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Show The Newspaper Thursday, January 22, 1981 Page 11 Five Easy Places, Part I . X jv ... , . " " - - . " wrr' ' " - : 1-' - . -' - - M i rlim.r,r..rl inn , 'm i , " , '' Looking south from campground at Smith and Forest Service provides picnic table, add wine and ft. r-- ' -,- - oumjs- ,j . 1 II - . f , ' -f Candi Forsland crossing into Ledgefork Campground near end of Smith Trappers and Loggers Were the i : V it U.i V--I1M111 'A '''Dale Williams was skiing the Weber River country way back in the 40's. if 4 A A4 n ' t f - K f i 1 IK fc?5t 1 11 f Ft 1 I 1 L i ! 1 Z6 4 SI Morehouse reservoir. cheese. Mi Vr .!' ,.ir J.-'if , 1 ',,J 5-it By Frank Erickson The upper Weber River country is enjoying unprecedented unpre-cedented popularity as a winter sports area, but since the turn of the century people have traversed the area in winter on skis. The earliest skiers were not out for recreation. Usually they were trappers who worked the country in winter for fox, marten and coyotes. Bernard "Bun" Williams of Peoa, born in 1894, remembers remem-bers skiers when he was a boy. According to Bun, a fellow named Ozzie Nelson and his brother trapped up Dry Fork above Holiday Park in the early 1900s. One winter, Ozzie's brother caught pneumonia and Ozzie skied out for help, but by the time he returned, his brother was dead. "That country was real wilderness in those days," remarked Bun. "There weren't enough people peo-ple up there to amount to anything." 5y . Thousand Peaks, Smith By Frank Krickson While alpine skiers along the Wasatch Front continue to lament about the season without snow. Nordic skiers are enjoying their second month of good touring in the High Uintas. In selected spots, the Uintas have offered tourers fini, gentle terrain since mid-December. mid-December. In this series of articles, we will be highlighting a different dif-ferent Uinta touring spot each week. We will pick out areas that are within reasonable driving distance from Park City, open to the public, and covered with adequate snow pack. This week: The Thousand Peaks and Smith and Morehouse area, east of Oakley. For many cross-country skiers, Smith and Morehouse needs no introduction. It's the place where a lot of us took our first wobbly strides on wooden skis 10 years ago. The area is so popular that it is mobbed on sunny weekends with skiers, snowmobilers and dog sled-ders. sled-ders. This year, four-wheel drive enthusiasts, teenagers armed with .22 rifles, and picnickers in Chevrolet sedans have invaded the area as well, since the snow has not been deep enough to keep them out. Why, then, advertise an already overused spot? Because in spite of this heavy use, the Smith and Morehouse and Thousand Peak trails are just about the best ski touring to be found under the current conditions. The parking area for the Smith and Morehouse and Thousand Peaks trails is at the end of the road paralleling the Weber River 12 miles east of Oakley, about 28 miles from Park City. Over-the-snow ..... -A . , and .Morehouse ski trail. Later, another trapper lived liv-ed in Peoa and traveled the western end of the High Uintas on skis. Rube Jensen was a mountain of a man, standing 6-foot-7 and weighing weigh-ing about 250 pounds. Jensen was a government trapper whose job it was to trap predators that might be a menace to livestock. Bun recalls him using skis prior to World War I. Emil Coleander, a Swedish emigrant, was a woods worker up Beaver Creek, outside Kamas. "He worked in the sawmills belonging to the Pack brothers. I remember remem-ber him telling me about skiing in Sweden," recalled Bun. "People couldn't believe be-lieve the way he could come down the hills below the timber on skis." That was about 1905. Bun never tried skiing himself, but rode packed, snowy trails down Elder Hollow near Kamas that were made by farmers THE PINCt .A j I ' "mim "a f"'" " SMITH I MOREHOUSE IA . ft I "V m. -V JL I CAMPGROUND RU V 0 1M SmMr t MwMMuM If Jr cabim MUD LAKE FLAT JUeOGEFOP.K travelers park here and embark em-bark via their respective modes of transportation either of two directions: east under the imposing Thousand Peaks up the Weber River, through the gate to Holiday Park or other summer home areas, or south up Smith and Morehouse creek into the Wasatch National Forest. For ski tourers, the choice of direction is a matter of personal preference, since the snow is good either way. Up the Weber is broad, open and gently rolling terrain. When not covered by snow, the dominant vegetation is sagebrush, broken up by patches of aspens and a few firs and spruce growing along the river. It is the kind of terrain a beginner can appreciate. No matter which