Old North Trail – Professor on the Run

Summiting Bountiful Peak via Old North

October 12, 2014 professorontherun

I had a lot of goals for running this season, and among them was to summit the 3 highest peaks in Davis County from the valley floor. I did Thurston and Francis Peaks back in July, so that left Bountiful Peak. I decided to bag it using the Old North Trail in Davis Creek Canyon. It is about 4.5 miles of, and 4,500 ft. elevation gain. Upness.

12.2 mile in 3:02:46 (moving time, a full 5 hours elapsed) @ 15:00 min/mile pace and with 4,570 ft. elevation gain

The first 2.5 miles up were great. But, about 1/2 between the Old North overlook and Midway Peak, the trail faded and the markings did too. Thus, the bushwhack began. I knew that the trail would fade out around there, but I was hoping that I could find a clear route to the top.

Old North to Bountiful Peak to Parrish (6) — Looking up-canyon from the Old North ridge overlook

Old North to Bountiful Peak to Parrish (9) — Midway Peak was a bit of a scramble. I like how people construct makeshift monuments on these small, seldom-visited peaks.

From there, there are 2-3 connected ridgelines that lead up to Bountiful Peak. Unfortunately, the ridges themselves are heavily covered with oak, scrub oak, aspen, and lots of scratchy thick underbrush. I followed the ridges, hugging the north side of them, but down the hill a bit. There were a surprising number of game trails that were easy to follow. When one faded, there was usually another close by to follow. They were still scratchy, and the route did still require a few short, but hefty, bushwhacks. I made it though.

Old North to Bountiful Peak to Parrish (22) — Bushwhack Blood

Old North to Bountiful Peak to Parrish (11) — Somewhere on the trail above Midway Peak. Looking north across Steed Creek Canyon towards Francis Peak.

Old North to Bountiful Peak to Parrish (12) — Aspens hiding up in the canyon

To descend I ran down Skyline Drive to the Parrish Creek Trail and went down there. I was planning to take the Bonneville Shoreline trail the 3-4 miles back north to the Davis Creek TH where my car was, but I had a few hot spots that were about to go full-on blister. I had called a friend to meet me at the bottom (my phone was about to die and I failed to bring a cable to hook it to my little charger pod). He kindly gave me a ride to my car.

Old North to Bountiful Peak to Parrish (20) — Somewhere on the way down Parrish.

Old North to Bountiful Peak to Parrish (21) — At the bottom. The switchbacks at the end were relentless. Surely painful going up, but also going down! I could feel those blisters forming.

Exploring Old North + Bloody Knees

September 26, 2014 professorontherun

Sometime in the next couple weeks I have been planning to bag Bountiful Peak (before snow hits). The best trail options are the Farmington Spine or the Parrish switchbacks. I have long wanted to go straight up Davis Creek though to the. I have heard that the trail fades – just like the Bountiful Peak trail and the Centennial Trail (up from Flag Rock). However, after doing a little research, it looked like Old North might be a good option. It is a large ridge the pops up in the middle of Davis Creek Canyon. The trail up to the first ridge is apparently pretty good and from there the ridgelines look fairly clear – not heavy bushwhacks.

Before doing a full ascent, I decided to do some recon.

4.1 miles in 1:15:38 @ 18:24 min/mile and with 2,350 ft. elevation gain (in the first 2 miles)

Up the Davis Creek Trail I flew. I decided to push hard and see if I could reclaim some of the course records on the Strava segments going up from the trail head to the Hell Hole / Pretty Valley split. I did get some PRs, but no CRs. I really pushed hard – but lets face it, I’m just not that fast.

Davis Creek + Old North Trails (1) — Follow the Yellow-Leaf Road. Look out for witches and flying monkeys. On the traverse towards the Pretty Valley / Hell Hole split.

I took the left split to Hell Hole.

