The Kings Peak epic weekend adventure began on Sunday August third, when I got this hair brained idea to "Summit" Kings Peak. I have never backpacked and camped overnight in the back country or summited a mountain, let alone the highest mountain in the state of Utah.

I googled "Kings Peak" and "Backpacking Inventory," to put together an exhausting list of items needed to prepare for this virgin adventure. I soon realized I was missing quite a bit of gear and the important stuff too, like a water filtration system, backpacking stove, sleeping pads, headlamps, oh and a decent light weight, rain proof tent! Thank goodness for Weber State University's "Wilderness Recreation Center," where I was able to rent most of the missing gear for super cheap.



I was able to recruit Todd, my sister's boyfriend to boldly join me on this whimsical endeavor. So together we planned our quickly approaching weekend. The plan was to work a half day on Friday then leave from Layton, Utah where I work and head down to SLC to pick up Todd then finally drive three hours to the Henry's Fork Trail Head. We planned on hitting the trail by 5pm and after a four hour hike reach base camp then crash for the night. Summit day was planned for Saturday then after camping that night hike out Sunday morning. The plan mostly succeeded but the time line got squirly.

I was lucky enough to meet with super weekend adventurer "Glen the Neighbor," (who is my Uncle D's neighbor), on Thursday evening. Glen had just summited Kings Peak the week prior and has actually summited the highest point in Utah every year for the last seven years. I had never met the sprightly weekend adventurer but Glen and I immediately hit it off and I spent about four hours at his home going over trails and recounting trips of grandeur. Finally, after about an hour of Glen failing to get a topo map downloaded onto his GPS device, I told him to just print the damn thing and that should be enough because it's almost 11pm and tomorrow is departure day! Glen was a great resource and really gave the impression that we would have a fun and moderate hike to the highest elevation Utah has to offer.

Thursday night was spent organizing and packing until about one in the morn when I couldn't stay awake any longer. Friday morning's plan was to hit work early (about 9) then work a half day until noon but I slept in because of staying up so late then I was forced to make a decision, do I stay home and finish packing or head to work and get stuck there all day and risk never leaving for our trip. Of course I ditched work and stayed home to pack and thank goodness I did because it took until about 10:30am. I quickly swung by WRC to pick up my rented gear and again WRC was a life saver. I ended up renting two sleeping pads, two headlamps, a cook set, a sleeping bag, and a backpacking camp stove. Next I hit Canyon Sports because I had not yet found a backpack for my dog. Canyon had a pack but the harness was missing, Tim, "the man" offered me half off, I was tempted but chose to make a quick stop at the REI in SLC instead.

I cruised by the house and threw everything in the back of the Escape, including the dog, and eventually made it to the office by 1:00pm and only because at this point my boss had phoned wondering where the hell I was. I had to make an appearance and that is exactly what I did. I had to first visit Uncle D's house to pick up the $30 Wal Mart special three man tent I was borrowing for the weekend. The tent actually belonged to my cousin Britt and her boyfriend Skyler who signed on at the last minute to come with us but, at the very last minute, like right before I was to pick him up, he had to bail. I'm still not sure of the reason but he missed out.

I made my 1 hour guest appearance at the office to satisfy my boss and got yelled at by some anti-dog lady in the next room, because I carelessly let my super-dog Harry run into her "personal sanctuary" most call an office. Oops, sorry lady but you really need to relax, it's a dog not a machete wielding killer sasquatch! Anyway, around 2pm, I eagerly drove in stop-and-go construction traffic on I15 to destination Sugarhouse, Utah in order to pick up Todd.

Once we loaded all of Todd's gear into the Escape it looked as we had enough equipment to summit K2 rather than Kings Peak, but hey at least we were prepared! And we had food for every scout troop on earth...
           ( Yes, this is only a three day, two night backpacking trip. Probably not considered "Ultralight." )

We were finally off on our grand weekend adventure when just a few blocks away from Todd's house we had to stop by the local REI and pick up a backpack for the dog. I purchased the "Approach" pack made by "Ruff Wear," which performed flawlessly. The pack doesn't come with a hydration bag so I picked up a "MSR Dromlite" bag which fit perfectly in the side pocket and worked like a charm.

