I am sorry I did not get back to report on this trip. Indeed it was fantastic and I learned what I could do at 54 vs being in my early 30s. I brought my 13 year old son who did a wonderful job. The forest service was super with their advice and they allowed us to hike despite the Neola fire to the southwest.
We entered the Uintas at Mirror Lake during the afternoon and hiked in a few miles to pitch camp and relax. Coming from 600 feet above sea level we were not used to the 8000 feet.
The first day climbing toward Rocky Sea pass we encountered great weather but it was obvious that the weight was a problem. Because he was 13 I brought more food than we needed. We made it to the bottom of the first pass and camped - but several hours later than planned. The weather was perfect but we were being slowed by weight and altitude.
That evening we reinventoried everything and burned what we did not need. We were not that hungry so we offloaded about 35 lbs of food. That made the load much lighter and yet we still had plenty. I overestimated his intake as well as mine.
I could not judge what was altitude related and what was dehydration. We were craving electrolytes and we found that chicken soup at lunch was perfect.
Across the pass and into the valley heading toward Dead Horse pass we did fine. At about 3 pm on day two we met the usual afternoon storm so we camped. We were doing well and were comfortable.
Day 3 I think I really was tiring as we climbed. We wanted to get across the pass and we found that as we approached the pass we were losing the trail. The cairns were not there. We were early and I could tell that few had been through. We took four hours just to climb the pass because the trail was gone. We were on the pass at about 8 pm and the sun was setting. We could not climb down the other side. With only about 1300 ml of water we were stranded on the pass with a lake below on the other side. We camped on the pass.
I had to decide whether to take a 13 year old down this pass. Dead Horse was one I had always climbed, never ascended. I decided that night that I would see what the pass looked like in daylight.
The following morning we looked for the trail below but could not find it. I had to decide to ascend with a 13 year old and risk injury. His braces had broken and were giving him fits. Given the altitude, how I felt and his inexperience, I decided to turn around and assault the trail from the other end. I felt bad but the scree and angle of the slope were too much. It took two days to return to the car in some rain and sleet but we loved it.
We assaulted King's Peak from Henry's Fork. I began to notice that I was gaining in strenght. I was losing weight and the altitude by day 7 was no longer a problem. He climbed King's Peak with me and I lagged behind somewhat. By day 10 I was used to the altitude and he was lagging behind me. I fell back into that pace I had 20 years ago.
Lessons Learned: Altitude - give more time before really pressing forward. Learn the difference between altitude and dehydration problems.
Keep the electrolytes handy. Gatorade, chicken soup, etc. work well. That we did have and it worked great. Drink plenty. We did not have enough water capacity and could have used more containers. We picked those up before going back in for another five days.
Weight - when bringing in someone do not overcompensate by bringing too much. We did not really feel like eating that much. We craved the popcorn, jerky and anything with salt (little wonder).
I think that we could have gone on because we did get much stronger and could cover more ground each day. At the end of the two weeks we did eight miles in about 4.5 hours above 9000 feet.
We leave in July again with several other people this time. The pictures and video were incredible and more are wanting to go.
Videos are on YouTube under Utah Hiking - Uintas Highline Trail. My son tired most of having videos made of his hikes.