I recently discovered that a fellow Western historian here in SLC trail runs and immediately set to planning a time to hit the dirt together. On a couple Tuesday mornings recently we have met at 6:00 AM and put in a few miles, talking about trails, races, and history. The company has been great and he hasn’t even seemed too perturbed by how slow I have taken some of the climbs. Seriously – I just can’t seem to muster much…
We are making a family tradition out of doing a race on Thanksgiving morning. We did it back in 2012, a 5 miler that seemed like the farthest distance I would ever run. This time the Mrs. and I did the Turkey Leg 5k in Farmington. It was a lot of fun. I should have eaten a little better in the morning though because I felt like the tank was empty. Still the 25:00 time was pretty good for me….
Last night, as there was a mix of rain and snow falling, I decided to strap on my headlamp and go for a run up on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail from Davis Creek, south (blog post coming soon, perhaps). I figured that higher up on the trail, it would be snow and not rain. Thankfully, I was right. Just snow…and some crazy thick fog banks that the trail kept on climbing up into and then descending below, and then climbing…
This week I strapped on my headlamp and put in a couple runs on the BST / Firebreak roads above Farmington. I enjoy running at night – but not on narrow hemmed-in trails with lots of obstacles under-foot. This makes the otherwise boring Firebreak road sections of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail system above Farmington the perfect option. With the temperatures cool, I don’t overheat, I feel great, and only occasionally psych myself into thinking I see glowing eyes watching me….
My plan for this morning, since there still isn’t any snow upon the top of the mountains in Davis County, was to run to Morgan. Up Baer Canyon, over to Smith Creek Lakes, and then down Smith Creek to the network of dirt roads that lead over to Morgan. Unfortunately, someone mentioned that it is private land on the Morgan side. I spoke with the landowner and he wouldn’t give permission. Bummer. Instead, I explored up Shepherd Creek. I have…
I ran up the Farmington Creek Trail to the Sunset Campground, planning to take it easy on the way up and then get a PR on the downhill. In the end, I got a PR on the last climb to the campground, but didn’t get my hoped-for downhill PR. Why? Because the trail was covered in 2 inches of leaves for a lot of it. That makes it hard to run when you can’t tell what the actual terrain is….
Knowing that the high-altitude season is quickly coming to a close (winter is coming!) I decided to do one last run up at the top of the mountains here in Davis County. I did a similar route last year at this time, but by then it had already snowed (and melted some) up at the top. We are still getting up into the 50s-70s this year in late October! So, it has been a nice month and I’m glad that…
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…
With my family out of town, I took my free evening time to hit up Big Cottonwood Canyon to see some autumn leaves before they were all gone. Some friendly folks from the Wasatch Mountain Wranglers joined in and we had a great run (Thanks Collette, Justin and Tyson!). As it turned out, a lot of the Aspen leaves had already fallen at the higher elevations, but our route eventually took us through a gorgeous band of trees. We parked…
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….