Midnight Monkeys

By Steve

Sometimes when I sit at work, I think of possible big runs I would like to do.  Usually it involves me sending my thoughts to Sam in an email.  Then before I know it, he's discussed the idea with his wife and has responded with a resounding, "I'm in, let's meet at {such and such a time}"  So, before I've fully thought through the idea for myself, I'm already facing a start time.  While I'm still wondering if it is really a good idea,  Sam is already lacing up his shoes.  While I'm still analyzing how much time it will take, Sam is already packing his toilet paper... which never seems to make it back to the trail head anyway.  Such was the case this last Friday.

I had missed my big Friday morning run, so I just tossed out the idea to Sam of meeting at Farmington Canyon after the kids were in bed, which would be around 9:00pm.  He quickly abandoned his run planned for Saturday and was suddenly pushing me to make it happen.  The idea was to run up Farmington Canyon to the Francis Peak road gate, and if there was any possibility of getting to Francis Peak without snowshoes, we'd try to make it.  Before the work day was done, Sam was able to "Wrangle" up a little more interest through Facebook, getting Matt Van Horn, a Farmington native, to come along as well.

After a mile, the two guys who weren't me stopped to fertilize the sides of the road.  I kept a steady pace till I started getting pretty cold.  Around mile 7, the temperature had dropped into the teens, and I  was considering turning back.  I was under dressed for this excursion, and sadly, It was the same mistake I made on Ibapah in the Fall, which caused me back out before the summit.  It's amazing how much being cold can destroy your motivation.  This time however, I was carrying another layer Sam had given me at the trail head, and I threw it over without regard to stretching it, and quickly warmed up to the point where I was now excited to keep going.  

Sam and I reached the gate, (MVH turned back around mile 6 finishing up a 100 mile week) and were a little sad to see that Francis Peak road didn't even have a trace of footprints or tracks.  We went a little farther up the Bountiful peak road, but turned back after a few good post holes past our knees.

There are moments when running that just stand out from all the rest.   Running down the canyon that night was one of those moments..  1:00 in the morning, running mile after mile down a packed snowy road.  Our breath, lit up by the light from our headlamps,  gathering around us as we take deep breaths of the cold winter air.  Chatting away with a stinky ugly bearded guy, who makes surprisingly good company.

Millcreek Yurt

Winter has a beauty all its own that summer cannot match. I love the stillness of a snow covered mountain, summitting snow capped peaks and I love the fresh brisk air. However, winter also brings different challenges. Traction and cold are the two biggest factors but also the dark, a lack of enthusiasm, the occasional illness and the nasty inversion. In the summer I enjoyed early starts to a long solo run. I tried to continue this throughout the winter but running along in the dark on a mountain trail when you can see the fresh cougar tracks messes with the mind. Not that it stops me completely, but it has a handful of times.

Francesco, Mama Jennilyn, Mama Jen, Nate from Tron, Me, yet another Matt

I have found that one of the best ways to get over the winter blues is to get out on more group runs. Motivation comes much more quickly when other people are involved. The past two weeks I've ran up Millcreek Canyon a few nights with some Wranglers. We park at the winter gate and from there run up the well packed road to the yurt and turn around. It's about 4.5 miles up a mostly gradual incline and very runnable, even without traction. Francesco has been the main organizer of these runs and it's been a different group of people of varying speeds each time I've gone. As always, all the people I meet in my sport have been great to share a trail with.

Map and Stats of Millcreek winter gate to yurt.

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

My brother Matt is working his way into the trail running game.  Back in high school, he was a better distance runner than me, but due to a whole lot of school and many new promotions over the last 12 years, he's a little late getting back into the running game.  I'm not entirely sure, but I think he finally caught the bug when we went on our summer backpacking trip up to North Willow last summer.  He recently moved to Mesa AZ, and one of the requirements of his house hunt was the proximity to the mountains.  The first peak that caught my attention when I was helping him identify good areas was the Four Peaks area of Mazatzal mountain range.  It is called Four Peaks because of the very distinct 4 peaks.  The only one that is named is the tallest and northern most one, Browns Peak, which has a summit height of 7,657 feet.  Considering Mesa down below is only at 1,243',  it was a significant elevation change for Mattie.

