A week ago, I went backpacking for five days in the High Uintas in Utah. While there, I discovered a nice challenging trail on the North Slope that runs west to east, up and over the ridges, and across the canyons. This trail is named “Bear River – Smiths Fork” trail because it runs from Bear River on the west all the way to Smiths Fork on the east, probably about 35 miles or so. On our last day of the backpack, we ran 11 miles of it between East and West Blacks Fork Forks.
I wanted to get in one more long training run before the Wasatch 100 in two weeks. I wanted my run to have lots of climbs at altitude, so I decided to try running this trail starting at Bear River, up three major ridges, and then summit Mount Tokewanna, the 11th highest peak in Utah. I would then return the way I came, for an adventure of more than 40 miles. I fully realized that this would be tough, especially since much of the trail would travel through an area destroyed by forest fire in 2002.