My route summary: North Canyon - Rudy's Flat - Bountiful Ridge - Black’s Peak - Peak #7 - The Citadel to get light - Blacks Peak - Bountiful Ridge - Rudy's Flat - North Canyon.
It was a hot, hot day, over 100 in the valley, and I intended to only tag Bountiful Ridge above Rudy's Flat, so I went very light on food and water, but once at the ridge I continued on up to Black’s Pk. Then thought “why not Grand View too” so off I go. I drank the last of my water at Peak #7 and I was still a mile or so from Grandview with some respectable vert, so I turned back. A good thing, it was hot and I was dehydrated, and I stumbled down North Canyon dreaming of Slurpees and Mt Dew.
The Burro Mine mystery light was located, and removed. At the Burro Mine divide I descended the steep, forested face a bit and found the mystery light, which could be seen the previous year but disappeared last winter. It was a pinprick of light near the ridge and seen from downtown Bountiful. Getting to it required climbing to the top of the Citadel, a rock tower in upper Howard Hollow. I climbed to the top and found it was located on an exposed 2’x2’ balcony of rock with big drops on two sides and I could see why it quit working, a broken solar panel with eroded wires, so I brought it all down.
Limestone cap of Black's Peak
Black's Peak
Session's Mountain and upper Mill Creek basin (the head of Mueller Canyon).
The old Burro Mine road in Howard Hollow, still visible a hundred years after it was built.
Peak Number Seven and Grandview Peak peaking over #7's shoulder.
The Burro Mine tailings.
What the holy hell??? A tee shirt and LDS garments? Proof that trash begats more trash. This is near the deer hunter camp above the Burro Mine.
Mountain Lion scat everywhere.
Leave no trash or stay home!
Peak #7 (l) and Grandview Peak (r) from just above the Burro Mine.
View SW from Peak #7, Black's Peak and the ski run Big Drop 1, the open slash straight ahead. It is steep, upper 30's, and faces directly north, so it's prone to slide, but it's great skiing up there.
View NE of Grandview from Peak #7.
View into City Creek Canyon from Peak #7, with the Central Wasatch on the horizon.
Antelope Island from Peak #7.
The light . . .
The light as seen from Bountiful, taken on May 9, 2019.
I first saw this light in the fall of 2018 and it disappeared in January, 2020. It was visible through a narrow line-of-site, roughly west of Bountiful's Main Street and north of 500 South up through Parrish Lane in Centerville but then north of there it is blocked from view by the flanks of Session's Mountain.
I know it's a Utah thing to put your mark on every peak: flags, huge concrete letters, rock towers, bootleg roads and trails, spray-paint, etc, etc, and now lights. I don't like human creations on otherwise pristine mountains, I go to the mountains to get away from humanity, and when one person leaves their mark more will surely follow. Trash begats more trash, so I remove human symbols as often as possible, including overbuilt rock cairns and even flags because overtime they become a site for trash. I've destroyed huge rock cairns on the Hidden Lake Trail five times so far this summer, and they are much easier to destroy than build. Yes, rock cairns are necessary to mark trails, but small and discrete is key, not the five-feet tall piles of rock repeatedly built on the Hidden Lake Trail.
So, when I first saw this light, my first thought was "I'm taking it down!" but over time my attitude softened and even admired the effort required to place that light. It is in a remote spot off the beaten path and difficult to find, physically challenging to get to, requiring a long hike, scrambling down a steep hill covered in thick brush, then climb a 20-foot vertical rock face to get to the balcony where it was placed. I doubt anyone has been here between the time it was placed and when I found it today. The effort involved is admirable and the site selection is genius.
When I saw it up close the reason it has not lit since the winter of 2020 was evident, the solar panel mount had broken. Presumably due to the combination of solar radiation weakening the plastic mount, and deep winter snowfall, the mount ultimately snapped so the battery no longer charged. Although it was 20 feet off the ground, it's possible that the winter snow piled deep enough that an avalanche came down the steep hill (40+ degrees) and took out the solar mount. With that the decision to take it down was easy. If it was still working I probably would have left it. When I got home I opened the casing and saw that the wiring had also rusted through, so that light was off with or without a solar charge.