Looking East towards Four Peaks above a lot of cacti.
Browns is the leftmost peak.

The road to get up to the four peaks trail head was a very rough, very slow 20 miles of dirt road.  Not being a native to AZ, it was amazing to see the thousands and thousands of 25' tall cacti.  I half expected the road runner and Wyle-E-Coyote to dart across the road.  We decided that getting a commuter car up there would be a difficult task indeed, and were glad we were in my Durango.  But upon reaching the trail head, most of the cacti were now down below us, and the mountain felt like home to me.

Mattie, about a mile in.

The actual trail from there is a rather short 2.5 miles to the summit, and most of that is runnable.  I need to point out and gloat a little that it felt so good to be running on a dry dirt trail again.  Everything was going smooth until we got to the last 500' scramble up the scree shoot.  Right before attempting it, we chatted with a man who said that he was going to loop around to the north, where the ridge drops down lower, and then follow the ridge to the summit.  I'm still quite surprised that no trail takes that route.  But because of the lack of trail, we decided to go up the shoot.  After climbing the scree for a minute, Mattie became somewhat uncomfortable climbing up the loose rock that required hand and foot, and I didn't blame him.  So, we looped back down to attempt to go around to the lower ridge.

Proof of my failure to find a good route.

Climbing through shrubs through a few inches of snow around to the north, we tried to make our way over to the ridge.  Then I made the mistake of trying to cut up the mountain a little early before we reached it.  The cliffs forced us back towards the south, and before we knew it, we were right back at the scree shoot, about 50' higher than we were the first time.

At this point, we called it.  Our wives wanted to go out shopping later that day and we decided we didn't have enough time to try again.  The great thing about mountains is that they aren't going anywhere.  I'll be back to visit Mattie soon enough, and when I do, I'll get my revenge on Browns, and it will feel the full weight of a little plastic red monkey.

Browns Peak map and stats.

Lone Peak Snowshoeing Adventure

Me, Cy, Ashley's husband, Matt, Steve, Ashley, MVH, Milk Drinker

Me, 3 yrs. ago
just below Ennis Peak.

Exactly three years ago I started training for my first marathon. My biggest worry was mile times and my smallest worry was how to fuel. I hadn't ran seriously since I was in high school (if you want to consider that serious, I don't really). I had always loved hiking and being in the outdoors but didn't start trail running until after the marathon. I was inexperienced. Just look at the excellent photo on the left. I was sporting my wonderful heat trapping scout hat, a cotton shirt with some extremely flexible jeans :)  Oh, and don't forget the comfy backpack and hiking shoes. Yeah, I was almost hip. I look back and laugh at many things. The clothes, shoes, packs, food, blisters and fatigue.

Much has changed over the past three years. Summitting Lone Peak in the middle of winter is a direct result of these changes. The first time I hiked Lone Peak was before I considered myself a trail runner and a year before my first marathon. It is one of my favorite mountains to be on. Unfortunately, I was unable to get up there this last summer, so when I heard about a winter ascent by the Wasatch Mountain Wranglers I jumped at the opportunity. I've wanted to do a winter camp up at the cabin or in the cirque below the summit as well.

Lone Peaks on Lone Peak.

A fellow Wrangler, Matt Van Horn (MVH), organized this excursion. I've gotten to know him online over the past year but this was the first time I met him in person. There were nine of us, and I'd never met any of them before this run (MVH said he doesn't run with snowshoes on his back, but he's a liar). I marvel at how I can spend nine hours on a mountain of pain and joy with a bunch of people I've never met before. Every time I meet new people on a group run it always seems like we've been friends for a long time. This trip was no exception.

We started about 6:00 a.m. at the Orson Smith Trailhead. After about two miles we rested a moment and collected ourselves. One of the group was falling far behind already. When we saw his headlamp the group moved on. I hung back and decided to hike with him to give him a bit of encouragement. He'd never been on the trail before and mentioned that he'd only started running this past year. It's never fun to be on a new trail by yourself in the dark. I hiked with him about two more miles until it was light and I knew he would be able to follow our tracks on the trail.

