Driven

Wildcat Ridge traverse: Olympus to Reynolds Peak

Joe and I started hiking on the Olympus trail at 4:40 AM Friday. I reached the summit in 2 hours, Joe was there about 20 minutes before me. (Don't feel bad for me or Joe--he has climbed Olympus 300 times.) From Olympus we went East on Wildcat Ridge and it was appox. a 2 hour hike to Triangle Peak. We reached the summit of Mt Raymond at about 9.5 hours. The we hiked down to Baker Pass, then up to Gobbler's Knob summit. From Gobbler's we decsended its East ridge a ways then we hiked steeply down to connect with the Desolation trail. We followed Deso trail to Dog lake, then hiked to summit of Reynolds Peak. I was out of steam at that point and Joe continued back down to Dog lake, then up another mile to Little Water peak. We hiked back to a shuttle car waiting at Mill D TH. Then it was down to the pizza joint next to Dan's at Olympus Cove where we each devoured half a large pie. That was my 3rd time doing the Wildcat Ridge traverse, and we go a little further each year.

Wasatch Crest trail run

Met Scott W, Craig and Jason at Mill D TH. Drove up toward Guardsman Pass, hiked/jogged trail to Scott's Hill, ran the Crest trail to Desolation Peak. Side trip to the summit, then ran down to Deso lake. Ran downto th Dog Lake/Deso Lake jnction, then down Mill D trail to vehicles. My first real trail run on special new Solomon shoes. "Like butter." About 2.10 hours total.

Mt Olympus after work to celebrate Joe's 300th summit of the mountain

Joe has climbed Mt Olympus (9,029 feet) 301 times. On Friday after work I went with Joe and his wife up the mountain to celebrate his 300th climb of Mt O. He packed a stove, hot dogs, buns and drinks, and we had a mini-banquet on the summit.

The trail to the top of Mt Olympus South summit is 3.5 miles and gains 4,200 feet vertical. This was my 27th time at the summit. Time to summit: 1 hour, 55 minutes.

Clayton Peak from Guardsman Pass.

Clayton Peak is also known as Mt Majestic. I suppose the two names will battle it out oer the next 20 years and one will come out as the one most will use for the mountain.

This was a before-work hike/run (mostly hike) but now that I live in Farmington, the drive down to the Cottonwood canyons severely limits the time I can spend on the trails before I have to get in to work.

With Scott Wesemann, I climbed from Guradsman Pass over a minor peak (still a 10,000 foot peak) then down to a saddle, then up to Clayton. Nice relaxing hike with some running at the saddles. Sister Hutchings made an appearance, eliciting many laughs. I don't usually keep strict counts on mileage for hikes, so I'll trust Scott's count of 3.40 miles.

Morning run at Snowbird + Mt Baldy from Hidden Peak

In what will probably become an annual Pioneer Day vacation, I took my fambly to stay two nights at Snowbird. I had desired to get up early the first morning and hike to Hidden Peak, but I always struggle with getting up at 5 in the AM if I do not have a partner to help committ me to meet them. Five AM came and went, but after laying in bed for an hour and a half I got up and found the trail up Peruvian Gulch. Ran up hill as much as possible, and ran the flatter and more gradual parts of the trail. I wanted to go all the way up to Hidden Peak, but I had a duty to my fambly to be down in time for breakfast and fun stuff at The Bird. I turned around and ran the road down into a subdivision on the flanks of the town of Alta, past dozens of $2 Million ski-out condos, and back to the Cliff Lodge at Snowbird.

Later that day when I took my wife and boys up the Tram to Hidden Peak, we hiked over to Mt Baldy and bagged the summit, then hiked back down to the Peruvian Chair and rode back in the open air to Snowbird Center. We played the rest of the day on climbing walls, alpine slide, zip line, bouncy castle, ropes course, trampoline, and ice cream. Woot.

Night Hike above Brighton and Alta

I'm not sure of the total mileage, but it was at least five miles, maybe more.

