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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