Ok, this time we were off to the trail head with the exception of one pit stop at the strategically placed Chevron in Evanston, Wyoming. I purchased a Monster Khaos drink and some peppered beef jerky, walked Harry the super-dog and off we went again. By the way, Khaos and jerky don't mix, don't try it, not sure what I was thinking.

Three short hours of anxious driving from Sugarhouse, and only one wrong turn later we were off roading in the Wasatch-Cache National Forest making a bee-line toward the trail head. Todd snapped a couple of co-pilot pics out the windshield and window for effect.

Around 7pm we rolled into the Henry's Fork trail head parking lot... Only 3 hours behind, not bad.

Todd and I packed our gear with expert and nimble ease as seen here:



Yes, perfectly packed backpack, obviously not mine, it's Todd "The Naturals" pack.



At 8:20 we finally hit the trail. Just 3 hours and 20 minutes behind the 5:00pm pre-planned departure time.



Only about five minutes down the trail we spotted a moose down by the river. Wow, how cool is that! This proves there really is wildlife but that also means there might be bear, mountain lion, killer raccoons, and other things that go bump in the forest. Gulp! I know, let's hike at night!

Well, I'll definitely endorse Black Diamond Head Lamps if they need me to. We only hiked for about an hour before nightfall hit us. Sure there was some light somewhere but in the forest we couldn't find it. So, on came the headlamps and out came the whistle. I nervously blew the whistle and talked very loudly and sang along to the Irish punk tunes blasting through my I-pod just to let every wild creature know where we were! I didn't want anything or any animal to not know that these two uncultivated hikers were making there way through the intimidating darkness.

After a while though, hiking at night felt fairly easy and we became comfortable with our headlamps, cooler temps and mysterious landscape. The rocky and mostly discernible trail mildly gained in elevation and the actual hike wasn't too bad considering neither one of us has packed over 40lbs on our back for too long.

About three hours into our hike, the romanticism finally wore off and the lust for a base camp complete with a warm sleeping bag, and the security of a tent began to settle quickly into our minds. Then began the little sprinkles of rain which never amounted to much more and actually felt refreshing but the threat of hiking at night in a rain storm was none too pleasant.

We began seeing faint lights in the distance and we believed they were fire's from the boy scouts who frequent the area but the light was moving. The closer the light came we were able to glimpse the shadow of other hikers on the trail. It was a group of guys hiking out and they gave us some badly needed geographical information, like where the hell are we? The men informed us we were about an hour away from Dollar Lake which was our final destination.

Along the way we had to cross this cool log bridge which transported us across a small river.

Harry the super-dog, and I led the way for most of the night until I finally became exhausted and non motivated. Todd bravely took over the lead and his new-found energy was greatly needed and appreciated. Todd expeditiously guided us through the forest and we only saw one pair of wild eyes that spooked us. We didn't know what those beady eyes in the brush were attached to but we didn't stick around to find out. Off we trounced down the path and with my headlamp fading we finally began passing some tents. Ahhh, signs of humans, now if we can just find that damn Dollar Lake we can pitch camp and crash for the night.

So we hiked some more and some more and some more, at last, I thought we were going to summit Kings Peak before we even set up camp! Eventually we came across a field where we could detect a handful of tents pitched randomly against the landscape. We scoped out a rock in which we figured would be a good place to sit, use as a kitchen or packing table and called it home. The first thing we did was ditch our packs onto our newly claimed land. This was the first time during the arduous trek in which we took our packs off and the ghost packs remaining on our back forced us to walk and move as drunken bastards, delirious, and skeptical of our bodies ability to function.

We pitched the tent and took brief inventory of our gear and quickly realized we did not have a rain-fly for the tent. Are you kidding me? No rain-fly! How do you forget the rain-fly?! I frantically searched through my pack and all my pockets and could not find one of the most important pieces of high altitude protection, which is the tents rain-fly! It was all my fault, I was the one who packed the tent and the poles and I thought the rain fly. I am such a beginner. Well, what would an adventure be without a little improvisation. To solve this pesky imbroglio we pulled the tarp out from under the tent and used some nylon string that I did remember to pack and tied down the tarp over the tent forming a ghetto rain shelter. Do we look pro now or what?

Nearing almost one in the morning we made the experienced backpacker's decision to skip dinner and go directly to bed! Tomorrow is summit day and we need to be well rested. Ta ta for now and let tomorrow bring victory to all! By the way, we never did find Dollar Lake?