Ben Lomond and Willard Peaks with CraigL and Je10:
What a fantastic run! That was easily one of the top 2-3 early morning wake up runs of the year. I have wanted to bag these peaks for a long time, but I've put them off for years because of the extra two hour drive needed to get up there and back. The 3:00 am wakeup was definitely worth it for these incredible peaks.
I enjoyed everything about this run. Je10 had run a super-fast 100K 4 days earlier and Craig a marathon on Monday, so I figured that we would be moving slower than normal, but Je10 was a machine. We ran nearly all the way to the top of Ben Lomond and I was really impressed with her pace. She is tough! We hit the top just as the sun was coming up and had some sweet views in every direction. Both of these peaks dominate the skyline in North Ogden and we could see all the way to Mount Nebo about 100 miles away to the south. Incredible.
I was expecting the ridge over to Willard to be loose and rocky, but it was really runnable all the way. There is a bit of a scramble up to Willard and we did take some time with route finding just to make sure we were hitting the right peak, but eventually we topped out on the highest point in Weber County and enjoyed the spectacular view. 360 degrees of awesome. After a few pics we went back the way we came.
This is one of the best mountain running routes I have been on in the Wasatch. It has it all. Sweet views, runnable trail, cool summits, excellent ridge running and a lot of wildlife. We got up close and personal with 3 moose and some mountain goats. I will definitely be back to tag these two peaks again. I'll probably make it a yearly trek. With great friends and a fantastic route the run could not have been better.
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