So my family stayed at Snowbird Cliff Lodge Thursday and Friday night. Well, they stayed Friday night, but I went out hiking at 10 PM. Wha??? Why go hiking at 10 o'clock. At night! In the dark! Isn't that unsafe?

Here is an explanation:

A friend began hiking Friday morning from Ferguson Canyon and planned to follow the ridgeline that forms the North side of Little Cottonwood Canyon, all the way East to where the ridge line makes a large U-turn above Alta and then links with the Bullion Divide/Alpine Ridge, which forms the South side of Little Cottonwood Canyon. My friend planned to hike the latter ridge to Lone Peak and then back down to the valley. This is no small feat. This is not even a medium-sized feat. I wouldn't even call it a super-sized feat. All I can call it is The WURL. That is, the Wasatch Ultimate Ridge Link-up. I don't know how many total miles the WURL is, but it has to be at least 25. Sounds easy, right. Not so fast. Most of the route is over extremely rugged terrain with serious exposure. The Cottonwood Ridge portion is an all-day affair, and usually takes 12 hours to complete on a quick pace. The guy who invented the WURL, or at least, the only guy I am aware of successfully completing the WURL, one Jared Campbell, did the route in just under 24 hours, and it took him 3 tries to complete it successfully.

OK, so what does any of this have to do with me? Well, I wanted to be a part of my firend's historic WURL, so I planned to meet him somewhere above Alta or Snowbird and go with him part of the way. Since I happened to be staying the night at Snowbird, it would be pretty easy for me to hike up to meet him somewhere on the ridge. Also, he would be hiking over the most difficult portion of the route--Devil's Castle--right in the middle of the night, and he really desired some company there.

I called my friend's wife several times during the day to learn of my friend's progress. His wife and I determined that we could meet at Snowbird later that evening and hike up to meet him on the ridge. She met me at 9:30 PM and we drove to Catherine Pass TH. We hiked up to the pass, believing he may be ahead of us. When got to the vicinity of Sunset Peak, she made a call and found he was just coming off of Honeycomb Cliffs, about 3 or 4 miles back to the North. We turned around and hiked back down to the pass, up Mt Tuscarora, then over to Wolverine. After about ten minutes we saw Joe's headlamp flash over the top of Patsey Marley. We waited about 30 minutes for him to reach us on the top of Wolverine, then the three of us hiked the ridge toward Alta. At the time we met Joe, the nearly full moon was out and accompanied us the entire night. It was about midnight when we began hiking with Joe.

We hiked back down to Catherine Pass, then up to Sunset Peak, then continued toward Devil's Castle. Now, the Castle is no mountain to trifle with. The exposure on just about every part of the structure is severe. Traversing the Castle East to West is not my favorite route. The traverse in this direction requires downclimbing sections in which I find myself dangerously close to the edge of a drop into the abyss. I understand why Joe didn't want to go this way in the dark by himself. The three of us carefully made our way over each section, not taking any unnecessary risks. I signed the summit log on top of the middle summit at 4AM.

What seemed like hourse to traverse Devil's Castle was probably only one, but all the lead up to and the route coming off the West side just ate up lots of time. Joe was spent. He had been hiking for 24 hours straight. I don't know his mileage up to that point, but he was forced to abort his WURL attempt because his pace had slowed significantly. This is the guy that hiked Mt Olympus 5 times in one day. That's 4,200 feet of elevation gain, 3.5 miles up in each hike of Olympus. Wow. Do the math. Yet here I was charging ahead of him and waiting for him to catch up several times during the night. Something was wrong. He was just worn out.

So, for my part, I got several miles of hiking in moonlight and zero sleep when I should have been cozy in my paid-for hotel bed. But I like to think I helped a friend reach a darned impressive long-distance route, even if he fell short of his ultimate goal.

Getting ready for one-day Gannett Peak attempt

Last evening my internal dialogue went something like this:

Me: I need to go running, especially if I am going to attempt a 40 mile round trip summit of Gannett Peak. Plus, I could shed some of that fat hanging around the waist.

