UT -- Panguitch Lake, 27 July-27 August 2013

 

A month at Panguitch Lake…

Why we came…

It’s the middle of summer and we don’t like hot!  Panguitch Lake, elevation 8,200 feet, is comfortable in August.  The good-sized lake is known for decent trout fishing.  We were able to leave our kayaks on the bank, ready to go at anytime.  Cedar Breaks National Monument is 15 miles west and has spectacular scenery and some good hiking trails.  Brian Head Ski Resort is about 17 miles west and has an 18-hole disc course sprawled all over its pretty slopes.  And finally, we expected to find tons of tasty mushrooms across the long ridgeline of the Markagunt Plateau.

Campground…

Bear Paw Fishing Resort is a quaint, but busy place.  With only 17 camp sites and 13 cabins, it’s pretty small.  However, they also rent boats and have a good restaurant.  The Bear’s Den Café serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner and is popular with both locals and visitors.  Of the 17 camp sites, 5-10 are occupied most of the season by folks who come every year.  We had full-hook ups, spotty wi-fi (good around the office), and no cell phone.  Electric is 15amps which keeps the big 5th-wheels and motorhomes away.  15amps is plenty for us…we never tripped the circuit.  The campground needs some TLC as the roads are rough and steep, the electric outlets are scary, and the sewage dumps were mostly uphill.  Maneuvering truck and trailer into most of the sites is tricky.  Because the sites are tiered up a hill, nearly everyone had a view of the lake.  We went two miles west to the usually busy General Store to do laundry.  Little supply runs were to the town of Panguitch, 16 miles east.  Big supply runs were to Cedar City, a very scenic drive 40 miles west.  Quite a few more folks stayed at Bear Paw and other nearby places on weekends.  It was noticeably quieter during the week.  Nevada license plates were most numerous, followed by Utah, and then California.

   

   

View from our front door during a thunderstorm  /  View from the bedroom window

Most evenings, the clouds and sky turned incredible shades of orange, pink, and red as the sun set.  We had front row seats overlooking the lake and the mesmerizing scene.  The evening walk with our four-legged friend under a sky afire was often the highlight of our day.

   

Cedar Breaks National Monument…

“Shaped a like huge coliseum, the Cedar Breaks Amphitheater is over 2,000 feet deep and over three miles in diameter.  Millions of years of deposition, uplift, and erosion carved this huge bowl in the steep west-facing side of the 10,000-foot-high Markagunt Plateau.  Stone spires stand like statues in a gallery alongside columns, arches, and canyons.  These intricate formations are the result of persistent erosion by rain, ice, and wind.  Saturating the rock is a color scheme as striking as any on the Colorado Plateau.  Varying combinations of iron and manganese give the rock its different reds, yellows, and purples.”

We really liked Cedar Breaks! 

   

This spectacular hike started near the visitor center and went to “Spectra Point” and then out to “Ramparts Overlook”.  Put this on the “must-do” list when visiting Cedar Breaks!

       

Bristlecone pines clinging to the edge of the cliff  /  A cool lightning struck stump

   

Old bristlecones clinging to the edge

Other hikes and geocaching…

We spent most of our  time hiking the Markagunt Plateau.  The plateau tops at Brian Head Peak, elevation 11,307 feet, and averages roughly 10,500 feet along its lengthy north-south oriented ridge.  The east side of the plateau gently slopes for about 15 miles while the west side, which includes Cedar Breaks National Monument, abruptly drops.  We hunt for mushrooms primarily in spruce forests above 10,000 feet.  There are miles of trails along the ridgeline and the gentle slope of the east side made it a great place for us to wander and search.  Unfortunately, spruce bark beetles hit the area hard in the early 1990s and killed the majority of the spruce trees.  Skeletons of trees still stand and many have fallen and carpeted the ground making it nearly impossible to penetrate the woods in most places…it was sad.  Efforts were made in a few areas to clear the dead trees and replant new ones, but most of the area is a wasteland of dead trees.  The view along the ridge top is incredible!  The rough terrain of Zion National Park is easily seen to the south, and on clear days, you can see hills and mountains in Nevada and Arizona.  Powell Point and Boulder Mountain are prevalent to the east.  And the view goes on and on in each direction…we loved it!

   

The was a 5.70 mile out-and-back hike on the Hancock Peak trail.  We wanted to do some mushroom hunting around Hancock, but the beetle killed trees made it nearly impossible.  We saw our first marmot of the year…our favorite alpine critter.

   

This sheep herder and his four dogs were tending to hundreds of sheep.  This area has been partially cleared and replanted, but note all the dead wood laying around.  The trail (left side of right picture) is full of little pieces of round, smooth wood that made walking very difficult.  We searched for mushrooms around the edges of meadows, but were always stopped by downed trees and had to retreat back to the trail.  It was tough.  We didn’t find any shrooms and there wasn’t much to see. 

