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Doubletop Mountain, September 15, 2013

We "carpooled up" to Franklin basin with 3 vehicles and 8 hikers:  Dave W., Dave P., Dan (the hike leader), Denis, Alexi, Terry, and Ryan.  After dropping a shuttle vehicle off at Steep Hollow, we continued over the Idaho Border and parked at the White Canyon/Boss Canyon trailhead.  About 9:35 A.M. we started hiking south, crossed the stream twice, then headed west into Boss canyon under grey skies.  At 11:30 we stopped at the "rescue cabin" just above treeline at the top of Boss canyon for an early lunch and pictures. The temperature was perfect.

We then climbed to the ridge and headed south with views of Cache Valley and north fork High Creek as well as toward Franklin basin.  Our hike along the ridge crossed over two small peaks along the way, then the trail skirted the west side of the third peak and arrived at the saddle just north of Doubletop. Here we split into three groups: Dave P stayed at the saddle while Jim and Dan hiked part way up Doubletop to look for pikas while the others hiked to the higher south summit of Doubletop Mountain.  Jim and Dan listened to the pika's squeaky calls while watching several active and noisy Clark's Nutcrackers. Dan and Ryan managed to take some good photos of pikas in the notch between the two Doubletop summits (click here for more information about this interesting little animal).

The group then made the very steep off-trail descent into "the basin", a cirque just to the east of Doubletop.  We then followed intermittent trails and continued down Steep Hollow. The group was halfway down when a storm hit, obliging us to don rain gear.  Lightning struck nearby, but fortunately this did not happen while we were in an exposed position on the ridge.  On the way down we walked on the jeep road, past the turn to Crescent Lake and the new sign for Shorty's cutoff, arriving at the shuttle vehicle about 5:00 P.M.

Trip summary:

• Drove three vehicles 30+ miles from Logan to Franklin basin, leaving a shuttle vehicle at Steep Hollow
• Hiked 4.5 miles on the Boss Canyon trail, with 1500 feet of climbing
• Hiked 2 miles on unmaintained trails along the ridge to Doubletop Mountain, with 800 feet of climbing 
• Hiked 4.3 miles down Steep Canyon, much off-trail hiking and rain
• Drivers rode in the shuttle vehicle to the Boss Canyon trailhead & drove back to Steep Hollow to pick up their riders
• Total:  10.7 miles hiking with 2300 feet of climbing, and a 6:30 return to Logan
  

(Thanks to Dan for the trip narrative and GPS track, and Dan and Ryan for the photos.)

At the Boss Canyon Rescue Cabin
Pika in the rocks near Doubletop Mountain (Ryan's photo)	Dan took this pika photo
Upper Steep Hollow - and our steep off-trail route down from the ridge

This is a topographic map showing our GPS track

Click here to see a satellite view of the route (using Google Maps)

Download a Google Earth file to see our route in 3-D