We are staying up in Huntsville so I decided to go run the trails up by Snowbasin. I talked with my grandpa and laid out a route last night. It seemed fun until he said I would either see moose, bears, or mountain lions. This is not what I wanted to hear.
I woke up early and started running at 5:00am. I started at Wheeler Canyon and then started climbing up the Art Nord trail and then over to East Fork getting moving right along to Green Pond. I wasn't even 1.5 miles into my run and a huge cow moose was standing in the middle of the trail. It was about 40 yards in front of me so I just stopped. It was still pretty dark so I wasn't sure if a calf was around. I was going to bag running this way because the moose stood there for 10 minutes. I went back down the trail and came upon a mountain biker. He was cool and let me run with him. Strength in numbers! We didn't see the moose again which made me really happy. It got my heart racing. We got to the start of the East Fork trail and my new mountain biking friend, Tracy, said he needed to "bust it loose" on his bike. He "bust it loose" and I caught him while 1/4 of a mile. I blew by him and he never passed me again. I felt guilty since he helped me out but he was just going to slow. I came around a turn on the East Fork trail and I ran into another cow moose! This one was only about 10 feet away. It heard me and started running up the mountain. I nearly p++d my pants and went anaeorbic for about 1/2 a mile just to make sure the moose didn't eat me. I was reminding myself to thank my grandpa for the moose sightings!
I got to Green Pond trail and went over to Snowbasin Lodge. There was still a bunch of snow so I "skied" down some of it to the lower parking area. I then got the trailhead that went up to the Ogden Canyon overlook. I almost made it to the top but had to turn back because we had family things going which I needed to make on time. I saw at least 20 mountain bikers going up this section of the trail. Every one of the mountain bikers were really cool and moved off the trail when I was coming down. Mountain bikers are much cooler than road bikers. I came down Icebox Canyon and eventually made my way back down to the Art Nord trail. I ran 21.25 miles in just over 3 hours. Not very fast but I was always worried about seeing another moose. I had over 2000 feet of elevation gain I ran today. I topped out at just over 7100 feet. It was some really good climbing today. One of the most memorable runs I have ever been on. This is some of the best single track trail running I have ever done. I also had some incredible views. I wish I would have taken a camera. Next time.
I never felt very tired today which was a good sign. I think using two handheld water bottles will help me out in my upcoming 50k. I think I will have to run this again but will make sure I have someone else with me.
Solid way to end the week. I would have gone longer but had family duties for the rest of the day. We ended up going to watch a National Sheepdog Trial with Norah. She loved watching the sheepdogs herd all of the sheep. Fun stuff! | 