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…
It hit me the other day that I haven’t run a 50k since Bryce in June 2016 – almost 2 years ago. That kind of bummed me out. Life has gotten busy and I can’t bring myself to pay registration fees for races. I keep telling myself, “Oh, I’ll just run a 50k on my own for free.” But of course, I never do. I actually did try in December 2017, but it didn’t pan out. Well, fast forward to…
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,…
For supposedly being my favorite place in the Utah County Foothills, I don’t visit the Chris Fisher Flats meadow up above Grove and Battle Creek often enough. In fact, I realized it had been over a year. Wow. I think I’m done doing the Grove-Battle loop though. Coming down Battle has some no-fun rough spots…but some pretty spots. I can’t decide. Today I opted to go up and down Grove as I heard Battle was icy. It was just magnificent…
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…
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…
I summited a certain peak above Rock Canyon again – only my second time up there. The views are spectacular, but every time I go up or down Rock Canyon I tell myself I’m not putting it in heavy rotation. So rocky – not fun running. It is gorgeous though. This trip was planned when a visiting scholar wanted me to take them out trail-running. Max (who lives in Lincoln, NE where I spent 7 years) had a great time…