For work I did a writing retreat to a friend’s off-grid remote cabin in the Murdock Mountain region of Nevada, Elko County. Not only did I get an incredible amount of work done revising my book manuscript, but I took a few hours to tag the local peak. I approached from southwest, up a jeep road. I hit the saddle west of the false west summit and the wind was just ripping over it. It was gorgeous though. Along the…
I have been eyeing Mt. Mahogany for a while – from the freeway, while climbing up Grove Creek, from Timpooneke Rd., etc. I decided I needed to do a full traverse of the ridgeline – in preparation (hopefully!) for a full Timp ridgeline traverse later this year. MVH came with, and it was a great day on the mountain! We started at the Grove Creek Trailhead. To climb this south end of Mahogany, most take the Grove Creek Trail up…
Above the Orem Gun Range there is a great set of squiggle trails that lead up to Trail Nr. 051. Between there and Little Baldy I have noticed a series of green meadows that lead up in between the trees and have long wanted to explore them. So, I did. I did the climb out of the gun range a couple times, and messed around in those little meadows a bit. So quiet – I didn’t once see a single…
I have been doing my best to seduce a new neighbor (kind of old family friend) to the trails. So far, pretty good. I have taken him up the Lindon Squiggles, around the BST, the Dry Canyon – Altar/Rock Pile loop, the Johnsons Hole / Taj Mahal / GW loop, etc. Good times. I still struggle to believe all of these great trails are just a 5 minute drive away. >
Above Timpanogos Park there is a great set of squiggly trails (obviously built by mountain bikers) that some call the racetrack. If you loop a specific route, it is exactly 2 miles around. Super fun. I have done it a few times now in the snow, mud, and dirt. Go put it on your phone or watch and try to follow it! Great route. Racetrack Clockwise Racetrack Counterclockwise
Work took me down to Emery County for a couple days of digging in the archives. On my way out of Castledale on the last day, I realize I was only a few miles from the Wedge. I figured it was my moral duty to go for a quick run before driving home. For something new, I started at the Wedge Overlook and ran WEST along the dirt road, and then a bit along the rim, then to the overlook…
I grew up snowboarding in NW Washington and had never skied. However, lots of my trailrunning friends have been posting pictures of backcountry ski-touring. I couldn’t let them have all the fun so I hunted on the used classifieds and put together a pretty good set-up. Some Surface Sherpa skis with dynafit speed turn tech bindings, some La Sportiva sparkle tech boots, and some G3 skins. So, before I knew it, I was skinning up Sq Peak road and…
President’s Day Weekend trip to Moab! It was wet and a bit rainy, but great. We did the Island in the Sky and Needles Districts of Canyonlands and Arches. Pictures will go on the family blog.
Every winter I start pounding out more pavement miles because I’m too lazy to run the snowy or muddy trails and every winter I get overuse injuries. So far so good this winter! I have mixed in some treadmill with some street runs, culminating with an accidental 1/2 marathon. I have only done a 1/2 on pavement once before. This time, I was planning to run from the mouth of Provo Canyon up to Nunn’s Park and back – about…
For some reason my last few local runs have all been around the Johnson’s Hole area. There are a lot of dirt access roads for the aqueducts and water infrastructure up there – which makes for some nice easy miles, when I’m too lazy or beat up to bang out the singletrack. Here’s some recent routes. I took the kids up to some boulders above Johnson’s Hole that have petroglyphs on them. Very cool. They are quite weathered due to…