I came home early from work tonight, with an upset stomach. After a while, I felt better and was feeling quite restless so I decided to go hit the trails for a quick run before dinner.
My plan was to climb the south switchbacks that lead to the Farmington Upper Terrace. It is about 1,000 ft. elevation gain in about 1 mile of trail. At the top, a local trail building colossus, Ryan, had recently cut and flagged a new trail up canyon to the trail that comes down from the Francis Peak trail and meets up with the canyon road at the 2nd switchback. The first time I came down that trail from the Francis Peak ridge, I had thought, “It would be nice if a trail cut down canyon here to meet up with the Upper Terrace.” Apparently Ryan read my thoughts.
Looking up-canyon on Ryan’s new trail
As I reached the trail intersection to head up Ryan’s new route, I joined the Trail Puke club. Many ultramarathoners have GI troubles during long races and throw up a lot. I haven’t ever had any trouble – and I haven’t really run any long races. So, I don’t think throwing up at 1 mile is the best way to get into the club, but I’ll count it. Afterwards, I felt much better.
I followed the trail up but about 1/2 way along, the flagging split into a high road and low road. I took the high road and it soon thereafter got lost in a thicket of scrub oak. I was tired and surprisingly sweat by that point, so I descended, running another couple miles along various BST branches.
Stone arch – sandwiched between the Upper Terrace and Ryan’s new trail
It felt good to be out, but my ankles hurt. Stupid stress fractures. Stupid tibias. Stupid basketball!
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.
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.
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!
Music is a big part of my life. I did a solo singer-songwriter thing for years (250+ horrible demos recorded), I’ve had radio shows, and I run music blog (http://desertislandmixtapes.com). Fittingly, running has provided a great opportunity to put on new albums and listen to them front-to-back without much distraction. Music makes running a lot of fun. But, when things started warming up this year, and people began posting pictures of enormous rattlesnakes on the local trails, I rethought this practice. I saw 3 rattlers last year, and all three times they were right under foot. With narrow or overgrown trails, it is a bit unnerving to think that one might be at hand. Earbuds tucked in my ears mean that if one did start giving me a warning rattle, I wouldn’t hear it.
So – I tuned the music off. In fact, I haven’t listened to music while trail-running since May or so. And you know what – it hasn’t been all that horrible. I have actually really enjoyed the silence at times. I can hear the rushing water of a creek I am approaching, the clicking of cicadas, chirping of birds, rustling of wind in the trees, myself breathing heavily. The silence has also given me time to myself and my thoughts. I am a historian and writer by profession and taking regular time to think through complex historical problems I am working on during the day has led to a number of epiphanies and breakthroughs. So, maybe running sans music isn’t all that bad.
Well, until tonight. I ran up the Farmington Creek singletrack, up Farmington Canyon Road a bit, and then turned around to descend. Knowing that I would be looking at 5+ miles on a wide dirt road (no risk of not seeing a snake lurking about) I brought some tunes with. I put the ear buds in, hit play on Spoon’s new album They Want My Soul (great, by the way!) and headed down the road. It was great. And I immediately realized how much I had missed it.
So – final verdict? I think I can have enjoyable experiences either way. I used to think that running without music would be horribly boring, and I have discovered that it isn’t. Sometimes, its preferable. However, sometimes nothing beats running with some good beats. Either way, I’m in the mountains running – right? Win win.
And, ironically, my falling and slicing my hand open happened about 50 yards into my run, supposedly when I was bombing down the road, running in the dark, too fast and distracted by the tunes!
Pioneer Day Fun with 20+ miles, almost 6k elevation, 2 peaks, 2 Rattlesnakes, and Blisters Blisters Blisters
Last year on Pioneer Day, a friend and I tackled Baer Canyon. It was only my 2nd trail run, and we were unprepared and it was rough. I thought I would continue that and make an annual tradition of pushing myself to do unwise things on Pioneer Day. On the top of my trailrun to-do list has been to bag Thurston and Francis Peaks. I have been to both, but only after driving up to Francis and then running the Great Western Trail. I wanted to do it proper, climbing up from the valley floor. I put out the word and was joined by a few nice gents – Bryan, Jeremy, and Steve. Bryan had to turn back (work, or something) after the first hour of climbing, but Jeremy and Steve stuck it out to the end.