The group summitting Ennis Peak, about 4.5 miles in, 3 more before Lone.

I ran through the part of the trail that is called the tunnel and started up the next steep part just catching the group as the trail leveled off for a time. Soon thereafter we stopped to strap on the snowshoes. For some reason my pack wouldn't surrender my snowshoes so it took me about 20 mins, no joke, just to get them unstrapped. I was getting cold and needed to start moving and I had fallen behind once again. Just as I finally started out I caught a glimpse of the slow dude. I was relieved that he wasn't lost. I shouted an encouraging word and set off to try and catch up to the group again.

First view of Lone Peak after going up and over Ennis Peak.

Scrambling

It took me about a mile and a half and a little more than an hour but I finally caught them. I enjoyed hiking with them the last mile or so to the saddle above the cirque. This part of the mountain is absolutely stunning, summer or winter. It is a long arduous hike to arrive at this point and well worth it. Upon arrival at the saddle we rested a moment and removed the snowshoes for the final ascent. This part of the trail often requires you to bend over on hand and knee in order to scramble up the steep slope to the top.

There are several spots that are actually quite treacherous to traverse in the summer that require boulder hopping on some crags. So you can imagine how much more dangerous walking across a knife edge of snow might be. Not to mention this snow was particularly loose and powdery. It was dangerous to say the least. I have little experience doing this and I don't own an ice axe. So I didn't go all the way to the summit, which is ok. I'm still alive. Maybe next time. Five out of the nine made it to the summit. The rest of us didn't have a slight death wish so we got as close as we could.

The brave 5 almost at the summit.

Almost summit monkey.

After getting back down to the saddle we ate lunch and prepared ourselves for the descent. I took my tights off, changed my socks and ate some jerky and a snickers bar. We couldn't have asked for a better day. It was a beautiful clear sky and actually quite warm. Ashley did the entire hike in short shorts and a tank top. At times I wished I had packed a bit lighter on the clothing, but better safe than sorry. We came across the last member of the group and he decided to make the final climb alone. We wished him well and I said a little prayer in my head for him, then we took off.

Going down was a lot of fun. It involved running in snowshoes, trying to ski in snowshoes, slipping and sliding now and then, and bunny rabbit hopping which usually ended with my face in the snow. When we got around Ennis Peak we took off the snowshoes and I said my goodbyes and started running. I told my wife I'd be home around 1:30 at the earliest. I was now almost an hour late and still had about four miles to go before reaching the trailhead.

I can't wait to do it again. Great views and great people. It was a spectacular day. I took tons of cool photos, here's a few more:

One of the knife-edge ridges. The Salt Lake Valley in the background.

Matt and Me.

MVH, the first to summit.

Lone Peak, The Majestic.

Map and Stats of Lone Peak, winter ascent.

Things and New Year and Goals and Stuff

2013 is over.  Finally.  Generally speaking, I've had better years.

It feels good to have a fresh start.  And like any ambitious amateur athlete, I've set some goals for myself for the new year.  And I'm really excited to go out and reach them.  With these goals,  I'm hoping 2014 will be a break out year for me.  And I'll let Sam tag along and ride my tail wind.   For the last three years, Sam and I have hovered around 1,000 miles per year each, and while it's felt really good to accomplish this 3 years in a row, like some kind of crack addict,  this just ain't cuttin' it any more, and we need some more of the good stuff.  

Goal 1:  2,014 miles in 2014.

One thing Sam really did this last year was to stop being such a social misfit and actually start talking to people.  The facebook group for the Wasatch Mountain Wranglers has led Sam to reach out to a lot of new people and make some new buddies.  I on the other hand prefer to keep a rather low online profile with the philosophy that it is better to remain quiet and let everyone think you're a fool than to open your mouth and prove it.  Especially for the whole world to see on the internet.  But giving Sam his credit, we have got to know a lot of awesome runners.  And one thing we've learned is that the more we hang out with them, the more we realize we need to up our games.  So, with that in mind, we signed up for our longest race to date.

