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 up top.
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 feet and they were total champs. We had some hot sun, cold wind, rain, and hail! I have heard that the Uintah trails are all very rocky. Yeah. No joke. There were very few stretches of smooth trail. But wow. I’ll be back again soon I hope.
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 to the bridge, then go straight up the scree north of that. That leads to the southernmost end of the Mahogany massif. For a cleaner “ridge” approach, we went straight up the SW ridge that begins at the Grove Creek trailhead.
It was steep, but fairly straight forward. There were a number of “trails,” and game trails. At the occasional cliff-band, stay left (north) and they are easy to skirt around. Steep though. 3,000 ft. climbing in 2 miles.
Once at the top, you are met with a beautiful set of verdant meadows – amazing spots for camping, though it would be a haul with lots of gear!
The summit was great, but I’m always amazed at how ridgelines that seem to only have one main pitch, always have multiple climbs. They are always steeper and longer than they look from the valley floor.
Coming down off the summit, continuing north, there was some fun snow to glissade down.
We made our way to the northern edge of the ridge where it drops down into American Fork Canyon. I jogged up and to the right to bag the north summit. Views for days. The descent down the NW ridge was steep – my knees didn’t like that.
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 first tracks in the snow and my Altra Lone Peak 3.0 Mid Neos worked great!
A week or so later I ventured up Dry Canyon a bit – mistake. It was too tracked out and complete ice. Not wanting to descend the steep ice I cut up the Curly Springs trail Nr. 051 and came down the Squiggles. Much better on those back trails.
I hosted the 3rd annual Wasatch Mountain Wrangler Secret Wrangler Gift Exchange and someone was kind enough to hide a gift for me too. Like last year’s gifts, it took up new trails. Mill Creek, Pipeline Burch Hollow, towards Church Fork Peak. My childhood best fried was visiting and he joined me. The last pitch to the Church Fork ridge was a bit of a slow – he snowshoed up – but I didn’t put mine on until the ridge. We headed west a while, but didn’t trek all of the way to the peak. We were a bit short on time, and lazy. How beautiful though! AND, my new Christmas present Hillsound Ultra crampons were AMAZING. My Atlas snowshoes performed great too.
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 from the Kiwanis Trailhead – the National/Gila/Pyramid loop, the Alta/Bajada loops, and a short 3rd one on Crosscut and Ma Ha trails.
I arrived before dawn, geared up, and started up the Kiwanis trail to Telegraph Pass. It is amazing how, in the dark, Saguaro cactus look like people creepily standing in your peripheral vision. It got light as I neared Telegraph Pass and crossed the summit road.
From the road I started the first loop. Climbing up the National Trail I turned right at the Pyramid junction and followed its length along the Gila Range down to the intersection with the Gila Trail. It was perfect running weather, nice and cool. However, my stomach was quite sour the whole trail.
I turned left on the Gila and followed it up into the Gila Valley. Last time I had climbed right up the Bursera Ridge, but this time I chose to go straight up the valley, which included a head-wall of sorts that separated the western portion of the valley from the east where the Lost Ranch is. As I went up and over that climb it started to heat up a bit.
I crossed the broad valley and started my ascent of the Pyramid Trail. It felt hotter than it really was. I could tell that my (again!) lack of training was going to cost me. By the time I reached the National Trail junction and headed down to the Summit Rd. and Kiwanis Trail back to my car/aid station I made the decision to call it a day. Back at the car, I had clocked a 1/2 marathon. With some stretching and refueling I was feeling ok. I could continue but I knew it would hurt and likely dampen the remainder of my week’s holiday plans. I called it, drove to my in-laws, took a shower, ate my weight in (pretty horrible) Boston Market food, and completed some Christmas shopping. Saving my legs even allowed for a hike with the family a couple days later.
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Not a bad way to start Christmas vacation.
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 single track. It was a blast. I hit Landscape Arch, Wall Arch, Navajo Arch, and Double O Arch.
I hurried to my car, tore down to Delicate Arch, and charged up hoping to hit it at sunset.
About 1/4 mile up I realized I had forgotten my phone in the car. By the time I got up to the arch, I had missed the sunset magic by about 20 minutes. I still managed to get a nice picture though.
The next night I headed to the Upheaval Dome in Canyonlands.
I have gawked at it in the satellite images before and just had to see it. There is a loop that goes around it (unfortunately, around its outside mostly and not up on a rim/ridge) so I hit that. The Syncline Loop. I saw a couple people in the first 1/2 mile and then was completely by myself for the remainder of the evening. It was simultaneously exhilarating to have the desert to myself and spookily quiet. I had hope to make it back to the start to run the mile out to the overlooks for the sunset, but AGAIN missed it – this time by about 30 minutes.
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 Creek side was breathtaking. I can’t imagine how they would with some late-evening alpenglow on them! In any case, stands of maple at the top of Battle Creek, up towards the Big Baldy Saddle (and on the Dry Canyon side of Baldy, which I can see from my house) are at peak red right now. In another 2-3 weeks, the aspens will start to pop, golden yellow. I can’t wait.
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 have only done the Great Western trail south of the Battle Creek turn off once, when going the full 20 miles along the front side of the Timpanogos massif, and I forgot how beautiful it is. Along with the meadows north up to Chris Flat, it is just beautiful. Meadows, grass, aspens, etc.
The ridgeline from the Big Baldy saddle to the summit was longer than I thought – deceptive. On the way down I hooked up with a hiker who had just come down the Everest Ridge (ack!) and we ran down together chatting. Nice bloke. I love how (most) random people you meet way up on the trails turn out to be very friendly, down to earth, good people. I like good peoples.
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 at 5:00 and caught an amazing sunrise as we climbed the trail out of Aspen Grove.
This side is steeper than Timpooneke, less runnable, but features some beautiful waterfalls, a few lakes and meadows, an old Forest Service ranger cabin, and views for days.
We spent a lot of time stopping and taking pictures, so I apologize to Tim and Keith for destroying their splits. But it was hard not to stop and gawk.
Once we climbed over to the saddle, it a wind picked up and it got a bit chilly. In the sun it was alright, but my hands got numb. At the summit, two other wranglers, Josh and Jade, caught up to us. They had started from the other trailhead and were pushing for a fast round trip. We sat around for a bit up top. It’s hard to just turn around and bomb back down when the views as so good.
Hat tip to Tim, as well, for picking up a ton of trash along the trail and on the summit. Littering makes me so mad.
Once we got off the saddle the temps picked up fast. Lots of hikers were moving up their trail a high fiving us as we ran down, thinking we were more hardcore that we are. When we explained the loop we were doing, we did get some raised eyebrows. Maybe we are hardcore.
About halfway down I rolled my right ankle hard. I heard an audible crunch. It ran of OK, though tender, until right at the bottom when I rolled it again. Sharp stab of pain. Oh boy…
At the trailhead I used the bathroom, drenched myself in water, refilled, and headed off for the return trails. Those were a tough 5 miles for me. Very runnable, but not for me. It was also fun to see a few new places.
The heat, returned GI distress, and the ankle. But, we made it and it was gorgeous. I will definitely make this loop again, but hopefully in better physical conditions. Happy birthday to me!
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 Arch. We were really taken aback. Whereas we assumed the trail would take up to its based, it dumped us out on top of the arch. The views were amazing, the trail was great, the temperatures low, etc. A perfect evening hike.
This was the first time I had registered and planned on running a half marathon. I did run one a couple months ago, but that was after dropping down from a 55k at the last minute. This meant that I went into it knowing that 13.1 miles was the target. With my 50k race I have made game plans, but that is a lot of miles to plan out, and I’m still pretty inexperienced so whatever plans I make tend to fall apart as the day wears on. With 13.1 miles, however, I felt I could make a careful plan.
So, here’s what it was: Go out very conservative for the first 4 miles of climbing. Pick a comfortable but challenging pace for the middle 5 miles of downhill. Pick up the pace for the last 4 miles and finish by going out strong and fast.
It almost worked out that way.
The Capitol Reef Half Marathon course is rugged. People had told me this of all the distances there put on by Ultra Adventures, but I brushed it off. I was used to rough trails here in the Wasatch, so how bad could it be. Well, it turns out that running rough trails for fun and running them for a RACE feels very different. In the racing mindset, the rugged and schwacky miles seemed to wear on me more than they do back home when I’m out for fun – both physically and mentally.
The first 2 miles of the course climb up the Great Western Trail for a total of about 1,000 ft. elevation gain. I resisted the adrenaline-induced urge to power ahead with the faster runners, knowing I had to conserve energy for later. This strategy served me well. At 2 miles hit the Government Creek trailhead area and veered east up a “trail” that climbed for another 2 miles and 1,000 feet towards. This part was quite rough and overgrown. Not runnable – at least not for me.
With the 4 miles of climbing done, I was excited to hit the downhill. Unfortunately, miles 5-6 wound past the Bullberry Lakes and down to Coleman Reservoir through an area that had previously been gutted by a forest fire. Now, however, aspen trees and dense ground cover were aggressively taking over. Though downhill (some quite steep and technical), it wasn’t very runnable. So overgrown.
At mile 6 we hit a water drop and a nice dirt road. I topped off my water, got some coke, and charged on. Miles 7-9 followed the road (Bullberry Trail) down to where we had started. It was warming up, but I was feeling ok. I still tried to hold back my pace a little bit in order to have something left in the tank for the finish. Looking back, I definitely could have and should have pushed this a tiny bit harder. These two miles (and the mile after the aid station) took too long.
Once at the aid station where we started, I got a bit more water and coke, some salt tabs, and took off. We ran the Teasdale TV Tower Road for about a mile until the Great Western branches back off. I suddenly felt sluggish and no energy. Once the route branches off onto a double track, my energy returned, though my pace didn’t necessarily pick up. It was a fun curvy up and down trail through some pretty red rock areas, but slower going than the dirt road had been.
I should have pushed the dirt road before a LOT harder as I wasn’t going to pick up much time on the double track.
Right before the finish, the route crossed highway 24 and I glanced down at my watch to see what my time was. It looked like it was right at 3:00 even. I took off, trying to sprint to the finish to come in under 3 hours. It hurt. Then, as I approached the finish line I saw the clock read 2:57:something. HA! I could have taken it easy.
In the end, I finished in 20th place out of about 50-60 runners. Had I pushed those 3 miles (7-10) on the dirt road a bit harder and shaved 3-5 minutes off my time, I could have picked up 5-6 spots. No worries though – I wasn’t in it to win, just to finish.
My plan to run conservative and save energy for the end mostly finished. I felt strong in my last few miles than I did back at the Zion Half Marathon. In all, a gorgeous, rugged, hot day.
While visiting at a family cabin near West Yellowstone, I took the chance to explore a bit on a trail I had hiked briefly back in 2007ish. The Sawtell Peak Trail in the Bitterroot Range / Centennial Mountains does not go to Sawtell Peak. Rather, it meanders west of it for a while right along the continental divide. This divide also serves as the Montana-Idaho border, so step on one side of the ridge line and you’re in Idaho, step on the other and you’re in Montana. Very cool. I hiked it a bit with the Mrs., plus our bro- and sis-in-law Gregg and Rachael. When we hit the ridge that goes west up to Jefferson Peak, I convinced them to leave the trail (which goes to the basin and a small lake just NE of the peak) to try and bag it. We didn’t make it far, but it was a fun adventure. On the way back I wanted to hit Browers Spring, the contested headwaters of the Missouri River, which is just about 1/4 mile off the trial, but we didn’t have time for that either. Next time…
Sam, a peak-bagging trail junkie friend, has been bugging me for a while to come join him up in SLC and the stars finally aligned for me to do so – to celebrate his birthday with a bunch of Orange Trail Monkeys up on Mt. Olympus. This was one of the peaks on my bucket list last year, but I failed to bag it.
I knew these guys were fast and although Sam claimed he would be going slow, I still opted to start 20 minutes earlier than him. It was hot and steep.
People coming down were warning of lots of rattlesnakes, but I didn’t see any.
The trail just climbs and climbs. You climb about 3500 ft over the first 3 miles of trail.
Towards the top, a straight up section affectionately dubbed “Stairway of the Gods” was swarming with flies and gnats. I must have swalled 4-5. A few made me gag and almost throw up as I tried to spit them out.
From the saddle at mile 3, you hang a left and climb another 500 ft. over only .2 miles to the summit.
I was thinking they would catch me, and had seen them down below once, but they didn’t. I scrambled up to the summit and had it to myself for a good 10 minutes before the crew showed up. Sparklers, watermelon, and a loud happy birthday sung. It was a lot of fun.
We switched our headlamps on and made the descent, ending with some cake at the cars.
Steep but gorgeous. Worth it.
For the past couple weeks I have been thinking a lot about putting in smart miles rather than just lots of miles. Lots of miles usually just get me injured, plus I don’t have lots of time, so I’m trying to be strategic (and have even added biking to work once a week or so into the mix as a way to work on muscle strengthening and endurance without stressing my joints). Here’s some recent doings.
Two of them were deliberate attempts to put in smart miles.
On May 16, some quick miles to loosen up sore muscles after that Big Baldy madness.
Then, on May 23, I went up the crop circles trails above Lindon with the specific plan to work on slow climbing. This is a trail that has a nice long, but gradual, climb, then a downhill to complete a loop. I wanted to work on transitioning from aggressively power hiking climbs to slowly running them. I did the loop, then did it backwards, then went up and down the BST a bit. It felt great. I will add this on occasions to get some climbing in, but without the punishment of long downhills that sometimes stress my joints.
On May 20 and May 27 I took my next-door neighbor on his first two trail runs. He has been a hardcore hiker in the past (600 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail, the entire Great Western Trail from Idaho to Arizona – the full length of Utah – twice) and puts in a lot of road miles. I convinced him to join me in the hills and I think I’m going to get him hooked!
The Dry Canyon -Altar/Rock Pile loop was great in the morning and things were looking so green!
Then, of course, taking him on the Grove Creek Battle Creek loop. Wow. It is so green up top!
The loop up Grove Creek, up and over to Battle Creek via Chris Flat, down Battle Creek, and back over to Grove Creek is always a good choice. The first two miles up Grove Creek to the bridge have nice enough views. The next mile to Grove Creek Spring are steep, but gorgeous. The climb through aspens and meadows up to Chris Flat is gorgeous in all seasons. Chris Flat itself, even with short scruffy early-spring grass (not tall yet) is something special. The first mile of the drop down into the Battle Creek drainage – until the split where you chose to go down Battle Creek or up to the switchbacks to the Big Baldy Saddle are full of meadows and so green. The descent down Battle Creek has some beautiful stretches but the trail is rough and steep with large rocks littering the path. Not “fun” running. And, the Bonneville Shoreline Trail back to Grove Creek once you get to the bottom is just a mess of ATV trails. Despite this, its all worth it for those 2-3 miles up top.
Today’s run apparently was my fastest for much of the route.
What does one do after running a strenuous half-marathon? You go run some extra credit miles with a couple thousand feet of vert, of course!
After dropping distance from the Zion 55k and winning (not really) the Zion Half Marathon this morning, I found myself with a free afternoon. I was only a few minutes from Zion National Park, still had a valid annual pass, and felt like I had a couple more miles in me. So, for extra credit post-half marathon miles, I ran up and down Angels Landing. It was fantastic.
About 1/2 way up the cement trail, a rain storm hit and the desert walls and cliffs above quickly erupted into countless waterfalls. Every nook, cranny, trough, and rut in the stone walls revealed the waterfalls that had carved them there for centuries. It was magnificent. Granted, the misty clouds didn’t make for the best views up top, but it was a unique experience.
These next 4 pictures are essentially of the same rock wall, though angled and cropped a bit different. Watch as the small trickle of waterfalls turn into torrents.
I hadn’t run since Monument Valley, worried about some nagging continued hip pain and new foot/ankle pain. With only 3 weeks between 2 races, I thought it would be better to be under-trained than over-injured. However, this weekend my family went out of town (so I wasn’t needed at home), the weather was beautiful, and the San Rafael Swell was a’calling me! I put out an invite to the Wasatch Mountain Wranglers and others and was joined by a new friend, Steve, for the 8 mile loop up Little Wildhorse Canyon and down Bell Canyon. An old friend (from my time in Romania in the late 90s early 00s) and his kids joined for camping. Annie and Brad MacDonald also swung by the campsite for a campfire. I was hoping to hit Horseshoe Canyon the next day to see the Great Gallery, but my hip and ankle flared up after the run so I just drove home. Bummer. Steve said it was amazing.
