It's been over 1.5 months since I've been stuck in SLC because of broken finger, so, I felt it's about time to test how well it has recovered. Thus I jumped in right away when friend Chris, who was staying in small town of Arco, Id., told me he's going to climb Mt. Borah, the highest peak in Idaho. With this, I decided to go there for a long weekend and sandwich the hike between two bike rides.
I left SLC on Friday evening and were in Arco, a hole about an hour west of Idaho Falls, in ca. 4 hours. I stayed overnight at the porch of the doctor with which Chris worked.
On Saturday, I drove to Copper Basin (about 2400 m above sea level, crowned by the 3500 m. peaks of Pioneer Range). Here I did a whole day ride, clickable map and fotos are here. Then I drove to the trailhead below Mt. Borah, where I stayed overnight and were supposed to meet Chris. He came after midnight, Arco had a rodeo, and the doctors were busy. One guy had to be helicoptered out, other broke his neck, two drunk Indians cut each other with botle glass. Small town joys...
On Sunday we got up around 8, and took off before 9, clickable map and fotos from the climb are here. We were down at 2.30, drove to Mackay Res. for a swim and then to town of Mackay to get some groceries. Then on dirt Burma Road back to Copper Basin, we camped in Muldoon Canyon. We had a bit of excitement after dinner, when a car got stuck in a creek crossing. Since Chris got stuck there a week ago, we wisely camped before it. "The beauty of all wheel drive" proved itself, my Subaru pulled the car out without a problem. After that we just relaxed in a company of mosquitoes and other insects.
Chris left early morning, he had to go to work. It was pretty cold in the morning, and since wading Muldoon Creek did not feel too exciting, I decided to check out a trail in the neighboring Lake Creek Canyon. That proved to be a good choice, clickable map and fotos are here. The trail was reasonably long, right to fill in the morning and not to destroy my already tired legs. Then I washed off in the creek, had a lunch and drove out. I took the third and last road out of Copper Basin, Antelope Canyon Road. It goes through several passes, so, it took me a bit over an hour to reach the pavement. After that, it was just under 4 hours to get back to SLC, just in time to water my garden.
U of U / CHPC / Cuma / Travel / English / Arco 03
URL: http://www.chpc.utah.edu/~mcuma/summer03/arco03e.html