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2014/09/28

Mt. Nebo - June 2014

On the trail

Sunset through the trees
One of my goals this year is to hike several well known peaks around Utah and make some awesome photographs of them. Ben Lomond was first on my list, Mt. Nebo was second. I also have Mt. Ogden, Timpanogas, and King's Peak, all of which I have plans to do in the next month or two so keep an eye out for photos.

I convinced a couple greenhorn interns (Kendall & Adam) at my work, again, to hike Mt. Nebo, the highest peak along the Wasatch Front at an elevation of 11,929 ft. The hike was only about 4 miles so they were sold on that, however I may or may not have purposely withheld the fact that you gain 2,600+ vertical feet in those 4 miles with most of it in 2 miles.

The plan was to hike in about 2 miles, set up base camp, then hike 1 mile to North Peak for sunset then back to camp, then wake up super early and hike to Mt. Nebo for sunrise. Well they didn't like the idea of hiking up and back so we agreed to just hike up to the top or near the top and find a spot to camp.

Sunset
Long story short, it took us 4 hours to go 4 miles and we ended up hiking the last 2 in the dark, which was actually quite awesome.








Sunset
We  saw an incredible sunset and got to see the milky way rise above the horizon. It was also probably good that we couldn't see how far we had to go, otherwise we might not have gone as far as we did.










Once we set up camp, Kendall and Adam quickly got in there sleeping bags and fell asleep. It was midnight after all.


Me and my dog, Sequoia, stayed up just a little longer. I was hoping for clear skies but the clouds seemed to just linger around. There were a few breaks to where you could partially see the milky way but just not enough for me to stay awake. So I did what any sleepy photographer would do, set up a timelapse. I set it up for 300 photos, taken at 30 second intervals, which would give me roughly 2 1/2 hours of coverage.


Milky way over Nebo - skunked by clouds
My watchdog














Here's the thing about camping on the ridge of the top of a mountain above the tree line, wind. Shortly after snuggling into my sleeping bag the wind picked up and blew off and on all night, sometimes getting very gusty, and cold. I got very little sleep that night.
Sunrise, a welcome warmth









Camp beneath the Mountain






I woke up an hour before the sunrise, like I always do, to get some blue hour shots and to warm up a bit too. After getting a handful of shots, and waiting for the sun to rise, I decided that it was warmer in my sleeping bag. We had sometime before the sun hit us because we were behind a small ridge so I snuggled back into my bag for a good 45 minutes until the sun hit my bag and warmed me up.




We got up and hike to the summit of Nebo, still nearly 800 vertical feet above us.
What up?



Once at the top, we filled out the log book with words of wisdom, or love, and took the obligatory top of the world selfies.

Highest Peak on the Wasatch Front



After a short while a group of early hikers reached the summit. We exchanged greetings and small talk, finding out that they lived in Mona and some of them knew my cousin and Aunt from Nephi. Then we were invited to stay for a little bit because they had something for us. That something turned out to be a watermelon. One guy had packed a whole watermelon to snack on at the top of the mountain. It was the most delicious watermelon I'd ever eaten.

mmmm watermelon
We headed back down to our camp, packed up our gear and headed down. The vertical that tore our calves up the night before now was tearing up our knees and quads. We did make much better time coming down, as it should be.

Ashley Whimpey doing some morning Yoga








On our way home, we agreed to stop at Culver's restaurant in Lehi for midwest burgers. You see, these interns were both from Illinois, and one of them actually had worked at Culver's there. They swore up and down that this would be the best burger I've ever had. I went for the bacon cheeseburger, which was quite delicious. The buttered buns added a welcome flavor, the only downside was the ridiculously thin patty. I'm pretty sure my bacon was thicker than the patty. My verdict: a delicious burger, especially after a very tough hike, but far from the best. I've had better burgers at Crown burger.


I'd like to make another trip to Nebo this summer just so I can get the milky way shot I envisioned but with all my other plans it may not happen until next year.


















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