Year 2014

What a great year it was. Goals were met, boundaries were pushed, limits were broken, and above all friends were made. Here's a few highlights of our year.

February - The Wedge 50K

February - The Annual Beard Campout, which was a Beard Blizzard

April - Zion 100, DJ's first 100

April - Zion 100K, Steve and Sam's furthest distance

June - Bryce 100

June - Squaw 50, DJ and Jeff

July - The Triple Traverse

August - The Triple Crown

October - Chris finishes the inaugural OTM 100.

November - Across the Great Salt Lake

Y Mtn - Slate Canyon Loop

UT County Runners on Melanie's Rock on our way up to Y Mtn summit.

From the rear: Nate, Brian, Ben, Aaron, Tommy.

by Sam

I had the great opportunity to go down to Utah County and again run to the Y summit (not the letter on the mountain, the summit up and beyond) and also loop around hitting some new trails I've never done in Slate Canyon. Last time I did Y Mtn was in June and the aspen meadows were amazing. I love them just as much in winter.

We parked at the Rock Canyon trailhead and ran over to the Y trail during the waning dark hours. The forecast was rain and snow, but we didn't get much of either, it was mostly just overcast. The deepest snow we encountered was only about six inches. It was light and fluffy save for one small portion at the top of Slate Canyon. The conditions were ideal for a winter run.

False summit jump at the Overlook.

Clearing just before the saddle to Y Mtn.

Y Mtn summit Dew. I believe that makes it the Lord's Dew.

As we neared the saddle to the city overlook and Y Mtn summit the fog rolled in. Unfortunately, we were unable to see the city or the beautiful view over Rock Canyon and Squaw peak. Personally, I really like the foggy mist. It's eerie but cool. The winter quiet stillness brought my favorite feeling of serenity. I love running high in the mountains in the crisp air and snow where not many people go.

The Lovely Ladies, Melanie, Lori, Kristi.

Map and Stats of Y Mtn and Slate Canyon.

Logan Trails

by Sam

About 10 years ago I started my undergraduate studies in Music Education at USU in Logan. I was not a trail runner yet, heck I wasn't even physically active. If I could go back in time I'd definitely spend my free time exploring the trails in Cache County. This past weekend I attended an honor band symposium with two of my junior high students at USU. Needless to say, I took advantage of my spare time and bagged some peaks.

Map and Stats of Saddleback, Temple Baldy and Little Baldy in Logan.

From the USU campus you can look directly east and see what looks like two large drive-in theater screens on the immediate peak/ridge. Those are radio repeater towers and there used to be some on Mt. Wire in Salt Lake, but they took them down before I ever summitted that peak. The trail up the mountain is called Saddleback and it climbs straight up, just like Wire. Coincidentally the mileage is similar as well. I will always think of this trail as Logan's Wire. I caught the sunset on the way up and just as I summitted the moon was rising on the other side. It was a sweet moment.

I wonder how I should take the message CTR graffittied onto the tower.

Wimmertree.

I prefer Trail Junkie, and I love the spelling here.

Who's out there?

Running in the dark often provides many opportunities to be aware of the surrounding animals. I probably saw about 50 deer coming down the mountain. Their glowing eyes used to spook me a lot, but now I grown accustomed to them. However, when I get closer to the city or the BST and I see eyes glowing at me lower to the ground I fear greatly. Dogs are as good as their owns teach them to be. I've got better luck than my trail momma Jen because I've never been bitten, however, I've had a few close calls. Tonight was one of those. It always amazes me how the dialogue turns out:

Dog owner (after a menacing bark): Rover, come here girl. Oh don't worry she's friendly.

Me: So am I, most of the time. (I stopped dead in my tracks and start looking for big rocks to throw at the dog, just in case. Meanwhile the dog keeps barking and the owner casually walks along making little to no effort to restrain the animal)

Dog owner: It's ok girl, come here. She's usually not like this, you spooked her with your headlamp.

Me: (Biting my tongue so I don't say anything that's coming to my mind because it's just not nice)

Cody Draper and Me on Little Baldy. Providence Canyon behind.

Cody Draper, a local Logan trail runner, was nice enough to get bronchitis two weeks ago, which slowed him down to my speed, most of the time. He led me up to Temple Baldy and Little Baldy the next day. It was a hard climb with much post-holing the higher we got. The clouds obscured the sun most of the morning but we did see the Wellsville's bathed in sunlight for a moment. It was a good day.

The Wellsvilles.

Temple Baldy was Dew'd. Is that sacrilegious?

Looking at Little Baldy on the left, taken from Temple Baldy.

Summit monkey on the Repeater Towers.

Snow Basin Sardine Peak Loop - Trailskatoriing

By Steve

Snow Basin Sardine Peak Loop Map and Stats



Beautiful trees on Sardine switchbacks

Once the snow begins falling for the year, trail running becomes a new sport entirely.  It becomes a mixture of running, ice skating, skiing, snowshoeing, and mountaineering.  Let's call it trailskatoriing.  One way to survive the winter while trailskatoriing is to find trails that are generally tracked out most of the winter.  Some of my favorite trails include  the Bonneville Shoreline trail, Mueller Park, Mt. Olympus, Grandeur, The Pipeline trail, and a handful of trails that surround ski resorts where people go snow-shoeing at locations where everyone else already goes snow-shoeing, and thus, ironically, completely absolving oneself of the need for snow-shoes at all.   One such area is the sardine trail and summit that is directly to the north of the Snow Basin slopes. 

