Mill Creek Canyon – Professor on the Run

Snow Adventures

December 30, 2016 professorontherun

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!

Snow moving towards me across the valley

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.

Where snow had melted off the rocks they were covered with lichen and plants.

Pleasantly mild day turned cold with a stiff wind on the ridge. Brr!

Looking down Burch Hollow into Mill Creek Canyon

Finding Christmas Gifts

January 6, 2016 professorontherun

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!

finding gift in Battle Creek (5) — I was standing right in front of it for a minute before I saw it in the tree.

finding gift in Battle Creek (2) — Frozen falls up Battle Creek

Finding gift on church fork (2) — I had to dig a bit for this one.

Finding gift on church fork (4) — Trail conditions on Church Fork were perfect. I bombed down at unsafe speeds, loving the soft footfalls in the snow.

Bells Canyon gift retrieval (1) — A moment of sun peaking through on Bells Canyon and the foothills south

Bells Canyon gift retrieval (2) — There were a bunch of surprisingly bright orange trees.

Bells Canyon gift retrieval (4) — Wind or animals or people had knocked the ornaments off the tree and they were buried in the snow. I just picked a tree beside the trail, started digging and got lucky – spotting the shiny red.

Bells Canyon gift retrieval (5) — With some warm temps recently, the snow was getting SLOPPY! I didn’t notice it as much on my way up, but coming down fast, the added downward force of my downhill feet really made them sink in. Slippery slop!

Autumn Leaves, 2015 edition

October 19, 2015 professorontherun

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.

On the Crest between Desolation Lake and Mill Creek – looking Southwest

On the Wasatch Crest, looking Northwest down into Mill Creek Canyon

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.

Professor on the Run

The Trail-Running Autobiography of a History Professor Who Thought He Hated Running

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