direction you go, there is little chance of running into anything. There are small hills offering of-fering short powder runs along the river and at the base of the mountains sides. Legally, skiers cannot leave the county road, as property on both sides of the road is private and posted. Practically, it is difficult to find the road under the deep snow pack of a normal winter win-ter in the midst of hundreds of criss-crossing snowmobile tracks. I have never heard of skiers being hassled for trespassing, but the land is well posted. After weeks without significant sig-nificant snowfall, conditions up the Thousand Peaks are holding up quite well. The first four miles are hard-packed hard-packed but smooth, even though vehicles have been driving on the road all the way to Holiday Park. The next two miles, where the snow is deeper and the grade is slightly steeper, are rutted and difficult to ski. Beyond the eight mile mark, traveling into the C "f PARKINQ AREA y P Til - W i IA i rj WASATCH ss , ', I NATIONAL WASATCH NATIONAL FOREST First Skiers dragging aspen poles. His vehicle was a sled, with a stick that could be used as a rudder or brake, and the run was two to three miles long. "We've come out of there like greased lightening," said Bun. Bun's son Sterling did try skiing and recalls descending descend-ing the hills at the mouth of Brown's canyon on barrel staves. In about 1930, when he was a freshman in high school, Sterl borrowed Rube Jensen's skis and made a suicide run into the slate pit at the north end of Peoa. "I hit the road bank so hard it knocked me colder than a wedge. I was out for about four hours." One other early-day skier was Cardy Clegg. Stan Welch, author and BYU professor, recalled a time in the mid-1930s when long-legged, wiry Clegg headed for Trial Lake from Kamas on skis with only a couple of candy bars in his pocket.. .a 26-mile trip. Wasatch National Forest via the Gardner's Fork road the snow is good, except on southern exposures where there is no snow. Following the road up to Slader Ridge, there are three spots skiers must walk around due to lack of snow, but on Slader Ridge itself there is nearly three feet of snow, the deepest snowpack I have found anywhere this season. Although it is a rather long "I have never seen another soul at Mud Lake Flat . . . The name is uninspiring but the spot is beautiful. " ski to Slader Ridge (about 15 miles, one way), the view of the headwaters of the Weber River, Reids Peak and Haydens Peak is inspiring. If you are without a map and can't tell which peak is Haydens, simply stare at the various peaks and concentrate. concen-trate. When you hear a choir of angels singing the "Hallelujah "Halle-lujah Chorus" inside your head, you're looking at Haydens.) South from the parking area rises a steep rise, bisected by Smith and Morehouse Creek, which provides access to the heart of the west end of the High Uintas. A good, beginning Nordic ski trail is characterized charac-terized by a moderate grade and cold snow. Because the lower Smith and Morehouse drainage has a northerly exposure ex-posure and sits in a narrow canyon, the snow stays cold and good. Also, the grade is moderate. After dropping the first guarter mile from the parking area to the creek, the road climbs gently gent-ly for the next 3' 2 miles to Ledgefork campground and guard station. The grade is not so steep as to require side-stepping or herringboning on the way up, but steep enough that the descent can be accomplished by double-poling and occasional oc-casional tucking. Ledgefork campground In the late '40s, a heavy winter got Sterl, his brother Dale, and Dale's brother-in-law, Dean Rees of Coalville, involved in an enterprise on skis. Dale and his wife, Donna, recalled the year was 1949, although Sterl thinks it was a few years earlier. The snow was so deep in Peoa that Donna's clothesline was in a snow tunnel in the back yard. About mid-February, owners own-ers of summer homes in the Pines area just below Smith and Moorehouse, became concerned that their roofs might cave in. They employed employ-ed the Williams brothers and Rees to go in and shovel them off. Skis were not easy to come by in bummit County in those days. Dale Williams built his own with the help of his cousin, Wayne Wright, a master-of-all trades. Sterl went to Salt Lake and bought two pairs of army surplus skis for 14 each, poles for and Morehouse marks the turn-around point for most day tours and the end of the easy skiing terrain. But there are a couple of possibilities for longer tours. One is to take the road to Mud Lake Flat via Red Pine Creek, which heads west 14 mile north of Ledgefork guard station. This road climbs steeper than the main Smith