I have been scheming for a long time to get up on the south end of the Timpanogos Massif ridgeline via Provo Canyon. The most common route is via Slide Canyon. This was my first time up there. A shwhack for a lot of it, but gorgeous. I hit a headwall, was running out of time, and didn’t see an obvious way around. After looking at the map when I got home I figured out the way around (to the…
Work brought me to Europe, something that has never happened before. Paris France, Krakow Poland, and Saarbrucken Germany. Chartres and Paris Saarbrucken Krakow
It hurt. But I did it. South Fork Rd, down Provo Canyon. My first sub 2:00 half marathon. Lots of PRs on this one! Now if I could find a *slightly* steeper route…I could go even faster!
There are a bunch of canyons that go up the south end of the Timpanogos Massif from Provo Canyon. Some have “trails.” I’ve been wanting to go up them for a long time. I went up past a few waterfalls and up to where it turns into a long scree slope. To the left I went up a fork that cliffed out. I know other have gone up there, and I am pretty sure I spotted a route on the…
A conference placed me in Las Vegas. I do not like Las Vegas. So, to escape the strip I took a quick afternoon trip out to the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, which I had heard is quite nice. Wow. I tackled the 8 mile White Rock Canyon Loop – including the out-and-back up to La Madre Spring. I quickly remembered how much I dislike running in the heat.
Work placed my family and I in Moab with an afternoon free and open. We hit Arches National Park last year, but took the chance to tag a few spots we had missed last time. We were hoping to get a permit for the Fiery Furnace, but they were all gone by the time we arrived. Nevertheless, we tagged Delicate Arch and made our way up into the Devil’s Garden for Landscape and Navajo Arch. Gorgeous country.
An odd scheduling situation placed me at the mouth of Slate Canyon in Provo with an hour to kill. I haven’t explored south of Rock and Slide Canyons at all and have been wanting to. The trail was rocky and steep enough to be uncomfortable on the run down. However, it was gorgeous. I need to link it up with some trails on the backside next.
For how much I go on about how much I love the stretch of the Great Western Trail between the tops of Grove Creek and Battle Creek, I don’t get up there all that much. I recently realized how much I dislike coming down Battle Creek, and finally decided to try my usual up Grove -> down Battle loop in reverse. This also makes sense since the Battle Creek trailhead is closer to my house. My neighbor Cody was itching…
Lots of short runs lately, so I decided to see if I was up for a bit more mileage. A fellow professor joined me to run the Timp Trail Half Marathon course. We’ve had so little snow, I suspected most of the route was dry. I was mostly right – a couple patches of wet dirt, some mud, but not bad. What was bad was my body. Not only did I get killer cramps in both calves and one quad,…
I live under the shadow of Cascade Mountain and one of my goals this year was to summit it. It is a long haul though – with a 5-7 mile approach to the saddle and then 3 miles up a trail-less ridgeline to the summit. That means a minimum of 16 miles roundtrip. With little water access, I was leaving this for the fall when the temps dropped. It looks like I waited too long though – or didn’t time…