birthday (belated)

October 11, 2009, Sunday. For his birthday breakfast, H made us “huevos H‑os”: corn tortillas, scrambled eggs, refried beans, onion, salsa verde and cheese – no mean feat given the limited amount of kitchen equipment we have with us currently. Muy delicioso!

After breakfast I went for a run and H rode his bike, each of us going in opposite directions from the day before. Still hilly. Long, steep hills. