Upcoming Ptarmigan Trip

Our first annual White Tailed Ptarmigan trip to the High Uintas is close approaching. I’ve done all of the mapping and a lot of research on where to go and I think weather permitting we should have some pretty good success. The plan is as follows:

Thursday Sept 11 - 4:00 am leave Bountiful area

It’s about a 3 – 3 ½ hour drive so that would put us to the trailhead about 7:00 – 7:30 am

The hike is laid out as follows:

Mile 0 starts at 9477.9ft elevation

Mile 1 – 9577.5ft – gain of 99.6ft

Mile 2 – 9722.5ft – gain of 148ft

Mile 3 – 9852.9ft – gain of 130.4ft

Mile 4 – 9886.8ft – gain of 33.9ft

Mile 5 – 10004.5ft – gain of 117.7ft

Mile 6 – 10184.2ft – gain of 179.7ft

Mile 7 – 10285.7ft – gain of 101.5ft

Mile 8 – 10584.1ft – gain of 298.4ft

Mile 9 – 10791.4ft – gain of 207.3ft

Mile 10 – 10956ft – gain of 164.6ft

Mile 11 – 11311.8ft – gain of 355.8ft

Destination 11.13 miles – 11325.6 – gain of 13.8ft – Red Castle Lake

Along most of the hike there is a stream that I’ve heard has some great fishing to be done there. I imagine as we hike that we will take a few fishing breaks and simply take it easy on our way in. With little to no fishing breaks I would estimate our hike to take around 5 hours. Throw in a few fishing breaks and that will probably set us back a few hours putting us in camp roughly 2 or 3pm. That should give us plenty of time to make camp and get some fishing in on Red Castle Lake as well as relax for our next two days of hunting. I’ve also heard that Red Castle Lake has some awesome fishing.

Friday Sept 12 & Saturday Sept 13^th the plan is to hunt, fish, or whatever else everyone wants to do. As long as my dog is still running and I don’t have my limit I imagine I’ll be looking for a few birdies. Hopefully we’ll get into a bunch of birds on Friday and limit out, go back to camp, eat them and then limit out again on Saturday. At least I’m pretty sure that’s legal to do. The bag limit is 4 and the possession limit is 2 bags so I don’t see why not. That would make for a lot of birds between all of us. I know that’s dreaming a bit but why not (especially knowing how some of us shoot J).

Sunday Sept 14^th – Hike out and drive home.

We’ll need to watch the weather reports closely as the trip approaches since at that elevation snow storms and thunderstorms would be the likelihood if we get into bad weather. I hear it can get pretty nasty up there so we’ll want to be prepared.

There are 4 guys going as well as 4 dogs (3 German Shorthairs, and 1 Brittany). This is the first time any of us have taken this trip but I feel pretty comfortable with our plan. Hopefully we’ll make this an annual trip. I’ll post how the trip goes when I get back. I’m still debating on whether I should pack my D300 or my wife’s little digital camera. Hers is small and really nice but I’d love to have the D300 up there to take some nice shots. It weights a lot though especially considering we’ll be hiking over 22 miles.