I had a lot of goals for running this season, and among them was to summit the 3 highest peaks in Davis County from the valley floor. I did Thurston and Francis Peaks back in July, so that left Bountiful Peak. I decided to bag it using the Old North Trail in Davis Creek Canyon. It is about 4.5 miles of, and 4,500 ft. elevation gain. Upness.

12.2 mile in 3:02:46 (moving time, a full 5 hours elapsed) @ 15:00 min/mile pace and with 4,570 ft. elevation gain

The first 2.5 miles up were great. But, about 1/2 between the Old North overlook and Midway Peak, the trail faded and the markings did too. Thus, the bushwhack began. I knew that the trail would fade out around there, but I was hoping that I could find a clear route to the top.

From there, there are 2-3 connected ridgelines that lead up to Bountiful Peak. Unfortunately, the ridges themselves are heavily covered with oak, scrub oak, aspen, and lots of scratchy thick underbrush. I followed the ridges, hugging the north side of them, but down the hill a bit. There were a surprising number of game trails that were easy to follow. When one faded, there was usually another close by to follow. They were still scratchy, and the route did still require a few short, but hefty, bushwhacks. I made it though.

To descend I ran down Skyline Drive to the Parrish Creek Trail and went down there. I was planning to take the Bonneville Shoreline trail the 3-4 miles back north to the Davis Creek TH where my car was, but I had a few hot spots that were about to go full-on blister. I had called a friend to meet me at the bottom (my phone was about to die and I failed to bring a cable to hook it to my little charger pod). He kindly gave me a ride to my car.