Weather:  Cooler - in the 80's with occasional rain and thunderstorm activity in the valley earlier in the day, but calmer that evening.
Present were:  Mike, K7DOU;  Tim, KK7EF;  Ron, K7RJ;  Gordon, K7HFV;  Clint, KA7OEI.
Destination:  Twin Lakes Pass and then past the Lake Solitude (with a brief detour to the Solitude Tunnel)
Question of the day:  "Is that the watershed that everyone talks about?"
Total distance:   4.57 miles, round trip
Times:  Depart vehicle:  1857;  Junction of trail (started ascent):  1905;  Arrived at Twin Lakes Dam:  1925;  Gordon arrives, departed dam:  1936;  Passed junction to Lake Solitude:  1951;  Arrived at Twin Lakes Pass:  2006;  Departed Twin Lakes Pass:  2025;  Return to junction to Lake Solitude:  2043;  Visited the Solitude Tunnel:  2103;  Passed Twin Lakes trail junction:  2129;  Return to car:  2143
Altitudes in feet ASL (approx) from GPS:  Vehicle:  8740;  Twin Lakes trail junction:  8650;  Top of Twin Lakes Dam:  9285;  Junction of trail to Lake Solitude:  9630;  Twin Lakes Pass:  10005;  Solitude Tunnel:  9130
Altitude gain/loss (approx.):  1265 Ft.
Local sunset on this date:  8:23 PM - (We've lost 11 minutes of daylight since last week - about 40 minutes since the solstice.)

We went to this same place in 2004 - click here to see pictures from that trip.  There are also a few pictures from 1996, when the reservoir was drained to allow work on the dam.

Images (390-728k each, .JPG):

• IMG02893 - "Jesus Beams" over Milicent as seen near Silver Lake.
• IMG02895 - Silver Lake as seen on the trail to Twin Lakes.
• IMG02899e - Water flowing over the spillway of the Twin Lakes dam.
• IMG02901 - Tim, pointing at the "Watershed" next to Twin Lakes.  We have all heard how we should protect our watershed - now we know where it is!  Similar is #2902.
• IMG02903 - Ron, on Twin Lakes Dam.
• IMG02905 - Twin Lakes and Millicent in the Alpenglow.
• IMG02941 - Mt. Majestic and sunset silhouette.
• IMG02943p - Twin Lakes in the moonlight.

These pictures are composites of many smaller pictures.  Please note that they may not display properly on some browsers.  You may need to use an image viewer like Irfanview to view them properly and zoom in on some of the details.

• Twin Lakes Panorama (2a) - This is a panoramic view of Twin Lakes, Millicent, and the environs taken about halfway between the Dam and the junction with the trail that leads to Lake Solitude.  About 3/4 to the right (in the shadows) can be seen the bowl and the snow in/on which the passing skiers had skiied.  This image's EXIF data contains additional information.  (Size:  2424 kB)
• Twin Lakes Panorama (3g) - This view, encompassing nearly 180 degrees, was taken from Twin Lakes Pass.  To the left, Gordon and Mike are just arriving while on the extreme right we can see Ron sending some pictures to Elaine.  This image's EXIF data contains additional information.  (Size:  1818 kB)

Maps/profiles:

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

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

This was another one of those hikes where we knew it would be a good idea to bring along some rain gear, avoid high ridges, and be prepared to take cover.

Fortunately, we had to do none of those things.  The storms that had crashed around in the valley earlier in the day had dissipated by the late afternoon leaving only clouds in its wake, making for potentially spectacular displays of aplenglow and strong rays at sunset.

Being somewhat cautious, we decided to do a route that offered safety - if it became necessary - yet fully exploited the maximum amount of daylight that we had remaining:  The Twin Lakes Pass to Lake Solitude loop.  This loop has many optional portions:  The trip to the pass is, itself, somewhat of a side-trip and weather threatening, could have been omitted.  Even the visit to Lake Solitude was optional had rain been coming down in buckets - in which case we might have simply retraced our steps back past Twin Lakes.