Monument Valley 50k was my first ultra of the season (and my 3rd, following the Antelope Island Fall Classic and Bryce 50k’s last year). Perennially under-trained and quasi-injured as ever, I was a bit anxious for this one. However, this was to be a special race. It is run within the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, largely on trails and back-roads only accessible with Navajo guides. Moreover, the course allows access to the top of Mitchell Mesa which gives some amazing views, albeit with abandoned uranium mines. From its northeast overlook, you get a view that is hard to beat. In any case, I was determined to walk the course if that’s what it took. I spent a lot of time taking picture instead of running, a select few are below.
It is part of Ultra Adventures’ Grand Circle Trail Series, for which I’m volunteering as an ambassador this year. Matt Gunn and his crew put on such good events. Wow.
The race started at sunrise. Local Navajos gave everyone a pinch of white corn meal to sprinkle eastward towards the rising sun, while Navajo prayer blessing was offered. Then, we were off, running down from the starting line at the View Hotel campground.
We ran down IR 42 about 3.5 miles to the course aid station at the foot of the Three Sisters formation. I had to grab a couple things from my drop bag, but tried to head out quick on the first loop.
The loop was about 5 miles, putting us back at the aid station by about mile 8.5. It went across some great single track with spectacular views. Also, we got a taste of some of the sandy terrain we had been warned of.
Back at the aid station, I swapped out my bandanna, put on a tank top and applied some sunscreen. The next loop was 10 miles and I knew it was heating up.This loop headed on a dirt road for a few miles and then transitioned to desert paths of deep soul-sucking sand. Oh man. It was slow going. I teamed up with a couple runners along the way, boosting spirits as we chatted. But man, the sand was rough. It was slow and it cut the efficiency of each stride – lots of energy wasted pushing sand. It went on for miles and every time we finally hit good dirt, the sand came back. Thankfully, there were some really cool rock formations and arches to behold.
We returned to the Three Sisters aid station again at mile 18. I was feeling a bit hot, but my energy levels seemed good. Again, I took more time at the aid station that I would have liked. Finally, refueled and supplied another runner I had met on the arches loop, Julie, said “Run out together?” That sounded great. I knew this next portion, miles 18-28, would be the hardest but also potentially the most rewarding. After about 2 miles of sand and washes, we arrived at the south side of Mitchell Mesa.
The picture doesn’t do it justice, but it look so tall. IT was about a 1,000 foot climb of 1 mile of trail. Rocky, steep, hot. The breeze that had been saving us earlier was coming from the north, so on the south side of the mesa, the air was still. And hot. Already 21 miles in, this climb was brutal, maybe one of the hardest things I’ve ever done – at least it felt that way at the time.
Once at the top of Mitchell Mesa we ran about a half mile north to an overlook. The view was breathtaking. I spent a few moments trying to take it in. But, as the pictures below demonstrate, you scope of the landscape is hard to take in.
I was worried about the descent. Coming up I saw how rocky it was and have been prone to roll ankles. To make matters worse, both of my quads began to cramp. After turning around at the overlook the slight decline to the south trail felt great. I picked up the pace and was excited to be moving at a good clip. However, I must have been low on electrolytes because I cramped right around the rim. They spasmed on the way down, but I made good time. The footing wasn’t as sketchy as I had thought it would be. At the bottom, I filled my water at the water drop they had put there and made ok time for a portion of the return to Three Sisters. Some sandy sections slowed me quite a bit but I eventually made it back to the Aid Station. I got some ice in my bottle and hydration pack and headed off on the road for the last 3.5 miles to the finish.
It rolled a bit, up and down, but ended with a series of very steep pitches. Not fun. I crossed the finish at a jog, 7:11:24. Without the sand, I think I could have dropped a good 45 minutes off that. I tried out new nutrition and it had worked great. Tailwind in my hydration pack and Sport Legs. A lactic acid supplement that is supposed to reduce muscle soreness. Perhaps it was the placebo effect, but my legs never got to the level of soreness that I usually get above 20 miles. So, that experiment was a success. As for the cramps, that was only after swapping out Tailwind (which has salt) for a bottle of Perpetuem as my main calorie source climbing the Mesa. I switched just to have a change in flavor, but forgot to add Salt Stick pills. Lesson learned.
In the end the race was great. It beat me up and the sand sucked so much more energy out of me than I anticipated.
Now, to recover and get ready for the Zion 55k in 3 weeks!
Last year around this time I joined a large group run to the San Rafael to run the Good Water Rim Trail at The Wedge. I was hooked. This year another big group ventured down – about 30 of us – and it was great.
For the first 9 miles I tried to focus on keeping a steady pace – not going out too strong. I thought I was going more conservative than last time, when I felt I started too fast and then bonked. Looking at my splits, my 10 min/mile pace this time was a lot faster than last time. Oh well. It felt pretty good. At the 9 mile aid station I felt a lot stronger than last time (with the exception of a rolled ankle and hot spots on both feet – they never blistered, thankfully, but I was worried). I was just a couple minutes behind the lead group and stayed a few minutes behind them for the next 7 miles to the east overlook. Mostly, I ran solo. But that was fine. The scenery is spectacular. The east 7 miles are a lot rougher trail and that wore on me. I slowed, alternating running with fast walking for a 10th of a mile here and there. At the 16 mile overlook I jumped out to the road and followed it the 5.5 miles around and back to the start just like last time. By the end, my energy levels felt really good but my legs were just shot. So sore. Thankfully, no cramping though. I tried out fueling with just tailwind and it felt great. I popped a couple extra salt tabs when it warmed up. And, I mixed a bottle of perpetuem for the last 2 miles, but didn’t end up drinking much of it.
I had been wanting to do the Grove Creek -> Battle Creek loop in the snow for a while. With my sister-in-law (also a new trail-runner) in town and wanting to do a run, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity. I asked around and knew that the climb between the two drainage – up and over Chris Flats – might be a bit sloppy. I figured we could tough out a mile of post-holing though. No problem.
Grove Creek was pretty good up to the bridge, and even a bit beyond. Once we broke out of the trees, however, the tracks lessened and post-holing began. Up to the spring, up to Chris Flats, and most of the way down into Battle Creek it was a sloppy mess. If we had hit it early in the morning before the sun warmed up the surface, we might had stayed on top more. Perhaps not though – it was soft pretty far down. In any case, it was an adventure. Rachael may never forgive me, but she did get some good pictures out of it!
GPS data got messed up on the descent into Battle Creek. There is no way we were moving that fast!
As is my custom, in the winter I start running lots of flat pavement in the name of convenience and trying to rest recurrent IT band problems (vert makes that worse). With some IT issues stemming from my New Years Revolution Run, I decided to hit the pavement. In previous years that is what CAUSED my IT band pain and also what caused stress fractures on my ankles. This time, it let to hip bursitis (I think). Woot woot! So… that means resting and not running as much + stretching and strength training.
I am considering dropping my yearly mileage goals and focusing on strength training more so I can run injury free. I sometimes feel like the push for weekly miles leads me to run when I have a free hour rather than hitting the gym. With little free time, I think “I can’t waste this hour at the gym, I need to get in my miles!” I wonder if more gym time (especially during the winter when getting time on the trails, which don’t seem to cause these injuries, is harder anyways). Plus, I don’t have to run in the inversion smog in the gym. Hmmm.
Its a bummer too, because I have increasingly been enjoying evening runs on the pavement. It is also so convenient to just pop out my front door and run for an hour with minimal gearing-up or driving to/from a trailhead. I am also getting hooked on the exhilaration of running flat and “fast.” Fast for me, at least. However, I looked back at when I started running in 2013 and my average pavement pace actually IS a lot faster than it used to be. Progress! Now I just need to learn how to prep my body to be able to do it injury-free.
Some fun (and freezing) road runs.
Some trails, which didn’t seem to aggravate the hip!
I was stranded in Springville for 2 hours while a kid was at a birthday party, so I hit the BST. It reminded me of the BST above Farmington and Fruits Heights.
Having seen some recent pictures of Grove Creek Canyon in the snow, I just had to hit it. Before work I trudged up to the bridge before work. Gorgeous.
Home for the holidays, I took my Christmas present out of their box a few days early to hit some trails in my hometown. The Olympus 2.0 might be my favorite shoe ever. Seriously.
I hit my childhood mountain bike trails on Galbraith Mountain one day and Whatcom Falls Park another day. Beautiful.
I learned how to mtn. bike in the mid-90s on these trails. Back then, it was a quasi-legal affair (lots of signs saying no trespassing, but community rumor that it was ok) and we usually had the place to ourselves. Now, it is well-developed, signage everywhere, benches, trails with signs indicating they are maintained by sponsors, etc… Very odd.
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Stump Cairn
This is about 1 mile from my parents house and my favorite city park anywhere in the country. Here are some old RR bridges.
In hopes of rehabbing my IT Bands and increasing my flat-terrain endurance and speed, I have stayed off the trails for a couple weeks. (I want to be injury-free and flat-fast for my fundraiser on January 1 – read about it here to help Syrian refugees). One treadmill run and 3 on paved trails around my house. The treadmill was horrible. The ones around my house were convenient and actually somewhat enjoyable…but I missed the mountains. It is entertaining to chase strava segment PRs when on the pavement. See the Strava links for all of them below.
Today, however, I just couldn’t resist. It had snowed an inch or two over night and then snowed another few during the morning and early-afternoon. I just had to get up in the snow. I started at the equestrian trailhead in Lindon, went up the squiggles to the swinging bench overlook, dropped down to Dry Canyon and across the BST, then looped the lower BST back to the car. For most of it I could tell that people had been up in the morning, a clear trail being broken already, but another 2-4 inches had fallen on top of their tracks. It was the best of both worlds. I had a trail broken and packed but a nice soft layer of fluff on top to play in. I overheated pretty quick, stripped off some layers, ate lots of snow, and bumbled about. It was glorious.
I have done a number of runs in the Orem/Lindon foothills on the side of the mouth of Provo Canyon, but not much on the south side of the canyon mouth. I remedied that this last week with 2 runs.
Starting at the Indian Hills trailhead I headed up the first mile climb and then another couple miles along the BST that travers up-canyon. The was ice in a few spots, but not bad. It felt great to be out. Once I turned around, my right IT Band flared up pretty quick and didn’t let up – getting especially bad on the last mile descent. More time on I the foam roller, I guess. Lots of tread mill. No hills.
On Saturday I planned to try out my new snowshoes for the first time up at Aspen Grove, if the snow was deep enough. Unfortunately, the anyone road was closed. About 10-15 minutes earlier, a oil tanker overturned, spilling 1,000 gallons of crude oil into the Provo a River. Very sad. Nobody was hurt. I’m glad I wasn’t a few minutes earlier or I could have been in the middle of it.
I wasn’t planning to run because of my knee, but decided to give it a try. I ran up the Sq*** Peak Road a bit, then dropped onto the Cactus Hill Connector and then to the top of Cactus Hill. The trail was untouched by human feet until the top of the hill. Just animal tracks on about 2 inches of fresh snow. So perfect. Down the west side of the hill there were a bunch of tracks from earlier in the morning, but once I headed back up canyon on the Smith Ditch a then BST I had taken on Monday, it was fresh tracked again. So beautiful. I bombed back down the road to my car. The knee felt *ok and it was so fun to be out on the fresh snow. But, for the next bit I need to keep it flat. Treadmill, I assume.
Back in town, but with my family still in California I tempted fate and ran 12 additional miles (on top of the 30 I had already done this week). That is pushing it for me, but I wanted to take the opportunity to hit the Wasatch Crest to see the autumn leaves while I could.
I started at the Big Water trailhead where the Mill Creek Canyon Rd. ends. I climbed up to Dog Lake, dropped down to Mill D North, climbed up to Desolation Lake and the Wasatch Crest Trail above, took the crest north to Mill Creek, dropped that down to the Little Water Trail, and took that back to my car. I could fill this with lots of blow-by-blow commentary, annoyance at dogs with muddy paws climbing all over me at Dog Lake while their owners say “Oh…uh…sorry,” NOT seeing any moose like last year on Mill D, the temperature dropping bizarrely cold (and damp) when the sun went down as I came off the Crest and into Mill Creek Canyon, and how I put music on loud on my iPhone while running through scary woods in the dark – hoping to scare off any potential startled wildlife encounters….but I won’t. 😉
Here are some pictures. One great thing about hitting the aspens in late evening light is how the sideways indirect light just sets everything on fire. Already bright colors just explode.
Also, I hit the Aspen Grove Trail for the first time with a friend who was visiting from Ottawa. The trail is rougher than Timpooneke. I think I like the other approach better.
I was in Flagstaff for a conference this week and had a free morning before the events started. How could I not venture over to the Grand Canyon?!
It was my first time and it did not disappoint. I started at the South Kaibab trailhead right around dawn and bombed on down. I had the trail mostly to myself, only passing a few hikers who must have caught an earlier shuttle to the trailhead.
The early morning light was just gorgeous. The red rock and green vegetation all seemed to take a deeper hue than was natural. The midday sun later washed the colors out quite a bit more. I had been warned that the trail was not terribly runnable – and much of it was not. It is hard to get a good rhythm or use a natural gait or stride between all of the wooden log steps, rocky terrain, etc… I did luck out in that rain from the previous days had left the trail nice and soft. Very little mud going down South Kaibab, just soft, slightly-moist, dirt. Also, a TON of mule dung. I have since been told that when the trail dries out, clouds of mule-dung-dust billow up with every step and you end up inhaling a lot of it. Yuck.
At 3 miles, I hit Skeleton Point and paused to take off some layers. At the trailhead it was chilly and I had a long sleeve shirt and windbreaker on. Those both went into my pack and I continued on in just a tank-top. It was still a BIT chilly (so I left my gloves on) but I was moving enough to be sweating and it felt nice to shed the layers.
I continued past Skeleton Point, down the switchbacks and then actually hit some nice runnable trail for a while as it wraps around to the left. I was pushing, hoping to catch up to the mules at The Tipoff, where I knew I would be allowed to pass them quickly. Unfortunately, I got waylaid taking picture of the morning light streaming in from behind some clouds to the east.
I did not catch them at The Tip-Off. There were some early hikers there, Japanese – I think, and they gave me VERY weird looks as I cruised by. I don’t know if it was because I was running or because I was wearing a tank-top at 7:30 AM. In any case, I continued on, finally catching the mules a bit later. They had me keep my distance until there was a wide spot in the trail. It only slowed me down for about 10 minutes – not bad.
After passing the mules (and another mule train heading UP) I started to notice how hot it was getting as I neared the canyon bottom. And HUMID! I could feel the humidity in the air – like a mist. Then, I looked up and saw what the sunlight and humidity was creating.
DOUBLE RAINBOW!!!
I crossed over the Colorado River on the black suspension bridge, and then ran up to Phantom Ranch for a VERY refreshing lemonade. I think it upset my stomach a bit, but it sure was tasty. I crossed back over the river on the Silver Bridge and started up the Bright Angel Trail.
After the bridge, you run along the River Trail, downstream. It felt great to actually open up my stride and RUN, albeit slowly.
By the time I hit the canyon where the Bright Angel Trail starts to climb, I was feeling the effects of the heat and humidity. For the next 3 miles, as I climbed up to Indian Garden I was sweating more profusely than I have in my entire life. It was, literally, a constant stream of drips off my brow and down my face. I refilled my waters, mixed a new bottle of perpetuem and soldiered on. At this point, 5+ miles and a few thousand feet of climbing left, I hit the mental state where you just want to get the thing done.
The psychology of this run was unique. I am used to running UP mountains, and then coming back down. Even if you are tired and wasted from the climb, the descent is always easier. Doing it in reverse was a mind-trip. Within a mile after leaving Indian Garden you get a view of the remainder of the climb ahead and it really sinks in what you’re going to have to do.