Sam, Chris, Jackie, and I met at the bottom of Wheeler creek by the Pineview Dam in order to see if we could extend our loop to 20 miles.  It turns out with warm weather combined with a snowy trail that has had too much foot traffic has the same effect as a Zamboni.  The entire width of the Wheeler creek trail was as icy as the floor of the Olympic skating oval.  After shuffling for a mile and a half, we turned up Icebox canyon, which completely lived up to its name by being in pretty much the same condition. 



View of Snow Basin Ski Resort

Once the sun came up and we were of the shadow of the mountain, the rest of the journey was a mixture of muddy and icy stretches.  Generally, this is a great trail that was well built, with long slow switchbacks.  As you get close to the summit of Sardine Peak, you hit a fork in the trail, which effectively runs a circle around the summit.  With as much mountain biking, hiking, and snow-shoeing traffic as this area receives, it is quite surprising that there is not a trail from that loop around the summit which doesn't require bushwhacking through shrubs to actually get to the summit.  It appears most people summit from the west, but that is based only on a slight decrease in shrubs on that side.

On our descent towards Snow Basin, the running was fantastic and speedy, even with the snow, ice, and mud.  We took a 1.25 roundtrip detour to get out to the Ogden Overlook to add in the extra mileage and take a gander at the view.



victory chug

Reaching Snow Basin, and about 12 miles into our run, we began to figure out the best way to get over to the Green Pond trail without crossing any ski slopes.  We decided to take the main road south for a mile where we could then take a service road for 200 yards up to the single track.  The road was an uphill climb, and Chris and I had a good laugh at Sam who has come to believe that running on pavement gives you cooties.  Once we were back on the single track we headed south towards Green Pond. 

To my surprise, the section of southbound single track between Snow Basin and the Green Pond junction was not tracked out at all.  Once we reached the pond though, the running was again good and the trail tracked out.  We took the longer, East Fork route back down to Art Nord, and then once again braved the skating rink for the 1.75 miles back down Wheeler Creek.  So as far as trailskatoriing mountain runs go, I'd say this one is a good loop that, assuming you have good traction, should be a good one all winter long.


World famous Jackie leap

Running through a clearing, Sardine summit on far left
 

 

Quad Envy

Running across the Great Salt Lake

Chris, Ben, Aaron, Jeff.

by Sam

Unique. "I promise it'll be unique," Aaron said. This run was most definitely unique. I don't think anything will ever match it's uniqueness. No mountain peak. No lofty views. No upness. It was uniquely flat, that is, completely utterly flat. The wind was uniquely strong. And, the water was extremely uniquely cold. Wait, why would we run across the Great Salt Lake in below freezing conditions? Well, I'll tell you.

Map and Stats of the Land Bridge run from Antelope Island to Freemont Island in the Great Salt Lake.

Every so often the water in the Great Salt Lake recedes enough to form a land bridge between Antelope and Freemont Islands. We were expecting to run across this land bridge. Unfortunately, there was enough precipitation in the last storms to leave an inch or two of water. It was about 28 degrees when we started, but the wind was probably about 30 mph coming out of the north chilling the air closer to 20 degrees. Water normally freezes at 32 degrees, however the higher the salt content the lower the freezing temp. becomes. So after about 10 steps in the water our feet were frozen. It was a strange sensation. Ben and I were committed and continued on with high spirits. Matt turned around quickly muttering something about not wanting to lose any toes. Jeff dragged his feet and I heard some new sounds from Chris, moaning and groaning. He was at an all time low. I've never heard such sounds coming from him before. That was unique.

As the night slowly turned to day, clouds and color reflected in the water. It was surreal. We ran on water, on cloud, on land, on sky. If not for gravity's pull we may have lost ourselves among the sky and watery land. Oh, but the wind blew. Sand, dust and cold obscured my vision causing me to often run with eyes closed. No need to fear falling. The ground was utterly flat with no obstructions. Feet like rocks, cold, solid, heavy. Hands freezing now too, as well as face. In fact, everything seems to have frozen from water or wind. Everything exposed and otherwise not, all the appendages, feet, nose, hands, and...

Chris and his eye protection.

Sam, Jeff, and what's left of Aaron's skull.

After what seemed like a lifetime the water ended.  Only a few minutes and my feet warmed to a somewhat comfortable temperature. The last few miles to the island only consisted of sand, salt and wind. The trouble with running on flat terrain is that no matter how close you get to your destination it doesn't seem any closer until you're practically there. Had it been warmer we may have gone to summit the high point of the island, but nearly as soon as we arrived we turned back, anxious to be done.


The trip back was slightly better. The wind was more at the back, but not entirely. The water was expected and well, let's face it, just as cold. As we neared the causeway we could see people stopping to look at birds or coyotes. I'm sure the ones who noticed us got a good laugh and a questioning stare. The scenery was unmatched and well, unique. The run was the most miserably, awful, unique thing I've ever done. The company was, as always, fantastic. What more can you ask for from the Wasatch Mountain Wranglers?

