As you know, we love the Tushar's! Over the last several years we have been trying to complete a loop around them by piecing together various trails that are at tree-line or slightly higher. However, it's been difficult to complete some sections on the east side (without doing out and backs) due to logistics that involve long vehicle shuttles.
When Tom suggested we hike Mt. Brigham and then look at doing a portion of the Alunite Trail in the afternoon, we were on board! Our plans changed as we progressed hiking throughout the morning . . . let's translate that last sentence . . . Kent saw a peak we needed to do in order to get five for the day. The trails will have to wait for another day . . . but we now have a plan for a through hike. Stay tuned!
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On our way to the Alunite Trailhead . . .
We were glad that Tom decided to bring his Can-Am or we would have been walking the road! |
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After a steep and rough drive we have arrived at the trailhead (11,200 ft)
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| Looking east at Mt. Brigham (11,757 ft) . . . time to start hiking! |
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Looking down at the trailhead and Can-Am . . .
Peak 12002, also known as Delano-Brigham Ridge Peak is calling Kent's name . . . uh oh!
(Tom has already done this one, but he is willing to do it, again) |
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On top of Mt. Brigham and taking in the views . . .
Mt. Baldy (12,122 ft) and Mt. Belknap (12,137 ft) tower over the ridge to our northwest |
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Walking east on the ridgeline of Mt. Brigham . . .
Yes, that's a communications tower, but the road to it is posted "No Trespassing" . . .
Thus, the reason we came in from the westside which is "open use" land |
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| Tom & Kent getting ready to head for South Edna Peak (11,600 ft) . . . directly in front of us |
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| After hiking Edna Peak (11,640 ft), we side-hilled Mt. Brigham and headed toward this bump for our lunch break |
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| Trying to escape the cold wind, we took a slightly different path on our way back to the trailhead |
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| An interesting rock along the trail |
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Tom moved the Can-Am over below this saddle that would lead us to Peak 12002
(It took some coaxing, on our part, to keep Tom from trying this in his Can-Am!) |
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| While there is no "official" trail we were able to pick up a good game trail to follow to the base of the peak |
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| Fresh graupel that fell yesterday |
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| Working our way across an 'easy' slope . . . 12002 straight ahead! |
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| This weathered Tushar Indian Paintbrush remnant was tucked in between some rocks |
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It was steep and the wind was very strong, at times . . .
Kent is sticking with the story that it was wind and not him stumbling! |
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Time for a break . . . we can't even see the top, yet!
It's gotta be right up there, right, Tom?? |
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We made it to the top of Peak 12002 . . . better known as Delano-Brigham Ridge Peak!
What an awesome view looking down into The Pocket |
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| The wind was whipping . . . Ezy thinks he can smell mountain goats! |
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| Yep, his nose knows! The Tushar's are famous for Mountain goats |
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| A zoomed in view of some of the goats . . . there were about 35 |
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Heading down off of 12002 and looking back at the peaks we summitted earlier . . .
What a day it has been . . . our first five peak day! |
Wow, still hard to believe we did it! As always, a big thanks to Tom and his willingness to rehike Peak 12002, so we could complete another summit in the Tushar's. If you would like a topo map and GPS tracks of our Mt. Brigham hike you can click
here and you'll be redirected to Tom's Peakbagger.com post. For our route and GPS tracks for Peak 12002, you can click
here. Altogether we hiked about four miles and gained about 2,000 ft of total ascent . . . not too bad!