Arriving at Twin Lakes Dam we saw something that we had not seen for several years:  A spillway with water running over it.  There wasn't a very large volume of water running (see #2899e, above) but it was nice to see the reservoir at "full pool."  The sight of a full reservoir is quite different from seeing it empty, as it was in 1996 when it had been drained for re-grouting.

While we waited for Gordon, we joked about a small utility building on the shore of the reservoir, near the dam, claiming that it was the "watershed" that was often referred to on many of the information signs posted about the canyon.  After a while, we began to wonder where Gordon was as we couldn't see him coming up the trail, but soon a shout from above answered the question:  He had simply taken a slightly higher route, avoiding the dam entirely, and was already ahead of us.

Continuing up the trail to Twin Lakes Pass, we passed two guys, one of them carrying a pair of skis.  While this wasn't completely unexpected, we did wonder where, exactly, they had gone for their "ski fix" in August.  They pointed toward a bowl to the west of Millicent with a steep, rocky ascent with remaining streaks of snow.  Even with the naked eye, one could see evidence of activity on this ribbon of snow with their apparent tracks having cleaned the top layer of dust from the graying glacier.  The tracks in the snow are just visible in pano2, in the shaded snow field about 3/4 of the way to the right of the picture:  You will probably need to zoom in to see them.

We arrived at the pass a few minutes before the official sunset and in plenty of time to see the dying day playing its alpenglow amongst the peaks near the Brighton Bowl.  After the waning of the warm light (and the abeyance of the alliterations) just after sunset, we headed back down the trail and took the left that dropped us into the fork containing Lake Solitude.  At the lake, we made the obligatory visit to the entrance of the Solitude Tunnel (the "Suck and Blow mine") and proceeded, in the dark, down the trail and eventually rejoined the Silver Lake boardwalk.

Tim, who needed to report for work early the next morning, departed immediately, but the rest of is reconvened at the TGI Friday's at Cottonwood Mall for our traditional after-hike "Dime Lime."

According to Keller (in the book "The Lady in the Ore Bucket") some of the names that Lake Solitude has had included Oscar Lake (self-named by Oscar Young, one of Brigham's sons) as well as "Lizard" or "Electric" lake (possibly named after salamanders - sometimes refered to as lizards or "Electric Dogfish") finally settling out to its current name by the turn of the 19th-20th century.

Keller also mentions that the Solitude Tunnel was part of a larger system of mines throughout the area comprised of Grizzly Gulch, the Honeycomb Cliffs, and others near the head of Mill F South Fork.  This tunnel, excavated in about 1910 by the Utah Mines Coalition Company, extends under the top of Honeycomb Fork and under Grizzly Gulch and serviced many of that company's mines:  It is likely that one or more of these portals is the source of the airflow of the "Suck and Blow" mine (see below.)  Like many of the other mines in this area, the mineral of interest was Galena (Lead Sulphate) as well as the other lead and silver-bearing ores that often accompany it.

We (or at least I) often refer to the Solitude Tunnel as the "Suck and Blow" mine owing to the fact that one can count on (at least in the summer months) being basked in cold air if one stands at the portal.  What is happening is that warmer air entering the mine from above gets cooled, becomes heavier and falls, emerging from the portal.  Although not (yet) tested by any of us, it is presumed that a visit to this portal on a cold winter day would reveal that it is, at that time, "inhaling" rather than exhaling.  It is also apparent that, because there is good airflow, there is, in fact, another opening somewhere in the system connected to the Solitude Tunnel that allows the warm air to enter:  It would be interesting to know exactly which one(s) it/they is/are...

According to Keller, construction on the Twin Lakes dam started in April of 1915 and was completed by the end of the season, yielding a reservoir with a capacity of over 300 million gallons (approx. 921 acre-feet) for a cost of $72,000.  In May of 1917, the owner of the George Mining claim demanded a $10,000 payment because it was now partly underwater.  It wasn't until 1919 that this matter was settled for somewhat less - $183.35.

During the 1996 summer season, major renovation was done on the dam (see the pictures from 1996) - no doubt at a cost several orders of magnitude higher than that of the original construction.

Comments:

• 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 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" (if any) 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.