A few recent runs
As it turns out, the last few weeks have been more mileage than usual. It felt good to hit the trails more regularly. Also a few hikes with the kiddos. Here’s the highlights:
To Hell [Hole] and Back Again, Twice
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.
4.0 Miles in 1:02:44 @ 15:46 min/mile and 1,791 ft. elevation
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.
Return to Pretty Valley
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.”
First Run with a Friend
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)
Davis Creek to Ford Canyon
High on the excitement of feeling a little bit familiar with the Davis Creek trails, and having looked at the map a lot, I decided to explore further. I went up towards Pretty Valley, but cut East up the hill on what I thought was going to be a trail. It was not. More scratches and lesson learned. If it looks like it “might” be a trail…that’s about all it is – it “might” be a trail. But it is not, with surety, a trail. I dropped back down to the main trail, went through Pretty Valley and pushed all the way to the Bountiful Peak Trail, up that to the Ford Canyon Outlook. Gorgeous. It had rained a few days before, however, and all the of the long grass alongside the trails was wet. This soaked my socks all the way through. At the outlook I took them off and had to wring them out. Well worth it though. On the way back I dropped down to the creek, across to the BST and looped that back around to my car. 6 miles @ 17:47 min/mile, 2,002 ft. elevation.
3D rendering of the trail and elevation, looking East
Pretty Valley, looking down into South Farmington
Panorama from the Ford Canyon Overlook, looking down on Centerville to the SW
Exploring Davis Creek Canyon. Trails on a Map don’t Mean Actual Trails on the Ground
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
