Trails Before Dawn

Who gets up at 5:00 AM on New Year's Eve? I was tempted to sleep in, but really wanted to do this trail in the snow.  This was my first run with the South Utah County Trail Runners .  We met at the Jack Rabbit Chevron at the mouth of Spanish Fork Canyon and the five of us piled into Sean's Truck. We drove up the canyon to the Diamond Fork turnoff on the left.  From there we drove to the closed gate at the Palmyra Campground.   It was about 3 miles from the gate to the Three Fork's Trailhead, and then another three miles up 5th Water to the Hot Pots. Sean, Roberto, Monte, Tyler, Adam I enjoyed listening to inspiring stories from these four along the way. These are some tough trail runners. Roberto and Sean Adam and Tyler experienced a second wind on the way down. It was a chilly morning as you can see by the frost on Adam and Tyler's beards. Thanks to this group...

I found a way to connect to the Bonneville Shoreline Trail from Highway 6, at the mouth of Spanish Fork Canyon.  Just east of the monstrous windmills you will see a horseshoe pull-off on the left (north). There is a vague, steep and rocky double track trail that climbs to a power line trail.  It's just over 1/4 mile to the trail (.29 to be exact).  This is a good, wide roller coaster trail that goes for about 4 miles until it meets Mapleton Canyon.  I turned around about half way to Mapleton. You can see that I originally started at the first pull-off on the right.  After a short run along the highway, I realized connecter trail was a little farther up the road.  You can't miss the horseshoe pull-off on the north.  I wish I had taken a camera with me.  The view looking down SF Canyon at the windmills, and the valley all the way to Utah Lake was pretty spectacular.  The frigid canyon wind was not as enjoyable. Kevin Rowe was kind enou...

I decided this morning that this trail is meant to be done in the light.  It is very steep and fairly rocky. We made to nearly to the top of the switchbacks before turning back. It was a beautiful view of the valley lights from the switchbacks. Sean and Brian were like mountain goats on this trail.

I love this trail, and it was even better with a bunch of fantastic high school cross country runners. What a great team! The water seemed particularly blue today.  It was beautiful...and made up for the sulphuric stench. These athletes have a great coach!