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Show The Ntwsaper Thanxtcy, Febnury It, 1M1 Page All Five easy places, part V I .... . - ' ,htl?.'.. 1 f ' ' , ' -- - v ' 4 'r :,-v' V ':.;..'" ' ' '? - - f i f it - ToKamas S , Old Cabin S. if! A. ) iUi V55:::55j5::T Mirror Lake Mileage from Trailhead i 1 Beaver Creek Administrative site 112 miles ' Qh Beaver Creek Campground 2 miles j LomrPi,m Taylor's Fork (Shingle Creek CG) 3miles ! . 1 Pine Valley Campground 0 1 2 ill VV'W' k Trailhead Beaver Creek: the best and the worst By Frank Krickson Mud in the parking areas, mud on my boots, mud on my gaitors. This morning, a light drizzle is falling. Could winter be over? It only began two weeks ago! But no doubt this gentle rain is falling as snow at higher elevations, which is where we skiers may have to go if current weather patterns continue. Up to where the snow is four feet deep and would last for two months even if the sun shined every day. Ski touring is where you find it. Best not to be fooled by these early signs of spring. There's still March and April to contend with, the months when heavy storms usually dump enough snow in the High Uintas to carry skiing into July. Over the past four weeks, we reviewed some of the easier skiing places in the Uintas: Weber Canyon. 12 miles east of Oakley; Murdoch Mur-doch Basin up the Mirror Lake Highway (presently inaccessible, but should be great in the spring); Little South Fork of the Provo near Woodland; and Daniels Summit, southeast of Heber City. This week, the fifth easy place: Beaver Creek, east of Kamas. There are many great ski tours in the Uinta mountains, moun-tains, but incredibly, there is only one Forest Service designated ski touring trail on the whole west end: r HV 5 V2 miles 3 II i 1 1 t V Beaver Creek, six miles east of Kamas. Beaver Creek is the best and worst of places. It's the best of places because it's a gentle trail with enough dips and hills to make it interesting, and provides access to dozens of moderate powder slopes. It sits against a north-facing hill that shades the trail, so it stays snow-covered late into the season. On old maps, the area is identified as an arboretum, ar-boretum, and there are a variety of Utah's native conifers here: iodgepole, limber and ponderosa pines, white and subalpine fir, blue and Engleman spruce, Douglas fir and several junipers. The trail is closed to snowmobiles, and on weekdays it is quiet there and feels something like wilderness. A few moose winter in the willows along the creek, and although they stomp big holes in the ski trail, it's still quite a treat to see one. It's the worst of places because the ski trail is parallel to the Mirror Lake Highway, which is the most popular snowmobile route in Utah. On busy weekend afternoons, af-ternoons, it's noisier than an international airport, and a blue pall from snowmobile exhaust hangs low above the parking area, reminding one more of the smelter town of Magna, Utah than the High Uintas. Other problems up Beaver Creek are a function of this ' j : 4 - season's fickle weather and could change with the next storm. Following the heavy snow in early December, skiing was good on the trail until Christmas. Then, due to the long, dry spell and warm weather, patches of the trail melted off. Finally . the snowless patches were bigger than the snowy patches pat-ches and it was unskiable. Not until February's storms did it become good again. The Forest Service packed the trail last week and it was in good shape, if rains this week don't wash it away. The powder skiing also is not what it has been in other years. Actually, there is no powder, just slopes covered with breakable and boilerplate boiler-plate underlaid with bottomless bot-tomless depth hoar. But then how much should we ungrateful skiers complain com-plain about our only official ski trail? . Greg McKenzie, former assistant ranger on the Kamas Ranger District, laid out the Beaver Creek ski trail about five winters ago. Utilizing existing trails and roads, he marked a route along the south side of Beaver Creek, starting at Slate Creek and running five-and-a-half miles to the Pine Valley road. The trail climbs 600 vertical feet in the first four-and-a-half miles, then drops 100 feet in the last mile down to the Provo River. Except for a few steep pitches, pit-ches, the main trail is easy skiing. The problem newcomers have is finding it. That's because there -v 'V. r 1 - ABOVE: Old cabin, near mines allegedly excavated by bootleggers. LEFT: Gnarly juniper guards the head of Red Pine Canyon. TOP LEFT: The Beaver Creek trail winds 52 miles through aspen and conifer forests and sagebrush flats. of places has never been a sign saying, "Beaver Creek Ski Trail." This year, one-quarter one-quarter mile west of the Slate Creek gate, there is posted a square blue sign picturing a Nordic skier. This is where the trail begins. The Forest Service has plans for better signs in the future. McKenzie transferred from the Kamas District and was replaced by Wayne Anderson. An-derson. Anderson, recognizing the inherent conflict in having a ski trail and snowmobile trail in the same drainage, asked skiers about establishing a ski trail some other place on the Kamas District where the conflicts would be less. But other areas on the district have other problems. East of Oakley, Forest Service land is separated from the winter parking area by private land and county roads. The Cedar and Riley Hollow areas near Woodland face south and don't hold the snow. Hoyt Canyon is too steep for many skiers, and the rest of the Kamas District is not accessible ac-cessible during the winter. We skiers apparently are stuck with Beaver Creek, which would be fine if we could minimize the conflict with snowmobiles. The Forest Service has taken the first step by closing the trail to snowmobiles and posting it with signs. Another step would be to separate snowmobile and skier parking areas by u plowing the Mirror Lake Highway an additional six miles to the North Fork of the Provo, and having the 'mobilers park and embark from there. The entire Beaver Creek drainage and side canyons and roads-Upper roads-Upper Setting, Slate Creek, Shingle Creek, Yellow Pine and Norway Flats could be reserved for skiing. A great idea (my own), but who would pay for the plowing in these times of dwindling highway department budgets? A third option for escaping snowmobiles already is available to skiers. That is, simply tour up one of the side canyons south of the main ski trail. Failure Canyon, Taylor Fork and the road to the old cabin all offer big trees and seclusion. Near the old cabin are a couple of prospects holes excavated by men in search of riches. I asked one old timer in Kamas what those prospectors were looking for. Gold? Silver? Iron? "Well," he replied, after giving it some thought, "'if you really want to know, I think they were just looking for a place to hide a still." None of the trails up the side canyons lead all the way to the ridge top. It is possible to bushwack to the ridge, but it's tough. A better ski is to start in Samak and go up Red Pine Canyon (see map). The reason for going to the ridge is the same here as elsewhere. No, not because "it's there," but for the view of Wasatch and Uinta peaks and the ski back down. mi -.- |