We were on the trail by 6:30 and only saw a few other people on our way up to Cecret Lake. About half a mile in we came across a fairly large moose who wasn't very far away from us. He was a juvenile bull, but still had a pretty good rack on him. He didn't care at all that we were there and we were able to get some good pictures.
Even though my parents haven't hiked a lot in the Wasatch and certainly haven't been up at that elevation much, they did very well considering. We got to Cecret Lake in good time and were able to take a few photos and spend some time up there before the crowds started to roll in. After about 5 minutes or so at the lake we hit the trail for the saddle between Devil's Castle and Sugarloaf.
From the saddle to the summit is pretty easy, but by that time you are at 10,500 feet and my parents were starting to feel it a little. Neither was sick, they just felt a little winded. I don't think they'll have a problem with altitude on King's Peak, we'll just have to take it slow. I got to the summit first, followed closely behind by Tyler, with my parents showing up about 3 minutes later.
On top we snapped a few photos and my parents got initiated into the Peak Jumpers club (not a real club, just a few of us idiots who peak jump on summits).
We went down the west side of Sugarloaf to the top of the ski lift. I had no idea how much easier it is to go up or down that side; something I'll remember in the future. When we got back to Cecret Lake there were about 100 people there and an additional 30 along the mile long trail back to the car. As we drove down the canyon we noticed that there were no parking spots along the dirt road that were open. When we got up there I think there were about 5 cars total. Apparently, we beat everyone there by about 2 hours. Just fine with me. In all it was a great day and we had a ton of fun. Now to King's!
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