Driven

The Big Bacon

and

New Shoes

I went in to DeBoer's in Bountiful last night and sampled several pair of shoes. I purchased a pair of Brooks road shoes and I be excited to use them.

'Smornin' I did the ol' hike/run of Mt. Wire the Big Bacon with Scott and Jun. I arrived to see Craig at his car. Scott was not there yet so I ran up ahead of them to allow time to take care of bidness without falling behind.

On the hillside above the city while I waited for the others to come up, I heard the coyotes howling in the hollow below. I like to believe they were serenading my morning routine. Higher up I waited for Scott and Jun and we hiked the remainder of the trail together. Because of cold wind, we spent no time on the summit - just tagged it and turned back. Scott was a bit slower today, so I hope he gets feeling better.

Always a good workout up there.

Farmington to Bountiful on Legacy

Not to be out done by the boys who ran on Antelope Island this morning, I ran from my home in Farmington to the 500 S. overpass on Legacy Highway. The distance one way is 7.5 miles. I got a total of 15 miles, my longest sustained run to date. The is no doubt I will be sore tomorrow and the next day, but overall I feel great. I need to lose a layer of blub, get some new gear - such as a hand-held water bottle - and I will be able to go farther as my endurance progresses. Right now I don't care about speed or time. My focus is on mileage and endurance. Speed will come later. 

Lone Peak, overnight

 With Joseph Bullough I hiked up to Lone Peak from Draper. The round trip distance is 6 miles with approximately 6,000 feet of el. gain. This is no easy hike. It requires strong legs and serious endurance just to get up the steep slopes above Draper and into the backcountry of the Lone Peak Wilderness. This year we decided to do an overnight stay somewhere near the peak, so we carried heavy packs up to the flat meadow called Cowboy Camp. We set up our tents, then continued the climb up through the cirque and onto the Lone Peak shoulder and summit ridge. 

I have reached the summit of Lone Peak several times, including 3 or 4 winter ascents. With snow covering the boulders, foot placement must be precise and an ice axe use is a must. This time, however, I had decided early in the day to go as far as the safe point on the ridge. When I saw that we would have to drop about 5 feet down to a crawlspace under one of the boulders, then traverse the knife edge on hard, windblown snow, I felt good about sitting this one out. I did go over to the first large snow-covered boulder that sits on the route and waited for Joe to apply his crampons and begin his attempt to reach the summit. When he met me on the boulder, he studied the route then decided against an attempt to continue. We had about 20 minutes before sunset and we just did not have the time to move with enough care toward the summit. It would have been foolish and deadly for us to be on that ridge after sundown.

We hiked down the mountain as the sun fell behind the Oquirr range. I looked back several times to catch a view of alpenglow on the mountain. The lighting was fantastic and I had a real mountain high which I expressed with big smiles. We re-traced our snowshoe tracks and got back to camp in the dark. After boiling water for our freeze-dried dinners, we got into our tents and stayed there for the next 10 hours.

I the morning we packed up and hiked back down the mountain where we met a Wasatch Mountain Club group  coming up for a day hike to the summit. My first winter ascent of Lone Peak was with a WMC group three years ago. It was a victorious personal experience I will never forget. 

We did no running on this outing, but every step of the challenging climb I was thankful for the strength in my legs. My overall fitness will benefit from my Winter 2011 climb of Lone Peak.

The Big Bacon

With Scott on the Bacon.

On the Bacon with Scott W.

Good old Mt Wire. Scott and I had a slow time getting to the summit, due to ankle deep (knee-deep in some places) snow on the higher elevation. Spent less than a minute on summit because there was a consistentl cold wind blowing.

On the way down Scott claims he left his water bottle back near the summit and he had to turn back to find it. Or, was that an excuse to get me out of the way to meet his secret snuggler Brian/Linus for a glass of wine?

BST from Sandy to Draper and back

 'Smornin', Scott W and I rand out and back in shin-deep powder on the Bonneville Shoreline trail from the Hidden Valley park to the Jacob's Ladder trailhead in Draper. At first i was suspicious of how far we could go before the snow slogging wore us down, but I was pleasantly surprised at how much I loved running over the powder-covered trail. We had some good laughs and my legs got a great workout.