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Month: May 2004

Lake Mountain – Nutty Putty – 37 miles

May 8, 2004

On Saturday, I extended my one-day hike record to 37 miles, hiking over Lake Mountain, weaving through the foothills to Nutty-Putty Cave, and exploring the foothills of the Tintic Mountains.  Brady Wycherly and I started at 3 a.m., and topped Lake Mountain at 5 a.m.  We then parted, Brady heading home and me continuing down the road south.  After leaving the foothills of Lake Mountain, I went through some pretty desolate desert until making my way back to hills, heading toward
Rattlesnake Pass.   I hiked over a hill and discovered a beautiful valley with several groups camping.  It turned out I stumbled on the Nutty-putty cave area.   I was just about out of water, so I turned beggar and obtained a couple liters from some campers.  After getting hydrated again, I felt much better and decided to keep on trekking past chimney rock and onto the foothills of the Tintic Mountains.   At about the 32 mile mark, I could tell that I hit the wall, so I headed straight east
toward Redwood road near the Bayview landfill.  At that point I called Linda who came and picked me up at 3 p.m.   It was a great hike, but the weather was too warm…time to hit the mountains.

Run around Lake Mountain

May 2, 2004

On Saturday morning I did a unique 34-miler, a giant loop around Lake Mountain.  Brady Wycherly started out with me at 3 a.m. and together we made it as far south as Pelican Point.  We then parted as Brady needed to be home by 7 a.m.   I continued south, went over a small pass then had a great view of Mount Nebo and Elberta in the distance.  One odd thing was passing a pack of wild dogs, high up on the mountain, barking at me as I traveled.

As the sun started to rise, I continued south and tried a couple times to find a short-cut over foot-hills so avoid traveling so far south.  The short-cuts didn’t help, ended up delaying and saving only a couple miles.  At about 9 a.m., I finally rounded the southern point and had a full view of Cedar Valley.

I discovered that there was no north-south dirt road in the foothills like there was on the lake side, so I traveled north, cutting across fields in the foothills, which made a very enjoyable hike.  There was plenty of wildlife to be seen:  deer bounding across fields and jack rabbits trying to avoid me.  I plowed ahead, steering toward the Eagle Mountain town center, miles to the north.  I passed to the east of the town, ran out of water, but pressed on, finally turning to the east to complete my huge loop and ending up at home at 1:30 p.m.   Quite a workout.