{"id":535,"date":"2010-12-04T02:35:12","date_gmt":"2010-12-04T07:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crockettclan.org\/blog\/?p=535"},"modified":"2010-12-05T17:59:22","modified_gmt":"2010-12-05T22:59:22","slug":"capitol-reef-adventure-run-42-miles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.crockettclan.org\/blog\/?p=535","title":{"rendered":"Capitol Reef Adventure Run – 42 miles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Capitol Reef National Park is one of the lesser-known parks in Utah.\u00a0 The park is in a remote area of south-central Utah that did not have a paved road going to the area until 1962.\u00a0 In 1971 President Nixon signed a bill to make the area into a national park.\u00a0 This park is still a relatively secret national treasure compared to the other well-known parks in Utah.\u00a0 It is an ultrarunner\u2019s paradise because of its solitude, spectacular scenery, primitive and rugged trails, slot canyons, and gorgeous slick rock.<\/p>\n

The major feature of the park is the Waterpocket Fold.\u00a0 This is a remarkable, nearly 100-mile long up-thrust extending like a rugged spine from Thousand Lake Plateau southward to Lake Powell.\u00a0 On the east side of the Waterpocket Fold is an extremely long valley that extends the length of the Waterpocket Fold.\u00a0\u00a0 Bordering the east side of the valley are high cliffs of Halls Mesa.\u00a0 Winding through the valley is Halls Creek normally dry but runs full of water during flood run-off times.\u00a0 This valley can be brutally hot during the summer and surprisingly warm in the winter.<\/p>\n

\"I
I started at the Post and ran to Halls Creek Narrows and back<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It had been six years since I had run in the park.\u00a0 I returned wanting to do a long run, getting away from the cold and snow.\u00a0\u00a0 I decided that I would start at the trailhead at \u201cThe Post\u201d and try to run as far as I could down the valley, perhaps all the way to Lake Powell.\u00a0\u00a0 The distance can vary greatly depending on the route.\u00a0 You can run along the winding riverbed or try to follow the remnants of the old Halls Crossing wagon road that travels mostly straight through the valley.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The park is about 3.5 hours from my home, but the trailhead is another hour drive, including 40 miles of soft dirt road.\u00a0\u00a0 I arrived at \u201cThe Post\u201d at 9 p.m. and then slept in my car until 1:45 a.m.\u00a0 My plan was to start at 2:30 a.m. and go as far as I could down the valley in six hours, and then return.\u00a0 Running during the night for the trip down would work out fine, because it is pretty much impossible to get lost.\u00a0\u00a0 The Halls Creek valley is about a half mile across, bounded by steep slopes on each side.\u00a0 If I lost the trail, I could simply run in the dry Halls Creek.<\/p>\n

\"Trailhead
Trailhead as seen in the day. I would almost reach the Park Boundary<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At 2:30 a.m., I was away. \u00a0It was a pleasant 35 degrees.\u00a0 I signed the trail register and noticed that no one had signed it for more than a month. This was remote! \u00a0When people do come to this location, they usually hike the spectacular Muley Twist Canyon, a spectacular 8-mile canyon that snakes in the middle of the Waterpocket Fold.\u00a0 I\u2019ve run that canyon three times before, utterly amazing, but today I would travel more remotely.\u00a0 I knew I wouldn\u2019t see anyone else along the way.\u00a0 I was on my own.\u00a0 I would basically be trying to accomplish a five-day backpacking trip in about 12 hours.<\/p>\n

I would try as much as possible to stay on the old wagon road that keeps a straight path down the valley, instead of following the winding river.\u00a0\u00a0 The wagon road was developed in 1880s for access to Halls Crossing at the Colorado River.\u00a0 But the wagon road isn\u2019t much of a road anymore.\u00a0\u00a0 It now is a faint single-track trail depressed in the desert floor from the weight of years of wagons and horses.\u00a0\u00a0 Now it even gets very little boot traffic because the area is so remote.\u00a0\u00a0 But I noticed plenty of coyote tracks on that trail and it looked like the coyotes were maintaining the trail more than hiker boots.<\/p>\n

I quickly discovered that staying on the trail would be a major navigation challenge.\u00a0 I had a few waypoints set on my GPS, but not enough to really help.\u00a0 It took me quite awhile to develop the skill to stay on the faint trail.\u00a0 It was overgrown with low bushes, and when it crossed over the river and other creek beds, it was very tough to pick it up on the other side because of the lack of cairns.\u00a0\u00a0 But to me, this was part of the fun challenge, trying to run and navigate at night.\u00a0 At times I would just follow coyote tracks and many times they would get me back on the main trail.<\/p>\n

