May 2, 2004
On Saturday morning I did a unique 34-miler, a giant loop around Lake Mountain. Brady Wycherly started out with me at 3 a.m. and together we made it as far south as Pelican Point. We then parted as Brady needed to be home by 7 a.m. I continued south, went over a small pass then had a great view of Mount Nebo and Elberta in the distance. One odd thing was passing a pack of wild dogs, high up on the mountain, barking at me as I traveled.
As the sun started to rise, I continued south and tried a couple times to find a short-cut over foot-hills so avoid traveling so far south. The short-cuts didn’t help, ended up delaying and saving only a couple miles. At about 9 a.m., I finally rounded the southern point and had a full view of Cedar Valley.
I discovered that there was no north-south dirt road in the foothills like there was on the lake side, so I traveled north, cutting across fields in the foothills, which made a very enjoyable hike. There was plenty of wildlife to be seen: deer bounding across fields and jack rabbits trying to avoid me. I plowed ahead, steering toward the Eagle Mountain town center, miles to the north. I passed to the east of the town, ran out of water, but pressed on, finally turning to the east to complete my huge loop and ending up at home at 1:30 p.m. Quite a workout.