It's been a long time since I visited this blog. I've had a busy summer and fall but have now settled into my 9-month a year routine of working and taking an hour walk as exercise and lifeline to sanity. My (most) daily walks paid off during the past year as I topped them off with a 52-mile trek through the Southern Wind River Mountains. I came to the trip with a little trepidation because I hadn't lost as much weight as I had wanted to. But the trip went fine and I powered up and over the three major mountain passes with no problems. In fact, I felt better than I had since I was a kid crawling over the mountains.
Now the routine is: break for an hour sometime during the day and hike up a nearby canyon then get back to work.
I used to drive the other direction from the office and head to the gym. There I would do a little weight training then hop on the treadmill for an hour. My ipod and an audiobook from audible.com was the only thing that got me through what otherwise would have been tooooo booooaring.
I like the view going east from the office better.

It's Hot

I headed up to my "default" trail this afternoon. The oaks are now fully leafed-out in the foothills and the underbrush is green and lush. It's very summer out there right now. I was in shorts and I had a liter of water with me and my feet just sort of took the rest of me along on a hike that ended up much longer than I had intended. I got to the switchback at the top of Fern Valley and went a little ways along the ridge separating Beus Canyon from Birch Creek Canyon. Last Monday I had a similar experience of being "taken" for a hike and got to the same spot before I managed to turn around. It was still quite snowy. A week makes a big difference.
I got an email today from a volunteer who sent a link to an amazing video of a guy who also took a hike. It's a little long, but if you like to hike, it'll blow you away. It's some place in Spain where apparently, they have managed to actually kill all the lawyers. Follow this link: http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1438490562

April Showers in May

When I left work today the sky was heavy with rain. On my way to the Beus Trail head there were a few splats on the windshield but it hadn't actually started raining in earnest. Of course as soon as I started hiking...

It didn't last long. At least not the real rain. After a minute or two it settled down to just a drizzle. The walk was actually very pleasant. It always smells good in the rain. And the colors are vivid, if a little dark. Because of the weather, I decided to stay in the canyon and hope I got a good workout before I hit snow. I made it all the way to Fern Valley before a few drifts started to appear on the North-facing slopes of the canyon. At the mouth of the canyon the leaves are out full, except for the oak, which is just beginning to leaf out. As I hiked higher, spring got newer and newer, until the leaves were just buds again. The little creek is running high but mostly clear. It was a great walk.

Yesterday I hiked up Taylor Canyon to the overlook on the first switchback. I was in snow from just past the spring until the trail came out of the trees at the end of the switchback. It was really a glorious day. There were kids rock climbing across the canyon on the Schoolroom Wall and everywhere I could see a trail I saw hikers and bikers. It was that kind of day. One that insisted that everyone get outside and drink it in.

Today I was completely alone. (rare) Just me and my cell phone--just in case. It was a different kind of glorious.

Nearly Summer on the Shoreline Trail

Today I took out my camera and took a picture of something novel: The last real snowfield on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail--at least the portion between the Beus Canyon Trail and 12th Street. I can't speak for the North Ogden segment since I haven't walked on it for a couple of years now. I don't miss the snow. If I did, I only have to go strait in Beus Canyon instead of left and in a few minutes I'd be right back into winter. I'm going to give that route a rest for a bit more. I walked it a couple of weeks ago and was in deep snow after 200 yards. I'm sure that's changed, but I'm also sure I'd be slipping and sliding before I made it to the little cascade that marks the 30 minute point. (For me.) Walking on cold, soft snow isn't bad. And with crampons, even ice can be dealt with. But hard spring snow with a mushy layer on top of an uneven base just takes it out of you.

Anyway, this snow is endangered. I can actually kick up dust while I'm walking. All of the trees except the oak and a couple of walnut near the trail head are beginning to leaf out. Even the Mule's Ears are putting out leaves and flower buds. I actually saw a few Allium blooming today. The only thing I need to see to prove that spring is actually here is a rattlesnake.

Near Melted

It's been fun to hike the same trail day after day for the past few weeks. I've been watching the snow retreating each time I go up and I'll have to admit, even though I love the snow, it's great watching it disappear. There's still a lot left on the north-facing slopes but it's completely consolidated and firm and so walking on it has been no problem. I can cover ground just as fast on the snow as on the bare trail.

I've learned that you use different muscles when you walk on bare ground versus on the snow. I can feel the burn in my hamstrings as opposed to my thighs. Interesting huh? I don't think so either but it came to mind on a day where not much else did. I gotta say, even though it's nice to see the snow retreating, what is emerging is pretty...dreary. No leaves on anything and the ground looks blasted by winter. Still, it beats the gym. And so I'll walk until spring turns the grey and brown green. And then I'll walk some more until it's hot enough that I feel like finding some snow up high to walk in again.

Melting.....

Three weeks goes by frighteningly fast. The weather has been consistently in the 50's or even 60's and not freezing many nights but the snowpack is still far down the mountain. It shows how used to dry winters I've become to remark on this during the month of March which is still pretty much traditionally in the grip of winter around here. But, the snow is melting...in between snow storms. The storms come, they lay some snow down, but it doesn't stay long, and the melt from the new stuff only slushes the old stuff that much faster.

