White Pine Lake, Utah, Logan Canyon

Location: White Pine Lake, Logan Canyon, Utah
USGS Quad(s):
Trip Dates: Spring and Fall
Why go?: Easy access, easy trail, easy fishing, and beautiful scenery
Water: It’s a lake
Human Traffic: Late spring through fall = a lot of hikers
Difficulty: Easy 2 ½, difficult ½ (drop into bowl where lake is and hiking out of bowl)

Introduction

I’ve backpacked to White Pine Lake 3 times for overnight trips – once with K.C, Ryan, Greg, and Seyi in the spring of 2004; once with K.C, Ryan, Bryce and his little brother Devon, Sara (sister-in-law) (fall of 2004); once with just my daughter, Kali (late summer 2005). Growing up nearby, I made the trip many times as a day hike.

It’s only 3 miles from the trail head at Tony Grove lake to White Pine Lake. The trip into the lake is relatively easy as the path slowly winds up a gentle climb for about 2 ½ miles and then drops into a bowl where White Pine Lake sits. This is why I choose it as Kali’s first backpack trip. That is also why I made the other 2 trips – we were short on time and wanted to go somewhere easy.

During the summer, you can count on at least two or three other groups to be there and almost always a scout group is there.

Spring 2004

Not long after my father kicked off, K.C and I decided we needed to take a trip. Ryan said he would come, but it was the day after we wanted to start so we left without him, planning to meet him early Saturday morning at the lake.

There was heavy cloud cover as we started the hike and it started raining before we were half way to the lake. It was a steady rain but luckily didn’t turn into a real downpour with lightning until just as we had our tents up. To avoid other people, we camped about 1/8^th mile north/east of the lake.

While Seyi at jerky in the tent he shared with K.C, K.C and I cooked dinner under a tree. I think we both got soaked. I dove into my tent to eat my dehydrated spaghetti, apple cider, and snickers bar. In my memory, this is probably the best meal I’ve had in the wilderness. There was lightning and thunder like I’ve never seen. I was cold, so I removed my wet clothes, snuggled into my sleeping bag, and ate. It was awesome.

Ryan was scheduled to hike in that morning. I woke up early to walk towards the trail head so he wouldn’t have to walk the whole way by himself. I should have stayed in my tent and waited for the lightning to stop, but I was a little worried about him so I yelled to K.C that I was leaving and started back up, out of the bowl.

When I was maybe 200 yards from our tents, the storm intensified, with lightning all over and the rain changing into very heavy snow flakes. So, I’ve talked to and read recommendations on how to avoid getting struck by lightning. I was really scared that I had made a mistake, but didn’t want to walk out in the open, so I found a medium sized tree and hunkered under it, eating some breakfast bars as lightning flashed and thunder crashed all around me.

After a while the lightning moved on, leaving only a heavy downpour. Again, I should have gone back to the tent and waited out the storm, but I felt bad for poor Ryan, slugging through the weather by himself, so I pushed on. If you knew Ryan, you would ask me at this point, “what were you thinking. You know he’s probably still in bed.” I should have known – I made it all the way to the trail head and his car wasn’t even there yet. So, I climbed into my car, turned on the heater, and fell asleep.

After Ryan finally made it, we started hiking to the lake. We ran into a bunch of people coming out, all of whom told us we were crazy. The rain had stopped, but it was cold and wet. About half way in, we met K.C and Seyi. K.C had a huge backpack on, not his own. Someone trying to hike out had asked K.C to carry his pack for him as it was too heavy! That is by far the strangest thing that has happened to us since we started getting out like this. Ryan and I told them we meet back at the tents. K.C carried that pack all the way out, literally following the admonition to walk with a main two miles if he asks you to walk one. (Matthew 5:41)

(NOTE: at the time of Christ, Roman soldiers could legally force a Jewish male to carry the soldier’s backpack for 1 mile. So, when Christ told his followers to “go twain,” he was literally telling them to carry the soldier’s pack two mile, twice as far as they were required by law.)

The rest of that trip is a blur. I remember the 4 of us wandering into the forest north east of the lake and talking Seyi into chewing pine “gum.” I totally recommend that if you’ve never had the chance. It’s awesome. The trick is, you have to get the biggest and most fresh drop of sap possible. Just put it in your mouth and start to chew. Mmm, mmm.

Fall 2004

This trip is memorable for 2 reasons: first, we hiked in a night under a full moon; second, in two days I climbed 3 peaks in the area, all nearly 10,000 feet (Naomi Peak – 9,979 feet, Mount Magag – 9,750 feet, and Mount Gog – 9,714 feet) and 1,700 feet above White Pine Lake.

The hike in was great. Fall nights under a harvest moon = peace. We only lost the trail once and quickly found it again.

The 3 peaks adventure was something I’m not sure I will do again. It was great to be on the peaks, but I was wasted, especially the first second day in which we hiked up Mount Naomi and Magog. The terrain is extremely steep.

Summer 2005

Kali and I made this trip after school had started in 2005. I took a Friday off from work. We left early Friday morning and drove up to Logan, eating lunch at McDonalds. Before the trip, kali and I had pored over maps – I was trying to get her excited about the trip. She was 6 at the time.

My pack was pretty heavy, but watching her enjoy the backcountry like that easily made it worth the extra weight. My wife and I take our kids camping often, each of them since they were only a few months old. So Kali was no stranger to camping. But the opportunity to hike with just dad, and the sense of freedom the backcountry affords, I think made a magical combination in her young mind.

I didn’t think 3 miles would be too far, but the last mile took us a long time on the way into the lake. Once we were there, Kali helped setup the tent. We immediately went down to the lake to catch some fish. Fortunately we didn’t catch any, but we had a lot of fun trying. That night, Kali and I ate dinner in the dark and then crawled into the tent. I had not yet bought Kali a good sleeping bag, so she was in my 0 rated bag and I was in the lighter one. She slept like a log and didn’t even mind when I woke up and had to leave for a few minutes to go “potty.”

We fished most of the morning, again lucky to not catch anything. While I took down the tent and packed, Kali wandered around, always within eye-sight of me. I had her wear a whistle around her neck, along with the compass. She loved the compass, and stopped almost every 5 minutes to check which direction she was headed.

Kali still talks about that trip. We didn’t go last summer because I had started a new job and didn’t have enough vacation. But I am taking her this summer (2007). I’m not sure where but I’m going to make the hike shorter so we have more time to spend fishing and walking around together. We might take Caleb – he’s only 4. If Caleb comes, I’ll have to make K.C come with to act as sherpa.