Y-Mountain, elev 8,568' March 2006

My Brother-in-law Jeff, and I had planned this trip to the top of Y Mountain for quite sometime and had actually tried it unsuccessfully about a week and a half earlier. This time, equipped with snow shoes and with a better knowledge of where the Y Mountain trail broke off from the Slide Canyon trail, we hoped we would fare better.
We got to the trail head just a couple of minutes past 8:30 in the morning. We had just had two large snow storms two and three days before we went, so we wanted to get an early start before the ground thawed and the switchbacks to the Y became extremely muddy. It was supposed to be a warm day, with highs reaching into the 60's and when we got started, it was well on it’s way.
The switch backs to the Y are the most difficult and probably the most boring part of the hike, aside from the excellent views offered of the valley below. They are also the most tedious in the spring after a snow storm because of the before mentioned mud and occasional ice that freezes over night. We hit the switchbacks with full force, not resting until "mile marker 4" (there are signs marked with numbers 1 through 12 to mark your progress to the Y. They obviously aren’t mile markers, but we called them mile markers at one point and the name stuck). We made it to the Y in 36 minutes which wasn’t bad considering the slick hiking conditions and factoring in that we still are in winter shape.
Once we passed the Y, we could tell that someone had already started up the trail before us which meant that we wouldn’t have to break the trail. We took the trail to the south of the Y and up through Slide Canyon. A few hundred yards after we started heading east through the canyon, we saw a recently killed dear carcass. It was a rather eye opening reality check for both of us as to the fact that we weren’t alone in the wilderness.
The trail through the pine forest was especially pretty as there was still snow on many of the branches. Once we made it to Bear Flats (sometimes just referred to as "The Meadow"), we decided that it was time to don our snow shoes. It was the first time I had ever worn them and although at first I was skeptical as to how much of a difference they would really make, I soon discovered that if I wanted to do a lot of snow hiking, they would be a great investment.
Soon after Bear Flats, you enter an aspen grove and it is in this grove that the trail to the Y Mountain Summit breaks off to the left. We missed the turn off in our previous attempt but on the way back, noticed where we should have turned. This time also helping us out was the hiking party that was already on the trail before us. Because the snow level was so high, after turning onto the summit trail we had to veer to the right of where the normal trail goes under the trees up a dry creek bed. Though steep, it meant less bending over to get under the tree branches and, besides, the other party had already broken the trail for us. It was at this point that we passed them on the way down. A man, his daughter and their Malamute.
We soon got to another snow covered meadow that I call the Meadow of Death (I’m not sure if it actually has an official name). I call it this because in the summer time, the meadow is filled with wild flowers and the sound of bees all around you is so loud it is very intimidating. The meadow also has a pretty steep grade So the combination of trying to hike as fast as I can through a bee infested steeply graded meadow is enough to warrant the name. This time, though, there were no bees to worry about and we could take our time as we made our way through.
There are two summits on Y Mountain, one to the east and one to the west. The trail takes you to a saddle between the summits and the more defined trail in the summer takes you over toward Rock Canyon and then up the West summit. The East Summit is actually a bit higher (maybe about 40 feet according to my GPS) and has better views of the surrounding mountains and valleys to the East. The West Summit has better views of the Utah Valley below. I had never been to the East Summit before, but since the party before us went that way, we decided we would follow since we wanted to hike both summits anyway. The views were spectacular! We also stopped and ate lunch on the East Summit.
After about 50 minutes of eating and enjoying the beauty, we decided to head over to the west summit. For this trip, we would have to blaze our own trail. Because the summits are so close together, knowing what way to go wasn’t an issue; the issue was walking through the deep snow. This is where our snowshoes saved us from probably turning back. We went straight down the east summit, hiked north toward Rock Canyon, where the normal trail goes, and then started the tough hike up the West Summit. Once we reached the summit, we called our wives so they could take out the binoculars and look for us from our homes (we live across the street from each other). Once we were spotted, we decided it was probably time to head back home.
The decent was quick and uneventful other than the occasional face plant in the snow as we were running down the West Summit, or the joint pain we experienced as we went back down the switchbacks after passing the Y.
It was a very fun hike that gave me my first experience in wearing snow shoes, and was made even more picturesque by the snow covered mountains and trees surrounding us. We finished the hike in about 8 hours, taking about and hour and a half total resting time on top of both peaks.

Squaw Peak, elev 7,876' Feb 2006

I talked my brother-in-law, Jeff, into going with me which wasn’t very difficult since he’s always up for an adventure. We had some things to take care of before we left so we didn’t actually leave for the trail head until about 11:50. We decided to hike Squaw Peak by the trail up Rock Canyon, even though I had heard rumors of another trail that reaches the summit from the west. Since I’m still a bit of a novice and the other trail requires a bit of bushwhacking and scrambling, I thought I better stick to the road more traveled.
We arrived at the Rock Canyon trail head at about 12:10. When we left my house in Provo, I had 3 inches of snow on my lawn so we knew we’d need to bring our hiking poles to have any hope of stability hiking through what we expected to be fairly deep snow.
The trail starts fairly flat on a paved trail for the first few hundred yards and at this point there was only intermittent snow and ice. Once we got to the gate, the trail steepened slightly and we were on constant snow. The hike was as pretty as always, meandering by the snow covered riverbed that runs down Rock Canyon. We crossed the river a few times and after about 1.57 miles (according to my GPS) we found the turn off to Squaw Peak.
The turn off is marked by a sign with a hiker pointing to the left, even though the trail to Rock Canyon Campground was much more traveled and continues off to the right. This is where the hiking got a little harder for us. Thankfully, it was apparent that a few snowshoers had been up the trail a couple of days before and had packed down much of the snow which made life a lot easier. Occasionally, we would still sink a few inches but for the most part, aside from a few steep ascents, the hike was still pretty easy going.
We continued hiking north along this trail for about 1.5 miles (my GPS unit was in and out of satellite range for a time so this is a guestimate) until the trail suddenly turned west and brought us to what looked like would be a fairly big meadow in the summer. From this point on, it was fairly obvious where we would need to go to reach the summit but we didn’t dare veer off the trail because the snow levels were about chest deep according to our unscientific method of measuring by sticking our hiking poles in the snow off to the side of the trail. The trail continued west and then south with occasional views of the valley floor below as we climbed up the ridge to reach our final destination - the summit!
Once on the summit we had an outstanding view of the valley below and could also see Y-mountain’s twin peaks just to the south, Cascade just behind us to the north and Timpanogos looming a little farther north, it’s high peaks in the clouds. We rested for a while at the top, had a little snack and some hot chocolate, which really hit the spot, and called our wives to tell them that we were at the top. They took out the binoculars and could see us on the summit when we were standing in front of a snow bank.
It took us about 3 hours total to reach the summit (1.5 hours hiking and 1.5 hours resting and taking pictures), though without the snow it would have been a much faster hike. It was getting a bit late so we thought we better get moving. The hike down was much easier aside from a few slips here and there going down the steep sections of the trail covered with snow. We made it down to our car in about an hour, knowing that we would be plenty sore in the morning!