UN 10536 & UN 10936 by Brian Schultz Tuesday August 31, 2021
Roundtrip mileage: 8.15 miles from Needle Creek Reservoir
Elevation gain: ~2,650'
Start to finish: 7 hours 10 minutes
Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz
From Doyleville, the two wheel drive road to Needle Creek Reservoir is well marked and has one gate to open and close behind. We parked at the trailhead near the end of the reservoir, having passed by numerous dispersed camping areas, and started on the excellent Barret Right Hand trail at 8:45 AM.
There are lots of peaks to climb in this area. We concentrated on three or four and ended up with only two. The trail (photo 1, photo 2) heads southwest from the reservoir before intersecting another trail. We turned right and stayed on this trail until just east of the peak.
At that point we began a bushwhack to the summit. Lots of deadfall slowed us down but we arrived on UN 10536 at 11:00 and I quickly checked out another highpoint to make sure it wasn't higher (it wasn't) before we departed at 11:30. We found a much better route through the trees on the descent, nowhere near as much deadfall, and intersected the trail again.
We simply crossed the trail and began a steep bushwhack up UN 10936. Our arrival time on the summit was 12:30 and we enjoyed a pleasant stay on top for 25 minutes. Next up was UN 10349. The descent off 10936 was easy initially but everything soon changed.
We encountered lots of deadfall, with many ups and downs, and it was steep. Finding a route was time consuming and by the time we reached the saddle below 10936's face, we couldn't determine a reasonable route up the cliffs. We threw in the towel.
It wasn't far to the Barrett Left Hand trail to the east but once again, the deadfall was horrible. We fought our way through the trees and finally reached the trail, a welcome relief. Then it was a matter of following the trail back to the Barrett Right Hand trail and to the trailhead. It was disappointing to get so close to 10349's summit, especially with all the time and effort, but we felt it was the right choice to turn back.