Category: Adventure Runs

Somehow years ago I got into my head that it was cool to run repeats of high peaks.  I do recall probably in 2004, seeing a guy run up and down Mount Timpanogos twice in a day. I was very impressed.  But he only went up to the saddle and back twice, not the summit. I convinced myself that this was not quite right, that you needed to go from trailhead to summit and back, then repeat.

My crazy repeats started on Timpanogos, first two, then three, then four, and finally five summits on August 18-19, 2006.  I’m still waiting for someone to break that record, or even tie it, but it still stands nearly ten years later.  It seems like every month I meet someone and the conversation starts, “Are you the guy who…”  I think, “oh no, here it comes again.”   I get embarrassed and reply, “Yes, I’m that guy.”

I like repeats because they are on a consistent trail. You return to your car every few hours to resupply and continue on.  It also is a tough mental exercise that seems to help develop mental strength to continue on in races when I face trials.

I guess I have a strange obsession with running around mountains and mountain ranges.  Most people like to bag mountains by climbing to the top.  I like to bag mountains by running around them.  This Saturday I bagged another mountain range, the Onaqui Mountains in the west desert of Utah.  These mountains lie south of the Stansbury Mountains (Deseret Peak) and north of the Pony Express Trail.

This loopy obsession began on May 2004 when I ran around the mountain behind my home, Lake Mountain, a loop of about 32 miles.  That felt like an amazing accomplishment at that time.  Since then I’ve probably run around it nearly 15 times.   After that, for many of my solo adventure runs, I’ve chosen to run around a mountain or an entire mountain range.  My entire list is at the bottom of this article.

Cathedral Valley is one of the great remote areas of Utah that receives very few visitors.  In 1945 the first superintendent of what was then Capitol Reef National Monument, christened this area of fantastically eroded cliffs, sandstone monoliths and panoramic views, as Cathedral Valley. To him, the scene seemed downright Gothic. Compared to the more popular Waterpocket Fold area to the south in Capitol Reef National Park, not many people choose to make this trip.  It usually requires a high-clearance vehicle and at times a 4WD vehicle.

During most of the year, a 64-mile loop (including a paved-highway connector) can be driven to view this spectacular area.  Last year (2015) I made a brief visit to Cathedral Valley and recorded this video.  This year, I decided that I would try to run the entire loop.  Instead of running the highway to connect the ends of the road, I would use a remote 4WD road (0146) to complete the loop.  This would make a loop of about 43 miles, most of it on fast maintained dirt road.  Surely no one had ever attempted this before and I would discover another epic long run.  With some sight-seeing detours along the way, my run would be 47.2 miles.

Utah Lake is the largest freshwater lake in Utah.  Many rivers, streams, and creeks flow into it and there is only one outlet near my home, the Jordan River.   It is 12 miles across at its widest point and about 21 miles long, with an additional seven miles of soggy farm land near its inlet.  Archaeology finds indicate that there have been settlements near the lake and river as far back as 3,000 years.  Mormon settlers established the first modern settlement in 1849. In the 1800s the fish in the lake was overharvested and restocked with non-native species.  Pollution has been a problem over the years as raw sewage was dumped into the lake as late as 1967.  Some pollution problems still remain.  The lake is very shallow with the maximum depth about 14 feet with the average about 10 feet deep.

Each year hundreds of cyclists ride all the way around Utah Lake using a 100-mile route for a “century” ride.  There is no established trail that runs near the shores of the lake, so roads are used.  Most of the route around the lake is rural farm land with the exception of about ten miles on the east side through the Provo-Orem metropolitan area.

In 2013 I got the idea of running all the way around Utah Lake in a day and was the first to accomplish that on November 15, 2013, using a route of about 82 miles. See video of that adventure.

This year I was anxious to repeat the long adventure.  I had recently signed up for Across the Years 48-hour run (Dec 28^th) and needed some good, long, flat training.  I chose December 5^th to run around the lake again.  I knew it would be colder.  In 2013 I cut out a couple miles by running on railroad tracks in certain sections, but I knew I shouldn’t do that, so this time I chose a route that would be about 84 miles.  The west side of the lake is pretty straight-forward with only one road to take you south, but on the east side with all the roads and towns, you can choose various routes.  This time I let Google Maps decide much of it but still included a mile of trail that hugs the lake at its widest point to avoid a bunch of urban roads and stay on the lake side of I-15.

I made a return trip to the Uinta Mountains for another very long Saturday run.  Dry August weather makes it an ideal time to experience the high mountains away from the valley heat.  I hoped for to do a long loop of about 50-miles and decided to start very early in order to give myself plenty of time on the rugged slow trails.

I arrived at Moon Lake on Friday evening and decided to just rest at the trailhead in my car for a few hours.  At 11:53 p.m. I was away on my nocturnal adventure.  A nearly full moon was out to cast light on the hills around me.  For the first 16 miles, I would be running in forest up Lake Fork, starting at 8,000 feet.  Getting off trail in the dark was not a real worry because the horse-worn trail was very distinct and easy to follow. I had run 16 miles last week in Lake Fork and knew what to expect on this mostly boulder-free trail.

I enjoy running on high ridges.  As I drive places in my car, my eyes are always drawn up to the tops of high flat ridges and I wonder if they can be run.  When you drive through the Wasatch Back, there are many such ridges that indeed can be run and usually only get attention by hunters, ATVers, and snowmobilers.  One such area had been on my list to explore — the ridges between Soldier Summit (Spanish Fork Canyon) and Strawberry Reservoir.  Years ago I had run Strawberry Ridge but I knew there were many others to explore.

Early Saturday morning, I drove up Spanish Fork Canyon and parked just east of Soldier Summit at the first road on the north side.  There is a Forest Service kiosk there but only a general map for information.  I began my run at about 3:45 a.m., running up the road that follows the Left Fork of the White River, starting a clockwise loop, hoping for about a 50-mile run.