Other Me: Yes, but it's getting late, and you should probably get to bed early so you can get up early and go running. Plus, you just mowed the lawn and you are tired. Sit back with a cold lemonade and watch a movie.

Me: Hmmm. That's a good idea. It is getting late--it's already 9:30. I'll just relax and sip on some----Pshh! Wait a minute! I'm going to go running, even if it is getting dark, and it has been raining, and I'd rather be in bed or sitting in front of the Panny plasma. Where are my shoes?

Other Me: Serious? You can go running tomorrow morning!

Me: You know when I say that I never do.

Other me: Yeah, that's true. But this time you will really do it.

Me: But if I wait until morning to run, then I will have missed a day, and you know I planned on running every day leading up to the Gannett Peak trip. It's going to be a very long, difficult--but rewarding!--day. You can't just show up to the Wind Rivers expecting a walk in the park.

Other Me: Alright, go running then! But it is already past 10:00 PM. Where are you gonna go? It's dark. You don't have any reflector clothing. Wouldn't you rather be in bed?

Me: Shut up! My iPod is ready. I'm doing this.

Other Me: Damn. I thought I had him.

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So I ran on country roads near my home, 6.5 miles, feeling great the entire way.

Can't wait to see Gannett!

Quick evening run

I ran down to the giant soccer ball and back, four miles. If you have ever driven I-15 through Farmington, Utah, you may have notices two giant white spheres constructed on top of Francis Peak. I drove up there the other day and had a walk around the facility. The signs there indicate the equipment is used for air traffic control, so don't mess! Or people will die!

So down in the flat lands of Farmington there is a similar giant sphere on a tower out near the bird nesting refuge. It would be entirely appropriate to describe the sphere as a giant white soccer ball, because that is precisely what it resembles. Goooooooaaaaaaal!

I like to run where there are very few vehicles and traffic. When I see people running down a busy street, I just don't get it. I don't know why anyone would want to be there, breathing in all the exhaust, risking getting plowed over by some texting teen. The area around my neighborhood suits me. Lots of open space. Horses. Birds. Even some bison and skunks.

'Smornin' on the pipeline trail, Millcreek Canyon

This guy Scott keeps calling me, wants to go running all the time. I usually say yes. This morning we drove up Millcreek Canyon and ran the Pipeline trail from Birch Hollow. The trail is nice, and we got there early enough that we did not see any other runners or byciclists until we had turned around at mile 4.5. On the way back up we passed some lady runners, a few mountain bikers, and an old dude on a unicycle. Yes, a unicycle on a mountain trail. Pretty sweet.

Butler Fork loop via Mill D

 I parked at Butler Fork TH in Big Cottonwood Canyon, ran half mile to Mill D trailhead, then ran 3 miles to Dog Lake. From the lake I located the Desolation trail heading West under Gobbler's Knob and ran to where it intersects with the Butler West fork trail. The final leg was down Butler fork and to the car. This was a very enjoyable run, about 2 hours total. 

Gannett Peak Wyoming day hike from Elkhart Part/Pole Creek TH

The biggest, most difficult mountain I have climbed. With friends Joe Bullough, Jacob Moon and Scott Wesemann, we began the trail at 12:30 AM, hiked/ran approximately 20 miles to Titcomb Basin and then Bonney Pass. From the pass we got a look at the mountain and the route to the summit which requires losing 1,500 feet of elevation, then another climb of 2,000. Joe, Jake and I reached the summit in 12.5 hours from the car. Scott did not go past Bonney Pass because of issues with altitude and energy. On the descent from the summit a thunder storm moved in, flashes of lightning filling the glacier valley. Get me outta here! Re-crossed the glacier and back up another 1,500 feet to Bonney Pass. Back down to Titcomb basin and began the very long march 20 miles back to the car. I felt great all day until we reached the Titcomb lakes, then I became a dead man walking, and we still had 6 hours of hiking to do. The sun set somewhere near Seneca lake and we were again in the dark using headlamps. The last 5 miles were excruciatingly long. Where is the end of the trail?! Are we on the right trail? Finally arrived at the parking at 1:30 AM, exactly 25 hours after we started. By Scott's measurements, the round trip distance to the peak and back was 44 miles.

