ZION TRAVERSE
50 miles, 10,000 vertical feet of climbing, 11:30
(lots of type o's hurrying sorry)
The short story is this is one I have wanted to do for a while. The weather looked perfect for this weekend so on kind of whim I set it up and headed down to get it done.
Zion Traverse is a point ot point run that traverses the entire National Park from east to west. Being point to point means the start and finish are about 70 miles apart, making this a tough one to do solo. I had everyhting arranged with a shuttle company (funny quote from girl on phone at shuttle Zion Adventure Co "You're going to do the entire Zion Traverse in a day?....who the hell am I talking too?") to pick me up at the finish in the morning and drop me at the start, but lucky for me a friend decided lastminute to come down and do some hiking, so he was able to shuttle me back to my car. I'll describe the run in the picture captions below.
I started at Lee's Pass in the Kolob section of the park. The first 4-5 miles are all down hill meaning they should be fast and easy, but most of the trail looked like this, up a little hill down a little hill, cross a creek, repeat....like 20 times at least. I tried hard to keep my feet dry as it was cold (28 degrees) and windy. Had I had any idea what was coming I would have just splashed through every crossing.
A few miles in the trail bends left and follows Laverkin Creek. I was a little worried about crossing this all morning and when I got close, but still out of site, I could hear a roar and I thought it was the wind blowing through the pines, wrong, it was a very swollen Laverkin Creek. Crossing this took at least 20 minutes of walking up and down the bank trying to find a spot where I was relatively certain I wouldn't drown getting over it. I settled on a jump across a dangerous section the was narrow, deep, and fast. The jump was the running, hop two boulders and let fly type that I wasn't certain would carry me all the way to the steep bank on the other side. I landed just short but only in knee deep water, grabbed at tree branch and hauled my self out.
Climbing up toward Hop Valley, looking back down on Laverkin Creek. About 8 miles in.
Looking down the misery that would be Hop Valley. I knew this section would be pretty, but I also knew I would struggle through here. The wide sand in this picture ontinues all the way down the valley and with the calf/ahilles thing I have had going on, I woudn't run through loose sand as it was too hard on my still healing body. Lots of walking, lots of looking for frozen sand to run on. One thing about this run is it is a sandbox in many sections. Deep, deep very fine loose sand that is difficult to run through even healthy. I would estimate 15-18 miles of deep sand in total. Oh, and the water you can see in the pic, frozen, but only about 1/8 of an inch thick, so everytime I had to cross (often) it was breaking ice into freezing water, luckily only ankle deep or so. This section took much longer than planned.
Looking back toward Laverkin Creek from the end of Hop Valley. Very pretty, but glad it was over.
The next section is the connector trail from Hop Valley to the Wildcat trail. It essentially paralells the the Kolob Terrace road. A very enjoyable section, but tricky to follow in one spot. After a creek crossing I ran in to a group who had lost the trail. I wasn't obvious to me either and since they had a GPS I followed them. They were going left (toward the road) and I knew the trail went right, but heard mentality kicked in and I followed along. I finally caught up to the guy with the GPS unit and he showed me the screen, he said "see the trail should be right here" well, I am not much of a GPS guy, but I could see that his "trail" was the road, but by then it was too late and we were practically on the highway. I knew I could run up the road to get to Wildcat trail so that's what I did. It added about a mile and a half to the total. The pic is what I get for following the heard instead what I knew was the right direction. a mile and a half of uphill highway running, fun!
Pretty meadow along Wildcat trail, which I should have renamed Wildcat Creek as 75-80% of it was flowing water and/or deep mud from all of the runoff. Very pretty section, but tough, tough, tough!
Awesome view into Wildcat Canyon.
Coming down the West Rim trail looking across to the East Rim and Observation Point. At this point I still had a long drop to the canyon bottom and a long climb back out. About mile 33-34 at this point.
The trail down the west rim as it enters into the sandstone. Not muddy!
Welcome to Disneyland. Strange to have been way out pretty much alone all day and come into the Angle's Landing section and throngs of hikers.
Looking down Zion Canyon toward the Grotto. When I got to the Grotto I waited a while for the buddy to get there as he had met me coming down the west rim and I was a littel ahead of him. From the Grotto the route goes up the main canyon 1.2 miles to the Weeoing rock, Observation Point shuttle stop. As I waited, I dreaded the mile up canyon, running on the pavement and was tempted to get on a shuttle to the next stop. I justified it in my head overand over that I was already 2 miles over what I was suposed to be from getting lost on the West Rim. In the end I sucked it up and ran the mile or so, wasn't that bad.
Looking back down on Weeping Rock from part way back up the East Rim. Tough climb at mile 40 plus. Still passing lots of hikers at this point.
Pretty section along to East Rim trail. Shortly after this, the trail splits, going left, and much more traveled to Observation Point, or right, very rugged, to the East Rim/Cable Mountain.
Finally, nearing the top of the climb up the East Rim. Looking back to the North West. About 5 miles left to go from here. Once I left the Observation Point trail, I was prety much alone for the last 8 miles or so. Very pretty all the way to the end.
Quick thoughts. Body felt great all the way through. No real deep fatigue, felt strong al lthe way to the end. Didn't push much as I was trying to take it easy on my Achilles/calf. This is a tough route! Maybey it was just the conditions, lots of water/mud and sand, (bad combo for one's feet) but it felt rough! Much harder than a race like Squaw Peak and comparable to the Grand Canyon r2r2r I would say. I ran totally unsupported and carried everything all the way through. I wasn't confident on my ability to find the numerous springs along to way so I probably carried way too much water all the way through as well.
I feel good about my time. Only about 25 minutes slower than my Squaw time last year, I didn't push my pace ever and this was much tougher, and I carried a big pack (well, for trail running anyway) all the way through. I burned a fair amount of time at Laverkin Creek, gettng lost, and in Hop Valley trying to avoid the ice and sand. I feel good about where I am at fitness wise, just need to heal up a bit more so I have confidence to push it. Great weekend and glad icould tick another one off the list, and probably put it back on the bottom as one to do again.
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