Signal Peak

Rising over 10000 feet in the Pine Valley Mountains, I see Signal Peak every time I drive the road from Zion down the hill. Eric Lassance and I had attempted it a couple of years back, but did not leave enough time to complete it. This time, I was bound and determined to get an early enough start to accomplish it. I was lucky enough to have a couple of friends visiting that were willing to come with me on a trip up a somewhat obscure peak in Southern Utah. Brad, who worked at Zion all the years that I was there, now was living in Alaska and working there. He was down to Zion for some rest and relaxation after the summer season was over for his job. Amber is a friend I met while working trail crew at Rocky Mountain National Park. She and her sister Sarah were visiting on their way out to Yosemite where Amber works during the school year. We drove out to the trailhead at the Oak Grove Campground arriving at 8am and got an early enough start. I prepared everyone telling them it was a big climb and to bring lots of water. Still they were not exactly prepared for the 4000 vertical feet we were going to have to climb. It was switchback after switchback in exposed high desert environment. We kept a fairly good pace as we went up the hill, but were not moving entirely quickly. We were definitely drinking a bunch of our water as the sunshine was warming it up to 90+ in the hot sun. These were some of the hottest days we had during the summer coming right near the end. Eventually we got into some bigger trees until we hit the saddle and topped out. After the saddle it was smooth sailing. We actually went downhill for a bit before crossing into a couple of meadows, one which was referred to as Further Water. There was water, so we would have the chance to refill the coffers, but kept on hiking to the top of the peak. It was a rather undramatic peak in general, but hiking through the forest to the top which ended up just being a pile of rocks with a walk to a viewpoint where we could see Veyo and Snow Canyon. I was pleased to be here though as this was on my list of peaks and places that I wanted to visit. We enjoyed a bite to eat and then decided to go down. Going down we were taking it slowly. It was nice to have some time chatting with my friends as both Amber and Brad were people I was lucky to get to see once a year. It is funny how when people are your friends, you can just pick up where you left off. Both of these two, I had spent enough time with to know their personalities and enjoy their company almost immediately. The hike down was taking nearly as long as the hike up, which was a bit frustrating. We passed Further Water without obtaining further water for our supply. This caused us a slight problem as we went down slower than expected. 

There was a point that I got a little snippy because of it, but felt it was necessary to keep the group focused enough when we were hiking in the desert. It all worked out fine as we drank the last of our bottles rather close to the Xterra and were able to stop at the Maverick to fill our gullets with a cold beverage. Leaving the Maverick, we were planning an evening of hanging out. What I ended up doing was getting a call from Jacqueline and finding out that her car broke. I had to go pick her up from work and got to check out the ugly sight. Somehow the control arm of her front left tire had rusted and broke, which helped to bend her axle. This required a tow truck that was coming by the time I got there. A couple of hundred bucks later and it was fixed, but definitely an inconvenience during the summer busy season. Not the way you want to end a fun hiking day, but I still was in a good mood from a great hike up Signal Peak.