Met Scott at 6AM, ran walked up to Mt. Wire/Big Bacon summit. Felt slow heavy, out of breath. This is to be expected when I have not been as active as I would like. If I keep up the run up Mt Wire once a week, that should help me into better shape. Thanks Scott for keeping me active. From the summit we ran over to Red Butte, then down through the hollows to the BST, and to the car. Didn't see Brian/Linus. Beginning to wonder if he is just Scott's fantasy.

Mt. Wire/ The Big Bacon

 I met Scott at the trailhead, we walked/ran up the trail to the top and back in well under 2 hours. We saw several deer migrating across the hillsides, and some bow hunters stalking one particular animal. Hiking with Scott is always a blast. 

Five times on the Wire

So a couple weeks ago Scott Wesemann and I decided that one lap on Mt Wire is just not enough to satisfy. How about five? "No problem!" I said. let's do it right after Thanksgiving. So we did. With new snow and cold temperatures, each lap was more challenging than usual, but the real challenge was hiking the 4 mile roundtrip trail five times. It took us over 11 hours to complete the challenge, and when it all was done we had accumulated approximately 20 miles and 11,000 feet of vert. I like doing this kind of thing. Scott displayed an impressive state of personal fitness on each lap, which reminded me that I really need to get into better shape. Michael and Judy were with us on the first four laps, so this kind of craziness isn't just an isolated incident involving two people. Michael is a retired airline pilot in his late 60s, and Judy is a housewife. She is also Queen of the Uintas because she knows the Uintah mountains as well as anyone, and better than everyone.

Next spring--or if a warm spell before then clears the snow from Mt Wire--I would like to try for six or seven on the hill in one day. I have a feeling Scott will be along for the ride.

Mt Grandeur with Brother Wesemann

So Scott called me late in the day yesterday to see if I was interested in getting out on a mountain this week. Yes, I am always willing to get up early to hike some Wasatch front mountain. We decided on Grandeur peak above Millcreek and the eastern stretch of I-215. During these short winter days I either must get up exceptionally early or go late and in the dark after work to hike on weekdays. Scott and I agreed to meet at 4:30AM this morning at the parking lot under Mt. Grandeur. The trailhead area is at the dead end of a residential street, overlooking the interchange of I-215 and I-80. The Bonneville Shoreline trail passes through this area and in fact the first part of our hike is a short section of the BS trail. We left the lot at 4:50AM and were hiking on snow the entire way.

The ascent to Mt. Grandeur summit from the West ridge is a hearty workout. The route offers 3200 feet of vert in just over 2 miles, so it is steep most of the way. With all the snow I began to doubt I would reach the summit before I had to turn around in time to get home. High on the mountain's shoulder we observed a bright star hanging just over the summit ridge. Then as we climbed alittle higher the smiling sliver moon made an appearance. The two bright heavenly bodies guided the way to the summit as dawn began to break. Near the top the snow became more deep, and I was losing time. About 15 minutes from the summit I was about to turn around and go back, but Scott gave a short pep talk and encouraged me to push it to the summit. We did reach the summit a short time later and I spent no time there as I went to the high point and made a u-turn, stopped for a quick photo taken by Scott, then headed down.

We ran virtually the entire way down the steep west slope of the mountain, and I got back to the car with enough tome to get home, showered, and ready for work.

Lake Mountain hike/run

 I woke up early and drove to Lehi to meet Scott W and Craig. We ran the first mile and then hiked briskly on the packed snow to Lake Mountain. The other two hiked much faster than me and as I was nearing the summit we met as they descended. I ran all the way back to the car with Craig and Scott arrived back a few minutes later.

I have a desire to get into much better shape this year, and to run in some long-distance ultras. The way I felt after hiking up and running down Lake Mountain showed me I need to be more consistently active if I am to reach my goals.