Uinta Thirteeners Adventure: China Meadows to Wilson Peak, Traverse to Mt. Powell Wednesday: Dustin suggested a trip to the Uintas to climb Mt. Wilson. Before then I had never heard of Wilson. We could also traverse to Mt. Powell and be back to the car in 12 hours. Saturday: Awake at 2:45 AM , although I got maybe 2 hours of good sleep. Jacob, Dustin and I left SLC about 3:30AM. China Meadows TH at 6:30AM. dustin and I were dressed to run, but Jacob was more into hiking fast. We ran where we could. Beautiful day, gorgeous natural environment: Blue-green lakes, terraces, water falls, river crossings, horses resting in meadow, solitude. Red Castle is stunning and stands out among its Uinta peers. It is rugged and cliffy, compared to the smooth-backed 13ers that surround it. After upper Red Castle lake I began to feel the pounding of my pulse, causing me worry. My legs were strong and energy was good, but step after step the pressure I felt in my pulse became constant. I had the strength to run up the slope as long as I desired, but I was afraid of over-exerting my pulse. Boom, boom, boom. I never felt sick or dizzy, just worried about the pressure. I had to reluctantly slow my pace. It was definitely the altitude. Was I not getting enough oxygen? Mt. Wilson is a worthwhile objective. From the summit you get a view of all the well-known 13ers, including the West aspect of King's and South King's. From the summit we descended steeply to the head of a basin, then traversed back up to 13,000 feet to Mt. Powell. The pounding in my head resumed. On Mt Powell my energy was good and I still had a lot of strength in my legs. No bonking on this trip. We followed the long wide slope from Powell, North back to the head of China Meadows area. Dustin and I enjoyed running on the high plateau. I imagined we were somewhere in the high steppes of Asia, a thousand miles from anywhere. We found the trail to connect back to the main trail and we ran back to the trailhead. With my new Garmin I recorded the trip stats. I finished in 11:45, and we did 5,780 feet in vertical over 29.2 miles.
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