Sardine and "Wheeler" peak in the northern Wasatch

Nate U · Post by **Nate U** » Sun Jun 04, 2023 7:46 am

The family has been staying at my parent's new house in Ogden Utah for the last week. (Until last year they had lived in Maine) The hiking around here is awesome. Yesterday I got out with my father/OG hiking partner in crime to tackle bit of springtime peak bagging in the Wasatch. My father is 67 and still a force to be reckoned with on the trail.

We started at the Snowbasin ski resort Maples trailhead, and travelled through an idyllic forest of Aspen and Gambel Oak while dodging mountain bikers bombing down the mountain at 300mph. Once attaining the ridge, we did an off-trail scramble to bag an unnamed bump (which I call Wheeler Peak) that overlooks Wheeler Canyon, where I had taken my son Forest on an overland sledding adventure last christmas. Here is Forest mid-sledding adventure, with "Wheeler Peak" behind him. This was my phone's lock screen all spring, and its pretty hard to have a peak staring at you from your lock screen for a few months without feeling a uncontrollable desire to bag it:

My experience scrambling around the Northern Wasatch is still limited, but its been awesome every time. The ridge to Wheeler Peak proved to be comprised of scrubby Gambel Oak on the south face, majestic conifers on the north, all interspersed by meadows of beautiful wildflowers, punctuated by craggy exposures of 360 mya dolomitic limestone of the Humbug formation.

No good views and generally all very ugly, as seems to be the usual in the Wasatch. This is Mt Ogden and its friends behind my father.

enormous ant hill amongst the Gambel Oaks:

There were a plethora of Moose/Elk tracks. Not small animals.

Back on the trail on Sardine Peak it started sleeting on us, and you could see it was snowing higher up.

Feeling fortunate my sister in law got a job at the University here, and my Parents have followed. Worse places for a peak bagger to have to spend some time.

9.14 miles, 2472ft elevation gain.

Girl Hiker · Post by **Girl Hiker** » Sun Jun 04, 2023 9:35 am

Beautiful pics. That's really cool that you can hike with your dad. Also, cute pic of your son. He looks like he's having fun.
Thanks for sharing.

Post by **JeffH** » Sun Jun 04, 2023 10:44 am

Nate U wrote: ↑.... its pretty hard to have a peak staring at you from your lock screen for a few months without feeling a uncontrollable desire to bag it:

Yeah, I have some reminders too. Lock screen for me is Mt Whitney and the background screen is Mt Baldy.

Post by **Sean** » Mon Jun 05, 2023 1:55 am

Thanks for the report. So, the Humbug Formation isn't a football play named after Ebenezer Scrooge? I feel like I don't know much about geology.

Post by **Uncle Rico** » Mon Jun 05, 2023 6:28 am

I grew up in the Wasatch, but spent most of my time hiking the canyons around SLC. Never hiked out of Ogden. I guess I should have. Good stuff.

Post by **tekewin** » Mon Jun 05, 2023 7:16 pm

Nice mountains. Never been to that part of Utah, but the parts I've seen were loaded with beauty. Cool that you can hike with your dad.

Are you a geologist by trade? I like the details about the rock. I took a basic geology course in college, but have forgotten most of it.

Nate U · Post by **Nate U** » Mon Jun 05, 2023 7:22 pm

Uncle Rico wrote: ↑I grew up in the Wasatch, but spent most of my time hiking the canyons around SLC. Never hiked out of Ogden. I guess I should have. Good stuff.

I haven't explored the Wasatch around SLC yet. Photos, videos, and what I see from my car window suggest its pretty awesome too. Maybe just you have to get a little deeper into the range for the spectacular rock faces and conifer forests and meadows that tend to be more readily accessible up here in Ogden? I don't know... but I'm guessing you can't really go wrong anywhere in this mountain range. Actually I feel that way about any mountain range, really. Never met one I didn't love. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Nate U · Post by **Nate U** » Mon Jun 05, 2023 7:38 pm

tekewin wrote: ↑Nice mountains. Never been to that part of Utah, but the parts I've seen were loaded with beauty. Cool that you can hike with your dad.

Are you a geologist by trade? I like the details about the rock. I took a basic geology course in college, but have forgotten most of it.

I am purely an amateur geology enthusiast. I've loved mountains and hiking my whole life, then about 15 years ago started to feel the desire to explain why the mountains I was hiking on were the way they were. My hiking really drives and guides my geology studies - the two hobbies so easily enrich one another. I have this graph-paper scroll thats about 80 sheets long I've taped together thats my own personal biographical geologic timeline, where I write in entries of the bedrock I've encountered on hikes and make notes about where it was. Been adding to it for 15 years. I had to tape together 20 or so additional sheets to extend backwards to get the 1500 million year old Mendenhall Gneiss last winter I hiked over on the ridge to Magic Mountain. 20 sheets of taping to add a single entry... but you gotta do what you gotta do

Thats cool you guys seem to appreciate the geology mentions. If I can, I make a point of knowing sort of rock I'm hiking upon anyways, so I'll include those tidbits of info in future TRs.