and Morehouse road, gaining 1,400 feet in about 2' miles. Under most snow conditions, this is too steep to ascend on wax alone, and side-stepping and herringbone herring-bone maneuvers must be used. The descent can be hair-raising. On my last effort ef-fort I used the snowplow and pole-drag to get through steeper sections. Bolder skiers could tuck it for a high speed ride, while more timid skiers might opt to walk down. I have never seen another soul at Mud Lake Flat and wonder if skiers are not as discouraged by the dowdy name as the steep climb. The name is uninspiring, but the spot is beautiful. Last week I lunched in a grove of Douglas fir and Limber pine, enjoying spectacular views of Uinta ridgetops and distant Wasatch peaks. The second option for a longer tour is to pick up the Smith and Morehouse pack trail, which begins at the south end of Ledgefork campground. camp-ground. This trail leads to places few people have seen in the winter: Erickson Basin, Hell's Kitchen and Island Lake. Under present snow conditions this trail is not passable on skis. Most places accesible to the average ski tourer in the Uintas are not exposed to much avalanche danger. Certainly the trail through Thousand Peaks would not be threatened by a snowslide under any conditions. The Smith and Morehouse trail $1.50 a pair, and bindings for another $1.50. The road up the Weber was plowed only to the mouth of White's canyon, a couple of miles out of Oakley. The trio embarked at that point on skis with heavy packs, but hitched a ride with a man driving a sleigh another mile up the canyon. From there they broke trail all the way to the Pines, sinking in about a foot and a half. The 10-mile took 12 hours, and trip when they arrived, the weary skiers had to dip into the caretaker's cabin where they camped for four nights. Sterling recalled that three cabins along the river were buried up to the eaves in snow, "about eight or nine feet, and when we dug them out, they were in a hole." The men excavated nine cabins. A couple of cabin owners chose not to have their places shoveled and their roofs collapsed later in the season. crosses the run-out zone of several small avalanche chutes, but is not hazardous except under the most extreme ex-treme conditions, and then a skier's chance of being in the wrong places at the right time would be slim. The big weekend crowds are the main drawback for the skier seeking solitude. Those who can ski on weekdays week-days will find themselves in the company of few others. Another option is to ski at night. On a moonlit night, or dark night skiing with a headlamp, both trails are delightful, and are gentle enough that night skiing is not particularly hazardous. Directions and Distances Smith and Morehouse, Thousand Peaks Trailhead: Park area at end of plowed road 12 miels east of Oakley on Summit County Road 213. Thousand Peaks trail heads east from trailhead through broad, open valley of the upper up-per Weber River following Road 213. Road is open to the ders both sides of the road and is posted "No Trespassing." Smith and Morehouse ski trail heads south from the parking area over Wasatch National Forest Road 33. The trail drops to the creek in the first quarter mile, then climbs gently through a pine-spruce-fir forest and aspen groves with towering cliffs and an ice-fringed mountain brook running down the canyon below. Mileages from trailhead (elevation 7,400 feet): Via Road 213: ' To Holiday Park (7,920 ft): 6 miles To Gardners Fork (8,200 ft): 8 miles Via Road 33: To Smith-Morehouse Reservoir (7,660 ft): 24 miles To Ledgefork Station (7,750ft.): 4 miles To Mud Lake Flat (9,400 ft.): 9 miles Maps: Wasatch National Forest recreation map, 14" : 1 mile scale, 50 cents at the Kamas Ranger station. USGS 1:24000 quads, Slader Basin, Erickson Basin and Whitney Reservoir, $1.25 each at U.S. Geological Survey Sur-vey office in Salt Lake. HOilDAV PARK Drawing again on Bun Williams' memory, I asked, "Is this an unusually dry winter?" Digging into his mental files, he drew out scenarios of a few past Utah winters: "I was married Nov. 14, 1914. It was dry and dusty in the valley and would freeze only a little at nights. On the eighth of January, I hauled hay out of dry fields, and shortly after that it started to snow." "One winter we were logging log-ging up the Weber and had to haul our sleighs up the canyon on wagons. On Feb.2 it started to snow, a storm coming in from the southeast. south-east. By morning the snow had drifted three feet up against the tents. We had to haul the wagons back out on the sleighs, and it snowed clear into April." "One time on May 22nd, it snowed 22 inches." Tips up, there's still plenty of time for a snowy winter. |