Trails Before Dawn

I met up with Sean for the middle section of his 14-miler (Dry Canyon - Grove Creek Loop).  I parked at the mouth of Battle Creek and caught Sean who had started twenty-five minutes early at Dry Canyon.  We followed the dirt roads north along the bench to Grove Creek, ran up the steep Grove Creek trail to Indian Springs (One of my favorite places in all of Utah County), and then I let him continue along the Curly Springs Trail to Dry Canyon while I ran down Battle Creek and returned home just in time to help shuttle kids to soccer games. My phone crashed half way through, and I forgot to start my watch, so I don't have the exact mileage or a map.  I have done this run backward several times - click here for that to see that info.  Indian Springs

I met up with Eric and his crew for a run from Rock Canyon to the Y and back. This was the first time I have started at Rock Canyon to run the Y.  The 1.5 miles along the Bonneville Shoreline Trail was a good warm-up before hitting the steep uphill to the top of the Y.  At the top, we met some visitors from Philadelphia who were in town for an Imagine Learning conference.  I enjoyed hearing then talk about the scenery and was reminded of how fortunate I am to have fifty or more amazing trails within fifteen miles. The BST on the way back was no stroll in the park, with several decent-sized rollers. Mentally, I felt like I was done when I made it to the Y parking lot.  The jaunt back to Rock Canyon at the break of dawn was enjoyable nonetheless. Overall, we gained 1,740 feet in elevation over the 5.6 miles - a great way to start the day! Sean, Monte, Eric Sean ran a trail half marathon last weekend, so he decided to take it a little slower this mor...

It was a snowy and slippery adventure this morning.  We started at the Orem gun range parking above the Orem water towers, and ran north on the BST to Dry Canyon.  At the top of Dry Canyon we did our best to follow trail 051, but after a few miles we found ourselves trailblazing in a foot of fresh powder.  It was a beautiful run up into the clouds. We eventually looped around to the south and found our way back to the parking lot.    Looking down Dry Canyon just before the break of dawn  Sean Cox and Seth Meyer  This was my first run with Seth.  I don't think he believes in pants.  A slippery downhill Tough runners: Eric, Sam, Seth and Sean The home stretch

Brian, Sean, Craig and I met up for a shorter run in the snow today.  We originally planned to run from Rock Canyon to Slate Canyon (leaving a car at Slate to shuttle back).  After starting along the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, however, the bitter cold wind gave us another idea.  So we turned around and ran up Rock Canyon to the Squaw Peak Turnoff.   This has been an unusually snowy winter, but the trail was packed and the snow on the trees and hillsides was absolutely breathtaking.   Craig, Brian, and Sean

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...