I am pretty happy to be about to be out in the mountains moving around. Today was probably pushing my luck (in terms of mileage and vertical) but I went for it anyways. I went up Providence Canyon from the usual church (1 mile of road before hitting the trail). I went up 1 mile on the trail before putting on the microspikes. The snow was still pretty squishy but once I crossed the bridge (mile 2 of the trail) I joined the road and followed the snowmobile trails up the canyon. That made the footing bettter. Up I went until I hit the Welches Flat Jeep trail junction then turned for home. It was a beautiful morning once I cleared the yucky valley inversion.
Went to the Doc today and got the final "all healed" message. I have to be careful doing "BLT" (Bend, Lift, Twist). Don't want to re-injure things. Still ramping up carefully (as best I can I guess).
Didn't want to smoke a pack today by going for a run. Lets be honest, it was just too cold and I wanted to sleep in and stay warm. (It was -10F or so). Spent 30 mins on the bike and did my PT instead.
Joined Joe this morning with the goal of escaping the muck and running in some clean air. We drove up to Franklin Basin and ran on the road for 13 miles. The road was covered in a few feet of snow and was nice and packed down for/by the snowmobiles. We started running in the 6 degree weather (15 degrees warmer than in Logan). The light headwind and the cold muscles combined to make life pretty miserable for the first 10 mins or so until we climbed up a bit of elevation and our muscles warmed up a bit. Once that happened, we loved it. Beautiful day, and it was sure nice to be out running in the mountains.
-5 F at the house. 0 on the bench at the beginning and end of the run. Went up Providence canyon to escape the inversion. It was toasty warm at the quarry. The trail was in the best winter running condition I have ever had. Nicely packed snow. It was awesome.
Went up to Providence Canyon to escape the bad air. Did the usual canyon trail to the quarry. It was too warm. The trail was all sloppy and difficult to run on. Amazing what 30 degree difference will make. Big snow storm blowing in today.
We ran to the Yurt on the road. The only problem was the road was covered in snow. Lots of it. We weren't able to run very fast. Lots of sliding with not a lot of forward movement. 8.5 miles later we were back at the car. Too soon to call it a day, we ran the roads (gasp). Even the roads were snow packed and slick. Rough day for traction, but still a solid run. Longest I have run since the Bear. After breakfast, I took the kids to the big park on Cliffside to go sledding. It was awesome.
What started out as a 16-17 mile run ended up as a 22 mile run/hike. We started at Sink Hollow Trailhead and headed up the snowmobile trail to Beaver Creek Campground. The temperature was -5F at the house, 0 at the mouth of the canyon, 7 once above the inversion, 0 at the turnoff to the Beav and -7 at the trailhead. Things improved once we made it up the mountain a ways. Temps rose with the sun. Joe and I took the right fork at Pat Hollow and climbed up over the hill to nearly where the road joins the Old Logan Road before heading back and then over to Gibson Basin. The plan was to cross Gibson Basin and head down Sink Hollow. Once we hopped off the Snowmobile highway and onto the trail to Gibson, things got ugly. We were post-holing up to mid shin. Crossing the 1 mile basin was an exercise in patience. If we walked, we wouldn't sink in too far. Running was impossible. We were only 5 miles from the car if we continued, but 7 if we turned around. So we wandered around for 2 as we tried to figure out a solution. We figured that the trail down Sink Hollow would have a decent snowmobile trail and we would be fine. We got to the trail and there was nothing. Just a few tracks heading off in random directions. We followed a few to see if they would work out but it didn't. We decided rather than post hole 5 miles in mid shin to knee deep snow we would wander back the way we came. Made for a really long day. On the return across the basin some snowmobilers stopped and chatted. We asked for a ride across back to the main trail. It was sweet. 3 mins later we were 3/4 mile down the trail and back on firm snow. That saved us 20-30 mins and lots of effort. 6 miles down the snowmobile highway and we were back to the car. I was absolutely exhausted. Nothing like a 22 miler in the snow to wear you out. On the plus side, the temperature had warmed up to the 20's but the place was a mad-house. Snowmobiles and cross-country skiiers all over the place. Sure beats the smog back home, can't blame them.
T-3:55 (10:41) 2000' vert
The Mile Long Gibson Basin - Pick a snowmobile track and follow....
Today we (Joe and I) re-visited Franklin Basin. I was thinking it would be reasonably packed down from the high snowmobile traffic in-spite of the warm temps. I was wrong. The road was covered in slippery powdery snow that made traction difficult. It was lumpy and kind of melty but very slick. My microspikes were not helpful and even collected the sticky snow on the bottom until it was a ball of ice. I took them off within 3 miles. No, snowshoes would not have been a good choice either as it wasn't deep enough for that. Skis would have been ideal.
We were working VERY hard to go only 5mph on the way up. We were stubborn enough to go 7.5 miles (in 90 mins) before turning around. We were exhausted by the end of the run but managed to crank out a fast last mile on the best traction section over that last mile. Only 15 miles, but felt like 25.
Looks like today is the last day of the inversion for a while. The ice storm on Thursday cleared out half the pollution and the storm tomorrow should take care of the rest. Back to regular training again soon.
