Next stop: Salt
Lake City. We couchsurfed with two former COE instructors, one of
whom is also a former colleague of Dave. They are wonderful people,
and it was fun to see how much we have in common – now we need to
find a way to move them back to Ithaca (hint hint).
Lake Blanche is
an alpine lake in the Twin Peaks Wilderness of the Wasatch National
Forest. The super popular day hike is roughly 7 miles round-trip,
with only ~2,500' of elevation change to get up to 8,000ish feet.
Perfect for a warm-up and acclimatization hike.
 |
| :-P |
The trail felt
pretty easy. Conditions were
perfect - an early start gives shade for the hike up and avoids the
afternoon mountain clouds. We hiked from
the trailhead to the lake in roughly 2 hours.
 |
| not a postcard... yet |
...then Dave
took off to scramble up the cirque, while I set up naptime in a small
grove of aspens.
Flying down the
trail back to the car, my mind wandered and I rolled my right ankle.
Wrapped on a compression bandage, tightened up the boot, and limped
down the trail, with Dave taking my pack. Fortunately, it seems to
be a very minor sprain, and by wrapping it up so well, I think I
dodged a bullet!
We hit up three
other Salt Lake City landmarks:
(1) The Church of
Latterday Saints (LDS) Temple
(2) The Great Salt
Lake
(3) Backcountry.com
(Yes, they have a retail store in Salt Lake City!)
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