Dog Lake

Destination: Dog Lake; start from Mill Creek Canyon (where I started) or Big Cottonwood Canyon

Directions: From the Mill Creek fee station, it is 8.5 miles to the end of the road. Look for the Big Water Trail to start your hike. 

Difficulty: Easy/Moderate; could be a fun family hike

Company: Norman Bryner

Music: Enya

Date: August 28th, 2012

Length: About 6 miles round trip 

Snacks: Oreo Flavored Pop tarts, and My Little Pony Fruit Snacks (I was out of cliff bars)

Final destination

Kinda funny story about Dog Creek; I was buying a Utah hikes book from Barnes and Nobles and the cashier had this conversation with me.
               Cashier: "So you're into Hiking huh?"
               Me: "Yeah I've picked it up recently."
               Cashier: "Well if this book says anything about Dog Creek, forget it. It's a real Dog."
               Me: *awkward, what I hope looked like a smile* "oh, well thanks."

Not sure what exactly he was trying to say about the Hike, but if he was bashing on it I'd have to say I totally disagree. I loved this hike, the people there were awesome, it was beautiful at the top (hence the picture which was taken with my phone and wasn't enhanced at all), and it wasn't to difficult.


August 28th was the first day of school for fall semester; My last semester till graduation! Yes, yes, thank you all for the enthusiastic cheers, I am excited too. Well I was a little high strung and needed a break from all responsibility and pressure that school tends to bring on. So the obvious choice for time to commune with nature- HIKE;  I as really lucky that Norm was up for a hike and he just happened to not have plans so I had some great company.

The only way he'd smile is if he got to do something goofy.
*rolls eyes* :)

The drive up to the mill creek trail head was about 9 or so miles up which just so happens to be the very end of the road so easily found. It's a very pretty drive, only bummer is that it has a $3 fee to get into this canyon. LAME, I don't like the idea of having to pay to get to enjoy nature but whatever.

I didn't see many other hikers on the trail but we happened to be going on a Mountain bike day. So we had LOTS of mountain bikers up there with us. They were all very friendly, Norm and I just had to be on alert when we heard bikes coming so we could hop out of the way. I'm not big on the idea of being involved in a bike accident. I've heard bikers complain about hikers and hikers complain about bikers, but I do both so to me it just makes sense to be friendly and follow etiquette. That way we can all enjoy the great outdoors without the animosity towards others right? Here is a link to some hiking etiquette

http://www.dailyhiker.com/news/hiking-and-trail-etiquette/


So my company for this trip was Norm, who is AWESOME! He's actually a road biker and a REALLY good one. You could google Norman Bryner Cycling and the first site will bring up all his status with racing; Very impressive stuff. Well Norm is around bikes so much that he actually is a bike mechanic as well (has worked in bike shops for years). This became useful on our way back down the trail when a group of bikers were stopped due to one guys gears not shifting like they should. So being the nice guy Norm is he stopped to help, I don't know many people who would be carrying around tools to fix bikes but with Norm I wasn't surprised. If you are going to mountain bike on this trail, or any trail for that matter, always take a spare tire! While helping the first guy fix his bike another biker was walking his bike down due to a flat. Norm had a spare tire in his bag (surprise again) but it wasn't the right size for his tire. To bad, that's a long walk back down. The man made a comment about having a bike shop somewhere along the trail. Interesting I thought, why not just carry a spare? Silly man.

The boys obsessed.
NORMAN, THAT'S A TREE NOT A BIKE!

I chose to listen to Enya for this trail, real unique isn't it? I had good reason to make this choice though, I really needed to relax and calm down after the day I had. School didn't end well at all (lines, fees, parking, all that jazz) Driving home in rush hour traffic, and not having ate food.. I think we can see where this is heading. So yes I went with the nature inspired music of Enya. Something I didn't expect was how much it reminded me of my trip to Italy.

On my study abroad trip to Italy I would listen to Enya on the train rides, which we took a lot. It was so easy to day dream and kinda get lost in my own mind.

Christina caught me in a
day dreaming moment on the train

I expected that same thing to happen for the hike, day dreaming of random things and letting my mind just wonder. What I didn't expect was how much in reminded me of Italy.  I was day dreaming about Vineyards, Art work and Churches, Cobble stone walk ways, and missing my Italy group of friends. Funny how music does that, Listening to a song or an artist will bring back memories, feelings, and ideas that haven't entered my mind in such a long time. In the end I suppose my choice of music did what I wanted, It helped me relax and forget all my problems and wasn't so distracting that I could still hold a conversation with Norm.






All in all, the Dog Lake hike was really enjoyable, I would say it reins in the easy to moderate difficulty level. It felt easy for most of the trail, it wasn't until the last 0.3 mile that it got a little more steep and the altitude made it more difficult to keep my breath. Since we went up during a week day and a little bit later in the day the lake was pretty much empty of anybody else or dogs. It was nice to have the lake to ourselves because it was so quiet and really lovely, but It could have been fun to see some puppies playing around in the water. Can't complain though, it was definitely worth the trip. So don't let the cashier of Barnes and Nobles convince you otherwise.

Oh you know
Just relieving some stress...

 Mill Creek trail Map: