The big hike of 2022 ended up being with Jackson, Oso and I into Timothy Lakes in the High Uintas Wilderness and it was fabulous. I met Jackson at his house in Salt Lake City Friday afternoon to drop off some items and take him over to his band’s gig for the night. Oso and I spent the night with Joey and Emily Casalini in Salt Lake City, but Joey and I returned to the house party and caught a few of Jackson’s band’s songs and a couple of the next band before leaving the college kids to their party.
The next morning, Oso and I picked up Jackson early and took a beautiful drive through Park City and mountain roads to get to the trail head. We stopped in Kamas at Fishwest Fly shop to update Jackson’s fishing gear and get some local flies. I always enjoy stopping at local fly fishing shops as they have the best local knowledge on what is hatching, where to go and helpful tips.
Here is a link to the full timothy lakes photo album.
I must admit, I was a little concerned seeing all of scrub and open/arid land leading into the wilderness but as we got off pavement and on to back roads, we saw more trees and more water (which made Oso happy). This was the first big trip where Oso had his own backpack, so that was exciting and worked out well – especially the handle on top to help him over downed trees and up a creek bank.
The hike started at about 8,000 feet and went up to 11,000. It wasn’t too steep, but kind of a long uphill grind for most of the way. Lots of creek crossing, lots of trees/shade and the trail was in generally great shape. Here’s the trail link. I took a wrong turn close to the end of the trail (didn’t see the sign) so Oso and I went a bit further, realized our mistake then circled back to catch-up with Jackson.
Once we hit Timothy lakes, we found an open, flat-ish spot to camp and setup. We were the only ones there and it was a beautiful small lake with lots of hungry trout! We built a small camp fire ring against some rocks, settled in for the evening and shared some brown and red beverages. The first part of the trip was more of a father-son vibe while once on the trail and especially around the fire, it was more of a buddy trip and I loved it.
Sunday was all about fishing (Jackson caught his first on a fly rod), hiking around to the additional lakes, napping and hanging out in the sun. Jackson brought his “backpacking” mandolin so we had music as well :-). A few more people showed up to camp around the lake, but they stayed a respectable distance away and it felt like we had the place to ourselves. In the evening, we kept a couple of the fish we caught and cooked them up on the fire – delicious! Jackson got the pleasure of having Oso in his tent Sunday night (small tents, big dog…).
We headed out on Monday for an easier hike down the mountain. It was a great trip, awesome to hang with Jackson, Oso’s first BIG hike where he carried his own food, beautiful country and great fishing.
