The hike to South Tent Mountain yesterday was just so-so, but by the time I got home afterwards I had a nasty migraine and ended up staying in bed the rest of the evening. It took me more than 2½ hours to drive from home to the trailhead. I'd forgotten how bad that stretch of Skyline Drive is--I hadn't driven it since I had my Subaru out there more than two years ago. I parked at the trailhead around 10:00 am, but the road/trail that was supposed to lead to the top of North Tent Mountain has been torn up by the Forest Service. I hiked along the side of the demolished trail until it started switching back and forth, then I headed straight for the north (and tallest) peak of North Tent Mountain. After resting there, I hiked down the small saddle to the south peak of North Tent Mountain, where there was a cairn and a register in a glass jar. I signed the register, then started down the big saddle on the way to South Tent Mountain. By that time I was already pretty exhausted, so the hike up South Tent took me a long time, with a lot of rest stops. I reached the top at 1:00 pm, then took another long rest before moving on. Instead of tracing my route back to the trailhead, I hiked straight down the side of the mountain and met up with a trail that took me back to the car.

Overall, the hike took me 4 hours and 45 minutes, though the book I was following listed the difficulty as easy and the time on the trail as 2.5 hours maximum. I hope it was the altitude that did me in (over 11,000 feet), because I'm pretty sure I could hike four miles in much less time at a lower elevation. Either way, I need to get out more and either hike more often or exercise regularly between hikes.

The drive home was pretty interesting, since I didn't take the same road as I'd come in on. When I got back to the car after the hike, there were some dark clouds moving in from the north, and I didn't dare chance driving that direction for 20 miles on a steep dirt road. If it had started raining, I would have been stuck there until the roads dried out, or else risk sliding hundreds of feet down the mountain to my death. So, I started driving south on Skyline Drive, not knowing exactly where the road would come out. I decided to follow the signs and head for the nearest paved road, no matter which side of the Wasatch mountains I ended up on. After just a few miles, the condition of the road improved a great deal, with crushed gravel instead of rocks and ruts. A few miles after that, I reached a junction and a sign that pointed to Orangeville. The road eventually came out in Joe's Valley, and on the way back home on SR-10, I noticed that those dark clouds were dumping rain on the mountains near north Skyline Drive. It was also just starting to rain in Huntington when I passed through, turning the thick coat of dust on the Mazda into mud--it needs to be washed pretty badly now.

Before yesterday, I'd planned on hiking to Fish Lake Hightop next, but with a "moderate" difficulty listing and an 8½ mile hike, I think I'll pass for now. East Mountain in Emery County sounds a little better--while also having moderate difficulty, it's only a two mile hike, and it's much closer to home.