I kept alternating sweating in 10 degree weather and freezing to death when the wind was in my face. The mouth of blacksmithfork canyon was brutal. Good to get out but it sure was hard to get moving at all in the cold.
Providence Canyon to about 1.5 miles short of Logan Peak (topped out at 9058'). Followed the trail until the quarry then hopped on the road which had a few snowmobile tracks. Those made it pretty easy going (aside from the nasty climb) until the Logan Peak aid of the Bear course. At that point, there was only 1 snowmobile track left. It didn't go in the direction I wanted so I decided to just do my best in the knee deep snow. Within about 10 mins I was freezing and not getting anywhere. Time to go. 2 hours up and just over an hour down. Enjoyed the clean air!
Lunch: 3 miles Green Canyon Hike/Run - Went up just over a mile then on the way down I ran into Mike heading up. I went back up with him and then enjoyed the snowy and slick descent. Good to get out of the gunk today.
Dry Canyon from Water Lab with Mike. Trail was in pretty good shape until the turnaround point (start of switchbacks). The way down was awesome. Had 2 sub 6 minute miles.
PM: River Trail via upper canal with Mike and Joe. Other than my calf having serious issues and mike's foot bugging him it was a great run (for Joe I guess). Sort-of escaped the inversion. It's truly nasty now.
Snowshoe hike up Providence Canyon. Went up the trail 2 miles then went and explored a side canyon. It was a bust. Too many trees/scrub. I had to bail. Went back down the canyon with the snowshoes off. Dropped them off at the truck and tried to run on the roads but since the roads were snowpacked from the storm last night, it was a challenge. I give up. Happily I am getting cross country skiis for christmas so I now have a winter activity I can do around here.
We went on a tour of North Logan and Hyde Park. It was mostly roads since the trails were nasty ice. Even the roads were pretty slick until the sun came out. Beautiful day and clean air! Dropped off the boys at 16 and added on another 4 to get 20. I was sure dragging the last bit today (and the first actually). Taking tomorrow off. Merry Christmas!
Grandeur Peak double traverse. Went up the West Gandeur Trail up to the peak (60 mins). Trail was in great shape. Perfect for the microspikes. Dropped down the Millcreek side and hopped on the pipeline trail to Burch Hollow then went back. Roughly 60 mins from Church Fork to the peak. Pretty sweet day on the trails. My cough is not any better now though. Oops. The other bummer is I popped an eyelet on my microspikes. Crazy steep decents will do that...
Mt. Olympus (9026') plus a bit on the BST to Oly. Cove. Conditions were pretty good for a climb up to the peak. The bottom 1.5 miles were pretty iced over with the upper half packed snow. Used the microspikes for the upper half. Legs were pretty dead from yesterday but still had a great time. Its awesome sitting on the peak by yourself. What a view!
T-2:51 (15:40) 5250' vert (146 ave HR) (1:28 to peak couting stops)
PM: 3 miles cc skiing up green. It was super icy and tough to not slide back down the hill. Fun though. Decided to run a bit (4 miles) too since the trail was packed down nicely. Couldn't resist.
3 miles CC skiing. Same route up green as Saturday. Only I went just a bit further and quite a bit faster. Technique improved and it was recently groomed so there was less ice.
3 miles- 40 mins- 400' vert - 131 ave hr
Ditched the skiis and went up the trail (nice and packed down by fat tire bikes) to the 2.75 mile road crossing. Was able to get out of the gunk and have the air warm up a bit. Headed back down past the trailhead and went to King park and checked out conditions on Green Face. Not ideal. Very icy and lumpy. Went up half mile then called it good.
12 final miles to finish out the year. I was hoping that all trails would be as nice as Green Canyon was yesterday. I was wrong. I went on BST and up River Trail towards Bridger Overlook. For much of it, it was a skating rink and I didn't bring my micro-spikes. Bad choice. I ended up flat on my back at one point. I was tired today and the icy conditions made it even slower. At least the air was decent on the bench and up the canyon.
