Training Hike #2 - 9/2/02

Mark Walker MWalker at gensym.com
Sat Sep 28 11:19:48 EDT 2002


I slept in Park City, Utah on September 1 and awoke to sunny skies.  I
decided to head into the Mirror Lake Wilderness Area, and do some more high
altitude hiking.  I needed to acclimate to elevation, as much of the Bridger
Wilderness in Wyoming is above 10,000 ft.
 
To get into the Mirror Lake area, you take highway 150 east from Kamas.
This highway corners the market on scenic.  It's so scenic, in fact, that
you have to pay money just to drive on it (actually, I guess it's for
parking - not driving).  I decided on an area called "Norway Flats", which
sits at about 10,000 feet and appears to be accessible by jeep trail.
"Appears" is the key word here.  The road I started up soon became
treacherous - but I was too stubborn and equipped with an All Wheel Drive
vehicle.  I refused to turn around.  Up and up, in what amounted to a dry
stream bed, with large boulders strewn about and deep holes effective at
catching a wheel rim.  Of course, when you're driving up a jeep trail and
jerking the wheel to avoid bumps (recall that I killed my Geo Metro a year
ago on a similar road in Oregon), you don't pay as much attention to the
trees and plants that border the road.  Suffice it to say that I left a bit
of that really gorgeous metallic forest green paint behind.  "Leave no
trace...".  Yeah, right.
 
I drove as far as the conditions allowed (and then about 8 miles further).
I had no idea exactly where I was, but my Atlas and Gazateer (Alex, I don't
want to count how many of these I've purchased) provided a pretty good lay
of the land.  I packed a day pack, loaded up a water bottle, donned by
hiking boots, and grabbed my net - and headed off to do some cross country
hiking into the highlands.
 
This proved to be quite a workout, as the elevation gain was swift and
excessive.  This part of Utah was surprisingly DRY compared to the ShangriLa
that I enjoyed the day before in Nevada, of all places.  There was virtually
no nectar anywhere, little water, and I realized the butterflying would be
scarce to non-existent.  All of this thinking is taxing while you are
scrambling up avalanche fells.  But just then I saw something orange flit
past my line of sight.  Almost immediately I began seeing the Anglewings -
it was a regular Anglewing coming out party.  Polygonia gracilis, Polygonia
progne, Polygonia satyrus - all were sighted during my scrambling.  Other
species included Nymphalis antiopa, Nymphalis californica, and a stunning
specimen of Nymphalis milberti.  It would appear that the overwintering crew
was getting ready for some last minute frolicking.
 
In one of the higher meadows I netted a particularly gorgeous specimen of
Speyeria mormonia.  This insect is orange on its ventral hinding disc - with
the scaling all but obscuring the spots that would otherwise be silvered.
The bug looks just like an Unsilvered Fritillary - only smaller.  Perhaps
this is S. mormonia artonis?  Awesome.
 
Not much else was seen this day - but there were plenty of Polygonia.  I
found a singleton of Lycaena helloides (Purplish Copper) and another of
Hesperia juba (Juba Skipper).  But the highlight of the day was the hike.  I
scrambled a good 5 miles before returning to my vehicle.  My legs were
feeling strong, and my breathing in synch.  I could do this.
 
Once in the vehicle, I was forced to come down off my self inflated
pedestal.  It took me a good hour to ease my way back down that stream bed
to Highway 150.  I didn't want to think about what I was doing to the
undercarriage.  From here I drove on and up to Bald Mountain Pass, where the
view is spectacular.  All very dry, but clearly an optimal location for
another trip earlier in the summer.  Content, I headed back to Salt Lake,
where I would leave my car behind and start the aviation part of this crazy
trip.
 
Mark Walker.
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