   

After the disappointing hike on the Hancock Peak Trail, we went geocaching.  We drove south through Cedar Breaks National Monument to the Blowhard Mountain Trail.  The geocache was named “Cedar Breaks Golf Balls”.  As soon as we saw the area, we knew it was a Doppler weather radar!  The cache contained news articles about the history of that radar…it was very interesting.  The flowers and view were incredible!  We ducked into some stands of spruce trees to hunt for shrooms, but struck out.

This was an out-and-back hike along the Spruce Trail north of Brian Head Peak.  The first two miles of trail were in fairly good shape and cleared of most of the dead trees.  The trail undulated up and down with great views to the east in the open areas.  Two miles into the hike, numerous downed trees made it too tough for us to continue.  We found quite a few aspen bolete mushrooms which gave us hope to find the treasured king boletes, but we struck out again!

   

Standing dead trees just waiting to fall  /  The trail is under those trees…time to turn around

   

                                See the marmot?                                    Looking west from the top of the Markagunt Plateau

A geocache on top of the Markagunt Plateau…looking west

   

We parked near the top of the Markagunt Plateau just north of Brian Head Peak and did a meandering 4.5 mile loop hike.  This hike was split being between being on trail and off trail.  We were in full mushroom hunt mode!  We ducked in and out of every spruce stand we could safely navigate.  Not only did we see a great-horned owl and 15-20 elk being led by some impressive bulls, but we found our first king bolete mushrooms of the year! 

   

The “Christmas Tree Patch”, an area cleared and replanted  /  “What you lookin’ at?!?”

First two king boletes of the year!

   

This is the same area we found our first king boletes two days prior.  This time we found about two pounds of fresh shaggy mane mushrooms (picture on the right) and two pounds of fresh king boletes…our most successful hunt yet!  Arleen dried the boletes that night and sautéed the shaggy manes in a breakfast scramble the next morning…YUM YUM!

This hike was farther north on the Markagunt Plateau.  The road got too rough for us as it climbed, so we parked and hiked the last mile to the top.  A steady string of ATVs passed us as we walked the rough road.  The view from the top was directly over Yankee Meadows Reservoir…it was awesome!  There was a geocache nearby in a sweet spot with a great view.  We hiked a half mile south on the Spruce Trail, turned around, and then walked about one and a half miles north on the Spruce Trail.  We kept an eye out for shrooms, but the dense dead fall made it very difficult and we didn’t find any.  The views from a couple of meadows and clearings were incredible, but otherwise one visit was enough for this area.

   

We like playing disc golf at ski resorts!  Brian Head is on the west side of the Markagunt Plateau with a base of 9,600 feet and the top at 11,000 feet.  The 18 hole course is six miles long and accessed either by hiking up and playing down (free), or riding up the “Giant Steps” lift on the weekends ($10).  The mountain is also popular with mountain bikers.  We rode up the lift and had a lot of fun playing 9 holes before our throwing arms turned to mush.  We often ducked into stands of spruce trees to hunt for shrooms, but didn’t find any.  The view was incredible and we look forward to skiing and snowboarding at Brian Head this winter!

   

Teeing off near the top of Brian Head Resort

   

After we finished playing disc golf and had a good Mexican food lunch, we drove to the top of 11,307 feet Brian Head Peak.  The Civilian Conservation Corps built a shelter at the top in 1935…it really stands out on the barren peak.  I wonder how many times the shelter has been struck by lightning?!?  There were supposed to be two geocaches nearby.  One hasn’t been found in awhile, but the other was tucked into the rocks near the top.  We saw two marmots nearby and evidence (aka poop) that they hang out near the cache.  This is the second geocache that we have found at the highest point in a Utah county…very cool!

   

We started this hike from our campsite at Bear Paw.  We scrambled up two fairly steep hills to get two geocaches.  I had to salute the flag on top of Cooper Knoll.  The view of Panguitch Lake was awesome!

Arleen with the first geocache overlooking Panguitch Lake…our campground is on the right

   

Arleen with the cache on top of Cooper Knoll  /  Me at the flag

Panguitch Lake view from Cooper Knoll

Fishing and kayaking…

Panguitch Lake, 1,200 acres, is a large natural lake that was enhanced by a small dam.  Panguitch means “big fish” in Piute and the lake has been known to harbor good sized rainbow trout, cutthroat trout, and tiger trout.  There is a slot limit on cutthroat and tiger trout of 15-22 inches.  You can keep two fish under or over that limit, but the ones in that range must be released.  I like slot limits because it usually means there are a bunch of fish in the slot and catching fish in that range is a bunch of fun!  Coincidently, trout that size are typically the best baby producers which ensures long term healthy populations.  Unfortunately, only a couple of the many fish I caught were in the slot.  There could be lots of causes of this, but my theory is that people just weren’t playing by the rules.  Every day there were quite a few folks fishing from boats and on the shore and I saw nearly every fish caught go right on a stringer.  Additionally, I didn’t see anybody measuring their fish.  Now I can’t confirm my theory with 100% certainty due to my usually poor vantage point in my kayak.  If I saw people blatantly breaking the rules, I would have reported them.  Also, during our month at the lake, I never saw any officials enforcing the rules.  Maybe they were at other boat ramps or in other places.  Hopefully my theory is wrong.  But let’s say that everyone is following the rules…then too many fish are being killed before they reach slot limit size.  Either way, there should be a whole bunch more trout in this great lake that are 15-22 inches long.

