Assault on Live Oak Hill

To date the state of Texas is seriously lacking in summits which have joined the exclusive Summit Cheeseburger club. To begin to remedy this inconceivable oversight, a portion of the assault team responsible for the first Texas summit, including Bassman (Chuck), Grandma (Ruth), and Finnsdattr (Heidi, new to the summitcheese club) decided to tackle Live Oak Hill, a whopping 410 foot summit which is in fact the fourth tallest (of five named summits) summit in Fayette County. The ascent started easily enough, with a 12 mile drive to Ellinger, TX, from La Grange (those of you familiar with ZZ Top will know of this town). Once the team left the paved road, however, the assault became much more treacherous. The first obstacle was a short, though potentially deadly, area of road construction, including a trailer containing two unearthed culverts. However, after a brief pause, which allowed the road construction crew to move out of the roadway, we were able to continue. The difficulty due to road construction equipment was nothing, however, compared to the actual COMPLETED construction site encountered later. It seems that the construction crew had preceded us and made a portion of the road almost impassable. Following the installation of a new culvert, the construction crew assumed that only vehicles with a very high clearance would be using the road, resulting in a pile of loose dirt that almost high centered the minivan in which we were travelling. Fortunately for us, we were able to surmount this difficulty and were able to continue to the trailhead uninterrupted. After parking in the lot next to a very quaint country church on the aptly named St. Mary’s Church Road, we casually strolled to the top of the hill, a scant 20 yards away, where we all enjoyed Whataburger cheeseburgers purchased on the way. Note from the attached photographs the Catholic shrine placed at the top of the summit, no doubt to protect those who choose to tackle this difficult summit from the difficult journey.

Due to the difficult nature of the drive to the trailhead, we decided, in keeping with true summit cheeseburger tradition, to return home using an alternate, though uncharted, route. To our chagrin this route was much simpler than the previous one, and led us to within 50 yards of our desired destination, Tobias Pecans, where we purchased several pounds of delicious Texas nuts for our munching pleasure.

Avenues Twin Peaks – Just the North Summit

What’s with the weather here in Utah this fall? It’s been wonderful, and provided the opportunity for another family hike – this time to Avenues Twin Peaks. We started out from the end of Terrace Hills Dr. We were not alone; the rolling hills of the Wasatch foothills were teeming with hikers and bikers this Saturday morning. After almost a mile, dinoboy was SO HUNGRY that he ate his Cheeseburger on an unnamed summit. Bad move. BarBarJinks and I hiked further to the north summit of Avenues Twin Peaks.

Atop the summit we dispatched two homemade Summit Cheeseburgers and enjoyed views looking up City Creek Canyon to Burro and Grandview Peaks. BarBarJinks noted that we were next to Mighty Mount Van Cott, which we had summited a few weeks earlier. On the mellow return hike we hooked up with the rest of the family and completed our morning hike.

Avenues Twin Peaks, UT – BarBarJinks

Lookout Peak 8957 feet

The potential of adding 4 additional cheeseburger summits, combined with unseasonably warm weather, roused FlyingElvis, FartingWonder, BaxFactor, Wimpy and SirLoinOfBeef out of bed for an attempt at Lookout Peak.  Probably the most direct and the best route starts in Killyon Canyon.  Killyon Canyon is accessed by driving up Sunnyside Avenue towards and past Hogle Zoo where the road turns into Emigration Canyon Road.  You follow the main Emigration Canyon Road until just before the sweeping S turns leading to the crest of Emigration Canyon.  A smaller road continues straight through a neighborhood of houses. This is a bit confusing as both roads are labelled as Emigration Canyon.  Follow the paved road until you see a sign for Killyon Canyon Lane heading to the right off of Emigration Canyon Road.  The pavement will end and you continue until the dirt road ends at a trailhead (elevation 6055 feet).  The trail is well maintained and can be hiked in the dark with headlamps.  It should be noted that if you choose to hike in the dark, you run the risk of several creek crossings that have bridges, but can also be crossed by skipping the bridge and wading across in the dark (or at least that is what SirLoinOfBeef demonstrated on this trip  At just under 1.6 miles, you will reach a 4 way trail junction.  Turn left and continue uphill towards the obvious ridgeline.  After gaining the ridgeline, you will be entertained by multiple false summits requiring a bit of up and down.  The views from the ridgeline are stupendous and make the hike more than enjoyable.  After reaching the final summit, you will be the recipient of views of Gobbler’s Knob, Mt. Raymond, Olympus, Grandview Peak, Little Black Mountain and many more.  

Round trip you are looking at 8.8 miles and around 2900 feet in elevation gain.  The title of this peak is truly appropriate.  

Cheeseburger Summits: Wimpy, Flying Elvis, FartingWonder and Bax Factor.

