It had been a while since I had attempted to summit a mountain and I had only been on one hike in the past four months. Needless to say, I was not in any type of hiking shape. Originally I had planned to attempt the hike with a co-worker but he backed out the night before. So I was on my own for the attempt. 
The temperatures had been very cold and the low for the 17th was projected to be around 0 degrees. So I dressed warmly and headed for the trail head at about 8:30.
The trail head is the Y-mountain (slide canyon) trail head. I started hiking about 8:45 and was at the Y in about 35 minutes - not bad considering the kind of shape I was in. I journeyed past the Y and made the turn up Slide Canyon. Shortly after I was hit with a shot of adrenalin as I apparently snuck up on some unsuspecting birds that flew away right above my head.
I made pretty good time to Bear Flat, where I put on my snow shoes. The snow here was at least a foot and a half but there was a decent trail blazed. I continued past the turn off on the left for the Y-mountain summit trail. I decided instead of continuing on to where the trails to Rock Canyon and Slate canyon brake off, I would take a right straight up Maple Mountain as I had seen a hiker do last winter several hundred yards before the main trail.
The normal trail takes a sort of road up the northeast side of Maple Mountain at a normal grade but the way that I went was a very steep climb that in my current shape I was not prepared for. There was a slightly broken trail up the side of the mountain -
just broken enough for me to follow it, not to be any kind of a help. After a much longer climb than I expected, I finally joined the road. I took the road for only about one or two hundred yards before the faint trail that I was following left the road on the left and headed for the ridge proper. It appeared that the road ended just a few yards ahead anyway.
For the most part, I just stayed on the north ridge all the way up to the summit, sometimes staying on the west side. I reached the summit just after noon after about 3 hours and 15 minutes.
From the summit I should have had great views of southern Utah County (Spanish Fork, Payson, etc) but there was an inversion that clouded up much of the view. But Mount Nebo, Santaquin Peak, and Buckley Mountain were easy to spot to the south. To the north, Lone Peak and Timpanogos were visible, but it was difficult to see Y-mountain through the trees.
After about 20 minutes on the summit, I headed down. The way down was a challenge for me to keep my feet. Parts of the hike were relatively steep, especially the detour I took, and so I spent a fair amount of time on my back side. Other than that, the way down was beautiful but uneventful.
Total, the hike took about 5 hours and 15 minutes and was a little over 7 miles - 7.2 according to my GPS.
The temperatures had been very cold and the low for the 17th was projected to be around 0 degrees. So I dressed warmly and headed for the trail head at about 8:30.
The trail head is the Y-mountain (slide canyon) trail head. I started hiking about 8:45 and was at the Y in about 35 minutes - not bad considering the kind of shape I was in. I journeyed past the Y and made the turn up Slide Canyon. Shortly after I was hit with a shot of adrenalin as I apparently snuck up on some unsuspecting birds that flew away right above my head.
I made pretty good time to Bear Flat, where I put on my snow shoes. The snow here was at least a foot and a half but there was a decent trail blazed. I continued past the turn off on the left for the Y-mountain summit trail. I decided instead of continuing on to where the trails to Rock Canyon and Slate canyon brake off, I would take a right straight up Maple Mountain as I had seen a hiker do last winter several hundred yards before the main trail.
The normal trail takes a sort of road up the northeast side of Maple Mountain at a normal grade but the way that I went was a very steep climb that in my current shape I was not prepared for. There was a slightly broken trail up the side of the mountain -
just broken enough for me to follow it, not to be any kind of a help. After a much longer climb than I expected, I finally joined the road. I took the road for only about one or two hundred yards before the faint trail that I was following left the road on the left and headed for the ridge proper. It appeared that the road ended just a few yards ahead anyway.For the most part, I just stayed on the north ridge all the way up to the summit, sometimes staying on the west side. I reached the summit just after noon after about 3 hours and 15 minutes.
From the summit I should have had great views of southern Utah County (Spanish Fork, Payson, etc) but there was an inversion that clouded up much of the view. But Mount Nebo, Santaquin Peak, and Buckley Mountain were easy to spot to the south. To the north, Lone Peak and Timpanogos were visible, but it was difficult to see Y-mountain through the trees.
After about 20 minutes on the summit, I headed down. The way down was a challenge for me to keep my feet. Parts of the hike were relatively steep, especially the detour I took, and so I spent a fair amount of time on my back side. Other than that, the way down was beautiful but uneventful.
Total, the hike took about 5 hours and 15 minutes and was a little over 7 miles - 7.2 according to my GPS.
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