Small Freemont Island to the left. 

Freemont Island behind Ben and Aaron.

Chris, Aaron, Jeff, Ben, Sam

Aaron made a video that captured the uniqueness of this adventure.

He also picked the perfect music to fit the mood.

Wellsville Traverse

By Steve

My co-workers are hunters. So our conversations of the backcountry cross paths, especially when it comes to routes to certain mountain basins.  One of them jokingly asked me this last week to go explore the Wellsville mountain range in order to check out a nice spot for him for next year.  He laughed when my reply was a simple, "ok!"

I reached out to Sam and we planned to go the coming Saturday and go hit the 4 main peaks of the Wellsville range.  Sam put out an invitation to the Wasatch Mountain Wrangler group, which now has grown to over 1300 people.  I had to laugh when no one even responded to the Facebook post.  Ha!  No one likes Sam!

Borrowing from the description from SummitPost.org,

"The Wellsville Mountains are at the Northern end of the Wasatch Range of Utah lying between Brigham City and the Cache Valley. The Range is basically one high, steep, ridge the entire length. The ridge stays above 8,000 feet for nearly its entire length. They are extremely rugged and are considered by some to be the steepest mountain range in the United States. The range is very narrow, only about 5 miles wide at its widest point, and runs North-South for about 20 miles from the Bear River in the North to Highway 89 in Box Elder Canyon on the South. It also rises from about 4,500 ft. on either side (in less that 5 miles) to an elevation of 9,372 ft. at Box Elder Peak (Bob Stewart Peak on the USGS quad) and 9,356 ft. at Wellsville Cone. The range has no foothills so from either side it appears to be a giant mountainous wall rising directly from the valley floor."

The mountain has claws

Our plan was to hit the 4 main peaks, which include Mitton Peak to the South, Box Elder Peak, The Wellsville Cone, and Mendon Peak to the North.  I have to say, the run looked a lot easier on paper than it turned out to be.  We found out later that there are two additional sub peaks along the ridge between the Wellsville Cone and Mendon Peak that are usually included in a full traverse of the range, but since the trail goes right beneath Scout Peak and Lookout Point, we weren't overly concerned with hitting those.

The initial climb from Sardine Canyon was easy at first, but quickly became a steeper climb.   Not quite Mt Olympus steep, but still a climb.  As we approached the ridge, the shrubs decided to come to life and attack our knees.  Without the branches everywhere, the trail would be in great shape.  It was well built and mostly free of rocks and roots.  Reaching the ridge, we turned and bush-whacked our way along something of a trail south to Mitton Peak.  For parts of it the shrubs cleared away and we were able to run the rolling ridge towards the peak.  I actually found this peak to be quite nice, and I'd include it again in any traverse.


Running south to Mitton

Getting back to the main trail, we made a steep ascent up to Box Elder Peak, before the short drop down to the saddle and back up to the Wellsville cone.  This area was somewhat rugged through sparse evergreens, but still quite runnable on the downhill.

Now the fun began.  We went down what Cody Draper referred to as "mini hard rock," where the trail made some switch-backs across the almost cliff-like western face of the Cone.  Sam and I each had a comical tilt towards the mountain side as we carefully jogged down those.  After getting back over the pass below Scout Peak, we were able to pick up the pace as we ran 3 miles over to Mendon Peak.  That was ridge running at its finest. A rolling trail over a grassy, long ridge with views of Logan valley, Brigham City, and Tremonton. 



Saggy shorts means less bushwhacking on the knees

I can balance on rocks exactly like Aaron Williams

As we reached Mendon Peak, we came across a fellow Wrangler from Logan.  Cody Draper (or as I started referring to him, Replacement Chris), was doing a full double traverse which apparently doesn't usually include Mitton Peak.  He ended up with 24 miles and 10,000' vert.  He ran with us most of the way back, but kept breaking off to hit all the peaks again.  Even with that, he kept passing me and Sam on the return trip back to the car.  On that note, I should really say that he kept passing ME.  Sam had one of his strongest days I've seen him have this year.  He's been trying to run without bloks and gels anymore, and instead use mostly TailWind and a little bit of real food.  He's also added a little bit of iron supplements.  It sure appeared to be working, as he was strong most of the way back.  Even after his 5-6 hour wall, I was the biggest thing slowing him down.

Nearly to Mitton Peak.

As we finished, the rain/snow was just starting to hit us and Sam got to watch from safely inside the car as a giant gust of wind and dust pelted me because he refused to unlock the passenger door until I was sufficiently shredded by 70 mph dust.  From now on I'm going to join the other 1300 Wranglers who ignore him.

Box Elder Peak

Flying summit monkey (Wellsville Cone)

East face switchback of the Wellsville Cone



Victory chug on 4th peak (Mendon).  Box Elder Peak is back in the distance.

Cody Draper on the right.  Gas Station in the middle.

Storm coming in as we started the final Box Elder descent

Last mile through the trees.  I was getting cold.

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