For supposedly being my favorite place in the Utah County Foothills, I don’t visit the Chris Fisher Flats meadow up above Grove and Battle Creek often enough. In fact, I realized it had been over a year. Wow. I think I’m done doing the Grove-Battle loop though. Coming down Battle has some no-fun rough spots…but some pretty spots. I can’t decide. Today I opted to go up and down Grove as I heard Battle was icy. It was just magnificent…
Sinful, right? I have lived in Utah for 4 years and still hadn’t visited the state’s highest mountain range yet. With my two kids in tow, we trekked up to the Uintah Mountains for a hike. We did a loop in the “Lakes District,” clockwise past Crystal Lake, Cliff Lake, Petite Lake, Watson Lake, Clyde Lake, the Twin Lakes, Wall Lake, and many other unnamed ones. My kids, ages ~7 and 9 did great! The whole route was above 10,000…
I have been eyeing Mt. Mahogany for a while – from the freeway, while climbing up Grove Creek, from Timpooneke Rd., etc. I decided I needed to do a full traverse of the ridgeline – in preparation (hopefully!) for a full Timp ridgeline traverse later this year. MVH came with, and it was a great day on the mountain! We started at the Grove Creek Trailhead. To climb this south end of Mahogany, most take the Grove Creek Trail up…
Snow has arrived (finally!) in Utah. I have only ventured out a few times, but it has been pretty great. In mid-November my back tweaked again (see my nightmare injury from Summer 2015). I decided to test it out on the Lindon Squiggles and foothills below Dry Canyon. It started beautiful and ended with a whiteout. I knew a system was moving in, but figured I’d be ok not venturing too far from my car. It was fun to get…
Phoenix’s South Mountain Park/Preserve was the site two years ago of my first time ever running a marathon distance – a 29 slog that hurt more than it should have. I was undertrained and paid for it. Of course, it was simultaneously amazing. Back in AZ for the holidays I set my mind to revisiting those familiar trails and proving that I had improved as a runner. I drew out a altered route that totaled 32 miles (50k). 3 loops…
Work brought me down to Moab for a conference and I took the opportunity to squeeze in a couple evening runs after the conference activities wound down. In Arches I did a loop up into Devil’s Garden. I was in a hurry and didn’t hit Dark Angel or Private Arch but I did hit a bunch of others. On the back side of the loop (the east side) there is a little sand to deal with but mostly super fun…
I scaled back plans to bag Mahogany Peak (via Grove Creek) today, and opted for the Grove -> Battle Creek loop. It never disappoints. My still faltering health did disappoint though. After 3-4 weeks with little to no running due to the cold+sinus infection of the century, I can still feel my lung capacity lacking and overall energy lacking. Thankfully, autumn has hit and the maple trees were blazing red. Grove Creek was a bit more tame, but the Battle…
Panorama from the Big Baldy Summit I have never gone all the way UP Battle Creek (I’m always coming down) and I have never summited Big Baldy from the saddle. I did it once from the SW ridge for the vertical kilometer challenge. Plans to loop the North Timp ridgeline fell through, so I slept in until 9 and did this instead – Battle Creek to the Big Baldy Summit and back. It was warm and I felt sluggish. I…
I decided to treat myself to a Mt. Timpanogos summit for my birthday this morning. I have done the summit twice from the Timpooneke trailhead but never from Aspen Grove. I decided to make a loop of it. Up Aspen Grove, down Timpooneke, then loop back to AG on the Salamander Flats, Snow Gauging, and Lame Horse trails. A 19.5 mile loop. I put out the call and two fellow Wasatch Mountain Wranglers joined – Keith and Tim. We started…
The reason I had registered for the Capitol Reef Half Marathon rather than the 50k was because I knew my family (and parents) would be with for the trip. So, I wanted to do a quick race and then have time with them. The morning after the race we hiked up to Hickman Bridge. Very cool and my kids and their grandparents were troopers, even as it started to really heat up. That evening the Mrs. and I hiked Cassidy…