Dude!

For the last couple months I've been trying to find some low elevation hikes that could be done early in the hiking season this year.  I picked three hikes in the Salt Lake area and waited for a time to get out hiking.  Today we decided to drive into Salt Lake to cheer on a friend running in the Salt Lake City Half Marathon and it seemed like a great day to get out and do some hiking.

Because we had most of the day left with very little else to do I decided to do the longest of the three hikes: Dude Hill.  I didn't know much about it, just that it started at the Ensign Peak trailhead at about 5,000' and climbed to the Dude Hill benchmark at about 7,100'.  2,100' didn't seem too bad, even if the hike was 5.25 miles each way.  

Since I was on the Ensign Peak trail anyway I decided to stop by Ensign Peak on my way up.  It was nice.  It took 11 minutes from the trailhead to the peak.  Then I went back down the hill to where the trail splits to go East.  In the picture above you can see Ensign Peak in the distance and the trail leading up to where I'm standing.  I've found that I prefer taking pictures of how far I've come rather than how far I still have left to go.

The one thing I need to do for the next hike is clean the camera lens.  The trail gets really steep almost immediately after branching off from the Ensign Peak trail.  Then it gets steeper.  Then it stays steep, but in the downward direction.  Then it repeats that about 25 times.

It was really nice to be able to look down at the city.  There were very few clouds in the sky, and the skies were blue.  There was a little haze in the valleys, but it was still a great view.

Here was one of the worst hills.  Not the worst.  Except for about one mile of the 5.25 miles, it all looked like the picture above.  And then, after climbing 300 vertical feet on this hill, I dropped 200 feet down the other side.  The trail has only one switchback.  It just follows the ridge to every high point and low point.

Again, looking back you can see the trail climbing up and down back toward the city.

The picture above shows the one switchback on the trail.  You'd think that it would make it easier to climb up, but in this case the switchbacks are still just as steep as the rest of the trail.

Up near the peak there was a bit of snow.  Not a lot, and it didn't cause any problems.  It was kind of fun to see a little snow.

And finally after 3 hours, 5.25 miles, 2 wrong turns, and nearly being run over by a dozen mountain bikers, I made it to the top.  And, after examining the the GPS track when I got home, I was able to determine how many feet I ACTUALLY climbed by going up and down and up and down: 3,600'.  Quite a few more than the 2,100' I thought I'd be getting.

It was a good hike, though.  Beautiful day, great views, great workout, and it gives me confidence that I'll be able to tackle any other hike I attempt this year.  They couldn't be any more difficult than this one.