With about 3 miles of climbing left, the clouds that had been threatening to rain all day settled in and started to drizzle. It actually felt GREAT! I was overheating as I tried to make a strong steady power hike up. The cooling drizzle, however, quickly turned into a torrential downpour. This continued on and off for most of the remaining climb. I considered putting my windbreaker on, but just kept pushing. At this point, I was seeing a LOT of people. Going up, coming down, lots of day-hikers and back-packers. All of them giving me weird looks as I hiked past in my tank top, soaked to the bone. The rain made the hiking more difficult as the trail turned into a stream. Trying to keep along the edges of the trail to avoid the water slowed me down a bit. Worse, however, were the muscle cramps that started up. First, both of my calves started to cramp and spasm. Then, both of my quads. I thought I had kept up on my electrolytes, but perhaps I had fallen behind with all of the sweating. Or, perhaps it was just fatigue. In any case, I soldiered on.
Right at the top (1/4 mile left) I caught up to the only other runner I had seen all day – and the only person to pass me all day. In the days preceding the run, I had posted on a R2R2R facebook group for some advice and one other runner, Sierra, commented that she might do it too that day. Down at the river, I had seen her coming out of the restroom as I was going in, but didn’t make the connection that it might be Sierra. Then, part way up to Indian Garden, I passed her as she was sitting on the side of the trail taking some salt capsules. Later, she RAN past me and I finally realized who it might be. I called out and asked if she was from the FB group, and sure enough it was. “Oh yeah,” she said, “You said you’d be in a red bandana! See you at the top.” At that point, she was actually running, and I was just power hiking, so I doubted I would “see her at the top.” However, in that last 1/4 mile I did catch up to her. Her legs were cramping too. We hiked it out and shared the shuttle back to our cars. I wish I would have caught her earlier, as having a hiking companion up those last 3 miles in the rain would have been nice!
What a day! With the stop and rest at Phantom Ranch, the whole thing took me about 5.5 hours, which was faster than I had estimated it would take me. The Grand Canyon is a MUST-SEE / MUST-DO location for trail runners. However, it is actually not very good terrain/trails for trail running. I’m sure I’ll do it again though!
Thankfully, the back pain from last month did not return and I was able to fit in a number of runs and hikes (not listed here, but on Strava) during the remainder of August.
I ran a bigger version of the squiggly wiggly. Lots of fun.
Some HOT BST action:
An awesome morning run up Grove Creek to Chris Flats. Bagged my first Mountain Goat sighting.
I even ran some pavement. Possibly the first time this year! Actually, it was kind of exhilarating to click off miles at a faster pace than I’m used to, but it was painful.
Plus, some nice blister pains during an attempted Big Baldy Summit. Woot woot.
This morning I embarked on an “easy” route. Starting at the Timpooneke Campground (after being driven up there by Chris, THANKS!) I took the Great Western all the way around the West side of the Mt. Timpanogos ridge-line, back and behind Big and Little Baldy and down to Orem. It was fantastic.
First, you climb a fairly rocky trail for a mile, placing you at the affectionately named “Julie Andrews Meadow.”
Then, the trail parallels the Timpooneke Rd., crossing it various times, diving down and climbing up hills and ridges full of aspen and conifers. Just gorgeous.
Besides some GI distress, these were great miles. At this point, the GW also doubles as the Timpooneke-Chris Flats Trail Nr. 151. It eventually took me all the way to Grove Creek Springs – where I refilled my water – and then to Chris Flats.
On my way down to the Battle Creek Trail junction, 2 ladies with 2 boxers came around the corner and the unleashed dogs got very aggressive. It was scary and I had some choice words for them. Sheesh. If your dogs are trained to stay back, keep them on a leash.
From there, the GW climbs up to the Big Baldy Saddle, back behind Little Baldy, and then down to the rock-pile Altar I have frequented a few times recently. Instead of taking my normal descent route, I kept on the GW, which popped me out on the Aqueduct Rd. about 1 mile east of where I normally come out. By this point it was hot and I was beat. It was a long few miles to my car, which was parked at the Orem Gun Range.
When I got to my car, I had hit 18.7 miles. I decided to add the extra mile and a half for an even 20. It may have not been worth it. It was not a fun 1.5 miles.
Overall, it was a fantastic route. The only real problem was that for much of it the tall grass and wildflowers and other vegetation was so tall and thick that it was leaning over and covering the trail. This made it hard to see your footing and led to a few stumbles.
Perhaps it would be best undertaken in the Spring, before it all grows too high.
Mt. Timpanogos is one of the more famous hikes/summits here in the Wasatch, especially in Utah County. Somehow, I never did it back in the early-2000s when an undergrad. This morning I resolved to correct this grievous oversight with an early morning summit before work.
I hit the Timpooneke trail at about 5:45 solo. Some trails a “ok,” but worth it because they get you to a beautiful destination. This trail was gorgeous every step of the way. I jogged and power-hiked up, slowed only by the need to snap pictures, and groan from some early-AM stomach issues.
s I made the climb up to the saddle I saw 3 people waiting at the ridge. As I approached, they waved and called my name. It was Mel, Lori, and Zac on their double-summit attempt (up Aspen Grove to the Summit, down to the Timpooneke trailhead and then turning around to do it all in reverse. They almost did it, but had to bail on the 2nd summit as a t-storm and lightning rolled in as they approach the saddle later in the day to scramble up for the 2nd summit. Bummer). In any case it was awesome to see some friendly and familiar faces. We summited together, took some pictures, complained about how windy and cold it was up top, and then scrambled back down to the saddle.
I saw another friend, Phil, on his way up for the upteenth time this week (this time with his kids in tow). A couple other Wasatch Mountain Wranglers also passed as we headed down and they headed up. I moved ahead of the trio as they too pictures and chatted – figuring they would catch up. They didn’t. But, WMW Jack did and we ran the last 2-3 miles together chatting.
Including some messing around up top, it took me about 4:20. Not bad. I hope to shave some time off next time I tackle it.
It was a gorgeous day. Just perfect. I’m already plotting to attach it again next week.
With the family out of town until late tonight, I swapped some morning hours for running and shifted work hours to late evening. With sore feet (strained muscles or bruised on the bottom of my right foot and extensor tendonitis on the top of my left foot) I haven’t been putting in miles. It has been killing me. I put on my old Altra Olympuses and laced them different to minimize pressure on the top of my left foot and decided to explore up Rock Canyon in Provo. 7.5 miles and about 2,800 ft. elevation gain in the first 3.8 miles up!
I hiked here some as a college student, but that was almost 15 years ago. I forgot how dramatic the canyon walls are. Just gorgeous. I also forgot that the first 2 miles of “trail” are pavement and then loose scree gravel. Boo.
Once I took the Sq*** Peak trail turnoff the trail improved, but got steeper. Thankfully I was in the trees and shade.
When the trail crested and started climbing the ridge to the peak, I was exposed to the sun but the temp was lower up at elevation and there was a breeze. Hallelujah. I climbed slow and stopped to chat with a few different runners for a while. I bombed down quite a bit faster.
The feet feel pretty good.
Exactly 1 year ago today (coincidence, not planned) I explored the Box Elder Trail with a friend and have been dying to get back. I put the peak on my list of summit goals for the year, and this morning I finally bagged it. I posted on some FB groups and an impressive roster of local runners joined. 15 in total (which is the group size limit) + 2 others who came a bit later and did the loop in the opposite direction (and happened to hit the summit right when we did. It was gorgeous. It was steep. The bottom of my right foot and top of my left foot have still been a bit tender from the Bryce 50k and subsequent week of hiking around Zion National Park…so I’m going to be really sore. We did it in just under 5 hours. I was pulling up the rear with a couple other for the climb up and the main group could have gone much faster. On the descent, I kept up with the main group. We went up the Box Elder Trail Nr. 044, wrapped it around the west side of the saddle between Box Elder Peak and South Box Elder Peak, climbed up said saddle, and then summitted via the south ridge. Yowzers. Miles 1-2 climb about 2,000 ft, then miles 3-4 “only” climb another 1,000 ft. By mile 6, as you get on the south shoulder and stare up the climb to the peak (see pictures below) you have climbed about 3,300 ft. Then, the 1/2 mile climb to the summit pops on another ~1,000 ft. Yowzers, that was tough. That 1/2 mile segment of “trail” averages a 36% grade. The peak, is at about 11,100 ft. I really struggled on the last climb. My legs felt ok, but my lungs and heart were struggling with the altitude. This was the highest I have ever been. I was a bit dizzy, heart pounding out of my chest, gasping for air. But, I made it. We took the north saddle down to the Deer Creek-Dry Creek Trail and followed that back down to the Granite Flats campground. I had some blisters forming on the descent and by the end my legs felt like jello. Small little climbs on the north saddle killed me. By the last mile, I was running sloppy – catching my toe, rolling my ankles, etc… Its a miracle I didn’t fall.
Well, it’s done. I finally ran an ultramarathon. The Bryce 50k is in the bag!
Distance: 30.7 miles
Elevation gain: ~ 5,349
Time: 7:17:34
Place: 30 out of 86 (100+ started but not all finished)
Other than a couple Ragnar Relays, I have run two 5ks and one 5 mile race. As adventure runs, I have gone 20+ miles a handful of times, and over 26.3 only once – none in the race context however. In other words, I not only have little experience in running 50k, but no experience in running a true trail race. I don’t have background experience in pacing myself, fueling, dropbags, aid stations, competing, etc… Also, recently re-flaring stress fractures on both fibulas and a bruising or strained muscle on the sole of my right foot and the general craziness of having just started a new job, bought my first house, and moved my family in the past couple months (and being lazy), my training had not gone well.
Thus, I was elated with finishing and the general good time and results. Hallelujah! The only real trouble, in the last 10 miles, was a clear result of my lack of training and experience. The next time I tackle a 50k, I am confident that I could improve my time by quite a bit.
My sister-in-law Rachael was also running her first 50k and we both got some cabins at Ruby’s Inn – arriving the night before the race. The morning of, we boarded a bus at 7:00 that took us to the starting line at Tropic campground. While walking to the bus I heard some weird noise that I eventually figured out was friend Phil Lowry calling me. It was good to see a familiar face.
At the start, the weather was a bit chilly with a chance for rain. Mid-40s. I was hoping to make it through rain free, but still wore a windbreaker over my short sleeve shirt (it came off within a few miles, though my gloves stayed on a bit longer). Race Director Matt Gunn said a few words, wished us luck and gave us a countdown from 5. We were off – climbing up through the campground, past several bathrooms I felt like I needed to use, and finally onto a single track. I was taking it slow, middle of the pack. Once on the single track, we climbed about 250 feet over the course of 3/4 mile and then dropped back down 250 feet down in a 1/2 mile to a dirt road.
I was stuck in a conga line on the up and down, and once on the road, I slowly started moving up, passing a few people. This was about mile 2, and the road climbed ~1,000 feet over the next 4 miles. Here, my background in climbing up the steep trails of Davis County proved useful. On the long climb, I picked an aggressive power hiking pace and kept it steady. I was surprised to find myself passing a number of people who were trying to jog the climb. I just power-hiked past. At mile 6, the climb gave way to a 500 ft. descent to the Blue Fly Aid Station. On the drop I passed a couple more that were being a bit more ginger on the descent. I didn’t want to blow my legs out, but just relaxed, leaned forward and tried to let gravity do most of the work. It felt great.
At BFAS I filled a bottle with 20 oz of water and mixed with the serving of Perpetuem I had carried in the empty bottle. So excited to be feeling so great, I didn’t top off my water bladder, or get any food or gels from the AS. Oops. I did take a few shots of tailwind though. Then I was off. The immediate descent – another 500 ft. in about 1 mile of trail out of Blue Fly was gorgeous with some nice modest hoodoos.
It was also nice to have some single track, although much of it was a deep rut with us running in the grass beside it. I stopped to tighten a shoe and a girl from Colorado that I had passed on the climb passed me, hollering back that she would see me soon when I passed her on the next climb. I caught up on the descent and as we exited onto another dirt road at mile 9. We chatted briefly and then I pushed ahead at a very modest pace on the flat road, switching back to aggressive power hikes when the climbs came.
2.5 miles and ~750 feet of climbing eventually brought us to the intersection with the 50 and 100 mile race routes, which we would share for the remaining 20 miles.
At the junction I encountered a hundred miler being limped along by two women. The female runner was in terrible shape and they asked the time relay ahead that they were bringing her in. It was sobering to see what a 100 mile race can do to a person, both physically and emotionally. A dire warning.
The next 5.5 miles to Proctor Canyon AS were gorgeous. Single track, meadows, some aspen and cottonwood, etc… I was cruising, but got waylaid for a good 5 minutes when my phone (which I use to track my GPS) died and I had to plug it in to my little charger and reboot it.
At the Proctor Canyon AS – mile 16.5 – I had a drop bag with more Perpetuem mix to last the rest of the race. I added more water to my bladder, reapplied some body glide and sunscreen, dropped my windbreaker and gloves in the drop bag and ate a few of the boiled potatoes they had there. It took me a long time. While there, a number of the people I had previous passed caught up and left before me. Lesson learned – having a crew makes aid stations much faster. Also, have a preset plan and order for what you are going to do at the aid station.
Out of the aid station there was a steep climb, where I caught back up to some of the people I had been leapfrogging, pushed pass the, and waited for the end of the climb. It came pretty quick, and then the trail descended down through forest. It was great single track, though a bit steep in a few places. The trail climbed up over some red sand hills. It was like a rouge-hued moonscape. Very cool.
By the time I reached the Thunder Mountain AS at mile 22.5 it had heated up and I was feeling the miles. From there on out, things deteriorated quick. My lack of training and experience in running these distances manifested themselves. Immediately out of the AS there was a steep steep climb. Near the top, I realized that I had forgotten to fill my water. Uh oh.
At mile 24.5 the trail hit the bottom of Red Canyon and the scenery was spectacular. Wow.
Unfortunately, it also commenced a 2.5 mile climb with 800 feet. My heart rate was spiking high, I was getting light headed, and then my quads and one shin started cramping. For me cramping is usually an electrolyte deficiency, but I had thought I had kept up on it. So, I popped a few extra salt tabs over 30 minutes or so. Unfortunately, I think this made my fingers swell – to an uncomfortable level. Here, one runner I had passed earlier caught up and charged past looking strong.
Near the top it started to hail. Small hail, but annoying and it stung. The remainder of the course constituted of 18 (Zac Marion counted) in and out of little canyons. You crest a ridge, descent down into a small canyon, cross over the bottom, climb back out the other side to crest the ridge separating it from the next canyon. Repeat 18 times. My cramps were bad, the hail was not fun, my fingers hurt (and hips and feet). I was so ready to be done.
With about 1/4 mile left, I saw someone on the trail ahead of me that looked like my former neighbor, Matt Van Horn. He had won the 1/2 marathon earlier and came out to run me to the finish. I hiked it. He went ahead to a ridge and said – this is it, run it in! I didn’t believe him. When I crested it, I was relieved to see the finish line. I ran down, crossed the finish line, clenched my fists and yelled. Hugged my wife, high five’d a few friends, wandered about wondering what to do next…
I felt like something between these two pictures:
What an experience. What a beautiful course. What a rush. Matt Gunn and UltraAdventures and all of his crew put on a great event!
This is the first true sporting event / serious physical challenge goal I have made as an adult. I am so glad I pushed through and finished it. Now…which long adventure run or race do I do next?
I am running my first ultramarathon in a couple weeks – the Bryce 50k (~31 miles). I have *almost run that far once, and it was slow. I have done a number of runs in the 20-25 mile range, but none have been races. Aside from 2 Ragnar relays, the longest race I have done was a 5 mile Turkey Trot back when I still lived in Nebraska. In any case, I have not trained very well and figured I should put in some longer distance runs in the next couple weeks.
Tempted by continually amazing pictures, I headed back up Grove Creek to the green valleys below the western slope of Timp.
I put out a post for a group run and one guy, Matt C. came. Great guy – great conversation. We headed up Grove Creek to Indian Springs, where I filled my 2 water bottles. Tasty tasty water.
I also accidentally stepped on this guy. 🙁
Then across to Chris Flats, beautiful as ever, and 1/2way down Battle Creek. There, we hit the turnoff to Curly Springs.
After climbing up out of Battle Creek canyon, I needed to pick up the pace and Matt and i parted ways – me pushing forward and Matt looking to drop a shortcut down to the BST.
I ran south to Dry Canyon, took that down to the BST, and followed the BST back to Grove Creek. 13.1 miles! It was fabulous.
2 easy run around the Orem foothills. The Orem Police gun range trailhead is just 2 miles from my new house, so this will likely be my primary set of trails. And, thankfully, there are a million of them. On top of the primary Bonneville Shorelines trail system, Mtn. Bikers have built a network of connecting trails. In any case, very close, very fun.
