Re: [Utah-astronomy] road trip to the arrows
Daniel or anyone else wishing to visit these arrows, Re: Hiking to the 61A arrow at Lakepoint. Until Patrick posts specific hiking directions, I would suggest going further south along the tracks to a point you can cross and get above the railroad cut. From there hike back north as the ground rises to the arrow. Your GPS should then give you a bearing that doesn't include impossible obstacles. Take a zoomed-in look with Google Earth or Bing.com/maps to get a better lay of the land. Incidentally, Google Earth search recognizes Lake Point rather than Lakepoint. Re: The road up to the SFO-SLC 57 arrow at exit 62. I think the original road followed a much gentler curving climb at the southwest end of the ridge, but is no longer used because of the 4WD "short cut" straight up the hill. That old road certainly is an easier way to reach the top if hiking, but I don't know if it is, or ever was, passable with a less capable 4x4 or 2WD vehicle than your Pathfinder - or a vehicle of the 1920's. Take a look at a zoomed-in aerial view on Bing.com/maps for the route. Ed ------------------------- On Mon, 2 Sep 2013 18:47:56 -0700 [07:47:56 PM MDT] daniel turner <outwest112@yahoo.com> wrote: I managed to reach three of them. I didn't try Woods Cross because it was out of the way and reportedly had a locked gate.. I failed at Lakeside. the Garmin GPS put me at the bottom of a steep hill and said 300 feet straight in, which would translate to over 600 feet almost straight up across a railroad track and at least two cattle fences. The GPS coordinates may be wrong on this one. First success was at mile marker 77 on I80. The GPS put me right on top of it. I just had to find a frontage road the would take me there. Hint the road starts near the entrance of the salt company to the west. The arrow is surrounded by a broke down fence and I could see where someone had been scraping dirt off it, possibly Patrick. Next was mile marker 62. Again the GPS coordinates were right on but this time it was up a steep dirt and rock climb that required low range 4 wheel drive in my 12 year old Pathfinder. They didn't drive up here with model T's they must have packed the cement in on mules and mixed it on site with water that was also packed in. Mile marker 49 was a failure. GPS led me to a low dry lakebed just off the frontage road. It may have been torn up or I might be buried under the playa surface of the lake bed. Stockton was a success and a real challenge. If you parked at the LDS ward on the north end of town and hiked a quarter mile up and over the ridge line you could be close but without GPS you would miss it in the brush. The secret is to drive into town and turn west on Clark. Follow it to the end and it turns into a dirt road that passes the jail and the cemetery. Then you come to a deep open pit sand trap. Take the steep rocky track to the right of the sand trap and you will be up on the ridgeline on a track that will take you to within 100 feet of the arrow. Again this is a 4 wheel drive road. DT
Ed: I was scouting a trip for my friends who have mobility problems. I want to get them close enough that they don't have to hike more than a hundred feet without scaring them to death with the ride up there. The marker near mile post 77 is the only one that really fits these requirements. But the exploration was fun. Also there was a possibility these would be good observing sites, but I can do much better at places I already know. DT ________________________________ From: Ed <utnatsedj1@xmission.com> To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com Sent: Tuesday, September 3, 2013 6:12 AM Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] road trip to the arrows Daniel or anyone else wishing to visit these arrows, Re: Hiking to the 61A arrow at Lakepoint. Until Patrick posts specific hiking directions, I would suggest going further south along the tracks to a point you can cross and get above the railroad cut. From there hike back north as the ground rises to the arrow. Your GPS should then give you a bearing that doesn't include impossible obstacles. Take a zoomed-in look with Google Earth or Bing.com/maps to get a better lay of the land. Incidentally, Google Earth search recognizes Lake Point rather than Lakepoint. Re: The road up to the SFO-SLC 57 arrow at exit 62. I think the original road followed a much gentler curving climb at the southwest end of the ridge, but is no longer used because of the 4WD "short cut" straight up the hill. That old road certainly is an easier way to reach the top if hiking, but I don't know if it is, or ever was, passable with a less capable 4x4 or 2WD vehicle than your Pathfinder - or a vehicle of the 1920's. Take a look at a zoomed-in aerial view on Bing.com/maps for the route. Ed ------------------------- On Mon, 2 Sep 2013 18:47:56 -0700 [07:47:56 PM MDT] daniel turner <outwest112@yahoo.com> wrote: I managed to reach three of them. I didn't try Woods Cross because it was out of the way and reportedly had a locked gate.. I failed at Lakeside. the Garmin GPS put me at the bottom of a steep hill and said 300 feet straight in, which would translate to over 600 feet almost straight up across a railroad track and at least two cattle fences. The GPS coordinates may be wrong on this one. First success was at mile marker 77 on I80. The GPS put me right on top of it. I just had to find a frontage road the would take me there. Hint the road starts near the entrance of the salt company to the west. The arrow is surrounded by a broke down fence and I could see where someone had been scraping dirt off it, possibly Patrick. Next was mile marker 62. Again the GPS coordinates were right on but this time it was up a steep dirt and rock climb that required low range 4 wheel drive in my 12 year old Pathfinder. They didn't drive up here with model T's they must have packed the cement in on mules and mixed it on site with water that was also packed in. Mile marker 49 was a failure. GPS led me to a low dry lakebed just off the frontage road. It may have been torn up or I might be buried under the playa surface of the lake bed. Stockton was a success and a real challenge. If you parked at the LDS ward on the north end of town and hiked a quarter mile up and over the ridge line you could be close but without GPS you would miss it in the brush. The secret is to drive into town and turn west on Clark. Follow it to the end and it turns into a dirt road that passes the jail and the cemetery. Then you come to a deep open pit sand trap. Take the steep rocky track to the right of the sand trap and you will be up on the ridgeline on a track that will take you to within 100 feet of the arrow. Again this is a 4 wheel drive road. DT _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Send messages to the list to Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com The Utah-Astronomy mailing list is not affiliated with any astronomy club. To unsubscribe go to: http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Then enter your email address in the space provided and click on "Unsubscribe or edit options".
Well, I had hoped to illustrate this with aerial shots but today's weather nixed that idea. :( On 03 Sep 2013, at 06:12, Ed wrote:
Re: Hiking to the 61A arrow at Lakepoint.
Until Patrick posts specific hiking directions,
About the best directions I could post would be to drive to the base of the hill and hike up. Oh, and look both ways before walking across the railroad tracks. :) Even with my Social-Security-eligible old bones it was just a 20 minute hike up with backpack, camera bag and tripod. Half that to get down. But not recommended if one is uncomfortable with or unable to handle fairly steep slopes and scree.
Re: The road up to the SFO-SLC 57 arrow at exit 62.
I think the original road followed a much gentler curving climb at the southwest end of the ridge, but is no longer used because of the 4WD "short cut" straight up the hill.
My poor little 4 cylinder, 2 wheel drive pickup and I took one look at the short cut and we both started to tremble. So the truck got to rest in the pasture at the bottom of the hill and I hiked to the top. No more than half an hour to get to the arrow. Really enjoyable out there with the only reminder of "civilization" being sounds from the freeway down below. Regarding the site at the next exit (49) as I and Daniel have both mentioned there's not much there. I did find a bottle like the one here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/125354373/antique-vintage-glass-bottle-clear There are two more locations in the Salt Flats I still want to check out as well as one on the Wendover airport and two others near Wendover. Also I checked the site of the beacon that Brent said stood near the old Tooele airport but the GPS coordinates took me to what is now the parking lot for a technical school. Hoping for flyable weather soon, patrick
participants (3)
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daniel turner -
Ed -
Patrick Wiggins