Weather:  Moderate temperatures (low 90's) that day in the valley, a few clouds in the sky.
Present were:  Mike, K7DOU;  Gordon, K7HFV;  Clint, KA7OEI.
Destination:  To Catherine Pass via Lake Dog.
Question of the day:  "Is the name of this lake spelled with a 'C' or a 'K'?"
Total distance:   3.73 miles, round trip
Times:  Depart vehicle:  1848;  Reached Lake Dog junction:  1915;  Joined Lake Mary trail:  1940;  Reached Cirque:  1949;  Reached Catherine Pass:  2003;  Departed pass:  2027;  Rejoined Lake Dog trail:  2056;  Reached Lake Dog junction:  2115;  Return to vehicle:  2140
Altitudes in feet ASL (approx) from GPS:  Vehicle:  8800;  Turnoff to Lake Dog:  9340;  Junction of Lake Dog trail and the Lake Mary trail:  9750;  Lake Catherine Cirque:  9900;  Catherine Pass:  10180
Elevation gain/loss:  To the pass:  1380;
Local sunset on this date:  8:48 PM - (We've lost 6 minutes of daylight since last week - nearly 15 minutes since the solstice.)

We tried to go to this same place in 2004 - click here to see pictures from that trip - and for an explanation...

Images (457-1146k each, .JPG):

• IMG02669 - Information at the panel at the trailhead.
• IMG02671 - One of several moose grazing on the ski run, along the trail.
• IMG02672 - The Lake Catherine cirque as seen from below the lake.
• IMG02674 - A view down into the cirque from Catherine Pass.  #2675 is similar, with Gordon and Mike making their way down.
• IMG02676 - Pioneer Peak in the aplenglow.  #2677 is a zoomed-in shot of the peak, showing those still atop it.
• IMG02679 - Gordon, shown in the process of inconveniencing many electrons by taking a picture of the peak bathed in alpenglow.
• IMG02681 - Gordon and Clint with a background of Pioneer Peak.
• IMG02687 - Pioneer Peak with a reflection in Lake Catherine.

Maps/profiles:

Note that GPS elevation data is sometimes a bit "ratty" due to frequent blockage and degradation of the satellite signal.

• The recorded GPS track of the hike.
• The elevation profile of the hike
• A more detailed map with the GPS track of the hike (plus surrounding landmarks)

There were only the three of us that met in the parking lot.  Initially, we had decided that Clayton Peak might be nice, so we headed up to Brighton.  While in the parking lot, we also noticed that the group gathering for the Wasatch Mountain Club (the "WMC") was unusually large - and we heard from them that their planned destination was Catherine Pass from the Brighton side.  Possibly wanting to avoid a huge gaggle of hikers, we biased ourselves more toward Clayton.

Parking at Brighton, we trudged up the current route - along a gravel and dirt road (much less scenic than the now closed-for-restoration path along the stream) and soon observed two moose munching away in the open ski run - followed by another two moose slightly higher up.  After looking at a distance, we proceeded up the hill (being lapped by much of the WMC - who left after us but were, for the most part, moving more quickly) before the new trail joined the old one and began the ascent to the Lake Dog cirque.

Once we arrived at the Lake Dog cirque, we changed our plans:  We'd originally (somewhat) chosen Clayton Peak, but Gordon, still recovering from a summer cold, and myself not feeling to be in a "Clayton Peak" mood, decided to go for Catherine (or "Katherine" - as the sign at the junction said...) Pass via Lake Dog, instead.

If you reviewed the comments from last year's attempt at this same route, you'd know that Gordon was, in fact, the only one in our group who had been familiar with this particular route.  Lessons learned, we did not make that mistake again this year, but we could help noticing that a contingent of 3 members of the WMC had also tried to follow this course, but had missed the turnoff from the main trail and had rejoined it by following a wash uphill.

Continuing on, we soon joined the main trail, already in progress, and proceeded up to the Lake Catherine cirque and could see at that time that there was already a large herd of people on the pass, the unnamed peak between the pass, and a group heading over to Sunset Peak.  Making our way up to the pass, we passed several of the WMC, already heading down, complaining of large clouds of mosquitoes at the pass, so we applied our bug repellent (DEET) at that point, already being bothered by the bugs.  Getting up to the pass we did, indeed, experience clouds of bloodsucking flying bugs and reapplied DEET to minimize our blood loss.  Gordon, who arrived a few minutes later, sat down to look for his repellent and was almost immediately swarmed by the creatures until Mike dusted him with a spray of his own to ward them off.

With the nearly clear sky and the slight amount of fire-related haze in the air, the alpenglow was very warm and the setting sun nicely highlighted Sunset Peak.  Heading back down, we stopped several times to make latent silver halide images and rearrange electrons for our future viewing pleasure.  To our surprise, it was still light enough to safely make our way down without flashlights - even by the time we reached the car.

On the way down the canyon, usual deer-avoidance measures were necessarily undertaken and the three of us got together at the TGI Friday's near Cottonwood Mall for a traditional after-hike "dime lime."
 

• Some of these images - particularly those taken near the time of sunset-  are fairly strongly cast yellow/orange.  This is due to the atmosphere being very hazy because of large fires in the western U.S.
• If you want one (or more) of these images and wish some sort of adjustment (color, brightness, exposure, etc.) please let me know:  All of these image have been processed in some way.
• These images are 457-1146k in size, .JPG and are in chronological order.
• No-one ever said that all of these images (or any of them) were good.  Some of them may have definite focus/exposure "issues."
• EXIF data is present for most of the images, showing time, date, and precise exposure conditions.  Recent versions of Irfanview will show this in the "View->Image Information->EXIF" tab.  Note that cropping/noise reduction required the use of another program which may have removed some/most of this EXIF data.
• Images suffixed with "h" are half-size.  This was done for images that were somewhat out of focus (due to misfocus or camera/subject movement associated with long shutter times) or those that required some extra noise reduction and had lost some detail anyway.
• All images taken using a Sigma SD-10 camera and were taken using the 18-50mm zoom lens, except as noted in the EXIF data.

Go to the 2005 Wednesday Night Hike page, or main Wednesday Night Hike index page.