mention that during their hike last year they did lose the trail and ended up cutting out more than half of the trip.) So we decided to take another go at their failed attempt.
The Willow Creek to Little Cottonwood Creek trail starts at the same point as the trail to Old Ephraim's Grave (this part was pretty easy to keep track of). Along their way there is a "big switch-back" according to Kim's book we were supposed to follow a faint trail from here which lead onward to the Little Cottonwood Creek trail. "Faint" seemed about right for the first few yards, then it faded down to a cattle trail, then to pretty much nothing. We continued on courageously as we saw signs of a trail up ahead and began to follow that. Again, the trail somehow dwindled to nothing. Now, we knew we were supposed to go in the same general direction until we came to "two prominent hills". So on and on we went looking for some hills in the mountains. (I know that sounded pretty ironic to us also.)
Instead of the hills all we ended up finding was a rather large field. (At least it was a pretty field.) Now, from the hills we were supposed to follow the trail to a road. This road made up a rather large portion of the trip (they never did find the road last year). Well, we simply had no other choice than to trek across the field in search of a road.
As we wandered up the side of this field we found a trail which led into a small grove of aspens. We decided to do what we'd been doing pretty much the whole while, we followed the trail. Of course this trail through the aspens led us to another smaller field with one big rock in it. Why there was this nice beautiful field with one lonely rock, we had no idea.
Seeing as the big white rock was the only thing around we decided to go take a look. We arrived at the rock and as we were observing the terrain Kim noticed a long ways back the way we'd come (across the small field, the aspen grove, and the large field,) there was a dusty trail that, from this distance, could have been a road. Obviously we were pretty excited about the potential of getting to the enigmatic dirt road so we were off once again.
According to Kim's book the trail was supposed to meet the road around the highest point of the whole trip. We ended up finding the road at a rather low point (which meant that somewhere back up the road was where the trail met the road). So, again, we backtracked in hopes of finding where this whole thing came together. By now Kim was pretty determined to make the whole trip and since Michelle and I were in no hurry we were excited to solve the riddle as well.
We finally found the highest point for quite some distance, we even found a trail coming onto the road at that exact point, but the trail faded about ten feet from the road. The funny part of this little spot was that right below us sat our lonely white rock. If we had only gone straight up the steep hill we would have ended up at the same point with a lot less walking.
So, with that whole middle section left as a mystery we went on down the road for quite a while. Again, the book gave some rather vague directions as pertaining to what we should have expected, but when the road started to turn north and the book noted that it should turn south we became a little worried. There was a rise a short distance ahead and we decided that we'd go on to the rise and make a decision from there. Luckily just past that point the road took a turn to the west which we followed gladly (west is certainly getting closer to going south). However, at the next rise the road took yet another turn to the north. We stood at this spot with hesitation to move onward one way or the other. (At this point I would like to make mention that the only other people we'd seen this whole while was a father and son that had just gone a short distance up from the trail head.)
As we stood procrastinating the decision making process, we heard a far off buzz. Realizing it was coming from the west we watched in the distance to try and find the motorcycles that were making the noise. By listening we were able to determine that they were traveling north and then they came around a small hill and as it would turn out they came right up along our solitary road.
With a renewed vigor we went happily to the north with the knowledge that in a short while the trail would make a large U-turn, and we'd be on our way in the right direction. As it turned out the trail remained strong from here on out and we were led right back to where we had parked the car.
Kim is now determined to go back on that trail and find the missing link. However, even without that bit of the trip, we were able to turn a 6 1/2 mile trail into about an 8 or 9 mile hike (with a lot of wandering and backtracking). Michelle and I are a little sunburned now, and I'm sure that Kim isn't doing much better. :)
