Summit junkie!

Temple Quarry trail in Little Cottonwood with Craig and Brent:

We originally planned to run up View Benchmark, but we couldn't get out until later in the day and with the temp in SLC hitting 103 we decided to do the Quarry trail because a good portion of it is in the shade and runs next to the river, so it would be much cooler. It was still hot at times, but we definitely made the right choice. We had an excellent run chatting and laughing most of the way.

PM: Weights at the gym for an hour. Once again lots of sweat in there.

Me on the way down:

Mt. Timpanogos with Craig, MattW, Bdase, Dan Varga, Bill Hiatt, JimmySG, Travis, Nate, Mike Place, Jeremy H., Jsh, Ashley, Zac M, Kelli and Scott and a few others I am forgetting. 18 total showed up.

We had a really good group for this night run of Timp. Craig posted our intentions on the Wasatch Wranglers facebook page and we had 18 people show, which is pretty crazy. It was already dark when we started and Bdase, Bill and DanV lead out and pushed a pretty good pace. MattW and I followed Craig for a little over a mile and then he took off. For the next 2-3 miles I was leading the rest of the pack up. A couple miles in we passed Crockett coming down (he was doing a double) and Dan stopped to turn back around. Just before the upper basin Zac and MikeP passed me. By time we reached the switchbacks in the upper basin there were 4 of us hanging together and we would stay together the rest of the way to the summit. Hit the top in 2:12. Not fast, but decent. Craig and Bdase made it up there first and were waiting for the rest of us to show up.

We waited in the shack for what seemed like 30 minutes. It was getting cold and I saw some lighting flashes way in the distance, so I decided to head down and just about everyone followed. Craig stayed on top to wait for the rest of the group to get up there. The run down was fun, but slower than normal because it was dark. I ran most of the way down with MattW and we had fun chatting away and we pushed the pace a bit the last few miles and had some separation with the rest of the group.

Bdase and Craig finished first and then Travis with me and Matt coming in 4th and 5th. Then we waited for about an hour for the rest of the group to get back down. We just missed a pretty big storm as there were more lightning strikes and the wind picked up. It started raining hard about 30 minutes after we left. It was fun getting to know some of the new guys and we had a great time. It was a great way to start the 4th of July.

View Benchmark peak from Canyon Hollow with Craig:

I had an excellent run up VB with Craig. It was very hot and humid out there, but good heat training. We just chatted most of the day and enjoyed the run. On the way down we noticed that there was a new trail at the Maple Hollow trailhead that takes you back to Ann's trail avoiding the steep rocky connector trail, so we took it and it was awesome. I think that will be our new route up there for sure and it is about .6 miles longer. We ran back down Ann's going the other way toward Vintage View and ran it back to the road where we picked up the BST and took that back to Canyon Hollow. The last few miles were tough with the heat, but we got it done.

I won't be running much until next week. Craig and I have been planning an adventure run/hike/climb/scramble in the Uintas for the last 10 years and we are finally going to attempt in next Tuesday. It will be about 60 miles, 20K+ vert and hit the highest 21 peaks in Utah. We are pretty stoked about it, but also a bit nervous. I'm sure after we finish it I won't want to see another boulder again the rest of the year.