Goal 2:  Complete the Zion 100k race.

This was, of course, a prerequisite required by my wife for me to sign up for my first 100 miler.  We are planning on doing that in the fall, pending the needed home budget appropriations for:

Goal 3:  Complete the Bear 100 mile race.

Of course, when setting goals, you have to set smaller goals to get to the larger goal.  So here's some of my sub-goals:

Subgoal 1:  100 miles in the first 10 days of January

Subgoal 2:  250 miles by January 31

Subgoal 3:  Finish the HOMM Oquirrman challenge.

Subgoal 4:  Quest For Kings Marathon finish time of less than 6 hours.

Subgoal 5:  Summit Mount Olympus in 1 hour 20 min or less.

And speaking of Mount Olympus...

We decided to spend our first run of the year on that guy.  Sam put out the invitation to the Wasatch Mountain Wranglers that on January 1 we were going to start at 7:00, and sure enough, a few people showed up to join us.

Trevor, who had taken home the Quest for Kings marathon cowbell two years ago, took off early, and I didn't catch up to him till the summit.  He reached the summit in an astonishing time of 1 hour 12 min.  26 minutes later I reached the summit with my third best summit time ever.  I'm feeling pretty good about that considering it is still winter and that I haven't done any real "red-line" or steep incline training since my last injury.  Sam and Jeremy came trotting up about 10 minutes later, and then we all went cruising down together.  Loved the run.  Quads are still sore.

Chris going down, and Jeremy going up the final scramble

Jeremy, Sam, and Trevor

Jeremy, Steve, and Trevor

2013 Year in Review

A third rate video of a couple second rate runners.

The year started out with our annual beard campout at the North Willow Cirque in the Stansburry Mountains. This is one of our favorite areas to camp because of the lack of use and the extremely beautiful sunrise on the cirque's rock formations. It was a strenuous hike that required much snowshoeing but totally worth it.

Jake, Steve, Jesse, Sam at the N Willow Cirque

This year I have met a lot of new people through the Wasatch Mountain Wranglers. In February I was able to go on an adventure run with some of them to The Wedge down in the San Rafael Swell. That was one of the funnest good times I've ever had. Rim Running is an experience everyone should take the time to do. I'm looking forward to it again in 2014.

Me, Rob, Davy, Matt on one of the overlooks of the Good Water Rim Trail

Sunrise on Antelope Island, about mile 14

Steve and I spent most of the beginning of the year training for our first 50 miler, the Antelope Island Buffalo Run. Much of this training happened earlier than ever before. Like 4:00 a.m. early. For me, that's almost the only way to get my mileage in because of my early work schedule. We started out the year meeting about once a month on the Skyline Drive, at either Farmington Canyon or the Bountiful B. Recently it evolved into a weekly meeting on Friday mornings at 4:00 a.m. usually at Mueller Park. Unfortunately, Steve suffered some injuries that prohibited his participation in the Buffalo Run, so I had to run it as a solo monkey. It was a great and terrible experience for me. Read about it here.

Umstead Park, North Carolina

The summer flew by with many small and large adventure runs. I got to run at Umstead Park in North Carolina, which was absolutely beautiful and terribly humid.



Steve's highlight of the summer was our Skyline Drive 50K loop. He pulled me along the entire time and even picked me up and carried me when I was almost dead. No, really. Steve also invented a new stretch. He was nice enough to name it after one of my regular practices right before I started a run every morning. The stretch is called: Trailheads, and it involves stretching the soleus calf muscle. Basically, all you need to do is squat down like your gonna...well you get the gist.

Steve descending King's summit

As always, one of the funnest runs we do all year is the Quest for King's Marathon put on by Craig Lloyd. Steve also put forth an awesome performance that day. I was sick the whole time and did about the same as last year. I think Jake was there but I may be mistaken.

Sam & Steve with Ibapah in the background.

The last monumental run of the season was in October. We traveled to one of the more remote areas on the Utah-Nevada border and summitted Mt. Ibapah, the 8th most prominent peak in Utah. The fall leaves were amazing and the granite boulders were spectacular. It wouldn't surprise me if we just happened to do it again next fall.

