Trails Before Dawn

It was a beautiful run up Rock Canyon before work this morning. The snow is melting, and the creek is very full. Toward the top, the trail was partially covered with snow and we missed an important left turn while following a smaller trail along the creek.  After a short jaunt along this more narrow trail, we recognized our mistake but decided to bushwack our way back onto the main trail.  That proved to be more of a task than we anticipated, but it was a fun adventure nonetheless.  Here, the water was running under the snow as we followed a creek back to the main trail.  Brian fell through, soaking his foot.   I made Brian stop for a picture with this fantastic backdrop as we approached the campground The trail down below was heavily traveled, but not many people made it this high. We made it to the campground just in time to turn around and race back to work.  Both of us had early meetings - a shame on a Friday morni...

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...