Hiking Lake Catherine, Alta, Utah and a Chance Encounter

Last week, a friend of mine from my hometown in Ohio stopped in to Salt Lake City for a work trip. He was busy for the two days he had scheduled out and on Tuesday was free to do what he pleased. He had never been to Utah and I honestly hadn't hung out with him in nearly 4 years. So we had a lot of catching up to do.

We got to the trail head at 5:30pm, remember that.

Before we hit the trail, I said to Nick, "There's a chance we might see a moose. If you do, hide behind something. Their eye sight sucks...or climb a tree if you're really fucked."  We cruised through the first section that usually takes about an hour and fifteen minutes in about 45 minutes. We crested the trail and instead of going back down I decided we should go down and check out the lake since I had not done this hike either.

While coming down the steep trail, land surfing down, with an earbud in for music; I hear this voice from across the lake. I couldn't make out what the couple was trying to say but the next thing I hear from my buddy, Nick, is "I think something is wrong over there."

Not until I took the earbud that I heard, "There's a moose RIGHT THERE!"

Oh shit.  A moose.  No wait, not just a moose but a FAMILY of moose literally 60-70 yards away (estimated in scaredom)

Why hello, 1500lbs animals with a skittish temper.

Of course, the time I mention a moose, we see a family. For anyone that doesn't know about moose, they are not to be messed with. They will trample you to death and have a mean temper especially with a young one around.  Now this is my first encounter with a wild animal in the Wasatch. So even though I have some very little knowledge of these creatures I still froze up. I just kept thinking of getting the life kicked out of me.  I'm surprised my Cleveland-the-scariest-animal-seen-is-a-pigeon friend of mine handled it pretty well. Stayed relatively calm.

We backed away quickly after waiting behind a tree for about 5 minutes and hearing the baby moose (which still probably weighs 700lbs) making distressed noises.  Stellar.

The new trail.

Scoping out the rock bands.

The trail was between us and the moose family but since we didn't want to chance it, we went straight up, leading to a 5.3 free solo (First Ascent, calling it!) on a chossy rock face that, if you fell, you would die. It made the hike a bit more exciting and since we didn't hit the crest until sunset, we were moving faster to get back to the car. On the way back, we crossed another herd of deer and shadows of things I couldn't make out what they were because of my 20/60 vision.

Finally, back to the car. Wow, it's 9:30pm.

Glad I brought a headlamp...so dark out.

That extra portion took an hour by itself. Seriously, that hike took waaaay too long for what we did it in to get up there, especially since you can cruise through downhill portions. I think Nick had a good "welcome to Utah" day though. Doing a real mountain hike and seeing a family of moose, while free climbing a small pitch.  "Welcome to Utah" for sure.

All in all, it was cool to see a family of moose, next time though I think I'll look before I descend.  Rookie mistake.

After this encounter I think I will do some research on how to deal with animals and post my findings.

Thanks for reading!

All smiles during sunset at Sunset Pass

I don't know.