I did pretty well for the first five miles where the trail is more distinct, but after that I lost it over and over again and this was slowing me down.\u00a0 I went and visited Muley Tanks, an enormous pool in the slickrock at the base of the Waterpocket Fold.\u00a0\u00a0 It was frozen over.\u00a0\u00a0 From there, I just couldn\u2019t find the trail again and for the next half hour just went cross-country using my GPS.\u00a0 But my pace was slow and finally I decided that I wanted to run, not hike, so I dropped down into the very wide Halls Creek riverbed and had a blast running fast in the compacted sand.\u00a0 When the creek would turn, it would be filled with rocks, turning my broad trail into a pretty technical obstacle course.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Soon I noticed water appearing in the creek.\u00a0 There would be long sections where a small amount would be flowing, but then it would disappear again for a few miles.\u00a0\u00a0 At one wet spot, I made the mistake of running into quicksand.\u00a0\u00a0 It sucked me into my shins.\u00a0\u00a0 I would have wet feet for the rest of the run.\u00a0 What was funny is that on the way back, I again ran through this exact spot again.<\/p>\n

I realized that I wouldn\u2019t need to worry about finding water.\u00a0\u00a0 I was carrying on my back two liters of emergency water, but I wouldn\u2019t need to drink much of that because I could keep filling my water bottle along the way.\u00a0 During summer months this section is parched and water can only be found in some waterpocket tanks.<\/p>\n

\"profile\"<\/p>\n

A night obstacle illusion really boggled my mind.\u00a0 As I ran along the riverbed, it seemed like I was always running uphill.\u00a0 But I knew this was impossible because the creek flowed to Lake Powell. It really looked like and felt like I was running uphill.\u00a0 I even had to stop and look at the waterflow carefully to convince myself that I was actually running down hill.\u00a0\u00a0 For the section I ran, the creek would actually lose nearly 1000 feet.<\/p>\n

The starry night was spectacular.\u00a0 At times I would turn out my light and just look up into the sky.\u00a0 I was so far away from any town or city so there was absolutely no light pollution.\u00a0 It seemed like I could see millions of stars. But then I saw a light up on the mesa. It looked like the moon was rising, but there was no moon.\u00a0 Finally I concluded that it must be some car headlights at Hall Creek Overlook.\u00a0\u00a0 They turned out but later turned on again and were shining brightly down toward me.\u00a0 As I continued to run, I noticed that the light was now above the top of the mesa, floating in the sky!\u00a0 I was astounded to realize that I was looking at Venus rising.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t get over how bright it was here in the dark desert.<\/p>\n

\"Dawn
Dawn arriving<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My night run continued well.\u00a0 Finally I could see the glow of dawn appearing.\u00a0 I could tell that a spectacular sunrise was coming, so I climbed out of the creek and made my way to the Waterpocket Fold in order to climb up and get a better view.<\/p>\n

\"Spectacular
Spectacular sunrise<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Climbing and running all over the white sandstone slickrock was a blast.\u00a0 I could see why they named this the Waterpocket Fold because there were plenty of pockets in the slickrock with puddles of water.\u00a0 The sunrise was spectacular.\u00a0 I had such an amazing feeling watching it, knowing that I was in such a remote location, and the only one there to see it.<\/p>\n

\"Halls
Halls Narrows<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After the color show was over, I made my way down from the Waterpocket Fold and continued my run.\u00a0\u00a0 I soon arrived at Halls Narrows.\u00a0 The creek started carving its way into the Waterpocket Fold making a spectacular three-mile winding slot canyon.\u00a0\u00a0 I knew continuing would involve wading and swimming, nothing I was interested in doing, so instead I headed up and over using the wagon trail to Halls Divide.\u00a0 Going up I couldn\u2019t find the trail, but at the top I did and running down the other side was a complete blast.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Exiting
Exiting out of Halls Narrows. This was my turn-around point.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the other side of Halls Narrows, I did a little exploring inside the Narrows until deep water stopped me from going further.\u00a0 Back out, I looked at my watch.\u00a0 It was 8:45 a.m. time to turn back.\u00a0 I was very close to the park boundary and about six miles from Lake Powell.\u00a0 It would have been nice to make it to Lake Powell, but I had already run 21 miles.\u00a0\u00a0 I could always return and try to go further.<\/p>\n