Hello Kitty and Princess Anika joined forces to Conquer Soledad

Pickles, Flyingelvis, Hello Kitty and Princess Anika were on a little family vacation in Sandy Eggo CA. The vacation got off to a very memorable start; Monday morning, Sept 15, 2008, while walking about town in LaJolla looking for a nice place to enjoy a family breakfast … the headlines on the San Diego Tribune caught my eye … Lehman Bros backrupt, Merrill Lynch sold to Bank of America (to avoid bankruptcy), $80 billion dollar AIG bailout by the government to avoid a catastrophic default and collapse of insurance policies …hmm, vacation, but maybe I should still pay attention to this! Well, we can all better now see that there really was nothing to all that financial mumbo gumbo. More importantly, the week saw Hello Kitty and Princess Anika complete their first summit cheese summit, Mt. Soledad, LaJolla Ca and join the accelerating international movement known as Summit Cheeseburger.com.

Unfortunately by Friday, the day of our triumph, Pickles had come down with a cold and Hello Kitty, Princess Anika and Flyingelvis had to attempt the expedition on their own. We gathered supplies at a Burger King (if you can’t tell from the pictures) on the campus of UCSD. We climbed aboard the might Grand Caravan, put the pedal to the meddle – well, maybe not, there were kids on board! After a brief drive through Dr. Seuss’ old ‘hood we achieved the summit.

A military ceremony prohibited us from climbing the steps to the cross, but we found another comfortable stop on top and enjoyed the Sandy Eggo sun and views while finishing off the team’s mission.

Great time had by all.

Mt. Soledad – Hello Kitty, Princess Anika and Flyingelvis (already did this one).

Closing the deal: Valby Bakke

The anniversary of an important summit cheeseburger milestone is rapidly approaching. So, as to avoid the expiration of the statue of limitations – or so I do not push my luck any further on that point, I have decided to post a post.

December 10, 2007 Copenhagen, Denmark fell to the summiteers. A drizzly Monday afternoon welcomed me to Copenhagen for the first time (and last? … long story); Denmark is no Belgium, but it is home of course to a number of greats – to Hans Christian Anderson, the real Little Mermaid and Carlsberg lager. A brief trek on foot through the city took me past a local burger/pizza “joint”, The Vesterbro (see pics). I purchased my supplies wound my way through the city streets and up eventually up a hill named Valby Bakke where, in 1700-1703, King Frederik IV built the Frederiksberg Palace.

At the top, I found a park, hid from the mist heavy beneath a grove of trees and consumed a very tasty cheeseburger and admired the bronze sculpture of Adam Gottlob Oehlenschlager whose name to this day synonymous with Scandinavian romance (isn’t that an oxymoron? – curious wiki enrty).

Valby Bakke – Copenhagen Denmark – flyingelvis

Sharpening Our Hiking Skills on Pencil Point

Saturday morning we decided to get the lead out and climb Pencil Point. If you look on a map its summit is less than a mile from the road. But fryingelvis had a plan. “Why don’t we traverse around Carrigan Canyon and make this a real hike?” he suggested. “OK,” we said, “let’s do that.”

A Reasonable Approach:

I haven’t checked it out but one of the short side streets heading east from either Lakeline or Promontory Drive should give you a parking spot with good access to Pencil Point. Simply follow the ridge up to the point that is shaped like a sharpened pencil – that’s Pencil Point. The ascent to the summit will be fairly steep but the hike is less than a mile.

Our Approach:

At 6:00 in the morning we parked at the end of Lakeline Dr. Joining us on this hike was DrPhilFlash, a newcomer to Summit Cheeseburger, but an old hand at photography. His photographs document this trip. From the trailhead we followed a faint path headed northeast, staying clear of the gated community in Carrigan Canyon. Eventually we ran out of trail and so headed up, up, up to the ridge north of us. We followed the ridge to Jack’s Mountain. We briefly contemplated eating Cheeseburgers on this summit but decided we’d finish what we started.

Up until now we had been hiking AWAY from Pencil Point. Now things got interesting. For the next mile we waded through dense scrub oak. Boy was I glad I wore shorts! With no trail in site, DrPhilFlash suggested we ascend the Carrigan Canyon Couloir, which was only slightly less choked with scrub oak. After a monumental effort we attained the ridge and proceeded DOWN to Pencil Point.

I’ll concede that it does look like a Pencil Point. The three of us enjoyed a Cheeseburger on the summit, and we were joined by Ron Burgundy’s Dog Baxter – who wanted seconds. If you’ve read this far you’re probably as impressed as me with flyingpelvis’s route-finding acumen. I don’t believe we were on trail for more than 10% of this hike and in the end, took three and a half hours to complete what could have been a one or two mile hike. Good work! Maybe I’ll bring along a map next time – nah.

Congratulations to the newest Cheeseburger Summiteer, DrPhilFlash.

