Two days after my exhausting hike up Ruby Dome in Elko County, I had worked my way back into Utah and was looking at a dayhike up Willard Peak, the highpoint of Weber County. I drove the road south of Mantua in my rental Jeep, but got a little skittish about the road and dinging the rental, which would cost me money potentially. Instead I looked at an eastern approach, following a trail up from the North Fork Campground north of the town of Liberty (itself about 15 miles east of Ogden). I camped here during the night and started up the trail around 6 a.m. in a light drizzle and very cloudy skies. I hoped the rain would lift - eventually. The trail (signed for Ben Lomond Peak) is pretty good but switchbacks very broadly and as a result takes forever to make any gain or headway. I hiked for about 90 minutes, and was forced to sit out a rather heavy rain cell for about 20 minutes, but the rain never let up, and I had only gone up about 1,500 feet - with still over 3,000 more to go (and about 5 miles as well). Frankly, the rain and the distances and my soreness combined to sap my jones for this route. When I encountered some overgrown sections that got me wetter than the rain, I decided to cancel this bid and try another day (and another route). The hike was not a total loss, however; I saw my first moose ever while hiking down. Yes, moose live here! I saw him in the brush off the trail; he scampered away as he saw me. That was worth it.

It was maybe 9 a.m. when I egressed back to my vehicle, so now I had a full day to kill. Too late to start any long hikes (and the weather was staying kind of unsettled), I decided to go visit the only 'easy' county highpoint in the region, the liner in Wasatch County. It's not a trivial highpoint, but does not require a full day or thousands of feet of gain. It'd be a perfect way to kill time and explore the area.

I made my way into the interior mountainous regions, passing through Coalville, where I stopped for a spell at their library for some maps and information, and then later in Kamas, where I got further information from the Forest Service. They require a $3 fee to park along the highway up in the mountains, so I paid the fee, got a pass and all sorts of brochures. I drove east along UT-150 into the heart of the mountains, following the highway for 28 miles as it gained steadily to just below 11,000 feet elevation. Along the way I was treated to vistas of high mountains, endless forest and gorgeous waterfalls. In about an hour I had driven to the mile-marker 28, which put me close to the Wasatch County liner highpoint. From the pullout and viewpoint below Bald Mountain I could see my objective - a broad talus ridge emanating west off of a gentle peak called Murdock Mountain. I backtracked a tiny bit and parked in a broad gravel clearing very near the mile-marker post. This put me just across the highway from my objective.

The highpoint of the county is a result of a random boundary placement; it's not the summit of a peak, but a point along its west ridge at 10,840 feet elevation. This required a GPS and map definitely, plus a compass for bearings. I walked into the trees and up the steep slopes, gaining about 300 feet fairly quickly, but soon coming onto some gentle slopes and the talus-forest margin. I clambered up onto the talus and worked by sight south until I had surmounted the obvious (by sight) 'ridge', as best as I could determine it. I had pre-programmed a waypoint into my GPS for the highpoint, so when I checked my position I was too high by 100 feet and too far east (inside Duchesne County). No prob; I walked west along the rocks and through some small tree stands until the GPS seemed to say I was in the right area. Knowing that my GPS coordinate may have some error to it, I started seeking out anything that looked like a cairn - or any hint of previous visitors. I stayed on the ridgeline as best as I could. I walked west and then started finding cairns. Which one was correct? Who knows. To be sure I ended up visiting three cairns, and essentially walking the ridgeline faithfully so that at some point I had to have crossed the highpoint, even if I didn't know when for sure.

By the time I came upon cairn number three, I felt I had given the area good coverage overall, and had spent about 45 minutes already on the hunt. I can't say which cairn, if any, is the right one. I do feel that I stayed on the ridgeline enough so that I did the highpoint, even if unbeknownst to me exactly. Above me were some puffy clouds, and one set nearby dropping rain and lightning, so I got moving and decided to get back to my car. I had an enjoyable drive back into Kamas, stopping to take in and have lunch near a set of huge waterfalls just down the highway.