Well I tried once again to climb Signal Peak and once again I was left em
pty. This time, at least, I was able to find the trail. I went with Eric and he had been up to the pass before, so it was much easier to route find. The trail was actuallly in much better shape than most trails in the Pine Valley Mountains usually are. For those of you who don't know, Signal Peak is the highest mountain in Pine Valley which I can see from our house in Toquerville. The trip was difficult, I will not lie. In only a couple of miles, we gained 3700 feet in elevation. It was interesting as we got a late start around 11am and it was so dang hot down low. I was wanting a shorter day, but this hike was rather committing. We plugged along and it got cooler with each couple thousand feet. After what seemed like a long time, we made it to the pass. We were not too shocked, but still a little amazed, by the amo
unt of snow that we were going to encounter up there. It had been a wet year, but still it was 100 plus down below and now we were going to be postholing for the next few hours. We tried to pick out the trail and did a surprisingly successful job of it even with all the snow. We hit the junction that would take us to the summit trail and turned onto that. We got sick of trying to follow the trail and instead just went for the bare ground that we could find. As we went up the hill, we came upon a meadow which I believe was named Further Water. From there we saw a peak that we tho
ught was Signal Peak. So we trudged our way up through the snow. When we got to the top, we realized that instead, it was another minor peak. Taking a look at our watches and checking our moods we decided to not put the effort in to go to the top. We left it for another day and headed back. On the way back, I tried a different route to miss the snow and got myself turned all around. Luckily, Eric had his wits about him and directed us back to the trail. We felt the day go from spring to mid-summer as we dropped into the desert and back out of the mountains. My only wish would be that they would spend more time on these Pine Valley trails as we still had to fight brush in places. It could be a nice mountain retreat if there were more places to access it. Still a good hike for "short day".
pty. This time, at least, I was able to find the trail. I went with Eric and he had been up to the pass before, so it was much easier to route find. The trail was actuallly in much better shape than most trails in the Pine Valley Mountains usually are. For those of you who don't know, Signal Peak is the highest mountain in Pine Valley which I can see from our house in Toquerville. The trip was difficult, I will not lie. In only a couple of miles, we gained 3700 feet in elevation. It was interesting as we got a late start around 11am and it was so dang hot down low. I was wanting a shorter day, but this hike was rather committing. We plugged along and it got cooler with each couple thousand feet. After what seemed like a long time, we made it to the pass. We were not too shocked, but still a little amazed, by the amo
unt of snow that we were going to encounter up there. It had been a wet year, but still it was 100 plus down below and now we were going to be postholing for the next few hours. We tried to pick out the trail and did a surprisingly successful job of it even with all the snow. We hit the junction that would take us to the summit trail and turned onto that. We got sick of trying to follow the trail and instead just went for the bare ground that we could find. As we went up the hill, we came upon a meadow which I believe was named Further Water. From there we saw a peak that we tho
ught was Signal Peak. So we trudged our way up through the snow. When we got to the top, we realized that instead, it was another minor peak. Taking a look at our watches and checking our moods we decided to not put the effort in to go to the top. We left it for another day and headed back. On the way back, I tried a different route to miss the snow and got myself turned all around. Luckily, Eric had his wits about him and directed us back to the trail. We felt the day go from spring to mid-summer as we dropped into the desert and back out of the mountains. My only wish would be that they would spend more time on these Pine Valley trails as we still had to fight brush in places. It could be a nice mountain retreat if there were more places to access it. Still a good hike for "short day". 
1 comment:
Hey Pete,
I don't know if you realize this, but when you post something the date is always wrong! The date on your computer must be off.
Sorry it is so hot there! You should come over for a visit and show me some of your favorite trails.
Tamara and I are talking about taking time off work to visit you all during your wedding. Is it to late to join in on the festivities?
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