Uinta North Slope Trail – 40 miles

A week ago, I went backpacking for five days in the High Uintas in Utah.  While there, I discovered a nice challenging trail on the North Slope that runs west to east, up and over the ridges, and across the canyons.  This trail is named “Bear River – Smiths Fork” trail because it runs from Bear River on the west all the way to Smiths Fork on the east, probably about 35 miles or so.  On our last day of the backpack, we ran 11 miles of it between East and West Blacks Fork Forks.

I wanted to get in one more long training run before the Wasatch 100 in two weeks.  I wanted my run to have lots of climbs at altitude, so I decided to try running this trail starting at Bear River, up three major ridges, and then summit Mount Tokewanna, the 11^th highest peak in Utah.  I would then return the way I came, for an adventure of more than 40 miles.  I fully realized that this would be tough, especially since much of the trail would travel through an area destroyed by forest fire in 2002.

I watched the weather closely after fierce storms on Friday, and prepared for an epic adventure in the rain.  After midnight Friday night, I drove up to the trailhead.  Thankfully there had been no rain on the two hour drive, so I was hoping for improved weather.

I started my adventure less than a mile away from Mirror Lake Highway, at what seemed to be a trailhead.  It was unmarked except for a sign indicating the Wolverine ATV trail.  Away I went.  I first went along the ATV trail but after a half mile, I consulted my GPS and discovered that I wasn’t heading the right direction.  So, back to the car to start over.  I then noticed an overgrown clear-cut trail through the forest.  It was the right one, but had seen little use.   Then it started to pour rain.  The lightning show was amazing.  I pulled out a poncho and by the time I had it on and situated, the rain stopped.  I decided to keep the poncho on for the rest of the night to keep me warm.   After climbing on the rough trail for a mile or so, it was close to the modern dirt road, so I just used that until I reached the big Wolverine ATV trailhead.   I studied the map there and concluded that for the next few miles the ATV trail had taken over my Bear River – Smiths Fork trail.

I had a great time running on the very nice ATV trail in the dark and made good time.  A lot of effort has been put into this ATV trail.  There is even a very long stretch of boardwalk over a marshy section.  But all good things come to an end.  At a junction, my trail went off to the right.  It still wasn’t identified by name and it doubled for a cross-country trail in the winter.   The single-track trail was great for about 100 yards but then the first of many deadfall appeared across the trail.  It entered a massive area affected by the tragic 2002 forest fire caused by negligent boy scouts in two canyons to the east.    The deadfall across the trail were not huge tree trunks, so they were pretty easy to get over, but they had terrible spikes on them.  The fire had caused the tree limbs to burn off, leaving spikes in their place.  These spikes were sharp!  I took great care to avoid these.  I could visualize the possibility of falling on one of those.

Progress was slower.  I reached a trail junction and followed a cross-country ski route marked on trees, but after a half mile concluded that I was on the wrong route up to the high waters of Boundary Creek, so I backtracked.  I took the other trail and it seemed to work, but then I lost it as it crossed a large marshy area.   So I did my best to head to the next waypoint in my GPS but ended up heading down into the steep gorge of Boundary Creek.  It was steep, muddy, very hard in the dark.  When I reached the creek bottom, I searched and searched but couldn’t find a trail.  Following the creek down would be terrible and very slow, so I finally concluded to make the steep climb back up to the top of the ridge.  After wasting about 45 minutes, I concluded that I would give up and go back to the ATV trail to get in a nice run.  As I returned to the marshy area, I ran into the trail I had lost.  So I quickly decided to keep trying to push on ahead.  The trail worked great.  I had missed it in the dark a couple times by about 10 yards.

The trail led me correctly down to Boundary Creek which I crossed and then joined the dirt road through the quiet and deserted Boy Scout camp.  It was fun to run a couple miles through the camp and by the various lakes structures.

I found the next junction where the trail left the road near the scout camp entrance.  But the trail wasn’t maintained well and it looked like it had been overtaken by a Boy Scout trail to some primitive camping areas.  I wasted another 45 minutes searching and searching.  I even ran completely around a lake.  A couple times I almost started to bushwack through the fire deadfall toward the next GPS waypoint, but stopped myself after five minutes.  It would be too slow and dangerous in the dark (remember those spiky logs).   Returning to the trail junction, I finally thought through things correctly.  If I would just run the car road for a mile, it would join up with the next trail junction at the East Bear River Fork trailhead.  Stupid me, I wasted all this time trying to go on the original trail that was probably abandoned when the boy scout camp arrived.

The road run worked out well and dawn approached.   At the trailhead I was again confused.  I ran along the East Fork trail, but could see that was wrong.  I was about to give up again and go back to run on an ATV trail, but then I noticed an unmarked trail on the side.  That was it!  The trail was very defined but had many deadfall across it from the last couple seasons.  The trailed climbed and climbed in the right direction toward Deadman Pass.   At the top of the pass was a weather-worn sign identifying the pass at 10,500 feet.