This last week my family moved from our beloved Davis County down to Utah County. I have really come to love the Davis County trails. Exploring them. Trying to promote them as many are sadly under-used. Apparently that will not be a problem down here in Utah County. Everything appears blazed out and well marked…….and spectacularly gorgeous! Here’s my last in Davis and first in Utah County.
For my last run in Davis, I hit Mueller Park. I had never run it before, favoring closer trails and one that weren’t dominated by mtn. bikers. Wow. That was a mistake. Otherwise, this would have been my #1 training trail. Nice slow gradual climb for 5 miles up to the meadow (you can keep going, but I didn’t) and bombing 5 miles back down. It was gorgeous.
That was last week. This week, for my first run in Utah County I hit the Grove Creek / Battles Creek Loop. WOWZERS!
My phone died, so it was closer to 8.5 than 5.5 miles.
Truth be told, I felt horrible heading up Grove Creek. A slow 3 mile bonk the whole way up.
When you finally climb out of Grove Creek Canyon, you are treated to a full panoramic view of Mt. Timpanogos…well…unless it is shrouded in clouds.
The valley above Grove and Battle Creeks is breathtaking, . You are at the foot of Timp, and it is a series of open grass and Aspen fields. I ran into some others who said it is nicknamed the “Scottish Highlands.” I was thinking “The Shire.” The traverse over to Battle Creek felt great – some flat! It is part of the Great Western Trail and constitutes the last bit of the Timpooneke-Chris Flat Trail #151.
The descent on Battle Creek was steeper than the climb up Grove, and a bit painful on my knee. Then, right as I was about to take the most gorgeous picture of some sideways sunlight streaking into Battle Creek Canyon and shining off the north-facing cliffs on the South of the Canyon…my phone died. Boo!
Back at the valley floor (Kiwanis Park), I took the BST back to my car.
2 runs, only 3 days apart. The first, up the Farmington Canyon singletrack to Sunset Campground and then down the road on Monday. A recovery run of sorts and it felt great. I PRd on the loop and a 5k PR on the way down! It was only in the 70s but it felt so hot. I was SWEATING!
3 days later, on Thursday, I headed up the Fruit Heights upper terrace from Shepherd Creek to Baer Canyon and back (about a mile north from Monday’s run). Note in the pictures…it was not hot and sweat in the 70s. A bit colder.
After running the Good Water Rim Trail at the Wedge area of the San Rafael Swell on President’s Day I immediately resolved to do a follow-up run at the canyon bottom. Today a few other Wasatch Mtn. Wranglers joined me on the adventure.
Overall it was a fairly “flat” route. 22+ miles, but only about 1,850 ft. elevation gain. That didn’t mean it was easy though. Those 1,800+ ft. were concentrated in a medium, small, and BIG traverse over ridges and cliffs between drainages. Check out the velo map below:
I was joined by 3 other brave souls – Dee, Ryan and Tyler. I had met Dee and Ryan briefly on other occasions, but not Tyler. They were all awesome, total troopers, and it was great to get to know them all better. Plus, they kept their cursing of me for dragging them on the trip to a minimum.
We hit the trail around 8:30-9:00. As usual, I felt sluggish. The first few miles are always the worst for me.
At about mile 3.5 we hit our first climb. It is right at the intersection of Cane Wash (coming from the south) and the San Rafael River. We would loop by here later, so we made a water drop. The river bends south and I think it gets too close to the cliffs on our north side for there to be a trail. So, the trail climbs over a nice sized knife-edge ridge.
From there, we continued along the river…missing the turn off for Virgin Spring Canyon. We doubled back a 1/2 mile and found it. This was the 2nd climb, and a minor one. The trail traversed along the east wall of the canyon – a ways up from the floor. This is probably because it hits a dead end that you’d need gear to climb. Once we passed that dead drop, the trail descended down to the canyon floor.
We misjudged where we needed to exit the canyon, and wasted a few minutes going up a side canyon BEFORE the one we needed.
After returning back to the canyon, conferring with map and continuing on, we saw the exit ramp we needed. A large boulder slide. If not for the cairns that led us up the south side of the canyon and gave us confidence that it was the right canyon – we wouldn’t have taken it. From the bottom (or the middle, or even almost to the top) it was hard to see how we would get out. Up south canyon wall, across to the boulder slide ramp, and finally a ledge near the top where we found another large cairn. Hallelujah. We followed that ledge around to the right (south) and eventually found more cairns leading us up to the top. From there, we could look down (east) into Cane Wash.
Again, it was 100% unclear how in the world we would descend the cliffs. Thankfully, my cell coverage returned at the top of the cliff and I could check the strava route I had drawn previously. Following that, we worked our way south, down a few drops and switchbacks (occasionally seeing cairns) and eventually to the canyon floor. Looking back up, it was hard to believe we had navigated our way down.
At this point, we descended Cane Wash back to the San Rafael River. Tyler wanted to move a bit faster and took off back to the car. Unbeknownst to us – he was also out of water, and eager to get back to his car and the waters and beer he had on ice. Good call Tyler.
Dee, Ryan and I made our way down Cane Wash and the deep sand was neverending. Oh man. I hated that sand. Dee ran out of water on our descent so I shared what was left in my bladder. Ryan caught up with Dee and I at the water drop where we were guzzling in the shade. Then, we took off for the last 3.5 miles to the car. It was only in the mid-70s, but felt so much hotter in the sun. I made it to the cars first, with Dee not far behind (fighting leg cramps, ouch!), and then Ryan.
In all, it was a really fun time. Doing it again would be so much easier, knowing exactly where to go. As a bonus, check out some of the stuff along Buckhorn Wash Rd. on your way down:
I recently took a new job about 50 miles from home. This means long train commutes. Until my family moves, I am working Tuesdays and Thursdays at home. This means that if I put in extra hours on MWF, which I inevitably do while working 1.5 hours each way on the train, I have a little time to run during the days on T/Th.
Today, I decided to combine work + play. I took a large pile of papers that I needed to review, put them in my pack, and ran to the top of Flag Rock in Farmington.
At Flag Rock there is a nice bench. So, I sat and worked for 2-3 hours. It was amazing. Best day at the office ever.
When I finished working, I decided to keep climbing, rather than go straight back down. From Flag Rock the Centennial Trail supposedly goes all the way to Farmington Peak – above the Steed Creek Cliffs – intersecting with the Farmington Spine Trail. Knowing that rattlesnakes are coming out, I figured that this [likely] bushwhack wouldn’t be advisable for much longer.
Up I went. The trail was marked with flags, but the higher I got, the fainter the trail was. Finally, It was just a bushwhack following flags.
After the clearing, the flagging got spotty. They led up and around some small rocks cliffs that stand at the top of the ridge between Rudd Creek (to the north) and Hornet Creek (to the south). Above that, I lost the flagging fairly quick. Had I just continued bushwhacking up and slightly south along the ridge, I would have intersected with the Spine trail – maybe less than a mile away. Bummer. I should have soldiered on.
Instead, I cut south, bushwhacking down to Hornet Creek, making a very sketchy snowy crossing, and then eventually picking up the Steed Creek Trail at the north flank of the cliffs.
Then, I bombed back down to the car.
Steed Creek Cliffs “Hole”
If Centennial was better flagged and had a couple trail maintenance parties – head up with loppers and a couple picks – this could be a REALLY cool route to the top. You could loop it down the Farmington Spine, or Steed Creek. Speaking of which, Steed Creek needs to be flagged from the cliffs – up to the overlook and road at the top of the Spine.
My wife’s brother’s wife, Rachael, has been getting into trail running and asked if I would take her out on some trails while she is up visiting Utah this week. As you can imagine, she didn’t have to twist my arm. I decided on Antelope Island and she was excited to try out the Buffalo 25k course – which would be a distance and elevation gain PR for her. She crushed it.
We hit the trail around 7 and it was just beautiful. We took our time and had a lot of fun. Plus, we saw a ton of other runners out. The parking lot at White Rock Bay had 50+ cars when we got back.
For me, I did it a tiny bit slower than last time, but got a bunch of PRs on the south loop. Probably aided by the 7 minute mile I ran heading down the trail to Split Rock Bay. Zoom! 2nd best 1/2 marathon and 2nd best 20k times too. Pleased as punch.
Also – no stress fracture pain and no IT band pain! Woot woot!
I have explained before my aversion to group runs. I’m slower than most of the 100-miler ultramarathoning trail runners who I have the pleasure to know. So group runs quickly become solo runs. For Presidents Day, however, there was a group run that I just couldn’t resist. A 21-31 mile run along the Good Water Rim Trail in The Wedge are of the San Rafael Swell.
The group totaled 26 runners – a collection of Wasatch Mountain Wrangers, Orange Trail Monkeys, and their friends.
We started at 8:30ish at the Wedge Overlook (the southwest portion of the map above) and ran the 16 miles around the many squiggly finger side canyons to the opposing cliff walls. It is crazy because at about mile 2-3, you can see – just across the canyon – trail that is miles 15-16. It is so close, but you have to wind around so many side canyons to get there.
For the first 5-6 miles, I felt pretty good. I fell in with different packs of runners, chatting, enjoying the scenery. I did miles 6-9 solo, going into the aid station. At mile 9 we had dropped supplies. When I arrived, most were still there. I socialized at the aid station for a few minutes before they all took off. I took a couple extra minutes to change my socks and discard some layers (it had gotten nice and sunny).
The next 7 miles were a bit rougher. The trail was rougher, and I was getting worn down. I jogged, interspersed with some walking. I passed a couple who had stopped due to a fall and were patching up some cuts. Looking back, I’m surprised I didn’t fall at all. I made it to the end of the trail, mile 16, just as people there were turning around to return. Some turned around and did it in reverse for a total of 50k. Instead, I jumped out to the road (about 5.5 miles) that goes around to the north and back to the starting point.
I hit the road with a few others, letting 2 go ahead, and 2 others fell behind. I had some hip and groin muscle pain, and one IT band was thinking about flaring up – thankfully it never did. On the return a cold wind picked up from the north and when I swung by the aid-station, I put my layers back on. Brr! The last 3 miles on the road were a long steady uphill. Thank goodness there was a nice tailwind.
It was gorgeous and a lot of fun. Afterwards there was a big potluck-ish gathering and everyone goofed around and talked for a couple hours while runners came in. It was so much fun. I was also glad that my tibial stress fractures didn’t hurt AT ALL! Total miracle!
After a failed attempt a couple weeks ago to run the Buffalo 25k course out on Antelope Island, I tackled it again. This time with a couple friends, Glen and Spencer. I was again struck by how gorgeous Antelope Island is. It is stark. The vistas are enormous. Expansive. I don’t run many places where you can see the next 8 miles of trail all laid out ahead of you. Coming down on the bone road either going to or from Elephant Head, you can see a LOT of trail ahead. It is a deceptively big place. The run was grand, except for the 2nd 8 miles when my IT band on the right knee flared something fierce again. The beauty of the place, and the glory of being (somewhat) out of the inversion smog made it all worth it though.
I clocked a 1/2 marathon and 20k PR as well.
While in Arizona for the last couple weeks I have been drooling over all of the beautiful snow-running pictures my Utah friends have been posting. So, having just flown back to UT (family still in AZ) yesterday, I resolved to go exploring. A number of people suggested Antelope Island for good snowy trails. I have been out there before (twice) but never to run. I was also excited to test out my new winter running gear: a Bjorn Daehlie Ambition Hat, Buffs neck/balaclava/bandana stretchy thing, Altra trail gaiters, Patagonia Houdini windbreaker, IO-Merino Wool Chaser half-zip base layer, etc… Long story short, the gear worked amazingly – all of it. However it was mid-30s, sunny, and no wind…and I got way overheated.
It was gorgeous and the trails were in amazing condition – nice softpacked snow. No ice. Little to no mud.
My plan was to run the Buffalo 25k course, but that was quickly altered to a short 7 mile loop up above White Rock Bay due to some extreme IT Band pain. The knee problem flared a couple weeks ago during my 29 miler in AZ and I didn’t have a foam roller down there to work on it. Clearly, it didn’t solve itself.
Regardless, it was gorgeous. A real stark beauty. And, I saw a ton of other trail runners out there – which is always fun.
I probably should have drawn an easier route for my first attempt at a marathon distance run – but it is just too easy (and fun) to draw lines on maps, tracing trails and ridge-lines, etc… In any case, I drew it, so I ran it: The South Mountain Western Ridges Marathon+. In all, it ended up tracking to 29 miles – almost a 50k. Phoenix’s South Mountain Preserve is located on the southern edge of town – a series of parallel ridges and valleys, lots of exposed rock, lost of Saguaro, cholla, barrel, yucca, and other cactus varieties, brutally hot in the summer, but quite pleasant in the winter. The temperature topped out at around 70 degrees. That feels quite a bit warmer than it sounds though, when you’re out baking in it.
For the attempt, I wore my Altra Lone Peak 2.0s, new Altra trail gaiters, Injinji smartwool toe socks, a trusty red bandanna around my forehead, a new Nathan VaporWrap pack with its 2 liter bladder full, 2 Ultimate Direction 20 oz. bottles in the front two chest strap pockets – one with water, the other with 2 single serving packets of Hammer Perpetuem mixed with water, some Cliff Shotblocks, a CliffBar, a small first-aid kit and sunscreen, an extra pair of Injinji socks, Salt Stick tablets to balance my electrolytes, my iPhone and a little charger to recharge it mid-run, and a pair of Black Diamond FL Z Poles strapped on the back. Now that I list it all out – that seems like a LOT of stuff. The pack did seem a bit heavy, but this was all self-supported with no aid stations, so I wanted to be prepared. Wait, I lied. The night before I dropped off 2 liters of water in the desert (by bike) around the mid-way point of the route.
I started at about 7:15 AM when the sun was up and it was light enough to see. I could have started earlier, but then would have had to pack a headlamp around the whole time.
I started at the trail-head at the western terminus of Chandler boulevard, and headed NE towards my first ridge climb – up the Pyramid Trail.
This is one section I had done before, and I took an easy pace. I had to remind myself that I wasn’t doing this for speed – at all – I was doing it to finish. Slow and easy. At the top I strapped the trekking poles on the pack and followed the ridge line trail to the intersection with the National Trail at Telegraph Pass.
With 4 miles behind me, I descended the switchbacks to the paved road, and entered unfamiliar territory – the eastern stretch of the National Trail out to the Buena Vista trail-head and back. There were some great stretches of trail, but quite a bit of ups-and-downs, sometimes difficult to get into a good rhythm. At the turnaround, I applied some sunscreen. This is the desert, after all. Along the way I passed a number of fellow-hikers, all of whom gave me a queer look, likely wondering why I was so geared up. When I got back to Telegraph Pass and was passing a group of college students hiking back up to the Pyramid/National trail interesection, one of the girls asked – “Do you have enough stuff?!” “I’m on mile 10 of 30,” I said. What followed was a lot of “whoa’s” and “F#$# yeahs” from the group. Offering a few fist pumps in the air, I continued upward.
With the out-and-back finished, I turned NW on the National Trail to follow it along what would be the longest of the ridge traverses. This stretch of trail is gorgeous – both in scenery and trail conditions. I was feeling good, and about to settle into a nice pace when my right IT band started flaring and then my left calf muscle started cramping. NO! At only 11 miles, I was not pleased. I stopped to stretch the IT band, popped an extra Salt Stick tab and soldiered on. I was a bit bummed that the knee pain was slowing me down on what would otherwise have been the best part of the day. Great trail over 4+ miles of gradual descent. It could have been epic. Oh well.
I arrived at the water drop, mile 15, with a decision to make. My planned route no took me on a 10 mile loop with 1,200 ft. elevation climbing up the San Juan Rd. valley on the Bajada Trail, up the SE flank of a large ridge and back the full length of the ridge on the Alta Trail. Conversely, I could cut that loop off, turn left and do the final ~5 miles of the planned route and call it a day with 20 miles. Maybe I should have.
