I wanted to do a long run today, but with the weather it wasn't looking good. MattV and I had discussed doing the Bonneville Shoreline trail in Draper, and we decided late last night to just go for it even with the snow. We met at 7:15 am and there was at least 8 fresh inches at the trailhead, so we were thinking maybe it wasn't the best idea, but we decided to just go for it and have fun.
We were the first people on the trail, so we had to break the shin to knee deep snow, which really slowed us down a lot. It was a fantastic workout though. We took turns breaking the trail, and with some good music I was having a great time. It was snowing on and off the whole time, but it never got too bad. We didn't see another soul until 4 miles in where we passed a lone runner. Once we hit the road that leads up Corner Canyon the running became a lot easier because there was a vehicle track most of the way up the road. about 3/4 of the way up the track stopped and we were pushing through the deep snow again.
We saw several deer on the mountain, including one that darted right in front of Matt on the trail. We took some time on one of the big hills to watch several that were moving up the mt.
At the Ghost Falls trailhead we stopped to take a gel and use the bathroom and after a few minutes we headed back down the road, making much better time. We settled in to a nice 8:00 pace which we held to the bottom. Back on the trail we were fighting the deep snow once again all the way to the car. Matt's knee and hip started bothering him a little so he had to slow down, but other than that it was a perfect morning. We both didn't even mind all the trail breaking and snow. This trail gives you a killer workout when it is dry with all of the ups and downs, but with all of the snow it was even better.
We had a fantastic time, and I enjoyed just about everything about this run. It wasn't as many miles as I had wanted to get in, but it felt like a much bigger workout than 10 miles. That gave me over 7K in elevation gain for the week. | 