Red Pine Lake

Last Wednesday (Aug. 20) my friend Steve and I talked about going on backpacking trip, two days later we were off. Red Pine is an overnight backpacking trip that we have done every year for the past five years. A few times we have not made it to the top, either because of snow or poor planning, but we have learned from our mistakes and we now always plan on going the latter part of summer. There were five of us in the group: Steve, Eric, Jessica, Jordan (thanks Caroline for letting us have him for a night) and me.

The plan was to leave at six. At seven we were off, an hour past schedule but early by our standards. The sun was starting to touch the Oquirrh Mountains as we set off for the three mile hike. The first guy we met coming down from the trail was an older fellow hiking alone. He smiled as we passed and he said “The bus is waiting for you.” I do not know what he was talking about; perhaps he was referring to Chris McCandless stay in the so called “Magic Bus” from the book/movie Into the Wild.

The trail up to Red Pine Lake follows the White Pine Lake trail for about a mile then it forks off. The trail is wide and rocky for the most part. The towering evergreen trees shadow over the trail creating thick green walls on both side and it opens up at top to a vast blue sky or magnificent spread of stars. There are a few spots were the trees open up and a V shaped portion of the Salt Lake Valley is visible through the cut of Little Cotton Wood Canyon. When we got to this view it would be the last we saw of the sun light for the rest of the hike up and we had to rely on our head lamps.

The last mile of the hike is very steep and the trail is not as distinct, there are a lot of places where the trail will split. I have learned through experience that if a log is laid across the fork of one paths then it is to indicate that it is not the main trail. This knowledge made it easy to stay on the right path and I did not get lost or have to backtrack and I did not lose the confidence of Eric or Jessica who were following me.

At the lake, if the sun is down, there is an optical illusion where the lake appears to be a hundred feet down and two hundred yards away—yet in reality it is only a few feet away. I thought my eyes were playing another trick on me, I looked and looked and I could not see any other campers! Red Pine is usually covered with campers. With our usual late arrival we have to roam around for several minutes looking for a suitable camping spot. This time it was just a mere survey for the flattest spot tucked away from the main trail.

Although we did not have any campers around us, we did not go the entire night without spotting another human, at about 11:15 pm we met a lady who was hiking. We did not catch her name but she was in her mid-twenties and she was planning on hiking though the night alone. She stopped to talk to us for several minutes and she told us of all the hikes she does, including her Canada trip she had just returned from. She was very nice and polite but to go hiking in the middle of the night by oneself is pretty extreme.

I slept great that night. I prefer blankets to sleeping bags, it is more comfortable but it is not as warm, luckily it did not get very cold at night. I woke up only a couple of time that night, once because of some coyotes howling.

Steve woke up early the next morning to go fishing; however, he did not have much luck.

Red Pine Lake was very beautiful in the morning; it is so calm except for the occasional splash heard from a jumping fish. It is one that has to be seen in person, the sun peering over the surrounding peaks really liven up the trees and it helps to display the contrast of the evergreens to the granite rock.