\"On
On Halls Divide<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Back up on Halls Divide, I stopped for breakfast and to shed my jacket.\u00a0 I would have to stick with the long pants because they were needed for protection against all the prickly bushes and tumble weeds along the way.<\/p>\n

\"Waterpocket
Waterpocket Fold on left, Halls Mesa on Right<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now with daylight, it was much easier to stay on the wagon trail.\u00a0\u00a0 It was still pretty faint but I got very good in being able to relocate it.\u00a0 If I lost it, I would simple do a big zig-zag ahead and would always find it again because it just went straight.<\/p>\n

\"Waterpocket
Waterpocket Fold<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The scenery was spectacular and my pace slowed and I had to stop often for pictures.\u00a0\u00a0 The formations and colors were an amazing sight.<\/p>\n

\"Ice
Ice Pool<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I wanted to see the double Brimhall Arch which actually is a bridge because it was create by water.\u00a0\u00a0 I figured out the right slot canyon to run up in the fold.\u00a0\u00a0 It was pretty frigid inside, and there were even ice pools.<\/p>\n

\"Rock
Rock ladder<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The canyon made a sharp turn in the fold and I had to climb up a cool rock ladder that someone had constructed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Deep
Deep Pool that blocked my way to the arch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But soon my way was blocked by a deep pool.\u00a0 I recalled reading about this.\u00a0 I was hopeful that I could still get a glimpse of the arch, so I instead climbed high up, as high as I could go.\u00a0 I scaled up a crack and then made my way along a cliff ledge.\u00a0 I was disappointed to see that my view was still blocked.\u00a0 My GPS was telling me that I was only about 1000 feet away from it, but I couldn\u2019t see it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Brimhall
Brimhall Arch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I could see a good way down on the other side to avoid the pool, but it was too risky, I really needed a rope.\u00a0\u00a0 So I turned back but really enjoyed the time exploring inside the Waterpocket Fold.\u00a0 There are dozens of similar slot canyons in the fold.\u00a0 You could explore for days.<\/p>\n

\"Running
Running "off road" in the foothills<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Back out into the valley, I continued my run back up the valley.\u00a0 When I lost the trail again, I decided to take a detour and run into the foothills of the Waterpocket Fold.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Jumping
Jumping off a spill-off, returning to the canyon floor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The colors were spectacular and I had a blast running up and down the ridges.\u00a0 This place is truly a runner\u2019s playground.\u00a0 Finally I came back out and went back to work to finish up my run<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"P1590185\"<\/p>\n

The afternoon temperature was starting to get warm, into the 50s.\u00a0 I was glad that it wasn\u2019t much warmer.\u00a0 This was perfect for a warm winter run.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A
A white sand wash<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I realized that I had not needed to drink much because of the cool weather.\u00a0 I would go through only two water bottles for the first 21 miles and four for the last 21 miles.<\/p>\n

\"Halls
Halls Crossing Wagon Trail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The views were ever-changing.\u00a0 I ran up Muley Twist creek far enough to pick up a trail I knew started at the mouth of the canyon. I was able to make good time and run some good fast long stretches.\u00a0\u00a0 I recalled how I had \u201crun\u201d this remaining stretch back in 2002 after about ten miles.\u00a0 It had been a painful death march that left me injured.\u00a0 But today after running nearly 40 miles, my legs felt fresh as I was springing up and down the rolling trail.\u00a0 What a difference.<\/p>\n

\"Finshed!
Finshed! The Post Corral and Waterpocket Fold in the background<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Finally my car came into sight and I finished my 42-mile run in about 12 hours, 20 minutes.\u00a0 It had been a perfect day.\u00a0 I love doing these adventure runs even more than running in the races.\u00a0 For me, this it running at its finest.\u00a0\u00a0 I reached home by 7:30 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Capitol Reef National Park is one of the lesser-known parks in Utah.\u00a0 The park is in a remote area of south-central Utah that did not…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure-runs"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.crockettclan.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.crockettclan.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.crockettclan.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.crockettclan.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.crockettclan.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=535"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.crockettclan.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":562,"href":"http:\/\/www.crockettclan.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535\/revisions\/562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.crockettclan.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.crockettclan.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.crockettclan.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}