On this trip I began learning about an entire tough culture that existed on the North Slope of the High Uintas, but also learned, the hard way, that one might be in for a very tough experience if you ignore the weather report. Once again this backpack was to a little visited area that will give you a real “wilderness experience,” in just 3 days.
The distance from Kamas to the West Fork of Smith’s Fork Trailhead is 78 miles–from Springville it is 122 miles.
NEW NOTE: In this show I mention learning about the “tiehacker culture” on the North Slope and since have learned many more details. It was the Union Pacific Railroad with its Commissaries and tiehacker camps and communities beginning in about 1867 and continuing until approximately 1930, the Uintas contributing millions of railroad ties to the opening and development of the West.