Battle-Grove and Grove-Battle Loops
Two recent trips up my favorite loop – once in each direction. Water infrastructure work at the top of Battle has turned some of the trail into a dirt road. Bummer.
Battle-Grove Loop PR
So nice, I did it twice. Battle Grove Loop. Always amazing. The Battle trail is in rough shape – high water and lots of erosion. Long stretches of the trail were literally underwater.
Battle – Grove Loop
Every time I loop Battle Creek and Grove Creek Canyons I say, “why has it been so long?!” This time I took one of our plant and wildlife science professors with me. He studies aspen trees, among other things, and it was fascinating to see how he viewed the landscape and environment. His scientist eyes saw so much that I glanced right over. so much fun. I’m disappointed that I missed the autumn leaves, but it was still beautiful.
Battle Grove
For how much I go on about how much I love the stretch of the Great Western Trail between the tops of Grove Creek and Battle Creek, I don’t get up there all that much. I recently realized how much I dislike coming down Battle Creek, and finally decided to try my usual up Grove -> down Battle loop in reverse. This also makes sense since the Battle Creek trailhead is closer to my house. My neighbor Cody was itching for some trails so we hit the loop and it was great. I think I’ll always do the loop in this direction from here on out. There was some snow along the top, but it was totally runnable and we were lucky to hit it when the mud was mostly dry. Dang. So beautiful.
Autumn Red Maple Explosion
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.
Big Baldy from Battle Creek
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.
Trying to Train Without Getting Injured
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!
Grove-Battle Loop. Always a Good Choice
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.
Just Keep Moving
Trying to put in some easy miles, keep fit, but not aggravate my sore injured hip and foot/ankle. Varied success. A couple of these felt great, a couple hurt. The last, the full Grove-Battle Creeks loop was magnificent and actually felt pretty good during and after. Thankfully, I haven’t turned my ankle any more. Hopefully things are on the mend.
“I’d Rather Be Post-Holing,” said no one, ever.
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!
Finding Christmas Gifts
Last year and this year I organized a secret Santa type gift exchange for my trail-running club, the Wasatch Mountain Wranglers. People signed up, I assigned them a person to hide for, people then hid gifts up in the mountains, and I then relayed the instructions/clues to the people they hid for. Last year it was fun and this year people enjoyed it again. Since I didn’t assign anyone to myself (that would be weird) a few very kind Wranglers hid gifts for me. Awesome people. I had fun finding them in Battle Creek Canyon, up the Church Fork in Millcreek Canyon (Grandeur Peak Trail), and Bells Canyon. Thank you Ben, Rebecca, and the mystery secret wrangler. You guys were very generous to hide some treats for me. I am seriously grateful.
SO FUN!
GroveCreekBattleCreekCurlySpringDryCanyonBattleCreekGroveCreek Half Marathon Loop
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.
Goodbye Davis County, Hello Utah County
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.