Hike of the Week: My Sisters Hike

Life if full of coincidences. Today Diane and I decided to take our "hike of the week" to the Brighton Lakes. The names of the lakes just happen to coincide with(almost) the names of my sisters. We visited Lake Mary, Lake Martha, and Lake Katherine. Well, the last one is pretty close since my sister's name is Kathleen. Anyway, I am calling the hike, My Three Sisters Hike. Since it has been getting hot here lately, we left early and started up the trail by 7:30. It was actually cold when we started out but we knew it would warm up quickly as the sun was starting to peak over the ridges. The wildflowers were just starting to show themselves. I would say that in a week or so they will be in full bloom. We encountered mosquitoes and quickly donned the DEET to keep them off of us. The trail starts out paralleling a ski lift and then enters the woods and was pretty steep. The benefit of our early start was the lack of people. This is a pretty popular hike, especially to the first lake. I remember taking my brother, Mike on this hike years ago. We tried our luck fishing at Lake Mary but had no luck. Lake Mary was the first lake we came to. It had flat, glistening water. We climbed along side it and then on to the next lake, Lake Martha. That is when it hit me, The Three Sisters Hike. From Lake Mary to Lake Katherine was another mile. We passed it by and head steeply up to the Katherine Pass where we could look over into the next canyon, Little Cottonwood Canyon where Snowbird and Alta Ski Resorts reside. It was a steep hike up to the pass but it was a nice place to take in the views. I decided to leave my backpack with Diane and I took off up the ridge line to get an even better view. It was worth the climb. I got even better views of Little Cottonwood Canyon and could see Mount Timpanogas in the distance. I encountered a marmot sunning himself on a rock. It was then back down to where Diane was waiting for me and we headed down the trail, this time taking a route that took us right next to Lake Katherine. We saw some white columbines on the way down. As we got further down the trail we started to come upon the throngs of people coming up and it make us glad we got an early start. It was about two and a half miles to the pass so we put down a good 5 miles. We rewarded ourselves by stopping at the Silver Fork Lodge to have breakfast. After a hearty breakfast of buckwheat pancakes(me) and oatmeal(Diane) we drove back down the canyon. We were home before noon. It was a magnificent way to spend a Sunday morning.