Yesterday was Saturday and I had lots to do, including four hours of church meetings so I took off in the morning for my typical hike up Beus Canyon and onto the shorline trail. It's mostly bare now, there's a hundred yards or so in the canyon where the trail is still plastered, and there's a big area on the mountainside that had deep, deep snow last month, but the trail is peeking out there too. Another week or so in the upper 50's and I'll just be hopping drifts.

It's great to see the dirt again; even if it's mud. I have gaiters to keep it off my pants and the mud only persists for a day or so after the snow melts, then the trail is firm and fast.

Still Melting

I got an extra day from the solar system today. I also got one from work. I was scheduled to help with the Vertical Challenge fund raiser at Snow Basin but got excused. So I worked until early afternoon and took off.

I followed my footsteps from yesterday and someone had actually pushed on from where I had stopped and went to the bench that overlooks the Dee Events Center. I broke trail to the overlook above WSU's Promontory Tower Dorms, thinking maybe someone had come that far from the North. No such luck and it looked brutal beyond the overlook so I saved it for another day.

On the way back, I picked up a partner. This vulture must have seen me floundering in the snow and followed along hoping for dinner. Sorry sucka, I'm tougher than your average pudgy, bald guy and getting tougher.

Here are a couple of pics to document the slushing of the snow pack.

Tomorrow I thought I'd climb to the top of Malan Peak...but my wife thought I'd clean out the garage. I'll probably post some pics of my clean garage tomorrow.

Melt Out

Crap! It's been an actual month since I've even logged on to this site. I haven't heard any complaints from the legion of daily visitors so...no harm, no foul.

Speaking of foul, weather conditions this week have been anything but. I can't say the same for hiking on the trails. That has been foul. The snow is melting fast but it's still deep in most places. The succession of pics with this post were taken in the last three weeks. I took the one of the rocks because it was the first time since December I'd seen any that weren't covered with snow. The next one was taken last week. I had just "post-holed" through a few hundred yards of hip-deep snow. If I could discern the trail that was buried by the last couple of big storms, I could walk on top. If I missed the trail, I'd plunge down into soft snow until my leg disappeared. It was loads of fun. I wanted to go as far as I could because of the tantalizing bare slope on the other side of the draw. The trail was still covered but I wanted to smell the dirt.

I took the last photo yesterday. It's not so dramatic really. But It shows what I haven't seen since before Christmas. Bare dirt on the trail. It was only a 40 foot stretch and then I was back in the deep stuff, but it offered hope that the snow would eventually go away and let me walk without gaiters soon.

I love for the snow to come. I love for it to leave. I love snowshoe'rs too. Now that a few cars can pull into the Beus Trail Head parking lot maybe a few of them will come and stomp the trail hard again. In the meantime, If you walk on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail between Beus Canyon and Strongs Canyon. You should send me five bucks or so. I'm the one (only one) who busted the little path through the white wilderness. Believe me, it's worth five bucks to you at the least to walk in my footprints.

I take Visa, MC and PayPal

Ice Feathers and Frozen Toes

I can't get my little Subaru in the parking lot at the Beus Canyon Trail Head because it gets high-centered in the snow berm the plow throws up over the entrance and so I've been concentrating on Taylor Canyon at the top of 27th St.

It's been beautiful for the past few days. Lots of new snow and cold cold cold. I haven't been walking up the canyon itself. I've been veering off to the right and angling up the mountain on the trail that leads to Waterfall Canyon. I actually made a loop the other day; going to Waterfall on the upper trail and then returning to Taylor on the lower one. It took me about an hour and a half because I was on breakable crust for about a third of the way.

Today I only had a little time so I hiked to an overlook above the condominiums at the top of 29th street and then returned. There was 6-8 inches of new, powdery snow and the top of this new layer was covered with ice crystals that were shaped like the tips of feathers. The sun sparkled off of them big-time but I won't say it looked like diamonds. It did, but saying so would be trite.

Still Out There

I haven't been posting, but I have been walking. The end of the year is a zoo at work and in life. I suppose I could have taken 15 minutes once in a while to post to this weblog but...I didn't. Sue me.

I have been to the gym once or twice in the last month. I've been on a hike 3-5 times a week. The snow has been piling up and walking is more difficult. That's OK though, I'm walking because it's difficult. I don't get as far these days since walking on the snow, even when it's been packed down by snowshoers, is like walking on sand.

These pics are from Waterfall Canyon. I started up from the 29th street trail head, thinking I'd see if the sign with the phone number for information on the via ferratas in the canyon was still there. (No.) But it took only 20 minutes to get there and since the beaten path continued up the canyon I decided to go another 10. In ten minutes it seemed like I should just about see the frozen waterfall if I got around the next bend. Actually it took another 15 minutes and several bends and by that time I figured I needed to walk right up to it. There was only a little water trickling behind the ice. There were some smaller chunks that broke off and fell while I was there, along with a few rocks from the cliffs surrounding the falls. If you go here in winter, you need to stay well away from the ice unless you know lots about ice and physics and etc. I've been up here in winter and seen some biblical chunks of ice come crashing down. But even a fist-sized chunk falling 100 feet and making its acquaintance with the top of your head will get you in the newspaper. (Obituaries.)

Great place for a hike though. I think I'm going to stop paying the Ogden Athletic Club every month and just ignoring them. I've proved to myself that I'll hike in any weather. No need to go indoors.