I emailed the guy who writes about the Burro Mine, thinking he probably placed the light, offering to take a new light back up, but so far I haven't heard back from him. I also re-soldered the wiring then put the light on my back patio to see if it would charge in the sun. Sure enough, that evening the light came on, it's controlled by a light sensor, although it is now very faint and I doubt it would be bright enough to be seen from Bountiful. I'm not going to replace it, like I said trash begats more trash, but if anyone does replace it (Burro Mine guys?) get a higher quality mount (not plastic).
The light was mounted on the uphill side of the rock outcrop, called the Citadel, located in upper Howard Hollow. The Citadel stand on a steep hillside so the uphill side is about 20 feet off the ground and the downhill side it approximately 75 feet high.
May 9, 2019
The solar panel dangling due to a broken plastic mount. And duct tape to hold it in place? Just a matter of time and weather before this broke.
This was found in the tin can next to the light.
Mounted on a metal concrete form stake, pounded into a crack and reinforced with rocks. Even with my bad arm it pulled out very easily, I was surprised how easy, and I walked away wondering how it lasted so long (Oct 2018 to Jan 2020).
High point of the Citadel, rising about 15 feet above the balcony where the light was placed.
As you can see, the light was visible from Bountiful through a narrow line of site, blocked by the ridges of Session's Mountain. (r) and Black Peak (l) in the foreground.
Just uphill from the Citadel, what looks like another entrance to the old Burro Mine. The main entrance to the mine is downhill from here about 400 linear feet and 200 vertical feet, just below the Citadel.
The Citadel as seen from Blacks Peak. The light was mounted on the far right balcony, barely seen here through the confers.
Sunday's hike was up Mt. Superior from Alta with my daughter Karly. It's been a long, hot summer so we decided to go high to find some cool air, but apparently so did half of SLC. While driving up Little Cottonwood Canyon at 7AM, every trailhead was already overflowing. At the White Pine trailhead, likely at capacity all night, the cars were parked along the highway at least a half-mile both up and down the canyon from the turnoff. Gone are the days when I could pull into White Pine parking and find only two or three cars and I'd wouldn't see another sole while hiking the Pfeifferhorn.
Karly is my third baby and second daughter, and she has given me two beautiful grand-babies, Harper and Madsen. Words cannot express the joy that Harp and Mads bring me. In a world full of contention and endless bickering, even from friends that should be an ally, the love coming from a grandchild is pure, sweet joy. I'm in heaven when they run up spontaneously and bear-hug my legs. Hiking with my daughter is a distant second on the joy list. Sorry Karly, but it's your fault.
American Fork Twin Peaks, the highest points in the central Wasatch (west peak 11,489ft, east peak 11,433ft). Timpanogos and Nebo are higher.
Pfeifferhorn (11,326 ft.), dead center.
Fuzzy Pfeifferhorn, the Doug Fir sharp . . not the needles, just the photo. My Dad use to tell me the best way to determine if it's a fir, pine or spruce is to back into the tree. If you say SHIT! it's a pine or a spruce. If it feels soft and silky it's a fir.
Sorry for the repetition, the Pfeifferhorn view is stunning. The drainages seen here from Mt. Superior, Red Pine, Maybird Gulch and Hogum Fork.
Beauty all around when I could stop looking at the Pfeiff . . .
. . . but you know what captures my attention.
Karly high above Alta on the final approach to Mt. Superior's summit. We hiked the Little Superior ridge from Cardiff Pass.
Humming Bird at 10,00 feet. How much more must they beat their wings in the thin air?
View into Cardiff Fork and Cardiac Bowl, the ski run dropping off the NE side of Mt. Superior.
Daughter and her Dad.
Karly is the hero today! View SW from the summit of Mt. Superior (11,050 ft.), and of course the Pfeifferhorn just off Karly's elbow.
No joking about the crowds, those cars are the overflow from the White Pine trailhead.
Two weeks out from surgery to repair a ruptured bicep tendon. The weird brace is to keep my arm from fully extending, bringing many stares and whispering from other hikers. "What the hell was that." Overheard after passing another group of hikers.
Two hikers topping out on the south ridge of Superior, a classic Wasatch scramble.
