A few short hikes and runs. I took my 12 year old niece out for a trail run. She is getting into cross country and it was a lot of fun to give her a taste of the Wasatch dirt. We took the Buffalo Peak Trail from the Little Rock Canyon overlook, up to the peak, and then looped down FS 27 back to the car. Then, I took my sister-in-law (a 50k-er like myself) on the Timpooneke Trail. She…
My local trail-running club, the Wasatch Mountain Wranglers, adopted the Timpooneke Trail Nr. 053 and Mt. Timpanogos Summit Trail Nr. 054 – two of the most heavily used trails in the entire state of Utah. Last night I joined for the first organized trail work event, clearing out the first mile of trail with loppers and shovels. It was looking gorgeous and I knew I’d need to get up farther in the near future. Then, this afternoon a friend posted…
It was 90+ and I knew that the BST from Indian Hills to Bridal Veil Falls would have almost no shade. 10 miles round trip. Sounds great, eh? The Bryce 50k is coming up in 9 days and it is forecast to be hot, so I wanted to see how I fared in the heat. The trip to Bridal Veil was hot, but I had plenty of water. At the falls I took off my shirt, submerged it and put…
Sometime, when you have a pile of midterm exams to grade and it nice outside, you throw them in a pack, run up a trail and sit down by a waterfall to mark’m up.
Barring catastrophic weather, bad falls, rolled ankles or other injuries, getting attacked by wild animals, etc., even the worst trail-run is still pretty great. The BST and squiggly wiggly trails above Orem/Lindon (especially between Dry Creek and Battle Creek) are kind of my treadmill. A little vert, a little technical single track, some flat sections to really open up and run. A bit of everything. The trails aren’t spectacular, although the sunsets, alpenglow, tall grass (in the Spring) are sometimes…
I thought I’d take a chance on FS 27, Sq*** Peak Road in the snow. Mostly firm, but enough soft spots to cause a few tumbles on the way back down from the overlook. I thought I’d leave a little blood for the mountain lions to taste.
Heavy hearts this afternoon. A member of my local trail-running community, Stephen Jones, lost his life in an avalanche. I had never met him in person but we had messaged online a few times as he generously provided information on some remote trails I was hoping to run and that he was familiar with. By all accounts, this was normal for him. Generous, giving, gregarious, a friend to all. Of the many expert wilderness runners and back country skiers in…
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…
2015 was my 2nd full year trying to be a “runner” and it was full of a lot of “mile”stones. (see what I did there? Eh?! Eh?!) It really was big though. By the measures of some of my running friends, not so much. But for me, the guy who hates running, this has been quite a wild ride. I still can’t believe it. Who have I become?! I don’t even know who I am anymore! Let’s review how I…
Friends! I am excited to announce that I have joined the Ultra Adventures team for 2016 as an ambassador. This means I will help set up some races, run a few races, and try to convince all of you to come join! I don’t get kick-backs if you register off a referral, I just want as many people to come join the fun (and suffering) as possible. If you have been one of the many that comments on how beautiful…