2013 was a very eventful year full of new friends, new heights, more mileage, faster times and an injury or two. Here's to a very prosperous new year to come. We hope it brings us success as we train for the Zion 100K, the HOMM, Quest for Kings, and the Bear 100 Miler, among other great adventure runs along the way.

Running Along in the Dark

 

 

500 lumens rolling down the trail.

 

 

Sam and his measly one headlamp

Darkness and snow.  That is all you get for the next 4 months.  You can embrace it; or slumber the winter away.  You can enjoy the fresh mountain air; or you can breathe the crap down in the valley.  You can gain 15 lbs over the holidays, or you can adapt to the season and get in some, (dare I say it?) awesome runs.

So the question I asked myself was this:  How do I enjoy running in the darkness and snow?  First... a steady plan on some good, well tracked out trails is a great start.  So, I asked Sam if he would be up for a weekly, Friday run of the Mueller Park loop.  The idea is that, unless otherwise stated, we will have a standing appointment, all the way through March, where we will meet on Fridays at 4:00 am at the Mueller Park trailhead. Then, taking consideration of the trail conditinos, run as far up the trail as we have time for.   Once you hit Rudy's Flats, you might as well keep going, since the running will be all downhill for the rest of the loop and would take about as much time either way to get back to the car.



Mueller Park Bountiful Blvd loop Map and Stats

Matt Ricks has joined us the last two weeks on this run.  We would love to have this be a group run every Friday, so If there is anyone who actually reads our blog (hi mom), you are welcome to join us.  However, this next Friday (Nov 29) we won't be running.

So... the second part of running this time of year is how to deal with the darkness.  A good headlamp is key.  However, I noticed that I don't love running in the darkness with my headlamp.  And after a few early, dark, trail runs this year, I figured out why.  Even though I love my Coast headlamp,  with the lamp so close to my eyes, I couldn't see the projected shadows from rocks, roots, and branches.  


Wristlamps.  You know you want one.

This made it quite difficult to determine depth perception, and my running slowed to a crawl.  So, being the ingenious thinker that I am, I decided to make some "wrist-lamps" to add to my headlamp.  I wanted to still have my hands free, so I bought two more Coast 175 lumen lamps, and did some Frankenstein work on the headlamps till I had two new wristlamps.  The other thing I did was to buy a bunch of good rechargeable batteries for them, so that every time I run, they have full power.  Sure, it cost me about $70 to get my lighting situation under control, but blasting 500 lumens of light on the trail makes running in the dark pretty cool, and removes the sense of impending darkness that you feel is constantly waiting to ambush you.


Here comes the train.

Yup... Embrace the season.  That means you Jake.

Area 51...I mean Trail 51

Matt Clark, Carl Grimaud, Jennifer Richards, Susette Fisher, Bill Hiatt, Me, R. Jeffrey Davis, (Nate Younger, taking the photo)

I made some Utah County friends this morning. It was the first time I've ever ran trails in Utah County. It was also my first Winter Wonderland run this year. Oh, I've been in the snow several times in the past month or so, but this is the first snow storm I've ran in. I guess I gotta grow my beard again.

Jen and Susette at the Rock Pile.

Bill, Nate, and I started on the BST at the Water Tower/Shooting Range parking lot in Orem, just above the cemetery. I had no idea how long I'd be out, so I packed for the long haul. I thought it would be colder too so I wore one layer to many. Bill quickly took the lead even without a headlamp. Nate and I wondered if we'd ever see him again. It was a little more than a mile to the Dry Canyon parking lot where we met everyone else. It has been months since I've ran with Nate and Jeff, it was good to see them again. The others I met at the trailhead. We had a great time.

We started up Dry Canyon and turned off on Trail 51. From there we crossed over way too many intersecting trails. It's a good thing Nate and Bill were there to guide us. Otherwise I'd be wandering around in circles, returning to a big rock pile from eight different directions. I'm not even kidding. The rock pile marks a trail crossing of like eight trails.

Nate & Bill.

