{"id":350,"date":"2014-04-01T21:50:37","date_gmt":"2014-04-01T16:50:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/professorontherun.wordpress.com\/?p=350"},"modified":"2015-06-12T14:11:41","modified_gmt":"2015-06-12T20:11:41","slug":"nighttime-cougar-bait-snow-jaunt-up-shepherd-creek-canyon-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/professorontherun.com\/?p=350","title":{"rendered":"Nighttime Cougar-Bait Snow Jaunt Up Shepherd Creek Canyon Area"},"content":{"rendered":"

The kids were in bed, the sun was on its way down, my ankle felt “ok” and there was a fresh 1 inch of snow on the trails above town, with a little rain\/snow still spitting – what a perfect time to go for a run.<\/p>\n

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El Bandito de Farmington strikes again! (I didn’t end up needing the bandana as it wasn’t as cold as I had thought it would be<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I strapped on my Montrail Badrock, which I had intended to be my snow\/wet mud shoes but have hardly used and drove up to uber-rich neighborhoods above Fruit Heights\/Farmington where there are a few trail-heads into Shepherd Creek and other canyons north. Knowing the sun would soon be down, I put on my headlamp and took off. The soft fresh snow gave a great cushion to the trail, and other than deer and bunny tracks, mine were the only feet to have touched the few hours-old snowfall.<\/p>\n

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Trail heading up north flank of Shepherd Creek<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I climbed, veered north and ascended a rocky ridge that overlooked the canyon just north of Shepherd Creek Canyon.<\/p>\n

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Rock overlook point just north of Shepherd Creek Canyon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At this point, it became hard to distinguish which trails were actually trails, and which were just animal tracks in the snow. I pulled google maps up on my phone continuous and looked at the satellite images to try and gauge where I should go. I climbed the north ridge of that small canyon briefly, before crossing and bushwhacking my way back down the other side. The snow actually\u00a0 made the descent down what I assume were loose gravel slides nice and cushioned.<\/p>\n

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The other nice thing about the virgin snow is that if you get lost, you can just follow your backwards footprints back down the mtn.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I could have done without the multiple rock outcroppings that looked like perfect perches for Cougars to be staring down at me from.\u00a0 Shiver.<\/p>\n

I made my way back down to the car, by which time it was dark. Unfortunately, I had only clocked a mile. So, I crossed over to the south side of Shepherd Creek, took that trail up until a branch descends down to the creek. As it was pitch black, covered in snow, and I had never been there before – I decided it would\u00a0 be a good idea to try and get down to the creek, cross it, scramble back up the north side to the power lines and explore them back down to the original trail I had just descended previously.<\/p>\n

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Crossing Shepherd Creek – glad to see a nice big rock in the middle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Not the smartest choice, but it ended up going well. It was fun to get out in the dark – though terrifying at times – and great to run some fresh beautiful snow.<\/p>\n

1.8 miles in 27:09 @ 15:17 pace with 870 ft. elevation<\/a><\/p>\n

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