Earthly Expeditions

On August 16th I "up and decided" to go on an evening hike.I was planning on just going about 2 miles up the right fork of Maple canyon, but for some reason the mountain got inside of me and I just kept going.



The trail is steep and had ankle-breakers along its entire length. My trekking poles made a huge difference on this trip. Since I had planned to stay on the graded road and not get on the actual trail I had only worn my sports sandals, and not my boots. This greatly added to the difficulty of the trail - big mistake.

Yet I ended up hiking the almost 4 miles into Maple Lake, which during this time of year is actually more like Maple Pond.

I met several bow hunters along the trail. Some of them, fully equiped with riding and pack critters, were rather wide eyed when they saw me standing by the lake in my sandals, shorts, and small daypack.

One of them said "This is Utah county's hidden little secret." and I now believe him.



All along the way there were different types of wild flowers. I have yet to identify any of them, but they were quite beautiful.



The trail starts as a broad graded road, and then turns into a steep, rocky, yet well worn single track. Some of the trail is so overgrown on each side that you stop just short of simply having to bushwhack your way through.

From Maple lake you can see Spanish Fork Peak, and this evening I was favored with a beautiful sunset.






The decent is not an easy task. Rocks threaten to twist your ankle with every step (especially in sandals), my trekking poles saved my rear end more then once on the decent. Sadly, one of the poles did not make it out unharmed. It now hangs in my garage, a mangled version of its former self; though this is a sad event, I am certainly happy that my tail bone is not suffering the same mangleing.


I plan on going back to Maple Lake and finishing the trail to the top of Spanish Fork Peak, and enjoying "Utah County's hidden little secret" some more.