I usually fished a couple of hours each morning before the winds picked up around 10:00am or so.  I had most success paddling to the deepest part of the lake and working a leech fly or wooly bugger fly 15-20 feet deep with a sink-tip fly-line.  Most mornings, I caught 5-10 trout.  Two thirds of them would be 10-16 inch rainbow trout, and the other third would be 10-15 inch cutthroat trout.  My biggest fish were a couple of 18 inch cutthroat and rainbow trout.

   

   

18 inch cutthroat trout

Other stuff…

Tour of Utah… “Tour of Utah has a stellar cast of 126 professional cyclists from around the globe that will be racing the 586-mile course with 43,621 vertical feet of climbing. A total of 16 professional teams will line up to contest “America’s Toughest Stage Race”, bringing athletes from 32 different countries.”  Stage one routed the race right by our home!  We walked to a point just above the road and the lake for a good view.  We didn’t wait long until we saw the two guys leading the race.  We cheered loudly and waved our flag as they blew by.  Then, 5-10 minutes later, the rest of the gang cruised by.  We got a couple of car honks and waves from the support vehicles…it was cool!  As cyclists ourselves, we appreciate and respect these amazing athletes.  They still had 560 miles of tough racing ahead of them…amazing!

   

Waiting for the cyclists at Panguitch Lake  /  124 cyclists cruising by our campground (two cyclists were minutes ahead of the peloton)

   

Here they come!  /  Go boys, GO!

Mushroom hunting…

One of our favorite hobbies is hunting for mushrooms.  During the fall of 2011, we learned to identify a few edible mushrooms while traveling down the beautiful Oregon coast.  Since then we have learned to identify a few more, but our favorites are chanterelles and king boletes.  While exploring the Rockies, we plan our late summer and fall itinerary around good shrooming areas.  We eagerly anticipate finding the first mushroom, and celebrate finding each additional one.  We rejoice in the first meal with our tasty treasures and take pride in each container we fill with dried ones.  And then sometime around Christmas, we are sad to eat the final mushrooms and are shocked when we have to start buying them again in the store.  We love hunting for mushrooms and we love eating them!

NOTE:  We leave all “funky” mushrooms alone.  Our reality is great just like it is!

   

We found this large puffball mushroom as we left Kent’s Lake.  Our good friends from Bicknell, Tom and Ann, recommended that we slice it thick, fry it in a little butter, and drizzle it with maple syrup like pancakes.  It looked good and was interesting, but we didn’t care for it.  We’ve tried puffballs other ways too and haven’t liked them.  Too bad.  We find puffballs all the time…it would be great if we liked them. 

   

Four trays of king boletes to dry (8 Aug)  /  Six perfect king boletes from a “honey hole” (9 Aug)

We found 10lbs of king boletes on 8 & 9 August and it hadn’t rained in one and a half weeks!

   

A nice king bolete pushing through sticks plus 2 little ones I picked  /  3 containers of dried boletes by 15 Aug!

       

A perfect king bolete tucked under a spruce…one of our favorite sites!  /  Older king bolete that was in great shape

   

Two perfect king boletes!

       

First Utah chanterelles! They smell like apricots.  (25 Aug)

The campground diner offers $9.99 prime rib dinners every weekend.  We had planned to check it out our last weekend.  We did NOT expect to find a  pound of golden chanterelles! We got our meals “to go” and Arleen topped the scrumptious prime rib with fresh sautéed chanterelles and it was like heaven…a very memorable meal! 

During our month-long stay, we found a total of 20-25 pounds of mushrooms.  We ate a bunch and dried the majority.  Perhaps most importantly, we spread a bunch of mushroom spores.  If our efforts are successful, we left more shrooms than we picked!

WHERE WE GOT OUR MAIL

Panguitch, Utah

Next…

Now we are in Escalante, Utah for a month.  That puts us at the doorstep of Grand Staircase National Monument, the southern part of Capitol Reef National Park, and one of my favorite playgrounds:  Boulder Mountain.  We will do tons of hiking ranging from tight desert slot canyons to high alpine lakes.  We hope to find many more tasty mushrooms and catch a bunch of pretty trout.  We may even tent camp a night or two on the shore of Lake Powell and catch our first ever striped bass from our kayaks.  Escalante will be a Utah highlight…stay tuned!

Parting shots…

       

“Hello little chipmunks.  Wanna play?!?”  /  “These feet are soooo comfortable”  /  “I DON’T like the thunder!”

   

Trout food on our front window  /  A thunderstorm in the waning light

   

A marmot enjoying the view at Cedar Breaks  /  A tiny horned toad in Arleen’s hand

I tried real hard to get a picture of the lightning shooting out of this evening thunderstorm, but wasn’t successful.

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