Big Baldy Southwest Ridge
The southwest ridge approach to Big Baldy is a beast. I love hitting it before it gets too snakey. Took Matt up for his first summit. Found a horned lizard on the ridge.
Big Baldy Loop
Up the SW ridge, down Dry Canyon. Big Baldy is still as steep and gorgeous as ever. I think the downhill hurts more than the climb though.
Dry Altar, Down Shooter
I need to wake up in the morning and run more often. I hate it. I feel sluggish and my stomach is off if I eat anything (a jelly donut today). But, getting back home at 9 in the morning having already banged out a great run does feel pretty amazing.
Big Baldy via Dry Canyon
I have bagged Big Baldy via the SW ridge (steepest route), and via Battle Creek Canyon and the Baldy Saddle. Today I tried the final main option, up Dry Canyon to the Baldy Saddle. Dang oh dang. It is steep. 3.5 miles to the top with 3,500 climbing – not evenly distributed. Then, bombing back down. It was a gorgeous day but I was pretty beat up by the time I got back to my car.
Timp Trail Half Marathon Route
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,…
Fall Leaves on the Little Baldy Ridgeline
I have been wanting to summit the modest bump of Little Baldy (just south of Big Baldy in Utah County) for a while and have been eyeing the west ridge for the approach. Tim joined on this ill-advised adventure, but the fall leaves promised good views. Indeed, the colors were popping. We went up from Dry Canyon, the wound our way up to the bottom of the West ridge. It was mostly clear – a trail faded in and out…
Exploring the Little Baldy Foothills
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…
Touring a new friend around the foothills
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. >
Snow Adventures
Snow has arrived (finally!) in Utah. I have only ventured out a few times, but it has been pretty great. In mid-November my back tweaked again (see my nightmare injury from Summer 2015). I decided to test it out on the Lindon Squiggles and foothills below Dry Canyon. It started beautiful and ended with a whiteout. I knew a system was moving in, but figured I’d be ok not venturing too far from my car. It was fun to get…
Squeezing Some More Color out of Autumn
I suspected there was still a lot of color up in the hills. I was right. From a distance, the flanks of Big and Little Baldy looked like they were covered by motley patches of multicolored lichen or something.