Wheeler Farm Loops

AM - 8 miles in Green River, UT. I drove here last night and went for a shakeout just as it was getting dark. All the abondoned buildings creeped me out in the dark. This morning's run in the daylight was much less scary, but kind of depressing. I need to look up the history of this place... it feels like a ghost town. I'm guessing at some point there was a lot more action here.

Spent the night at the Robbers Roost Motel, which I'd highly recommend (Yelp agrees). For $34, a clean room, fridge, and fast WiFi. [Note to Fritz, Scott, and Brandon - this is where you want to stay next time you're in Green River!]

The White Wolf (my jeep) and I decided to hit the road for a while. On Friday, I'll rendevous with Andrea and company in Silverton, CO. We rented out Aladdin's Lamp Hut over Labor Day weekend. I can't wait (what a location!) - there are so many amazing hikes in that area. In the meantime, I've got a week to get there and no set plans. I'll hike, maybe tag some mountains once I hit the San Juans, and find cool places to do some easy, scenic runs. I might detour towards the Moab area for a day or two, but the million dollar highway is really calling my name right now. I've also never been to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, so I'd like to check that out as well.

AM - 10 miles. Easy run on some farm roads in Grand Junction, CO. North side of the city towards the Book Cliffs. Yesterday was a total rainout (it just poured all day), but it finally cleared up in the morning. Hopefully the heavy rain is done for the week. There are an endless amount of dirt roads that are great for running around GJ... tons of BLM land (although Halliburton is fracking all over the Western Slope).

PM - 5 miles in Delta, CO.

Since the rain finally stopped I headed down to Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP and visited the North Rim. Did a 7 mile hike/jog to Exclamation Point and Green Mountain. I really liked the area and would recommend checking it out if you're ever in the region. [More Photos]

AM - 12 miles on farm roads in Delta, CO. What Green River is to melons, Delta is to peaches.

PM - 10 miles in Ouray, CO... ran the perimeter trail and a couple extensions along the Uncompahgre River. I am beaming right now - what a fun run! If I had my camera with me, I never would have gotten anywhere. Barely beat the 9-minute guy as it was (lots of steep up and down). Never was more than a mile or so from town but this run had it all - meandering river, 360 mountain views, waterfalls, box canyons, bridge-tunnel-staircase, and all through the ice park. There was also a house built directly into a cliff (only seemingly accessible via some sort of outdoor converted mining elevator) that blew my mind and caused me to come to a complete stop. I'm going to stay in Ouray for the next couple days because I love it here. ANDREA CALL IN SICK AND DRIVE DOWN TONIGHT!

In-Between: I drove up to Owl Creek Pass on my way to Ouray and went for a hike up Courthouse Mountain. At only a bit over 12,000 feet, Courthouse is a midget around here. It was a fun, short hike with a surprise scrambling section at the end. [More photos: Courthouse Mountain]

West Fork of the Cimmaron

AM - 10 miles on Ouray County Road 17, which is dirt and parallels the river. That's about as good of a road as you can ask for.

Hiked up to Engineer Pass via the Bear Creek Trail [14 miles r/t, 4400 feet up from Hwy 550 to the pass]. I really enjoyed this one. Put up a lot more photos with more details about the trail, mining history, etc here: Bear Creek to Engineer Pass.

PS - The House of Run's podcast with David Epstein is worth a listen, whether you've read his new book or not. 

AM - 10 miles. River trail loop + some trails around the Ice Park.

PM - 8 miles. Dirt road along the river.

Went up to the Ironton ghost town during the middle of the day and linked together a couple trails from there, essentially doing a loop around Red Mountain #1. Probably 8-9 miles (GPS said 9+ but my feelings on GPS accuracy in canyons (or gulches in this case) are well-documented). [More Photos]

If you eat the dirt here, your anemia will be cured :-)

AM - 20 miles. Long Run. Ran from Ouray towards Ridgway on the dirt roads (dropping from ~7750' to ~7000' on the way out), then turned around and back up to Ouray. Essentially the Mt Sneffels Marathon course, but in reverse. Averaged 6:50 pace, which is probably a good minute faster per mile than I've been running this week.

PM - 7 miles. From the hut to Molas Lake and then up to the Pass, then back. Running at 11,000 feet is tough!

AM - Hiked to Ice Lakes Basin. I've never seen a shade of blue like Ice Lake. [~6.5 miles, 2500']

PM - 8 miles. Molas Lake to Molas Pass (10,900') and back via the Colorado Trail w/ James, Allie, and Amiee. Then the Smores and I added on a few more laps around the lake and back to the hut via Hwy 550.

According to 5280 magazine, the reason for the color:

Upper Ice Lake is a glacial tarn—a lake carved and fed by glaciers—that gets its near-fluorescent blue color from rock flour. When a glacier moves, it grinds the bedrock below, creating a crushed-rock powder that suspends in the water and absorbs the sun’s light spectrum in a way that creates a beautiful cerulean appearance. There are only a handful of similarly colored glacial lakes in the state.