Summit of Mt. Ben Lomond
Two weeks ago we packed the kids into the Caravan and began the trek from California to Utah. Cade and I were planning on tagging along with Aubrie’s brothers for a deer hunt in northern Utah. We finished the drive to Provo at about 1:30 AM, and easily fell asleep at our destination.
The next morning Cade and I packed our camping gear and were off with the other boys for our three hour trek to Liberty, Utah on the eastern side of the Wasatch mountains. After some exploration of the area and a visit to the firing range, we went to bed early to rest for the day ahead.
Our group woke up at 3:30 AM (2:30 California time) to get an early start on our hike up the mountains we would be scouting. We started our hike from the trailhead at 4 AM having no idea what to expect. It was cold, dark, and no signs of anyone else on the mountain aside from a few other parked trucks at the trailhead. The trail started out as a wide gravel road for maybe 1/2 a mile. Then a small horse/hiking trail shot off to the side next to a boulder and disappeared into the woods. The trail switches back and forth up the mountain, becoming rough and wet at some points, but overall being an easy to intermediate hike. We came across a deer while it was still dark, its eyes glowed in our headlights. Since we were looking for a buck, it was simply a diversion from the hike, but still fun to catch our first glimpse of the wild life. The hike continued up the mountain until about 7 AM.
At that point we had come to a hill off the side of the trail that seemed to have nice views of the surrounding area. Adam felt it would be a good place to start the hunt, so we settled in on this hill to have breakfast and wait for the sun to come up. As the sun rose it illuminated the mountain we were perched on, and I took in the beauty of its peak. I had no knowledge of what mountain we were on or its elevation, but I knew with our early start that the summit was a definite possibility. When I asked Cade if he wanted to go all the way to the top he replied an eager “Yes!” So after breakfast we wished the others luck with the hunt and told them we were off to the top. There’s nothing like a spontaneous adventure to the top of a mountain!
Southern view of the peak from the final ridge.
Cade and I went back to the trail and continued on our way to the top. It wasn’t long before we started seeing patches of snow which gradually became a frozen white blanket covering the earth around us. At about this point we turned a corner on the trail when we made our first moose sighting of the day. It was about 50 yards off the trail, but was still exciting since you don’t see moose everyday in California. On our way up we saw a group of 3 deer making their way across the mountain, and the reality of the day set in as we began to hear gun shots echo off the mountain. At about 9:30 AM we were on top of the last tree lined ridge that approached the peak above. We found a confluence of trails on this ridge with a sign that finally provided some information about our climb. It showed various trailheads that lead to the top, and their respective elevations. We had started at 5,000′ and had traveled about 4.5 miles to about 8,700′. We would be climbing another 1.5 miles and 1,000′ to the summit of 9,716′.
Cade and I were already hungry again, so we took a break and ate “lunch” before continuing on. This final ascent was definitely the best part of the trek. Though we were unequipped with the shoes for it, we spent a good amount of time ignoring the trail. Instead we opted to climb through the snow and boulders, finding as many shortcuts as possible. We were wet and cold and the wind became more intense the higher we climbed. As we neared the summit we got back on the trail and followed it to the top.
We reached the summit at 11:00 AM, or about 7 hours after starting out that morning. The views were awesome, from the Great Salt Lake and Utah Valley to the Rocky Mountains to the east. I was proud of Cade for making it all the way without any complaints. I don’t know if most seven year olds would have made it, let alone wanted to get there. We met a girl at the top who had jogged up the trail from Ogden. She is a med-student from Florida and she was visiting University of Utah to consider it for her residency. Coming from Florida with a completely different landscape, she was amazed by the mountains. Even though we live in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas, this was truly a sight for us also. We were glad to have met her since my cell battery had died, so we had no way to take a picture. She asked if she could take our picture and send it to me later. (Scroll to the bottom of the post for the pic) After the snap shots she took off, and Cade and I enjoyed the summit for a few more minutes. Cade found a pen to write his name on a piece of tape that was attached to a metal box at the top. The wind was really blowing, so after about 10 minutes we were chilled and ready to go.
The hike back down was much quicker and we saw more wildlife. We found the rest of our group taking a break right on the trail on our way back down. They never shot a buck, but we drove back to Provo thoroughly spent from a fun day on Mt. Ben Lomond.
Here’s some more information about the peak from Summit Post and Wikipedia:
http://www.summitpost.org/parent/152185/ben-lomond.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Lomond_Mountain_(Utah)
Sam and Cade Bragg, Ben Lomond Summit, 10/17/2009