After the brutal climb, the trail levels out for the last 1/4 mile to Hell Hole and even goes down a bit. I was so excited to be able to actually get a full stride in that I started to run…and immediately tripped and full-out face-planted on the trail. It happened so fast, I didn’t have time to even try to catch myself. Scraped arms, nose, and knee. Ouch.

The Old North Trail starts after crossing Davis Creek at Hell Hole. I followed it about 3/4 mile up to the top of the first big ridge clearing. Some nice rocks. Inexplicably, a broad and ZERO bushwhack trail appears at the top of the ridge. It must be remnants of an old mining road or something.

Davis Creek + Old North Trails (3) — Up the Old North ridge a bit, looking southwest.

In any case, the ridge goes northeast and then climbs to intersect a higher ridge at Midway Peak. That ridge then goes southeast to Bountiful Peak. I was hoping to make it to Midway Peak but right as I got up on the open ridge – thunder and lightning.

Davis Creek + Old North Trails (5) — On my way back down the Hell Hole. If only the whole thing was a beautiful, level, meandering through the woods type of trail…instead of a relentless climb-a-thon.

I made a quick retreat back down the 2 miles to my car.

It was a successful recon though – I will definitely go back up it to Bountiful Peak, probably in a couple Saturdays

.I’ll be sore though. It was 2,350 ft. in elevation gain over 2 miles of trail. Wow!

A Steep Bushwhack Up Triumph Trail

November 2, 2013 professorontherun

Apparently never content with running trails I have already explored, I set off on this Saturday morning to explore another new route. I had previously failed in following Triumph Trail up the north side of Davis Creek Canyon, but had since believed to have spotted where I took a wrong turn. So, with a new set of running tights to protect against some chilly morning air, I set off.

The first part of the trail I already knew, and had even taken my kids up it to the lower waterfall. Previously I had veered north on one of the BST firebreak roads too early, and attempted an ascent up the open face north of the canyon, when it turns out that the turnoff to the Triump Trail is just right before another trail breaks right, down to the waterfall. I followed Triumph up to the left (north) and quickly found the trail was well established and easy to follow…for a while.

The trail was steep, and the higher I went, the harder it became to follow the trail. Soon, it was lost amidst rock faces and hillsides of impenetrable scrub oak. Thankfully, someone had recently tied pink ribbons along the trail, so with some surveying ahead – even though it took a while sometimes – I kept finding a ribbon ahead and moving towards it.

By the time I reached the “top” where a the trail hit a prominent outcropping of a ridge, I had climbed about 2,200 ft. in about 1.8 miles of trail. Pretty steep. My legs were sore, but worse, the trail was completely lost. I kept on see an occasional pink ribbon and older pop can bottom nailed to trees – but the terrain between them was overgrown with no trail. I fought my way higher up the ridge for a bit, hoping to find a better stretch of trail, but to no avail. The time I had available to run was also about up – my wife needed me back at the house.

That’s when I panicked a bit.

I did NOT want to pick my way back down the steep, rocky, overgrown and poorly marked trail I had just crawled up. So, I decided to just cut straight down the drainage to my right, which I knew eventually funneled to the Old North Trail and Hell Hole – from which point I knew the trails and could quickly get back to my car. The descent through the pines was a bit scratchy and my legs got covered in burrs (see below) but as I reached the bottom of the drainage – where I assume a creek sometimes runs – a trail popped up on my left. What a blessed sight. I jumped on it. started running at full stride. I came over a small ridge and immediately recognized I was at the point on Old North where I had previously once ascended to. Hallelujah. I bombed down to the car and made it home just in time.

Only 3.7 miles @ 19:32 per mile, but a full 2,229 ft of elevation!

It did take me a good hour to pick all of these off though:

Part way up Triumph, looking down Davis Creek Canyon

Exploring Davis Creek Canyon. Trails on a Map don’t Mean Actual Trails on the Ground

September 18, 2013 professorontherun

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

Professor on the Run

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

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