To Tony Grove we go!

A nice little trail into the Mt. Naomi Wilderness area

Over the river and through the woods... is the way to most everywhere in the Bear River Range.  Back on Saturday, June 25, Janet and I embarked on the Jardine Juniper trail planning to take the Cottonwood Canyon trail into the Mt. Naomi Wilderness Area. The Jardine Juniper trail is a five mile trail up to an 1500 year old Juniper tree.  I signed the visitor book at the tree, ate lunch, and took a picture of a similarly grizzled and charred old battle-ax of a tree because it was more photogenic.  This is a story of two young fools who wandered into the wilderness in search of adventure.

Junipers grow slow, and they get to be inconceivably old

The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh... We went over the ridge into the wilderness area and quickly entered a new environment: no more horses or mountain bikers--there was hardly any more path at all.  No one had been in to maintenance the trail and remove the fallen trunks from the fire that blazed through the canyon last year.  Still disgruntled about walking around the Dog Park all week, we salivated at the thought of hiking five miles up to the start of wilderness area with axe in hand (no power tools in a wilderness area) with the job of chopping all the fallens and widowmakers away from the trail all the way through to Tony Grove.  Around 3pm we made it down to the South Fork of the Cottonwood Creek--which was swollen, splashing and fast with snowmelt--and decided that instead of camping here in solitude near the willows we would cross the creek and try to go through the wilderness area to Tony Grove.  If we were true tragic heros, this would have been the decision of tell-tale hubris.  On we went, map in hand, having forgot a compass and water purification.  We ambled up canyon floor,  a breathtaking mile through aspen grove, meadow, and willow-thicketed and boulder-strewn creekbed.  We came upon barn owls silently swooping through the tree tops.  Ever vigilant for moose we eventually reached the head of the canyon.  By that point the trail was invisible under a foot of snow.  We were lost.

The view down Cottonwood Canyon.  From the side close to the trailhead.

Through the white and drifted snow... approached a dark brown, medium sized animal down the valley slope just after the sun dropped below the silhouette of Mt. Elmer with a seemingly aggressive, hunched and lurky gait.  WOLVERINE I assumed.  We quickly retreated and scampered up the opposite slope.  We watched it from partway up the slope to see if it is fulfilling its obligation as part of the wolverine script.  In my imagined worst-case scenario, it is supposed to track our scent and footsteps towards us, across the creek and up the slope to the lara bars and peanut butter in my backpack.  It did not fulfill its obligation and we continued ascending in the hope of shortcutting the trail up the ridgetop as we were too preoccupied with that ominous mystery-animal down by the creek to follow the assumed path of the snow-covered trail.  On our way up we saw another similar animal, but at a much closer distance.  A porcupine, and if not for the fact that I was running low on water and we were still lost and as we climbed the snow only got deeper.  Porcupines are funny nocturnal animals.  They are very slow, and they compliment their near-slothlike slowness with a remarkable lack of coordination.   We stumbled upon a third animal on the ridge and stopped to watch it flee us up into a tree.  After several minutes and the porcupine still only at hip level, both Janet and I wondered whether it still was trying to escape or if it had changed its plans at the first limb.

We seem to go extremely slow...  We make the ridgeline, 800 feet above the creek and over 8,000 feet in elevation (although we didn't know that at the time), set down our packs and explore farther up hoping to see hope that we can make it through to Tony Grove.  We move slower and slower, we stumble, and short distances seem to stretch on endlessly.  We are both dehydrated and fatigued and after seeing little but unidentified slopes and snow, we decide to pitch our tents and hike back the 8 miles in the morning to the Jardine Juniper trailhead and hope we have enough water.

The ridgeline opposite the one we climbed, see from down the canyon.  The peak is Mt. Elmer and to the left is Mt. Jardine, both above 9,500 feet.

Over the river and through the wood–

Now Grandmother's cap I spy!

Hurrah for the fun! Is the pudding done?

Hurrah for the pumpkin pie!

After hiking out surprisingly fast in the morning, we came back to Logan with one goal in mind: a $2.79 Ben and Jerry's pint.