I chose the originally-planned, longer route. Right as I hit the Bajada Trail I came across a park ranger – also trail-running – and chatted for a few minutes. Very friendly and glad to see people out using the trail system. Assured that the Alta Trail was in great condition, I moved on excited. Soon, however…actually, almost immediatley, spirits dropped. The Bajada Trail was a constant up and down in and out of washes – impossible to get into a good groove. Plus, I was hot. As the trail name implies, I was feeling “low.” Very low. Knowing that I was moving further away from my car and towards a huge ridge-line to climb, the thought of turning back was tempting. I found some shade a couple miles up the valley, switched out my socks for a fresh pair and continued on, across the San Juan Rd, and started up the Alta Trail climb. I hoped that the new trail would make my spirits “high”er (get it?) and for a moment I felt reenergized. Towards the top of the climb, however, I saw another piece of temping shade and took a the opportunity to sit. With my back against a cool slab of stone, I closed my eyes and dozed for about 5 minutes.
Wow. That felt great. I jumped, bounded up the trail for about 10 seconds, but the energy didn’t last. Nonetheless, I think the nap helped. I soon crested the major portion of the climb and was thrilled to see the trail now start to head SW – down the ridge-line and back to my water-drop. 20 miles done, 10-ish to go.
Unfortunately, this stretch of trail was in very bad condition. Lots of exposed rock (instead of nice dirt) and continually covered with scree, loose rocks, etc… Much of it was unrunnable. A lot of it was even difficult to hike. It was very slow. And, with the descent, the IT band pain flared big time. It was a long, maddening few miles.
I reached the bottom and was at about 23 miles. From here, each step brought me closer to the end. Hooray! My energy level was low, but the flatter (and nice soft dirt trail) back to my water drop at mile 25 was heavenly. Spirits were lifting. The end was coming close. From the water drop I turned south and headed for the Gila and Bursera Trails. The Gila ran along a valley back to my car, but I – of course – had planned to run the Bursera up one final ridge. It was all trail I had done previously, and I seemed to remember that it was in good condition. The descent in particular – which is a VERY heavily used portion of trail – I knew to be in good condition. It wouldn’t be like the NW strech of the Alta Trail.
I pushed on, fight off some more leg cramps and screaming right IT band on the descent, and made it back to my car.
Total distance – exactly 29 miles. I could have run down the trail and back to add another ~2 miles to make it a full 50k, but I was late and my family was expecting me home soon. So off I went.
On the road I stopped by a McDonalds drivethrough and ate the 2 most delicious McDs cheeseburgers I have ever had. A protein shake, bananas, chips, 1/2 a pizza, and yogurt later…was still hungry when I went to bed. The next morning, I was famished, at cereal, drank soda, got a huge hot dog at Coscto at 10:00, etc… Still hungry. By the next evening, my appetite subsided.
The damage? Sore and stiff muscles. ZERO blisters, ZERO stomach problems. The gear all worked so well. The Altra Trail Gaiters SAVED ME! With so much rock and sand and gravel and debris on the trail, I would have been shaking my shoes out non-stop if not for them. Absolute lifesaver. The Hammer Perpetuem seemed to work well, the Nathan VaporWrap was very comfy. The ultimate direction bottles were great. I’m sold on those.
High fives all around.
It was, hands down, the hardest physical feat I have ever accomplished. I don’t know how you 100-miler ultra-marathoners do it. But, I am glad to have done a marathon…and a bit extra. I won’t call it an “ultra” until I do it as a real race. I’m signed up for the Bryce 50k in June, and might do the Buffalo 50k this Spring. We’ll see how the recovery goes…
My plan for this morning, since there still isn’t any snow upon the top of the mountains in Davis County, was to run to Morgan. Up Baer Canyon, over to Smith Creek Lakes, and then down Smith Creek to the network of dirt roads that lead over to Morgan. Unfortunately, someone mentioned that it is private land on the Morgan side. I spoke with the landowner and he wouldn’t give permission.
Bummer.
Instead, I explored up Shepherd Creek. I have heard that the trail goes all the way to Francis Peak, but as with most of our trails – I figured it probably fades out.
I followed it about 2.5 miles up, and there were still pink ribbons tied in trees ahead. So, I am optimistic that it might actually be a viable route to the top. I made it about 1/2 way. Coming down from Francis Peak, there is a visible trail on the ridge. Maybe 1.5 miles between where I ended and that trail starts up? It could be a fun future adventure.
In any case – the Shepherd Creek trail was well marked, but a bit rough. No bushwhacking, but it is not the most well established or packed down trail.
Where I ended the trail winds around the base of some cliffs and then climbed to their top – which was cool. From there, you could see a set of waterfalls/slides on Shepherd Creek. It would be fun to hike down to them.
Did I mention that I was dead tired with no energy – took it pretty slow. More of a hike than run.
Knowing that the high-altitude season is quickly coming to a close (winter is coming!) I decided to do one last run up at the top of the mountains here in Davis County. I did a similar route last year at this time, but by then it had already snowed (and melted some) up at the top. We are still getting up into the 50s-70s this year in late October! So, it has been a nice month and I’m glad that the cold has held off.
In any case, I drove up to the Francis Peak FAA towers parking lot, eyeing the hunters that were out and about like last year, and went on my way. Francis Peak, past Thurston Peak to Chinscraper and back (with a detour to Smith Creek Lakes on the way out)
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I followed the dirt road north and then dropped down the east side of the mountains to hit the Smith Creek Lakes (and scope out a possible route down into Morgan County). There were a surprising number of ATVs and Jeeps on the path. It is rough going in a number of places and they were having to go so slow that I passed a number of them. From the northernmost of the Lakes, I took the trail I found earlier this year to traverse over the ridge west to the Great Western Trail. It is a great little traverse and a fun way to connect the 2 sides of the ridge. I followed that around Thurston Peak to the Top of Chinscraper and then took the Great Western all the way back.
In all, it was a great run. The wind almost blew me over a couple times – SO gusty up there on the ridges.
I was also surprised by how, seemingly overnight, the amazing fall colors turned to greys and browns. Still beautiful up there, but drained of color.
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.
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.
With my family out of town, I took my free evening time to hit up Big Cottonwood Canyon to see some autumn leaves before they were all gone. Some friendly folks from the Wasatch Mountain Wranglers joined in and we had a great run (Thanks Collette, Justin and Tyson!). As it turned out, a lot of the Aspen leaves had already fallen at the higher elevations, but our route eventually took us through a gorgeous band of trees.
We parked at Mill D North and took my car up to Guardsman Pass. The Wasatch Crest Trail goes from there, north, to Desolation Lake. We then turned down Mill D to the cars. about 11 miles total (we took a wrong turn at the beginning and almost dropped down the east side of the Crest, oops!). I would like to think I could have done it faster, but I kept on stopping to take pictures.
So yeah, lots of pictures below. I just couldn’t help myself. The evening sun coming in sideways against the Aspens – wow.
Here are a few recent outings:
A run up the newly worked on lower stretch of the Farmington Creek Trail by Ryan Lauck, up the first section of the post-parking lot single track, and then looping across the creek to explore the Aqueduct Trail back – a first. All with a coworker, Spencer, who just moved here and is quickly getting hooked on the trails.
5.0 miles in 1:33:34 @ 18:44 min/mile and with 1,170 ft. elevation gain
A night run on pavement. Zzzz.
4.3 miles in 38:00 @ 8:53 min/mile and with 0 ft. elevation gain
A night run up Centerville Canyon. Bad idea to do in the dark. Rough trail, LOTS to trip on and having to stop a few times to figure out where the trail went. Slow.
3.1 miles in 47:04 @ 14:58 min/mile and with 952 ft. elevation gain
A repeat of the 7 mile out and back from East Mtn. Park in Kaysville to Fernwood in Layton on the BST. I ran it faster than ever, getting PRs on all of the segments and even negative splits. I felt great! In my head I was thinking it had to be way faster than last time, but looking at the previous post it was only 2 minutes faster overall. Oh well – I’ll take it!
7.2 miles in 1:17:39 @ 10:50 min/mile and with 835 ft. elevation gain
It wasn’t even that hot today but I have sweat like this for a while. There are a few close-by trails here in Farmington that I have yet to explore so I picked one today. The fire trail 03 that goes south from just above flag rock down into Hornet Canyon.
I started at the Davis Creek TH and took the BST past Steed Creek and then up the south access trail to flag rock. This intersects with the ascent trail I usually take right below Eagle Rock. That part was bad and the nice rolling traverse over to the Patsy’s Mine cutoff felt great. Then the switchbacks. Baking in the sun. Ugh.
At the top I took the Centennial Trail up to where the fire trail turns. I wanted to see what centennial looks like, because it would be a very fun route to take to the top. Way overgrown. Bummer. I bombed down the fire trail 03 and soon found that it was more overgrown than I had heard. Lost it a couple times. To make matters worse, friends have been seeing lots of rattlesnakes lately and I wasn’t too excited about Bushwhacking. Luckily – no encounters – but I was nervous the while time. The lyrics to a Lateef and the Chief song about snakes lurking in the grass kept running through my head. (Read about they on my music blog, Desert Island Mixtapes).
The Hornet Canyon Trail was a bit of a let down too – lots of loose gravel skree. Doesn’t make for a fun descent. By the time I got to the car, it felt like I had gone a lot farther than 5 miles.
I blew through about 1.5 liters or water. I should have filled it with the full 2 liters.
One thing that is a bummer about living in Davis County is that getting to the trails in east Salt Lake City is difficult – at least with my schedule. I have toyed with the idea of doing it as an early morning thing before work, but worried it would still put me to work too late. With summer turning to autumn and the specter of snow on the horizon I decided that I had to hit some trails up there this season. I asked the Wasatch Mountain Wranglers group on facebook for their #1 recommendation and a number agreed that the 10 mile loop between Altra and Brighton is the way to go. Wow. They were right.
I hit the trail at Alta around 5:45 AM and power hiked slowly up Grizzly Gulch for the two miles up to Twin Lakes Pass, over looking Twin Lakes Reservoir. This route takes you from Little to Big Cottonwood Canyon. Once the sun came up, I could see what I was in for.
Wow.
The trail heads down past Twin Lakes Reservoir and to Silver Lake at Brighton. From there, the trail loops around Silver Lake and treks up through Brighton to Catherine Pass. Along the way you pass Mary’s Lake and Catherine Lake. From Catherine Pass you drop down into the Albion Basin, into Alta and back to the car.
Wow. My most beautiful route to date. Unfortunately, a knot in my back that has been there for a long time started hurting more and more as I went – slowing me down quite a bit. Later that day it fully went into spasm mode, debilitating me for a few days. Ouch. Totally worth it though!
I so enjoyed the BST on my way to Adams Canyon and back on Monday that I decided to put in some more miles on it. It is about 3.6 miles from East Mountain Park in Kaysville to Fernwood Recreation Site in Layton. It isn’t the most exciting trail, view-wise, but it is a great place to clock miles. Lots of gentle ups and downs, and few shorter steep climbs and descents – but nothing too crazy. I have decided that my Altra Olympus shoes are great for this kind of trail – not to technical. I think this route may be a go-to for me when I want to clock some trail miles, rather than bagging peaks, stacking vert, or exploring UP canyons, etc… Close to home, relatively easy miles.
For the first 3 miles I was feeling sluggish – but on the way back felt great. This might be somewhat due to the fact that there is more climbing on the way there, but I think I generally feel best from about miles 4-8 on most runs. The first few miles are hard, and once my legs loosen up and I get in a rhythm, it feels better. Good splits for me towards the end. I would love to get all of my splits at 10:00 min/mile or lower. Maybe I’ll add this to regular rotation and try to drop my time each run.
I ran through sunset and flipped on my headlamp for the last 2 miles.
Last winter a lot of the local Davis County trail runners were trying to beat each others’ times up and down Adams Canyon. I never made it up there and figured today would be a good day. I unexpectedly found myself at home a bit earlier than usual, and swapped a couple afternoon hours of work for evening hours and went on a run instead.
The Bonneville Shoreline Trail from East Mountain Park in Kaysville north was a lot of fun – there is some fun singletrack that I need to come back and bomb around on my mtn. bike. On my way up, I had sunglasses on, which dulls some of the colors on the trail. As I came up a climb (looking straight down) and opened up my gait to get moving again, I ran right over the biggest snake I have ever seen – I saw it mid-stride and hurdled right over. I circled back around and got this picture. No rattle – just a Gopher Snake. Over 3 ft. long!
The trail up to the waterfall was a bit more of a scramble towards the top than I thought, I don’t know how some of those guys posted such fast times coming down that thing.
I joined some boy scouts on a campout up north and west from Bear Lake, at Bloomington Lake, ID. On Friday part of the group drove to the lake, while another group of us was going to do the quick 2 mile trail up to the lake. A couple boys ran way ahead and by the time we caught up to them, they had veered onto the wrong trail, UP UP and UP. By the time we regrouped, we thought we might as well continue and then bushwhack back down farther towards Bloomington Lake. It was gorgeous. This took us up to Worm Lake (not so gorgeous). The bushwhack over a couple ridges and down a steep grade was a bit rough on the boys. It wouldn’t have been bad if we had known it would be 6, rather than 2 miles. We didn’t have a enough water or food. But, we all made it, and Bloomington Lake was gorgeous. Wow.
On the Farmington 50 mile Challenge (and associated North Marathon challenge) that I put together there is one section of the route that I was concerned might not be as much of a trail as the satellite image suggested.
It is a short traverse from the northernmost (NE of Francis Peak, down the Morgan County side) Smith Creek Lake, west and over the main ridgeline between Morgan and Davis Counties – merging on the other side with the Great Western Trail. It turned out that the trail was fairly easy to follow and a great way to link up across the ridge. I built some cairns for teh runners’ help.
I ran Strava on the way there and for some reason decided to stop it. I then started it again on the other side of the ridge after I finished the trail work, so it all logged as 2 separate run.
3 miles in 35:20 @ 11:39 min/mile and 263 ft. elevation
&
2.6 miles in 33:47 @ 12:49 min/mile and 490 ft. elevation
I am happy to report that I survived the Ragnar Wasatch Back Relay Race. The team consisted of friends and family, many of them more consistent runners that me. Nevertheless, I assumed role of Team Captain (in charge of nagging, mostly) and took the set of legs with the highest mileage. What was I thinking? I was most concerned about the stress fracture on my ankle – which had been feeling great as of late, and my IT band which has been a consistent problem as of late. With the high mileage and some very long stretches of steep downhill, both injuries had opportunity to act up. Thankfully – neither did!!! Every muscle and joint was sore and has been since, but those injuries have been ok. In any case, here are the 3 legs.
The leg was absolutely gorgeous. The leg climbed from the Pineview Reservoir up to Snow Basin ski resort. The climb was exhausting and I ended up power hiking portions of it. There was a 1 mile downhill section in the middle that felt amazing. I just opened up and bombed down it, getting a 1 mile PR and a couple shorter PRs too.
This was my night leg. I ran it from about 2:30-3:30. I started out a bit cold, but by the end was as hot as ever. I’m glad that I didn’t over dress. The leg went along Rockport Reservoir and would have probably been gorgeous in daylight. It was a slow steady climb for most of it.
Before this leg we were able to crash at a teammate’s cousin’s house on the floor and get a hot shower and breakfast. Wow – it made a huge difference. By the time I started it was about 2:00 and although it was only 70, it felt hotter. My last leg was 10 miles and dropped a total of 2,636 elevation over the course of about 7-8 miles of it. Had this been my first leg, I think I would have loved it – just bombing down. But, I had already run 13 miles the previous two legs and I was already beat sore. At a number of points on the descent, I had to stop and walk for a bit. There was about 500 ft. of climbing as well – almost all of which I power hiked. I was just spent. Towards the end, there was about a 1/2 mile of trail. I hit that and blew past a bunch of people who were carefully picking their way down the trail. I was in my element and made good time.
By the finish I had hit 9.9 miles, so I did the hand off and went an extra .1. I hit PRs for 10 mile, 15 k, 10 k, 2 miles, 1 mile, 1 k, and 1/2 mile. So, that made me happy.
I was also relieved that my dreaded IT band, which I was afraid would rear its ugly head on all of this downhill didn’t hurt AT ALL. Wow.
In the end it was a very good experience. I ran 23 miles, which is more that I usually do – way more. Will I do it next year? Honestly…probably not. I think I would rather train for a trail race. But who knows . . . maybe.
I wanted to get one last run in before this weekend’s Wasatch Back Ragnar race and tonight was my best chance. I drove up to the Farmington Canyon trail, planning to hike it up to the Sunset Campground and then run down the road for a loop. It went better than anticipated.
