We're camping in Alpine WY this weekend and doing some rafting today and tomorrow. So I got up early and drove up the canyon toward jackson and stopped at the first thing that looked like a possible trail up a canyon. It turned out to be exactly what I was hoping for. It was an unmarked, rarely used trail that went up a canyon and toward some passes and peaks in the distance. The trail had lots of growth coming in on it from the little use, and the only tracks on the trail were deer tracks, which were fresh on the trail all the way up almost. It started out moderate, only 400 feet ascent in the first mile or so, and it felt good to go slow and get warm. It was a beautiful morning and perfect temp. I saw a few deer, but otherwise had the canyon to myself and thoroughly enjoyed the quiet morning and peaceful mountain sounds. I got near the convergence of 2 valleys and the trail turned and got steeper. And just kept getting steeper and steeper. The last stretch before a plateau between two valleys that I topped on was insanely steep for a while, but I ran the entire thing and it felt good. When I reached this plateau it was totally beautiful. The sun was hitting the one ridge, I was surrounded by ridges and peaks on all sides and I just sat on a rock for a few minutes taking it all in and enjoying the silence and peace of being by myself in the mountains far away from everything. Then I ran comfortably down. I checked the garmin as I went down and realized that the last 1/4 mile to where I stopped I climbed 450 feet. Which I believe is an average grade of 33%. Wow...I knew it was steep, didn't realize it was that steep. Kind of felt good to be able to run that without even maxing out my HOUR (granted it was super slow I'm sure, but my legs felt good). Total was 6 miles, 2200 feet ascent and 2200 descent in about 1:20. Slow, very enjoyable mountain run. Tomorrow I want to get out earlier and run up to a couple of the peaks I didn't quite make it to this am. I didn't have enough time this am, but there were some incredible looking treeless ridgelines up there that I REALLY want to run tomorrow. | 