We started at 5:00 AM with headlamps, and I immediately fell behind the group on the climb out of the Fernwood Recreation Site in Layton. I don’t know what it was, but I just felt horrible. My stomach felt uneasy, and the climb really beat me up. When Brian turned back, I caught up to the other two and we stayed together for most of the remainder of the climb. We made it up the primary ascent, hit the delicious springs to refill our water along the traverse over to Chinscraper and then tackle that final climb up to the ridgeline.
Top of the Fernwood climb, traversing towards the Chinscraper bowl.Ridge line above Chinscraper, looking SouthRidge line above Chinscraper, looking north
As we neared Thurston Peak, we cut up a stream drainage where there was exposed rock and dirt to make an easier bushwhack up to the the peak. Its a bummer that someone hasn’t blazed a proper trail up to the top. Someone get on that. We enjoyed taking a rest, chugged some soda, ate, and then continued on south, back to the Great Western Trail.
Taking a Break on Thurston Peak
Along here, I hit my stride on the GW, but after about an 1/2 mile got stopped in my tracks by simultaneous cramps in my right calf and thigh. Ouch. I had been careful to keep hydrated and intake calories, but I had completely forgotten to pop a salt capsule. I took two with water, rubbed them a bit, and then runned them out until they loosened while trying to catch up to Jeremy and Steve. They didn’t cause any more problems as I kept my electrolytes in balance.
I love this stretch of the Great Western – amazing views on both sides.
Great Western never gets old
We took the steep road/trail up to the FAA towers on Francis Peak and stopped to refuel, take pictures, and plan our descent. Originally, I had planned on coming down the Francis Peak Trail, but had been convinced to take the Farmington Canyon Road down. This would put the mileage higher than I had planned, but I was excited about the prospect of hitting 20 miles – which would make it my longest run ever.
Someone should really proofread things before you cast them in bronze. She was “affluent in four languages.” Ha!
We started to scramble down the rocks just south of the peak marker to get back on the road when both Jeremy and Steve let out a sudden scream and help. Apparently, I had stepped right over (almost on) a large rattlesnake. As they followed me, they saw it slithering away, whereas I hadn’t even noticed it at all. After we got our nerves back, we got on the road and started down.
At this point, my left IT Band was starting to hurt, so I told them to go ahead while I stretched. I had about 8-9 miles of gravel road downhill ahead of me and I figured that with stretching the IT band might hurt, but would be manageable.
I caught up to them a mile or so down the road and continued my faster pace, moving ahead of them for another couple miles. Then, the blisters started. On the heal and arch of my right foot, two large blisters developed. This slowed me down and as we approached Skyline Dr. / Farmington Canyon Rd., they caught up to me. I was quickly realizing that this was going to be a much slower descent than I had planned so I wished them good luck and sent them on their way. So much for 8 minute miles the whole way down. Instead, I hobbled / limped / kind-of-ran / sometimes walked down to Sunset Campground and then took the Farmington Creek Trail down to its trailhead where my wife picked me up. It was really painful. Excruciating.
Jeremy and Steve took the road the whole way down, and my shortcut actually put me at the bottom ahead of them, even though my pace was slow.
In the end, I was exhausted and in a lot of pain but happy to have down 20 miles and to have bagged both Thurston and Francis Peaks. Though on speed PRs, a PR for distance and that was fun.
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!
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.
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.
I can’t believe I live hereLater this summer in the heat…I just might take a dip!
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.
I bet my dad could ID this down to year/make/model.Car on right, engine block on left
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.
Looks like it MIGHT be a trail…
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!
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.
Old metal ties that used to hold the aqueduct pipe in place – could make for hazardous running.
Balance-beam across the creek – I don’t think mom would approve.
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.