I descended down into the next valley, Cataract Basin.  The trail disappeared coming out of the burned forest into a wide field.  I heard and noticed a slow moving truck on a road going through the canyon.  It was probably a bow hunter.  The truck continued up a steep side road and he stopped there to watch for game.  I ignored him and continued on.  My GPS showed that the real trail was not on the road, but I decided to make better time and use the road which was generally going in the right direction.  It was an ATV road and I saw a sign indicating that it would go down into West Blacks Fork, my next major destination.   It was fun running with better speed on the road.  The road worked out well but I could tell that it was adding on extra miles.  The trail in my GPS was up on a ridge to right and taking a direct route.  My road was weaving around.  Eventually the road really started to head the wrong direction as it approached the bottom of the West Blacks Fork.  So, I finally decided to go off road.   I had been in this canyon last week, so I knew where I needed to go.  The canyon trail was across the valley on the far east side of the canyon and there was a huge river marshy area in my way.   So I decided to just find my own route for the next mile in the forest above the river bottoms.  This was great fun and I eventually joined a rough sheep trail that was marked by paint on the tree trunks.  It was fun to try to follow it and it led me directly to the junction of all the trails.

I had to ford the river and then loaded up my water bottles and treated them with iodine.  I was now in very familiar territory.  I pushed ahead up the steep switchbacks, and in only a half hour made it to the top of the high ridge above West Fork Blacks Fork. 

I came out of the forest and could now see my destination, Mount Tokewanna.  There would be not trail to it, just a long grassy slope with some boulder hoping sections.  I was about two hours behind my schedule, but I pushed ahead.  I made good time power-hiking up the grassy slope, climbing up above 11,000 feet.  It started to get rather chilly, so I stopped to put on my jacket, gloves, and ski hat.  I felt much better.  I had cell phone coverage so I called home and let my wife know that I would return home later than planned, probably in the evening.

I climbed up to the top of a high knoll to the north of Tokewanna, nearly to 12,000 feet.  Over the top, the wind was terrible, 30-40 mph.  But I kept at it and started to descend down 600 feet to a saddle and to the final two-mile, 2,000-foot ascent to the summit.  But as I descended, I watched a bad black storm near the top. 

Did I really want to be up there in a storm like that?  The wind continued to blow furiously in my face.  Finally, when hail started to fall on me, I decided to abort.  I just didn’t feel comfortable being here alone without really warm clothes heading up into a storm.  This didn’t feel right, so I turned around and concluded that I would do the summit climb some other day. 

The correct approach is through the Middle Fork Blacks Fork.  My route would have required me to descent 600 feet of lost elevation.  That can be avoided going up the Middle Fork.

I turned back at 11:00 a.m.  Going up and over the knoll, I tried to stay ahead of the storm.  Finally I hit the grassy slope and was able to make great time.  Sunshine continued to shine on those slopes.  I felt much better and comfortable. 

Looking back, I could continue to see bad black clouds hanging around the summit.   I had made the right choice.  Those clouds stayed up there all afternoon. 

As I neared the trail, I noticed some ATVers having fun on the grassy ridge.  I now had a huge descent back into the West Fork.  I didn’t run it as fast as last Saturday but still made good time. 

After fording the river, I stayed on the real trail that I had skipped by using the ATV road earlier in the morning.  The trail indeed was much shorter than the road, a constant straight climb.  But the trail contained the usual Uinta boulders and it wore me down fast.  My uphill climbing strength was faltering.  I had not been eating enough.  At about 1:00 p.m.. I heard thunder.  I was glad I wasn’t at the summit.

Going through Cataract Basin, I was able to stay on the very faint old trail that is no longer really used because of the nearby road.   As I went over a rise, I was shocked to see a wildcat with its back to me on the trail ahead!  This is the second wildcat I have run into in two months.   I could have snuck up closer, but I decided to make noise.  It heard me and ran off up the hill.  It was great to see the wildlife.  During my adventure I had also seen about a dozen deer.

Going down the other side of Deadman pass was a bother.  The deadfall was starting to get to me but I finally made it back to the Boy Scout camp by 3:00 p.m.  I unloaded my trash into their dumpster and then went ahead to the Boundary Creek area.  

The camp struck me as a very sad place.  I could visualize its former beauty.  It now looked run-down and ugly.  One camp, named “Evergreen Camp” seemed like it needed to be renamed to “Burned out Camp.”

 

I took the wrong trail and climbed up onto a high ridge. I hoped that it would join the trail I wanted but I gave up on it. (If I would have continued, it would have joined the cross-country trail I was on during the very early morning.)   I backtracked again, down to the creek bottom and found my mistake.  A drenching rain began to fall, but I just ignored it.  When I reached the marshy area that caused me so much trouble many hours ago, I again lost the trail.  Bushwacking with my GPS, I eventually found the track I was on before and located the trail.  Boy, this was tough.

Once came to the ATV trail, I knew I was in the home stretch.  I was ready to finish.   I reached my car at about 4:45 p.m.   It had been a wonderful adventure.  I’m sure I am the first to travel this distance on this trail for many years.  It was a great workout, more than 9,000 feet of climbing.  The navigation challenges and even the deadfall hops just made it tougher and more interesting.  It had been an interesting 14 hours.   8 hours out and 6 hours back.