Y Mountain Trip Report
Slide Canyon, 10/21/05
It was a lovely late-fall afternoon, and Y Mountain was again looking tempting. Because the trailhead is only a 2 minute drive from my apartment, I decided to take the afternoon off and go for a little jaunt up the hill. The first part of the hike, up to the block 'Y' on the mountain, was as grueling as ever, and made even more so by the rapid pace that I was setting. I reached the \r\n'Y', and then began the much easier and more pleasant hike up Slide Canyon to the meadow.\r\n
After rounding the side of Slide Canyon, the trail started switching back on itself. Most of the trees had already lost their leaves, and the grass on the side of the trail was long and brown. The trail was easily discerned as it wound up the canyon. When I got to the meadow, I went a short distance further until I hit the fork which marks the start of the third leg of the hike. I was making great time, and the temperature was quite comfortable.
After turning north onto the final leg of the hike, it got noticeably cooler. The sun was now behind the mountain, and I kept wishing that it would return, which was more incentive to hurry to the top. As I made my way to the saddle between the two summits, I passed through terrain alternating between treeless fields and small aspen groves. When I was last up in that area in February, the area had been covered with snow, so it was nice to see the juxtaposition of that winter season and and the late fall foliage that I was walking through. Upon reaching the saddle, the trail to the west summit was quite obvious, and I was there in ten minutes.
The summit was still in the sun and a bit warmer than the stroll to the saddle. I spent ten minutes on the summit searching in vain for a geocache, and then began the quick hike back down. Up to this point, I hadn't seen anybody since my entry into Slide Canyon, and it remained that way until just before I left the canyon. I hiked down past the 'Y' and made great time getting back to my car, completing the entire hike is just under 3 hours. It was a great way to spend an October afternoon before the weather got bad.