Pencil Point, UT – fryingpelvis, DrPhilFlash, sirloinofbeef

Flat Iron Mesa-November 16, 2008

On a beautiful Sunday Morning, Spasher, Farting Wonder, Old Lady and Wimpy decided to finally knock off the infamous Flat Iron Mesa in Sandy.  We combined a summit attempt with the opportunity to also enjoy a nice day at the park.  Splasher was not interested in having a cheeseburger, so it became a family affair, but a solo Cheeseburger attempt.  Flat Iron Mesa is the largest developed park in the Sandy Park system and includes 6 soccer fields, 2 baseball fields, 1 volleyball court, 2 playgrounds, 4 tennis courts and 2 outdoor lighted pavilions. 

We chose to concentrate our efforts on the upper playgrounds which is next to the upper pavilion.  The upper pavilion is currently under construction, but the playground and the rest of the park are still accessible.  At the top of the play structure I enjoyed a delightful Pierre Signatures Flame Broiled Angus Cheeseburger (microwavable).  Photos to follow

Serpent Mound, OH – A Bite of History

The Great Serpent Mound is a 1,330-foot-long, three-foot-high prehistoric effigy mound located on a plateau of the Serpent Mound crater along Ohio Brush Creek in Adams County, Ohio.  It is the largest effigy mound in the world and considered a sacred place by some people of the Native American culture and a “place of power”  by many people from all over the world. On 5/31/08 in honor of a recent 80th birthday, the family of SamIAm consumed cheeseburgers on this summit.  There were four generations of the family present but only three generations consumed cheeseburgers owing to the fourth generation having yet to cut teeth and the “nanoburger” not yet being introduced. 
 
Hikers:
Janet,
Ron, “Professor McCheese”
Kinsey, “Whopper Mom”
Jack, “Whopper Junior” (no cheeseburger)
Hamburglar (aka, Green Eggs with Sam)
Melva, “Momster”
Herman, “Muenster”
Brianne, “Double Whopper” (baby born only a few weeks after this summit)
Kweenasheba (no cheeseburger)
SamIAm
 
Generations present, 4
Generations consuming cheeseburgers, 3
Octogenarians: 2 (80 and 83)

Note:
The area is managed by the Ohio Historical Society.  A fee is charged for entry/parking.  There is a picnic shelter with a minimalist grill and several tables.  There is a small museum with some artifacts and displays of the history of the area and the Mound Builders culture.  The area is a small, flat to rolling plateau just above the Ohio Brush Creek.  It is clear that the mound itself is not the high point of this area and there is signage to prohibit actually climbing on the mound.  Our cheeseburger consumption ocurred in the picnic shelter which, probably not coincidentally, appears as if it is the actual high point.

Mighty Van Cott – the 5th Ascent

Mountaineers tremble at the mention of its name. Overlooking the Salt Lake Valley it dominates the skyline between Red Butte Canyon and Ensign Peak – if you don’t count Avenues Twin Peaks and some minor ridges in between. But as hard as it is to believe, this post is about the 5th successful ascent of the mighty Mount Van Cott.

At the last minute, on a beautiful Saturday morning, we decided on Van Cott as a destination. Starting from a parking lot at the University of Utah we gained the pipeline trail and branched off up a random drainage. Eventually we scrambled onto a rocky ridge leading directly to the summit. Along the way we collected a couple thousand snail shells – where did these guys come from?

The summit provides a great view of the Salt Lake Valley and the perfect place to enjoy another Summit Cheeseburger.

Mighty Mount Van Cott – Dinoboy, BarBarJinks, Made Marion

Cave Peak-6,803 ft November 10, 2008

SirloinOfBeef and I hit the road, at 6 AM, in an attempt to find and summit the infamous Cave Peak.  Our first order of business, for the day, was to actually find Mueller Park.  After finally flagging down a morning dog walker, we were directed to Mueller Park Road and then onto the park.  It should be noted that if you arrive before 8 AM, the access gate to the park will be closed.   In addition, it should also be noted that Mueller Park has a fee for both vehicles ($6) or walk ins ($3).   After hiking up the main road to the restrooms, we crossed over the foot bridge to the Mueller Park trail.  The scant information on the web in regards to Cave Peak, describes it as having no trail to the summit.  While there is no maintained trail, there is a distinct path coming off of the main Mueller Park trail, onto the ridgeline leading to the obvious summit.  After reaching the summit, we determined that Cave Peak would be our only peak for the day.  This determination allowed us to each enjoy two Cheeseburgers. Yum.

The descent was uneventful, but spurred many discussions of future ascents of Burro Peak, Dude Peak, Rudy Flats etc.  All around a great way to spend your Sunday morning.

SirLoinOfBeef and Wimpy 2 Cheeseburgers each, but just one summit