Detailed version here.
I wanted one more long training run before my 100s next month, Wasatch and Bear. I thought it would be good to do lots of climbing at an easy pace with plenty of time on the feet and get some altitude. So, back up to the Uintas.
I'll give more details on my blog with pictures, but I ended up running the Bear River - Smith Fork trail from West Bear River to the slopes of Mount Tokawanna. This trail is very different from the other trails in the Uintas. It crosses up and over ridges down into the North Slope canyons, so it is constant climbs and descents. The trail was pretty rough and hard to find from West Bear to West Blanks Fork. This is mainly due to the tragic June 2002 fire caused by boyscouts that wiped out three of the canyons. The trail is still there and I can tell gets some maintanence, but looks like not for a couple years. Hundreds of dead fall to jump over. Most were small, but they were fire dead fall with spikes on them where the limbs were. One wrong move and you get a spike in your leg. I was lucky and careful.
Navigating in the dark was very hard. I lost the trail for at least a total of 1.5 hours and I was stubborn, tying to find it. I eventually found the entire trail, probably the first person to be on the whole thing in years. Some of it is now used for cross country skiing, other portions are now ATV trails. Most is just neglected. The Boy Scout camp should go do some trail work. on the trails near their camp.
Anyway, I had a great time. The 20 miles going out, much in the dark and wandering around, took me 8 hours. I gave up twice but then found the trail. Coming back it took under 6 hours. I didn't quite summit Mount Tokewanna, the 10th tallest mountain in Utah. With under two miles to go and 2000 more feet up, a bad storm blew in. I had a head wind of 30-40 mph and when the hail started to fall on my, I aborted. I didn't have winter clothes and was a little chilly. I felt uncomfortable about completing it solo today. If I feel axious about it, I just don't do it. So I turned around and had tons of fun bounding down the grassing slope for three miles. I'll do it another time. The proper ascent is from the Middle Fork. Easy stuff.
I saw plenty of wildlife. On the way back I saw my second wildcat. It was ahead of me on the upper Mill Creek area where the trees were sparse. It didn't see me and I could have got closer, but I decided to make noise. It then ran away up the hill.
I had a great time. It was a very tough training run with about 9000 feet of climbing, tons of hopping over dead fall and my feet were wet nearly the entire time. The weather in the lower lands was pretty good, just a couple of short showers. But those weird dark clouds were on the higher peaks all day.
So, Goodbye Uintas for another season. I had great fun up there this year. TOday was good, above 9000 all day and nearly up to 12000.
I wrote this without reading glasses, pretty blind. Maybe I'll clean up all the typos later. Time for sleep. | 