| North Thunder Trip Report |
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September 12, 2007 - I hiked North Thunder with Scott and Grizz. We met up at the Bells Canyon Trailhead and then carpooled up Little Cottonwood Canyon to start our hike up Coalpit Gulch. I hiked South Thunder with Scott last month. Scott had approached me about hiking North Thunder from Coalpit Gulch and to be honest I was a little freaked out about the reported 2500 vertical feet per mile of elevation gain and the fact that neither of us had hiked it before. Scott finally convinced me when he said his friend Grizz, who had hiked it several times before, would hike it with us. So from the car we did some bushwhacking in the dark until we found Coalpit Gulch. Then the trail just goes up and up and up. Coalpit Gulch is extremely beautiful, lush and green with berries all over. I ran into some stinging nettle that gave me a nice rash on my wrist for a couple hours. Grizz is an incredible hiker and had to keep putting on the brakes for Scott and I to keep up. After the gulch we hiked up to the ridge on the north east side of North Thunder. Scott hit a wall at this point and told us to go on ahead. Grizz just mosied on along while I struggled to keep up. As I arrived at the false summit I could see Grizz ahead finishing the last stretch to the summit. Between the time he arrived at the summit and the time I arrived at the summit, two other people arrived at the summit coming from the south. They had hiked up Bells Canyon. Grizz was amazed. He said he had hiked North Thunder 12 times and had never seen another person up there. Took some pictures, ate some food, took some more pictures, ate some more food. Still no Scott. I called his cell phone and no answer. Finally he called me back and said he was coming. Over an hour after Grizz and I made it to the peak Scott finally showed up. He looked like death. We gave him a couple minutes to rest but Grizz and I were ready to go. So down we went. If Grizz wasn't there I would have chosen to hike over to the Bells Canyon trail as soon as possible. Grizz opted to lead us down a different way. We hiked down, down, down did some serious bushwhacking and trailblazing. After lots of bushwhacking we had to do some rockclimbing down (probably my least favorite part of the trip). Finally we met up with the Bells Canyon trail. To this point the hike had taken several hours longer than we had expected. Grizz was anxious to get back and I was going to be late to my Scout Meeting. So from there Grizz turned on the afterburners. I was still feeling pretty good so I did my best to stay on his tail. When we got to the trailhead I gave him a ride back to his car.
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