Attempt at Provo Peak

Plans for departure times went back and forth, but eventually we ended up getting under way at 9:09 am from the Rock Canyon trail head in Provo, UT.  Our destination for the day was obscured by other peaks and mountains, but we knew that Provo Peak (11,068 ft.)was back there. The lack of snow this winter meant that we started off with our snowshoes stowed on our packs as we started up the familiar trail in Rock Canyon. I admired the many rock routes that I had climbed this past Summer as we strode by. Part way up the trail started to get a little icy, but the trail was low angle and knowing that we wouldn’t encounter snow for quite a while we just stepped gingerly in the especially slippery parts.

After about an hour we connected to the Squaw Peak Trail. Dave and I had never been on this trail so it was new territory for us both. We stopped for a quick snack/water break. While stopped we had a chat with David Sheets, owner of Emergency Essentials. It turns out Dave worked for David almost 20 years ago. They did a little catching up and David told us how he had nearly ran into a bear this past summer,  just 30 yards from where we were standing. Bears in the vicinity, check.

The snow was now getting deep, but the trail was so well traveled and packed down, that we kept the snowshoes on the packs. Another 20 minutes and we were in the Rock Canyon campground, neither of us had any idea that this campground existed. It looks like a fun place to take the kids this summer.  Finally the snow was deep enough to need snowshoes so we stopped at one of the picnic tables to put them on. I checked the GPS to find the trail. There were about 3 trails that left from the campground that all sort of ended up converging at a later point so we took what looked to be the shortest route and started off. After a while we came to a gate and no trespassing sign. Hmmm. Check the GPS and we had missed a turn-off somewhere.  We weren’t too bothered by the back tracking, we were making good time and had plenty of energy. We decided to cut through some woods to where the GPS indicated that we would connect back with the trail. After a while we checked the GPS and we were way off of the trail now.  Oh man.  Time to double back again. This time we had a struggle up the side of a very steep stream bank. Now that we were getting close to the trail we decided to cut through some more woods to keep forward momentum.  Bad idea. When we checked the GPS after a bit we were just as far off as before. This time we headed strait for the indicated trail on the GPS so that we could finally get on course. This meant we had a couple of very high and steep bluffs to climb. It was starting to get hard.

I crested the final ridge and stopped on an obvious trail. I wasn’t about to be fooled by going down the wrong trial so I checked the GPS. It indicated that we were still a ways off from the trail, still in the direction that we were headed so we started up another steep ridge.  The ridge wasn’t the trail, but we decided to just follow the ridge in the direction of Provo Peak, not wanting to get rid of the elevation we had gained by climbing it. The ridge provided a nice view into Utah Valley and all the surrounding canyons. The only problem was the increasingly thick growths of scrub oak. A little bush-whacking never hurt anyone, so we continued on. We spotted a clearing on the ridge where the incline grew steeper and made that our goal, then we would stop for a break. Once we got to the start of that section fighting the incline and depth of the snow began to make things really tough. It was slow going, often fighting for 5 minutes just to make a couple of forward steps. Finally we made our goal, some large rocks on the edge of a small 20 ft. cliff. We stopped for lunch and a rest. I decided to check the GPS to find out exactly where we were. I discovered that the  trail that had been on was indeed the correct trail. Lesson learned, don’t always trust the GPS as gospel.

Provo Peak was now in our sights but it was another mile or two further plus 1500 ft of steep climbing. We decided to climb to the top of the ridge that we were on and call it good. After a big of a rest we got back to it and were quickly reminded that the mountain was not for or against us, it was just there. Steep and covered in deep snow.  At some point we can across tracks of some sort. They had plunged down into the snow and were a day or two old. Without any real defining characteristics we couldn’t figure out what had left the tracks. Then we came to a place where the animal had walked a little more softly and stayed on the surface. Big mountain lion prints were clearly visible. Knowing that the tracks were not recent we weren’t really concerned, but I kept my eyes open hoping to catch a glimpse of  a big cat.

After an eternity we finally came to the top of a false summit. My legs had started cramping and we were just plain exhausted so we called our adventure good decided we had gone far enough. After a quick sock change we started the downward part of the trip. Dave, whose knees were now hurting quite a bit did not have fun. I on the other hand had a blast. I moved onto the untracked snow and basically skied down the slopes. It was a bit awkward, and I ended up on my backside more than a couple of times, but it was fast, easy and a lot of fun.

We eventually made it back to the trail that the GPS had tricked us off of and followed it back to the campground so we could remember for the next attempt. Provo Peak is a fairly unknown peak. It can be seen from the valley, but it’s back behind other peaks and though it’s nearly as tall as Timpanogos, the most popular peak in the area, it does not appear as prominent so it goes fairly un-noticed. As far as peaks go, it’s a pretty good looking peak. I wish I had taken a picture of it.

I was able to test a cool new gadget that showed up the day before this outing. The LifeProof iPhone case. The case is shock resistant and waterproof. I have friends that have Otter Box cases for their phones and they work well, but they had quite a bit of bulk to the phone and I’ll just go without before I have to carry around something that bulky in my pocket or pack.  The Lifeproof case, using some shockingly thin plastic, is able to protect the iPhone from normal drops and in the case of the rep at the Outdoor Retailer show, a toss across the booth. The rep also demonstrated the waterproofness of the case by dropping his phone into a tank of water. I haven’t tested my personal phone but the rubber seals around the joints all seem to be well designed and implemented. The touch screen seems to have just the tiniest amount of difference in sensitivity. Not enough that it bothers me and not enough that it causes any issues with typing out a text or email.  The iPhone auto-correct still causes me more problems than any real or perceived loss of touch sensitivity will.

Between the awesomeness of my Goal Zero Guide 10 battery pack and the LifeProof case, I was able to have access to my ill-performing GPS for the entire 8 hour outing in the backcountry. If you have any need for a waterproof case or worry about dropping and cracking the screen on your $500 phone then the $75 for the LifeProof case is well worth the dough.

Dave and I will go back to Provo Peak in a month or so when schedules have cleared up and we’re ready to give it another go. Next time we’ll follow the trail and save our climbing legs for the actual peak. Maybe we’ll even see that mountain lion…