I like running. I can now say that most of the time I run alone. Periodically I run with one or two others. I think the last time I ran with more than five people was in July when I went to Umstead Park in North Carolina. Running with a group is always fun. I like getting to know new trail runners. Some of the people I ran with today seemed surprised that I would drive 45 mins. to run with them. As I said, I like running. I'll go by myself most of the time, but it's nice to get out with other people. Chances are I'll see them at a race someday. Hopefully I can remember names and faces. I've ran with Nate twice now, but when I got out of the car and started talking to him I introduced myself. He gave me a funny look and paused, then said "I'm Nate" in a you-should-know-that-voice. Silly me. It was dark and I hadn't seen him in winter gear before, not that those are good excuses. Anyway, I had a great run today with some new buddies. Maybe, just maybe I'll remember who you are. :)

Hey, who's holding up the line?

Map and Stats of Trail 51, Dry Canyon, BST and others.

Adventures in Millcreek

Yucky Inversion.

Grandeur west face ascent.

It was nice to get up to the mountain trails this week. Lately, I've spent most of my time on a dirt canal road near my house at 4:00 a.m. I'd post pictures but there's nothing to see in the dark, and the story I could tell you don't really want to hear, trust me. Anyway, I've wanted to do the Grandeur-Pipeline Loop for some time now. Yesterday I finally got around to it. I've done Grandeur a few times via Church Fork, but this was my first time ascending the west face. It was a brutal climb to say the least. The trail rivaled Mt. Olympus' steepness, but was thankfully about a mile less to the summit. I passed many hikers and their dogs. I even saw a guy with some 5-fingers on. Wha ha! On the way up I turned and viewed the valley a few times. I bet most people thought it was an unusually nice day for the second week of November. What I saw was a nasty looking inversion.

Summit Monkey.

I tried something new this run. I only ate solid food, no energy bloks or gels. I had some English muffins on the drive to the trailhead, a burrito about an hour into the climb, and some fig newtons and beef jerky during the remaining two hours. I didn't feel low on energy and was able to get it all down with ease. However, when I had finished and gotten home I still had to force myself to eat. I have trouble eating after my longer runs. I hope someday I can figure it out. 

After summitting Grandeur I headed down Churchfork slipping and sliding on the icy-muddy trail for the first mile or so. After that I flew down to the Pipeline pretty quickly. I could see that the sun was only touching the tops of the mountains, it was starting to set. That was not good. I was only 1/2 way done and still had about six miles to go. It would soon be dark and cold. I pushed my speed, wanting to reach the side trail that shoots up over one of the mountains then back down to 

Map & Stats of the Grandeur Loop.

eventually connect me to where I started.

 I reached the Rattlesnake Gulch trail and knew that the shoot off trail was close. The first trail I saw in the waning light looked small and more of a game trail. I said a little prayer and started the ascent. It wasn't very long until I lost any semblance of a trail and most of the light. Oh, did I mention that I forgot my headlamp? I was determined to do the loop but a little voice quietly tugged at me to turn around to safer routes. After 10 too many leg scratches of bushwhacking in the now imminent darkness I turned around and decided to take the road back. Better safe than sorry.

Sunset on the Pipeline.

Last week I ran the Desolation trail which is just opposite of Church Fork. I originally wanted to loop over to Porter Fork but was likewise foiled. The Desolation trail has a special place in my heart because as a youth I worked at Cub Country and hiked it often. Looking back, I stand in amazement that the trail to Lookout Point used to take me two hours or so (leading tiny scouts and their fat leaders) now only takes me 40 mins.

After about three miles there was a steady four inches of snow. It slowed me down but I continued to climb for another three miles when I was very close to where the trail sideswipes the mountain over to the base of Raymond and then down Porter. However, I lost the trail in the deepening snow (now about nine inches) and just ran back the way I had come up. On this run I followed people and dog prints until I hit Lookout Point. Then I followed deer and the occasional bobcat print until I ran into moose. Then, closer to the top I was the only one makin' tracks.

A look at Grandeur from the top of Desolation.

Map & Stats of the Desolation Trail.