A few months late? But what’s the harm…
Lowe Peak. One of the few consistent hikes in my life. I somehow find myself out in the Oquirrhs, driving up Ophir Canyon each fall, wondering if I’ve properly avoided the fall hunt. This year I put it off long enough that the rifle hunt had long since passed and the only hunters I saw all day were hunting cans in the parking lot.
An early season snow made it a little slower than years past. I was postholing to my thighs at times on the leeward side of the ridges. I chose my pants and footwear poorly (running shoes and cotton pants) but enjoyed the fading fall sun and didn’t mind the iced lower extremities. I had initially aimed for Dead Ox Pass which I have somehow never graced – but instead hit the summit ridge further north and found myself sipping tea beneath the newly refurbished summit flag.
I fear I don’t have much to say, especially two months later… but Lowe continues to somehow be a favorite. Perhaps because it’s usually empty and definitely because it’s nostalgia. This was somewhere in the range of my tenth time up. Perhaps I need to find a new fall (and spring!) tradition….
