The western terrain is full of abrupt changes and the rivers that flow through it usually foam down between navigable stretches in cataracts where no boat could survive. The lakes are generally small and frequented by fishermen rather than yachtsmen. However, since the introduction of outboard motors and portable boats, manna to the fishermen with a taste for trolling, the number of boats in the State has multiplied many times. There are as yet no organized outboard regattas, but sail and speed boat races are held each July on Pine View Reservoir, in Ogden Canyon. The problem of attaining speed through the dense waters of Great Salt Lake has encouraged development of shell-draft centerboard sloops.
The westerner, normally, walks to get somewhere that he cannot get in an automobile or on horseback. Hiking for its own sake, for the sheer animal pleasure of good condition and brisk exercise, is not an easy thing for him to comprehend. But tourists and those Utahns who are confined to cities have adopted the old Indian foottrails, or made new ones, as the best way to see the country intimately, and as the only way to visit some regions. There are a few organized hikes, the most notable being the ascent of Mount Timpanogos, which is made by hundreds of people every July. Climbs up Nlount Nebo and the peaks about Brighton, though not so well known or attended by so much ceremony as the Timpanogos hike, are popular with parties. Within the national forests well-marked trails are provided for an hour's hike or pack trips of two or three weeks' duration, and guides, though convenient, are seldom necessary. Trips into the High Uintas Primitive Area and the Badlands of the Colorado Plateau, however, should never be undertaken by visitors without guides. Spectacular or difficult hikes are rarely undertaken, though there are many peaks in Utah above 11,000 feet that have not been scaled and many more that have been conquered only a few times.
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