I met Steve N. and John C. at the -B- above Bountiful. We ran up Skyline Drive, intending to go as far as the area where W100 course has its 2nd full service aid station. The road was well packed but not as good as we had hoped. Pre-dawn, a few miles up we stopped and gazed down at nebulous lights glowing under the smog. The brightest light under the cloud was the Bountiful temple. At 4.5 miles John went back down and Steve and I continued up. After Buckland turn-off the snow was no longer supporting us fully and we slowed significantly. Steve entertained me with the story of his close encounter with a real live mountain lion above Bountiful. We reached our destination, reveled in the sunshine, and continued up further as far as we could go. We followed snowmobile tracks to a hill, then turn around. Running back was tough.We sank up to shins every 30 feet. It was hard work. Conditioning, I told myself. Did I mention we had an excellent view of the blue sky above inversion? It remains blue up there, I assure you. It is the ghost of Lake Bonneville out there. Further down we descended into the smog, could smell and taste it, and agreed it was horrible. At the end we had 17.60 miles. I wanted 20. So I said later to Steve, drove home, and ran 2.4 miles down to the bird sanctuary. I had some goals this week and I mostly met them, although I fell a little short on the distance I wanted to have by today. What I feel is more important than distance, however, is that I got up at 5AM every day and went out into some seriously cold outside.
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