Amongst the other local trail runners, I’m just about the slowest. On Strava segments, I am usually at the bottom of the leader-board and the only times that I get a medal is when it is an obscure trail that so few have clocked on strava that I’m in the top 5 by default. BUT, not today. I didn’t plan on trying to go my fastest but did on all stretches of the trail. With my new trekking poles, I found my self either running or fast power hiking the entire way up. I really think the poles allowed me to keep a faster steady pace. On a number of the climb segments I placed 4th or 5th – even ahead of some elite locals I really look up to! On the descent down the road, I clocked PRs for my 5k (23:26), 1 mile (7:32), 1k (4:31), and 1/2 mile (3:35).
I was exhausted when I got back to my car, but it was well worth the effort!
This week a good friend and colleague – a fellow historian – was in town for a conference and wanted me to take him and his two dogs somewhere beautiful for a trail run. Since we were down in Utah County for the conference, I chose the Box Elder Trail towards the like named Peak. This was my first time up American Fork Canyon and will not be my last. Wow.
We started at the Granite Flat Campground and headed up trail 044. We climbed about 2,500 ft up 2.5+ miles of trail, stopping often to take pictures, catch our breath and talk history. My friend currently lives in Melbourne, Australia…at sea level. So, our hike from 6,500 to just over 9,000 ft. must have been killing his lungs. His dogs didn’t seem to mind though. We didn’t make the final 2,000 ft climb to the peak, choosing instead to sit and relax on a mint and wildflower covered hill on the north side of a canyon that would have otherwise led us up to the south saddle between the south and main Box Elder Peak.
It was a gorgeous day. Thanks to Taylor for sharing it with me!
Now, I have to schedule some time to go back and conquer that thing…
It was Saturday afternoon, the high was forecast to be around 70 so I couldn’t, in good conscience, not hit the trails.
I decided to try out my new trekking poles on the steep climb up the Davis Creek trail area.
I felt strong and did get a PR on the initial climb from the trail head to the split to the first waterfall, but not on the rest. Odd. I did stop and talk with a couple people so maybe that is what slowed me down.
I went up to the split where you can traverse over to Pretty Valley to the right, or go up to Hell Hole on the left. My plan was to do a loop. I went right, over to Pretty Valley, Up the south approach to Hell Hole and then back down to the junction. Feeling good, I turned around and did the loop in clockwise.
On my way down from Pretty Valley I could feel my left IT band a bit, but not bad. The ankles feel good.
They lied. Everything is not bigger in Texas.
For the last couple weeks I have been down in Austin and San Antonio, Texas, for a couple academic conferences and some research in a few archival repositories. Fun fun fun. And, rather than sit around bored in my hotel rooms at night when I didn’t have stuff planned with colleagues and friends, I went running. These were three of the sweatiest runs of my life. Wow. The humidity. Overall, it was a lot of fun to explore some new places. However, due to my IT bands and stress fracture on my left ankle…I am supposed to be only increasing my weekly mileage slowly – 10% per week, right? Well… I kind of blew that. Instead of going 7-9 miles max for the week, I did 15+ over 6 days. The IT bands got worse throughout, and now my left ankle stress fracture is a bit sore again – which it hasn’t been for a few weeks. It had been 100% pain-free for a while. And…it kind of feels like an identical stress fracture is developing on my right ankle. So… I may be taking it easy for a couple weeks now – maybe just keeping in shape on my bike until the Wasatch Back Ragnar at the end of June.
In any case – here’s where I explored.
Trail along Turkey Creek.
It was late about 6:30 or so when I hit the trail, which thankfully stays pretty well in the trees along Turkey Creek – so not much direct sunlight. Nevertheless, it was so humid, so sweaty. I felt like superman bounding up the “hills” along the trail. 300 ft over 4.6 miles…I guess the Wasatch has gotten me used to a bit more climbing than that.
This looked like a promising way to get out of the city, and it was way out there. Cell phone dead zone. I was expecting something a bit more dramatic when I saw the word “canyonlands,” but again I think Utah has spoiled me. The trails were nice, but a lot of it was exposed to the sun and it was hot. I went through 2 liters of water and still guzzled down a gatorade when I got back to the car. I also found it funny (didn’t get a picture! Yarg!) that on country roads, when there is a church ahead, they have yellow caution signs that say “Church.” I don’t know if Texas gets the irony in that. Yellow signs are for warning. Warning! Church! I didn’t realize rural Texas would be so anti-religion. 😉
This was about 1/2 between Austin and San Antonio (off west of San Marcos) and I decided to run it as I was driving between the two, leaving the archives in Austin and going to a conference in San Antonio. Knowing it would be the middle of the day, I packed a full 2 liters in my hydration vest and even put on sun screen. Thankfully, it was overcast. But wow – it still felt hot and humid. The trail is on a peninsula which appears to be made of limestone. Much of the trail was exposed sharp craggly (sp? even a word?) bedrock limestone. Sharp stuff. Oddly, it appears to be mostly used by mtn. bikers, and I could see that rock just shredding your sidewalls on the tires. In any case, the full Madrone Trail packs 7.5 miles of trail into a pretty small area. That means constant twists and turns and doublebacks. At one point I came upon a couple deer and they spooked – bounding off. Then, the trail doubled back on itself and I came upon the same deer again, about 60 seconds later. They bounded off…and the trail meandered back to where they had run to another 2-3 times. Sorry guys. Around 3-4 miles my left IT band was really screaming, and as you can see on the map, there are plenty of places where I could bail and hit the west side trail back up to my car. With the north loop done, I thought I would at least do the east loops…and then maybe go back to the car. Then, I decided I would at least do some of the big south loop…I ended up doing the whole thing. Towards the end I had that wonderful moment where you are so glad you DIDN’T turn back early, and instead pushed through for the whole thing. My legs disagreed over the next couple days. 😉
Ever since I moved to Farmington, UT, about a year ago, I have eying the “Farmington Spine” on maps and as I drive around every day. It is a ridge that runs from the mouth of Farmington Canyon, southeast, and all the way up to the road that connects with Bountiful Peak. I love running ridges, and this one looks like it would be easy to follow to the top. The trail maps show it, and people said it is fairly easy to follow going up, though a bit overgrown at the top. This is a chronic problem for all of our Farmington Trails. From the valley floor, most are pretty clear for miles 0-3 on the way up. Then, mile 3-4 is generally overgrown with scrub oak and the like, and difficult to follow at times. Then, the last mile – 4-5, is often above the tree line and much easier to bushwhack.
In any case, I decided to tackle it today, hitting the trail around 6AM. Besides wanting to hike it myself, the Farmington 50 Challenge that I put together sends runners DOWN the Spine. Fellow runners said that there are popcan markers nailed to trees that make going UP the trail pretty easy to follow. However, you can’t see those on your way down. So, I got a roll of pink ribbon and planned to flag the upper portions so it would be clear and easy to follow on the way down as well.
The trail is a climb! Wow. Unfortunately, the ridge wasn’t as spectacular as I had hoped. For much of it, you are either in a deep rut (5-20 ft. wide, 10 feet deep) flanked with trees, or up in the forest itself – so you don’t really get consistent views that some ridge-lines offer.
Towards the top, the trail was easy to follow – but overgrown. My legs got fairly scratched up. At about mile 4, you break out of the trees. To the right there is a small valley thick with trees – and other the other side, the western most flanking ridge that I wanted to follow up to the top. I flagged the path of least resistance up the open meadow until the trees to the right faded out and you can traverse over to and up to the top of the ridge easily. That ridge climbed and then dropped down to an old jeep trail that had a wrecked and shot out old 70s car at its terminus.
From there, I just followed it to the intersection with the road that goes SE around the Steed Creek basin and up to Bountiful Peak. It was getting hot at this point, but the views were worth it. I turned west, and followed the road to an overlook (the point above the Steed Creek cliffs).
I considered going down to the cliffs, and then following the Steed Creek trail to the BST and back to my car. I decided, however, that it would be best to run back down the Spine to make sure that my flagging was sufficient. It is a good thing I did, because at various points I need to add or move flags to aid trail identification on the descent. My left IT band, as usual, was hurting by the end. It was great though.
I would like to do this once a week or so – waking up around 5:00 and getting in a good trail run before work. This morning I drove down to City Creek, parked at the Morris Reservoir, and ran the Avenue Twins. I ran part of the BST up to the back ridge that overlooks City Creek to the north, and then followed that ridge around, East, and up to both of the Avenue Twin Peaks.
It was a beautiful morning.
From the southern Twin Peak, I bushwhacked straight down south to the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. There appeared to be remnants of trails going down, and it got me back on the BST fast. I think took the BST NW back to the north ridge, ran that NW to the overlook into City Creek Canyon where it ends, and then skidded down a small trail to the trail that hook up with Morris Creek. My left IT band was hurting by the end, but more distressing was that about 1/2way through, a large knot/muscle spasm developed in my left lower back. Incredibly painful throughout the day.
It appears that summer temps have arrived. I ran up the Farmington Creek Trail to the Sunset Campground today and wow, it was hot! I hadn’t taken that trail all the way up yet, and it was a great one – a perfect short run. A little vert, but mostly nice rolling trails – and a fun fast descent on the way back to the car! Ankle feeling great – ZERO pain – IT bands still acting up around mile 3-5.
3.8 miles in 48:47 @12:58 min/mile and 1,282 feet elevation
On the 24th of July last year, I took a friend and co-worker on my 2nd ever trail “run,” and we hiking up Baer Canyon. It killed us, neither of us was in good enough shape to do it, and probably not coincidentally, he hasn’t joined me on another outing since. Until tonight! I took him up to Flag Rock in Farmington which is a short, but steep hike. It was a lot of fun – hopefully I can get him hooked. My ankle felt great, and IT bands weren’t too bad. I have been rolling them with the foam roller a lot.
3.7 miles in 1:11:01 @ 19:04 min/mile and 1,528 ft. elevation
With an official diagnosis of ankle problems, a fibula stress fracture, and a strong suspicion that running on pavement severely aggravates it, I decided to hit the dirt today and test out my theory. I started at the Farmington Pond, ran north on the BST to Shepherd Canyon, up to the Upper Terrace, and took that back to the car. Its a great loop. My left IT band hurt towards the end, but my ankle did not. Often the pain is delayed, really coming over the next two days…..and……no pain. The ankle felt great in the days after. So – I am officially swearing off pavement for now. And good riddance! I have also started taking vitamin D and calcium supplements, which the doctor said will help promote bone healing, growth, and strength. I doubt they are kicking in this quickly, but it can’t hurt – right?
4.6 miles in 55:18 @ 12:08 min/mile and 898 ft. elevation.
I got home from work and it was just too nice to not go out. My knee was a bit sore, and I knew I would regret it (I don’t) but I went anyways. I was planning on parking at Famrington Pond and running the BST/Farmington Upper Terrace loop, but when I arrived at the canyon I saw that the gates were open. Yeah! Up the canyon I went.I parked at the end of the pavement and ran up the Farmington Creek Trail past Halfway Creek and Corduroy Creek, looking for the right-hand turnoff for the Old Aqueduct Trail.
It is a beautiful canyon. It was my first time running up that trail and I think it is going to be a go-to trail for me. Not too steep, nice and easy, well-maintained.
Also, some old cars wrecked in the forest. I don’t know they were pushed off the canyon road above, or if they were from back when that trail was an old road bed.
In any case, I couldn’t find the Old Aqueduct turnoff. I took a right-hand turn up past the big waterfall and it quickly devolved into a bushwhack. Ah…just like old times.
When I got home and got in the shower, I discovered that I not only did my inaugural bushwhacks, but also the inaugrual bloodletting. All those little scratches really sting in the hot water and soap! Hurts so good!
3.5 Miles in 46:08 @ 13:18 min/mile and 994 ft. elevation
When I got back to the car, I drove down the pavement to where maps show the other end of the Old Aqueduct Trail. I walked a log across the creek, and bushwhacked up the hill until I found a good solid diagonal trail. It took me to the ridge where I followed it up to the Farmington Spine Trail proper, and the intersection with the Old Aqueduct. I ran it for 100 yards or so just to check it out and then worked my way back.
It was a fun little climb and now I know how to get up there. My IT Band on the left knee was just screaming by the end. Boo.
1.1 miles in 24:16 @ 22:27 min/mile and 461 ft. elevation
One of the Wasatch Mountain Wranglers organized a group run up city creek for early in the morning – something I tried out two times back in November before the winter (and injuries) really set in. I really enjoyed it then – getting an early run in, showering at work, feeling more awake at work than I usually do in the AM – it was great. My ankle was feeling ok so I decided to give it a shot. I trailed Matt Miller and Cory Hill down from Morris Resevoir and started back up the west side of City Creek. At that point – I no longer tried to keep up. I simply don’t have the climbing legs yet! I was exhausted. Moreover, my shins and right calf were really aching and the ankle was beginning to feel fatigued. I didn’t want to push it. I pushed up a ways and then turned back. Not my best run, but it felt so good to get out there. Unfortunately, my ankle has been more painful for the couple days after the run than after my last few. I probably need to cut back a bit. After the Zions Trail Ragnar in a couple weeks, I think I’ll go into the doctor and get an official diagnosis.
6.1 miles in 1:13:21 @ 11:57 min/miles with 1,199 ft. elevation
I was planning to rest my legs for a planned group run up City Creek Canyon Friday morning before work, but I just couldn’t resist tonight. It was in the low 70s, and beautiful. Moreover, I knew that I had a long night ahead of me cranking out some pages on a book manuscript that I owe to my editor by May 1st. I short little run seemed like a good way to clear my head before diving into a long night of writing.
Last fall, I did a number of runs up to Pretty Valley – a 800 ft. elevation climb over about 1 mile of trail south from the Davis Creek Canyon trailhead. I pushed hard and got PRs on all of the strava segments – so that was nice. My feet and shins took a beating on the descent though, and I’m glad it was only 2.5 miles. I need to rest these doggies!
2.6 miles in 31:30 @ 12:19 min/mile and 788 ft. elevation
It is actually really interesting to study the 3D rendering. The colors represent severity of grade, so the darker the red, the steeper the climb, the darker the blue, the steeper the descent. Green = nice and flat. This is a great visualization of why my legs felt so beat up – it was all climbing and descent, very little nice “running.”
5.6 miles in 1:31:29 @ 16:23 min/mile pace with 2,270 ft. elevation
I had to work from home today (long story) and around 3:00 saw that the forecast for tomorrow was rain. Boo. I was planning on running tomorrow. So, I decided to swap out my last hour of work for an hour later tonight (or tomorrow) and squeeze my run in this afternoon.
I parked at the Shepherd Creek trailhead and decided to climb up the first mile or so of the Francis Peak Trail. It is about 1,500 ft. in a mile and my legs were burning. As I hit the split where the upper terrace cuts south and Francis Peak goes up, it started snowing. That was unexpected. There was still a few inches of old snow at the top as well. Knee-high post-holing at the top. Brr. I should have worn my super waterproof Montrails but alas, I had my brooks cascadias on. Got pretty wet.
At the top of the first section, there is a clearing which the lady I met on my way up (her husband is the trial chief for this section) said is called Quarter Rock – its a 1/4 of the way to Francis Peak.
From there, I took a trail that drops south down into Farmington Canyon. It was steep, and lots of loose gravel. I wouldn’t want to climb it. When I got down to the 2nd switchback of Skyline Drive, I took the road down to the 1st switchback where the pavement is. Looking back, I wish that I would have trekked West across the face of the Mtn., to hook up with the Upper Terrance. Looking on the map now, I think I could have done it and there may actually already be a trail that does, but I missed it. Bummer.
Instead of taking the pavement, I took the trail that runs north of it along the face of the hill. It was a rough trail – lots of loose rock, always at a sideways angle (bad for my left ankle) and sketchy in parts. Towards the bottom, however, I did get to admire the trail-building handiwork of Ryan Lauck. Seriously, this dude builds 5 star deluxe luxury trails. Check out these stairs and reinforced walls:
Not too shabby. When I hit the mine (below), I climbed straight up what must have been a deer trail to the Upper Terrace and took that back to Shepherd Creek Canyon.
At the bottom, I swung by the section of trail that I helped cut earlier in the week – looks great.
Overall it was a fun excursion. Lots of vert and not lots of miles, but that is ok because I got to explore some new places.
