Death by Mt. Raymond via Alexander Basin Trail

 🥾🥾🥾🥾

9.6 miles. 4,425 ft. elevation gain. Date hiked: July 16, 2022. Picture taken at Gobbler's Knob with Mt. Raymond in the background, right hand side of the picture.

It was on this hike that I was reminded of a piece of imagery that came to my mind a few weeks ago as I was hiking with Leti. Leti, when we hike, is like a mountain goat. Effortlessly scaling mountain tops, occasionally breaking a sweat. Breathing like a normal human. Meanwhile, I am like a hippo in training, gasping for breath as I lumber up the mountain, hoping to summit by some miracle. This is how our hike was yesterday. :) I gave it four boots instead of five because I mainly felt out of shape on this hike. 

This hike might be one of those one and done type hikes for me. We decided to go up Alexander Basin, which was in our top three steepest hiking experiences ever. Something like 1700 ft. elevation gain for .7 of a mile. The first three miles were extremely steep - 1,500 feet per mile. So, as I gasped for breath, I did take plenty of opportunities to stop and enjoy the view, drink water, and blow my nose. :) This was not for the faint of heart. 

Me going up the trail to Gobbler's Knob. Happy to take a breather.

Leti at the top of Gobbler's Knob. Nothing to obstruct the view up here. You can literally see for miles. 

I think this was taken from Gobbler's Knob. You can see the road coming down Big Cottonwood Canyon on the top right of the picture. We started this hike in Millcreek. It was fun to connect the two canyons. 

After our brief stop at Gobbler's Knob, we headed over to Mount Raymond. We followed the ridge which also provided such lovely views! And, it is wildflower season in the mountains! 

So much color in the mountains yesterday. There were so many meadows of flowers all over. It was absolutely beautiful. 

Wildflowers plus miles of mountains. It rained this week, so everything was well watered. :) 

From Gobbler's Knob to Mt. Raymond, you lose 500 feet of elevation. My legs were shot at this point, so I was grateful to have my hiking poles. We snacked at the bottom of Mt. Raymond and them made the mile climb to the top from the base.  I should note that the myriad of bugs we encountered yesterday was less fun. I was bit a few times by horseflies. I sent those punks to spirit prison without a twinge of regret. One slap and they were dead. If you ever do this hike, I highly recommend bug spray. I digress. There is a rock spine on the way up to Mt. Raymond. This has terrified me in the past, but yesterday, it was not scary. We also learned from past mistakes on where to ascend and where not to ascend. So, it made the climb more pleasant. 

Me going up Mt. Raymond. Gobbler's Knob in the background.


Leti and I at the top of Mt. Raymond. Twin Peaks in the background. 

Me with Gobbler's Knob in the background. The clouds were so beautiful yesterday. :) 

From here, we headed back to the car, which meant we still had about 5 miles left. We hung a left at the base of Mt. Raymond. This was such a pretty trail. And, incidentally, no people on this. This section of trail was relatively flat in comparison to the rest of the hike. Still had 2,500 feet to drop, but after what we had been through, this seemed like a walk in the park. The wild flowers were in full bloom. We stopped a few times to take it all in. We also watched as a gigantic hawk circled above us and then it landed in the meadow. So, so beautiful. 

That is Mt. Raymond. Quite the view. And, I was tired, and I missed that she wasn't pointing at the top of the peak. #neat

We kept going down, except there were uphill points of this trail which annoyed me because I was done with the uphill. But, with a mile left, we didn't have any more uphill. It was very nice. We made it back to the car in a little under 6.5 hours. It was another great hiking adventure in the books! 

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  1. applesashJuly 17, 2022 at 3:44 PM

    My stars! You never disappoint, what a wonderful blogger thou art:)

    ReplyDelete

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