I lived in Lincoln Nebraska for 7 years as a graduate student and one year of teaching. I didn’t run. Not once. I pulled out my mtn. bike a couple times, but only hit dirt once. We were back visiting friends and I decided to go run that dirt – along the Salt Creek in the Wilderness Park. It was about 4PM, in the 90s, and about 50-70% humidity. Oh my word. I haven’t sweat that profusely since my Rim2River2Rim…
I decided to treat myself to a Mt. Timpanogos summit for my birthday this morning. I have done the summit twice from the Timpooneke trailhead but never from Aspen Grove. I decided to make a loop of it. Up Aspen Grove, down Timpooneke, then loop back to AG on the Salamander Flats, Snow Gauging, and Lame Horse trails. A 19.5 mile loop. I put out the call and two fellow Wasatch Mountain Wranglers joined – Keith and Tim. We started…
The reason I had registered for the Capitol Reef Half Marathon rather than the 50k was because I knew my family (and parents) would be with for the trip. So, I wanted to do a quick race and then have time with them. The morning after the race we hiked up to Hickman Bridge. Very cool and my kids and their grandparents were troopers, even as it started to really heat up. That evening the Mrs. and I hiked Cassidy…
This was the first time I had registered and planned on running a half marathon. I did run one a couple months ago, but that was after dropping down from a 55k at the last minute. This meant that I went into it knowing that 13.1 miles was the target. With my 50k race I have made game plans, but that is a lot of miles to plan out, and I’m still pretty inexperienced so whatever plans I make…
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…
While visiting at a family cabin near West Yellowstone, I took the chance to explore a bit on a trail I had hiked briefly back in 2007ish. The Sawtell Peak Trail in the Bitterroot Range / Centennial Mountains does not go to Sawtell Peak. Rather, it meanders west of it for a while right along the continental divide. This divide also serves as the Montana-Idaho border, so step on one side of the ridge line and you’re in Idaho, step…
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…
Last year I ran the Bryce 50k as my first ultramarathon, finishing in 7:17. I returned this year hoping to post a better time and prove that I have, in fact, improved as a runner. Sometimes things don’t go as planned and it took me over an hour longer this round. I placed 70th out of 150 runners. Last time I was 30th out of 90. According to ultrasignup, I performed better overall this time – at 66% compared to…
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…
Sam, a peak-bagging trail junkie friend, has been bugging me for a while to come join him up in SLC and the stars finally aligned for me to do so – to celebrate his birthday with a bunch of Orange Trail Monkeys up on Mt. Olympus. This was one of the peaks on my bucket list last year, but I failed to bag it. I knew these guys were fast and although Sam claimed he would be going slow, I…