The kids were in bed, the sun was on its way down, my ankle felt “ok” and there was a fresh 1 inch of snow on the trails above town, with a little rain/snow still spitting – what a perfect time to go for a run.
I strapped on my Montrail Badrock, which I had intended to be my snow/wet mud shoes but have hardly used and drove up to uber-rich neighborhoods above Fruit Heights/Farmington where there are a few trail-heads into Shepherd Creek and other canyons north. Knowing the sun would soon be down, I put on my headlamp and took off. The soft fresh snow gave a great cushion to the trail, and other than deer and bunny tracks, mine were the only feet to have touched the few hours-old snowfall.
I climbed, veered north and ascended a rocky ridge that overlooked the canyon just north of Shepherd Creek Canyon.
At this point, it became hard to distinguish which trails were actually trails, and which were just animal tracks in the snow. I pulled google maps up on my phone continuous and looked at the satellite images to try and gauge where I should go. I climbed the north ridge of that small canyon briefly, before crossing and bushwhacking my way back down the other side. The snow actually made the descent down what I assume were loose gravel slides nice and cushioned.
I could have done without the multiple rock outcroppings that looked like perfect perches for Cougars to be staring down at me from. Shiver.
I made my way back down to the car, by which time it was dark. Unfortunately, I had only clocked a mile. So, I crossed over to the south side of Shepherd Creek, took that trail up until a branch descends down to the creek. As it was pitch black, covered in snow, and I had never been there before – I decided it would be a good idea to try and get down to the creek, cross it, scramble back up the north side to the power lines and explore them back down to the original trail I had just descended previously.
Not the smartest choice, but it ended up going well. It was fun to get out in the dark – though terrifying at times – and great to run some fresh beautiful snow.
1.8 miles in 27:09 @ 15:17 pace with 870 ft. elevation
Over the past couple weeks I have been reading about active release massage and how it might be able to solve my ankle trouble. I have begun to suspect that the lasting pain on my peroneal tendon is from scar tissue that built up. Apparently, you can break up the scar tissue by massage it and so forth. So, along with rolling and stretching out the muscles that the tendons attach to, I have been doing it for the last couple days. Painful, but hopefully it will do the trick.
Today is was about 60 degrees and overcast. We had nothing going on this afternoon and I just couldn’t take it anymore – staring up at those mountains by my house, know that the snow was melted from all the lower ones. They were calling to me. Beckoning. Begging me to come run them. Taunting me even. So, I gave it a shot. This was the first trail run since a 4 mile run on the BST south from Farmington Canyon almost exactly 1 month ago.
I parked above Farmington Pond and took the trials north up to the Bonneville Shoreline Trail and took that north to the Shepherd Creek Canyon Trails. It felt great to be back on dirt, stretching my legs. I could tell that my lungs and legs were out of shape though. So, I have work to do. At Shepherd Creek I climbed up to the Upper Terrace and took that back south to Farmington Canyon. Whereas the BST was a mix of trail and dirt road, the Upper Terrace was all single-track. Delicious delicious single track. The switchbacks down into Farmington Canyon weren’t the best – lots of loose rock and gravel. I came up Farmington Creek a bit, bolder hopped over to the south Bank and then ran the Canyon pavement down to my car. All in all the ankle felt ok. We’ll see how it feels tomorrow. My left knee, which I suspect is still the IT Band, flared a bit. I need to get serious about my daily stretches and rolling of the muscles. I need that under control for the Zions Ragnar Trail relay next month. About 4 weeks and counting!
4.3 miles @ 12:35 min/mile and 851 ft. elevation.
So…I have still be really nervous about my ankle. But, equally nervous about getting out of shape. So, I have put in some miles on my mountain bike.
11 March 2014
All pavement, but first time riding the Lagoon Trail up to Farmington Pond
7.4 miles in 36:11, 12.2 mph average and 24.4 mph top speed
20 March 2014
I only have about 45 minutes, so I through my bike onto my car, parked at the bottom of Farmington Canyon and rode up to the 1st switchback where the pavement ends. That non-stop climb burns.
3.1 miles in 23:42, 7.8 mph average and 36.7 mph top speed, 750 ft. elevation
25 March 2014
This time I rode 4 miles up Farmington Canyon. My legs felt great and I was hoping to make it a full 5+ up to Sunset Campground, but I ran out of daylight. Yarg! The climb was tough, but the way down was almost just as bad. Flying down that dirt road on my hard-trail (no suspension) bike was PUNISHING on my wrists, hands, forearms, etc… Ouch.
7.9 miles in 1:05:37, 7.3 mph average and 35.3 mph top speed, 1,661 ft elevation
Panorama looking south
One thing I noticed a couple weeks ago when I went for a short 4 mile run on the BST above Farmington was that after taking a full month off to rest my injured ankle, I was OUT OF SHAPE. Actually, its scary how fast I had lost my lungs, legs, and overall endurance – not that I had much to begin with. My ankle is feeling a lot better, but I don’t want to chance reinjuring it. So, in hopes of keeping my overall fitness going, I jumped on my mountain bike today to head for the hills.
I made it about a mile from my house when I realized I had forgotten my water. Turned back, got it, started again. I had thought about driving to Farmington Pond and starting from there – saving my legs the 2.5 street miles to get there, but was too lazy to load my bike up in the car. So – streets it was. The climb up Farmington Canyon Road was slow and hard. Man, I’m out of shape. I was happy that I didn’t really have to stop at all, but I creeped along pretty slow as I climbed about 1,300 ft. straight with out stopping from the turn off onto E 600 N (from W 600 N), up to N 100 E, and from there up the Canyon Road proper. The steepest sections are the pavement climb up to the first switchback. After that the dirt road is harder to ride on, but not as steep – so it was a bit easier going. I didn’t make it too far up – only about 2.5 miles up the canyon. This made me wish that I hadn’t started at my house and had instead parked at the Pond. Oh well.
On the way down I quickly realized that my brakes were busted. I had adjusted them before leaving, but apparently didn’t do it right. That made for an interesting, and sometimes terrifying descent. They worked, but not well. When I hit the left turn off for the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, I decided to get a little actual trail miles on. I grew up mountain biking on the trails of Galbraith Mt. in Bellingham, WA – some of the best trails in the world. The BST is a bit of a let down. And, getting run off the BST multiple times by 4-wheelers and motorcycles was not great. At Steed Creek, I hung a right and hit a short section of actual single track, then hit the streets and made my way home.
15.2 miles in 1:43, average speed 8.8 mph, max speed 32.9 mph, 1,693 ft. elevation.
Oh – and my ankle doesn’t feel aggravated. Phew! My legs are a different story.
This last month has been incredibly frustrating. Again, right as I was feeling good about running, an injury. As I posted previously, I injured and reinjured and reinjured my left peroneal tendon. So, in hopes of being able to come back 100% when the weather warmed and the trails cleared, I haven’t run for the last month. There have been some nice days too – weatherwise – so it has been frustrating to sit at home.
I parked at the Farmington Pond and ascended the trail up to the Bonneville Shoreline Trail / Firebreak Road and took that to the Steed Creek Trailhead, which was conveniently exactly 2 miles away. I could feel my ankle being a bit tender, but not bad. I took it easy and didn’t push too hard. At 2 miles, I hit finish on my GPS, thinking I would just walk back. I ended up turning my GPS back on for the way back and walked/jogged. IT was in the 50s, but the BST is in full sunlight, and I got surprisingly hot and sweaty. I feel a real sense of forboding of the hot summer months to come…
When I got home I could feel some soreness, but nothing too bad. Time will tell. If I wake up tomorrow limping, I’ll know I hit the trails too soon. Fingers crossed.
2 miles @ 12:08 min/mile with 402 ft. elevation
AND
2 miles @ 11:45 min/mile with 97 ft. elevation
Spring Evening Above Farmington
Tonight I decided to give my ankle a try. I hadn’t run on it for 8 days. I started partway up 400 N in Bountiful and ran up past the LDS Bountiful Temple towards Mueller Blvd., then I turned around, and bombed back down 400 N. and a ways up 400 W. I clocked some of my fasts miles going down the hill. At about mile 2 my IT bands started hurting, but oddly enough, as I flew down the hill, the pain went away. Nice!
My ankle was a different story. I could feel it hurting the whole time, but oddly, it hurts most when I stop running and just walk. In any case – it is hurting now. This may have been a mistake.
It was nice to get above the inversion smog though – which has been really bad.
6.3 miles @ 9:15 min/mile and 378 ft. elevation.
Above the inversion
Ok, I have been seriously limping around AZ all week. That last run was a mistake. I should have taken it easy. But, I just could resist. Well…today was our last full day down here in the valley of the sun…so I thought I would throw caution to the wind and run again – suffer the consequences later.
I had my wife drop me off at the Pyramid Trail TH with the plan to meet up with her, my kids, and some of our cousins later as they hiked up to the Lost Ranch Mine Ruins for a picnic. I went up the Pyramid Trail to the top of that peak, and then followed the ridgeline NE to where it connects with Telegraph Pass – almost all the way to the radio towers, then lopped back SW on the opposing ridgeline to the north on the National Trail. I then dropped down the Lost Ranch Ruins Trail and arrived at the old ruined farmhouse right when the family did. Perfect timing! As with the last run, the conditions were amazing, and the trails were in great condition….except for the descent down the Lost Ranch Ruins Trail – that one was a mess. Super steep and lots of loose rock.
My foot hurt the whole time and BOTH of my IT bands were hurting from about mile 4 onward.
6.3 miles @ 13:16 min/mile and 1,710 ft. elevation
After eating, we took the kids up to a little abandoned mine and then made our way back to the cars…SLOWLY. Kids like to drag their feet.
Top of the Pyramid Trail, looking East
Kids exploring the mine
My boy showing off his muscles
One positive to having family in Arizona is visiting there for the holidays. My word – 60s-70s feel glorious. I have a problem though – my right foot is still quite painful. So – do I take advantage of the warm weather and trails, or be a good boy? I opted for the trails. Today I started at my sister’s house (on the south side of Phoenix’s South Mountain in Ahwatukee) and accessed the trail system there. I took a dirt road out of her neighborhood East to run the Southernmost ridge that runs WNW to ESE above her house. I took the Pyramid Trail up West to the Bursera trail and followed that along the ridge until it drops down the backside into a valley and connects with the Gila Trail. That loops around the far SE end of the ridge, where I followed a trail under the power lines back over to the backside of my sister’s neighborhood. It felt amazing to be running shirtless in the sun on new trails – Saguaro cactus all over the landscape. Just beautiful. Unfortunately, my IT Bands really started hurting on the descent down the backside side of the ridge at about mile 3.5. And, the foot pain didn’t go away. While running it actually didn’t hurt to bad, but whenever I slowed down to a walk – or when I climbed back in my car – it throbbed bad.
7.5 miles @ 12:03 and 1,083 ft. elevation
Top of Bursera Trail, looking SE towards Ahwatukee, Chandler, Tempe
Descending Bursera down to the Gila Trail, looking West towards the Gila River Reservation and Sierra Estrella
A couple months ago I won a pair of Montrail Badrocks from Max King on facebook. They just arrived and I got them specifically for wet. snowy, or muddy conditions. So, I grabbed my neighbor Matt and we did an EARLY morning run up Farmington Canyon, which was snowpacked. It was my first run on the snow and the shoes did great. Unfortunately, my knees did not. I gave them an almost 2-week rest, but wasn’t very diligent at using my foam roller on them. Also – I was feeling pretty lazy or something, and just had to power hike most of the way up. I’m sure it was MVH’s slowest time ever going up the canyon.
6.9 Miles @ 15:14 min/mile and 1,533 ft. elevation
Also – did I mention that it was about 15 degrees. Here is my solution for the cold weather.
It’s my bandito look.
Farmington Canyon in the Snow
After last year’s Turkey Trot I thought it would be fun to make it a tradition. I ran from my parents house up the the old RR track trail system to Whatcom Falls Park and back. I can’t believe how lucky I was growing up here. This was a 1.5 mile jog from my house. Nuts.
Also – IT Bands not happy.
3.9 miles @ 10:31 min/mile and 340 ft. elevation
Pedestrian bridge selfie on Alabama Hill
Lower Falls in Whatcom Fall Park where I used to cliff jump as kids
I grew up in Bellingham, WA and spent a lot of time hiking and mountain biking in the AMAZING sets of trails in the Chuckanut Mountains that creep into town from the south and east. These trails are amazing. The Galbraith (Lookout Mountain) trail system is world famous for Mtn. Biking trails. I spent so much time up there as a teenager, but didn’t realize how good I had it until I moved away.
I never ran those trails though. I hiked the Chuckanuts south of town, backpacking up to Pine, Cedar, Lizard, and Lilly Lakes to camp overnight. Also did Oyster Dome and the Bat Caves a number of times. Amazing trails, amazing views of the San Juan Islands. Beautiful Stuff.
Well, for Thanksgiving my family drove up to Bellingham for the week and my #1 goal was to fit in a trail run in the Chuckanuts. I had my dad drop me off at Larabee State Park and told him I would call about 30 minutes before I descended down to the Pine & Cedar lakes trailhead. I had gone over some maps and thought it would be about 10 miles.
I climbed up the Fragrance Lake Trail first, absolutely giddy with the familiar surroundings, soft dirt under each footfall, dense foliage, etc… I felt at home. I pushed past Fragrance Lake up to Cleator Road, thinking that if I followed it, it would put me up over the ridge to Lost Lake – a lake I never made it to as a kid. Well, I followed the road up, up , up, and finally got to the ridge. Down the other side looked too steep to climb though. IT turns out, if I had just followed the ridge NNE, I could have dropped right down to Lost Lake. Instead, I followed it SSW, eventually descending down the chinscraper trail to where the actual Lost Lake Trail hits…you guessed it…Cleator Road. If I had originally turned right on Cleator, instead of Left, I would have hit this trailhead in about 50 years. Oops. All told – this added about 2 unplanned miles onto my route. No worries. I hit the Lost Lake Trail, from which you can see SW to the ocean for a bit. Then, I took it along the bottom of the ridge I had just traversed the top of in the opposite direction. I made a quick stop to take a look at Lost Lake, then then continued on.
To get to the Pine & Cedar trail I jumped on the Raptor Ridge trail (taking a picture at the overlook) and then followed it to the intersection with the trail that would take me down to where my dad would pick me up. At this point, I look at my GPS and realized that if I instead turned right and went to Pine & Cedar lakes, and THEN down to the car…the total mileage might hit 13.1 – a half marathon. Granted – I hadn’t moved at half-marathon pace and had taken a lot of breaks to take pictures and such, but no matter. Off I went.
The lakes were beautiful as I remember them being as a kid, but the trail down to the trail head was STEEP. I remembered it being steep, but not this steep. And, my knees didn’t like it. By the time I got to the bottom BOTH IT BANDS WERE SCREAMING. NO!!! The dreaded IT Band was back – and now in both knees. This was disappointing.
My family pulled into the parking lot, literally, right as I finished but I made them follow me out to the road so I could hit the requisite 13.1.
13.2 miles @ 13:33 min/mile with 3,789 ft. elevation!
Amazing run. Amazing place. I can’t wait to get back.
Real trails are covered in leaves and moss
Real forests have huge upturned trees
Lost Lake
Real trails double as creek beds
Raptor Ridge
Pine Lake
Following on the smashing success of last weeks pre-dawn run up City Creek Canyon to Ensign Peak, I thought I’d go for a repeat. This time I took the trail on the SE side of the canyon, following it to the East and up to both of the Avenue Twin Peaks. Aside from a dog who brushed against my leg and freaked me out, the run up was uneventful. On the way back, I followed the north ridgeline (which looks down into City Creek Canyon on the backside) as far as I could. I reached the end of the ridge at a knoll and the trail kind of just stopped. I thought I might be able to descend and find something down on the City Creek Canyon side. Mistake. I ended up bushwacking back SW until I hit a small gulch which I followed back up to the main trail system.
7.5 miles @ 14.01 min/mile and 2,148 ft. elevation
In the gulch I did find these though. There are apparently quite a few spots up there with wrecked cars.
I was another fun run, but the last AM one I was able to do before winter set in.
SLC from the Avenues Twin Peaks
Fitting in a good trail run is tough when you have a family that A. Demands your time; and B. With whom you really want to spend quality time. The most obvious solution is to run at times when I would otherwise not be spending with family. Or, when I would otherwise be sleeping. I decided to try out waking up early and hitting a trail with a headlamp. I am 100% an evening workout type of guy. Waking up early to work out sounds miserable, and any time I have tried to institute such a policy, it usually doesn’t even make it to day 1. The alarm goes off and I balk. But, I thought that going on a trail run might just be FUN enough to get me out of bed.
I was right.
I awoke early, and rather than running a local trail, coming home to shower, and then driving down to work in bad rush-hour traffic, I decided to drive down to City Creek Canyon, near where I work, doing a run in the pre-dawn morning and then showering at work. I borrowed a headlamp from my neighbor, and hit the trail at 6:00 AM. I went up the trail on the NW side of City Creek Canyon, looped it West and eventually around to Ensign Peak and back.
7.2 miles @ 13:01 min/mile with 1,584 ft. elevation.
It was one of the funnest runs I have done.
I’ll have to say it was smashing success! I was showered and in my office by about 8:15 or so, feeling awake and energized.
Pre-Dawn Light over SLC
Awake!
Ensign Peak
So far, as most of my runs had been solo – I was sticking to the Davis Creek Canyon drainage – just because that is where I had gone before. This Saturday morning I hooked up with a guy I met online (sounds bad, right?) on a FB page of other local trail runners. He showed me up the canyon just north of Davis Creek – the much bigger Steed Creek Canyon. The trail was much better traveled, and the view from the top of the cliffs was great. If you follow it past the cliffs, which I will have to do next time, you can supposed hook up to Bountiful Peak and some other trails that lead back down other canyons. SUPPOSEDLY. I hear the tops of all the trails are overgrown.
4.2 miles @ 20:18 min/mile and 2,177 ft. elevation
Apparently never content with running trails I have already explored, I set off on this Saturday morning to explore another new route. I had previously failed in following Triumph Trail up the north side of Davis Creek Canyon, but had since believed to have spotted where I took a wrong turn. So, with a new set of running tights to protect against some chilly morning air, I set off.
The first part of the trail I already knew, and had even taken my kids up it to the lower waterfall. Previously I had veered north on one of the BST firebreak roads too early, and attempted an ascent up the open face north of the canyon, when it turns out that the turnoff to the Triump Trail is just right before another trail breaks right, down to the waterfall. I followed Triumph up to the left (north) and quickly found the trail was well established and easy to follow…for a while.
The trail was steep, and the higher I went, the harder it became to follow the trail. Soon, it was lost amidst rock faces and hillsides of impenetrable scrub oak. Thankfully, someone had recently tied pink ribbons along the trail, so with some surveying ahead – even though it took a while sometimes – I kept finding a ribbon ahead and moving towards it.
By the time I reached the “top” where a the trail hit a prominent outcropping of a ridge, I had climbed about 2,200 ft. in about 1.8 miles of trail. Pretty steep. My legs were sore, but worse, the trail was completely lost. I kept on see an occasional pink ribbon and older pop can bottom nailed to trees – but the terrain between them was overgrown with no trail. I fought my way higher up the ridge for a bit, hoping to find a better stretch of trail, but to no avail. The time I had available to run was also about up – my wife needed me back at the house.
That’s when I panicked a bit.
I did NOT want to pick my way back down the steep, rocky, overgrown and poorly marked trail I had just crawled up. So, I decided to just cut straight down the drainage to my right, which I knew eventually funneled to the Old North Trail and Hell Hole – from which point I knew the trails and could quickly get back to my car. The descent through the pines was a bit scratchy and my legs got covered in burrs (see below) but as I reached the bottom of the drainage – where I assume a creek sometimes runs – a trail popped up on my left. What a blessed sight. I jumped on it. started running at full stride. I came over a small ridge and immediately recognized I was at the point on Old North where I had previously once ascended to. Hallelujah. I bombed down to the car and made it home just in time.
Only 3.7 miles @ 19:32 per mile, but a full 2,229 ft of elevation!
It did take me a good hour to pick all of these off though:
Part way up Triumph, looking down Davis Creek Canyon
With the family still out of town, I took a longer excursion up to the top of Farmington Canyon to run the Great Western Trail from Francis Peak to Thurston and back. I had done this once before, and wanted to get it in again before the canyon road was shut down. As I drove up, however, I noticed an oddly large volume of 4×4 pickup trucks going up and down the canyon. Then, I noticed people in orange vests…and it hit me – ELK SEASON. I wonder how much like an Elk I look like while running….
At the FAA towers I asked a couple guys if they thought I’d be ok on the trail, and they assured me I’d be fine. Lots of hunters were traversing the ridge on the trail, and no one was shooting on the trail as there were lots of other hunters hiking it. Fair enough. I took off.
It was beautiful. A bit chilly, but not too bad. I chatted with a few hunters along the way – all nice folks. I made it up to the actual marker at the top of Thurston Peak, something I didn’t do the time before. The main trail doesn’t go to the peak, and it was a bit difficult to find the side “trail” that did, but I made it up and down.
The run back was eventful. As I came back down to the Great Western Trail and returned running south, I head a gunshot echo. It spooked me, I won’t lie. I kept running and a bit later came across a trail of blood going up a snow covered section of the trail. 1/2 way up, a dude and his wife were quartering the haunches off of a dead elk. Pretty gruesome scene.
Looking south from Thurston Peak
Right past where the Baer Canyon trail connects with the GWT, a side trail cut up to the East, and I thought (from a map I looked at before) that it might go over the ridge and drop down to some small lakes I saw on the map – Smith Creek Lakes. It didn’t. But, I made note to explore them from the main split in the road a little farther south next time I was up here.
Looking South 
In all, a great afternoon. 8.9 miles @ 14:56 min/mile and 2,133 ft. elevation
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Back from my conference in Tucson, my family was out of town – so I had to take advantage of having free time to myself. Up till now I had only run solo. Even in Kearney on the streets – I may have run one time with my wife. My next door neighbor said he was up for a run, even though he runs full-on 100 mile ultras. He agreed to not make fun of my slow pace. I was also a bit concerned because my left ankle still hurt a bit. The ankle was tender, but didn’t cause much trouble.
Although he lives next door to me in Farmington, MVH had never been up the Davis Creek watershed much. So, I had fun showing him a few trails – he couldn’t believe he hadn’t run them before. We went up the main Davis Creek, over to Pretty Valley, and then across to the Ford Canyon Overlook and back.
4.7 miles @ 18:08 min/mile, 1,508 ft. elevation.
Davis Creek Canyon Sunset
(MVH on the right)
In October I had a conference to attend down in Tucson, so I decided to drive. My plan was to find a place to run somewhere in the middle of the drive and I chose an obscure canyon that gets easy access to the Colorado River. It is Soap Creek Canyon, south of the 89a and the Vermillion Cliffs. The night before I couldn’t sleep so I just hit the road around 3:30 AM – arriving at the trail-head around 11ish. When I pulled off the highway and saw just how remote this was, I had second thoughts – but forged ahead in any case. You open a gate in the fence, close it behind you, drive over some desert to a makeshift parking lot / trailhead. And, then you head down the canyon. It begins as a shallow wash, slowly deepening. Eventually you enter the south fork of the canyon proper and soon have a lot of canyoneering decisions to make. There are no places that require all-out rock climbing, but lots of small drops and cliff faces to navigate. There were cairns to follow, but I had lots of concerns about heading down the wrong drop. At one point, there was even a rope descent. I passed 2 guys heading in the opposite direction – they had camped down at the river. That was comforting because I was becoming increasingly aware of how remote the place was. So far the terrain was dangerous enough to possibly cause a break if I fell, but not too bad. The ever-present paranoia of rattlesnakes had me more worried. By the time I made it to the Colorado River, it had taken longer than I had planned, I was getting worried about sunburn and anxious to get back to my car in one piece. I quickly dipped my feet in the river, geared back up, and made my ascent back up the canyon.
About 1 mile back up disaster struck – I rolled my left ankle hard, hearing a pop even. A few minutes later, I rolled it a second time. I had 4 miles to climb, and lots of rock faces to scamper/scale up. This was bad. About another mile up, BOTH of my calf muscles cramped violently. It was debilitating. This was trouble. I slowly made my way up. I eventually caught up with the 2 hikers, and they were glad to see me. Expressing that they were concerned at how little gear I was packing -worried that I would run out of water. I showed them the 2 liters my pack held and they were relieved.
Thoughout the ascent any time I did more than a walk, my calves cramped and brought me to teh ground. So – I walked out the last 3 miles or so. Scarier was when they cramped mid-rock climb up the various 10-15 ft. tall cliff drops. By the time I got to my car I was exhausted and relieved.
10.7 miles @ 13:5 min/mile and 2,442 ft elevation
Looking back, it was probably a foolhardy and stupid route to do solo. I would probably do it again – but only because I know the trial now.
As for the cramping calves…this is an excellent example of stupid rookie mistakes. When I got to my sister’s house in Phoenix later that night (after a great dinner with a colleague in Flagstaff at Satchmo‘s BBQ), I did some googling and quickly deduced that I had run low on electrolytes. I was hydrating, but sweating quite a bit and doing nothing to replenish them. Stupid stupid stupid. Lesson learned.
Panorama of the Vermillion Cliffs, looking North 
Looking down the Soap Creek Wash
Weird curled up dried mud all of the creek bed
Canyon Deepening
The Mighty Colorado River @ Soap Creek Rapids. This is just downstream from Lee’s Ferry
Looking up-canyon at the split between the North and South forks. Apparently you can do the north fork, but it requires repelling.
LOTS of climbing up boulder fields like this
Handy rope for a particularly hard section with no good alternative routes
Another hike with the kids We hiked up the Davis Creek trail to the first bench, which is pretty steep, and they did great!
Despite my declaration that I would use Flag Rock to train my legs, I looked up at the hills and couldn’t help but go explore something new. The trails up to Flag Rock or Steed Creek are more heavily traveled than the smaller trails going up the much smaller Davis Creek Canyon. I started up the Mtn. face north of the creek – trying to find the “Triumph Trail” I found on the Farmington Trails Map. I did the first part with the kids before, up to the BST, but not further. Needless to say, I didn’t quite find it after the BST. Or, I found it, and then lost it. And bushwhacked and got bloodied up in the process. Dry sun-scorched scrub oak is very scratchy. I climbed about 900 ft up over a mile of trail, then descended, crossed over the creek and went up into the trails south of Davis Creek. I ran to Pretty Valley – a great trail – and then took a trail labeled “Davis Creek Trail” up quite a ways before turning back, coming down the traverse a bit, and then heading up a trail to Hell Hole and a couple hundred yards up what I thought was “Old North” on the map. It turns out I was correct. I didn’t follow any of the trails up as I high as I should have, but it was fun to explore. I also got obsessed with the idea of following one of them all the way up to Bountiful Peak…but as I chatted with people on a couple facebook groups, most people said that the trails fade out and turn into bushwhacks the higher you get.
The moral of the story – just because a map shows a trail does not mean there is a trail. In fact, I suspect that the Farmington Trails committee might just be drawing them to coax all of us up there to go run and blaze the trails for them. Ha!
In any case, it was a really great afternoon exploring. 5.9 miles, 24:13 min/mile pace, 2,753 ft. elevation.
3D rendering of the climbs – looking East by NE
Falls leaves in Davis Creek Canyon
“Pretty Valley” or Little Valley. A few campsites here – really gorgeous.
On the Bonneville Shoreline Trail just north of Triumph Trail and Davis Creek, looking south across a field of flowers
Obligatory Selfie with Davis Creek waterfall in the background
One thing I was quickly realizing is that if I could strengthen my lungs and legs, I could go farther and enjoy more trails. I decided that I would try to regularly run the trial up to Flag Rock. It is steep and short, about 1,400 ft. in 1.5 miles up. So – great for training my climbing legs. It was a great run, much better than the first time I tried with sans water. 4.9 miles, 16:13 mile/min pace, 1,500+ ft. elevation.
A 3D rendering of the trail and elevation
Old Glory a’waving in the Wind
A few days before there had been a fire up on the hillside. It still smelled like burnt wood.
In early September 2013, my next door neighbor and I went shoe shopping for me. I tried on a few different pairs of trail shoes, but couldn’t commit. A couple days later he came over with a pair of Brooks Cascadia 8s. He had only used them a few times and they were only a size bigger than what I usually wear, and it turns out that lots of trail runners and ultramarathoners buy a size or 1/2 bigger because your feet swell at long distances. Excited about the “new” shoes (they were in great condition) I set off for some runs.
First, I drove up Farmington Canyon to the FAA towers and ran the Great Western Trail to Thurston Peak and back. It is a beautiful ridge – Morgan County on the East and Davis County on the West. Really spectacular.
It was also my longest run at 9.1 miles. My pace was probably around 12:00-14:00 min/mile, although the messed up GPS said faster. This may be the run that sealed the deal for me. I was up in the mountains where I love to be – covering more miles than I could on a slow hike – and loving it.
Panorama from the parking lot at the Francis Peak
Looking SW as a shaft of light shone down on my new home
Obligatory Selfie to prove I was there
I was seriously beat up and sore after Baer Canyon. Extreme DOMS – delayed onset muscle soreness. So much in fact that I I didn’t run again for 2 weeks. And, after that, I only did bike rides for the next 3 weeks, here, here, and here.
I think part of the problem was that I was using OLD trail shoes from years before. In any case – I did see some pretty sites out in the Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area.
3 minutes later I was engulfed in clouds of bugs – seriously couldn’t breath. I had to just put my head down and ride blind. That worked well until I glanced up to see that I was about to run into a deer.
Enthused by that first trail run, I planned my next attack. Now living in Utah, I get July 24th off – Pioneer Day. I convinced a coworker to join me and we made an attack of Baer Canyon. Unbeknownst to me, this is a notoriously steep and difficult trail. They hold a killer race there every year called the Bair Gutsman. Indeed, it was a steep hike. Over 4,000 ft. in elevation over a 5 mile climb. The last face you climb to come out on the Great Western Trail / Francis Peak Road was rough. Fellow hikers told me that it is called “Death Row.” By that point I was exhausted and took it slow. At the top I encountered ANOTHER rattlesnake – 2 for 2 – and snapped a few pictures looking down into Morgan County on the backside. The trip down was almost worst – tough on the legs and knees. It was great and felt great to do. Unfortunately, my out-of-shape body wasn’t prepared. I honestly struggled walking up and down my stairs for a good week after. Ouch.
Still Climbing. Will we ever get to those towers?!
After the Scare with Dehydration on Flag Rock, I picked up a Nathan HPL 020 Hydration Vest. LOVED IT. It holds 2 liters of water, doesn’t bounce around at all and has room for snacks.
Panorama looking East into Morgan County from the top. See the Francis Peak FAA towers on the right (south).
Looking West Down Baer Canyon Towards Fruit Heights, Kaysville, and Farmington
My Kids were Very Concerned about my bloodied knee. After descending the “death row” steep trail you hit a short section of flat trail that traverses north across a creek bed. It felt so good to stretch my legs out in a full stride that I just took off….and tripped and did a full superman into the dirt. Ouch.
On the evening of 8 July 2013 I went up for my first trail run.
It was in the 90s, and the evening sun was beating on the exposed face of the Wasatch Range that I decided to ascend. I took the trail closest to home – a set straight up from Farmington to Flag Rock – an outcropping about 1,500 ft up from the valley floor with a large American Flag. I started “running” and quickly realized that my Nebraska lungs (and legs) weren’t prepared for the climb or lack of oxygen in the air. To make matters worse, about 1 mile in, I almost stepped on a rattlesnake. With the snake behind me, I figured I should soldier on, but was incredibly paranoid for the rest of the run. I even picked up a walking stick to use to ward off future snake friends, should we cross paths. I was a little freaked out. To make matters worse – I quickly realized that I needed water. I had a large bottle in the car, and had figured that the 3 mile hike/run wouldn’t require water on the trail. The 90 degrees quickly sapped by strength and the trail turned out to be 4.7 miles.
When I got back to the car I chugged the full 24 oz. bottle.
Though hot, dehydrated and freaked out about snakes – it was fun. And, I was immediately hooked. I got a great workout (the whole reason for trying to run in the first place) and got to be in the mtns. Win win.
On my way to the top, on the north trail. The entire time I was taking moments to crouch and hide in what little shade the scrub oaks provided.
The Flag
Me, dehydrated and red-faced.
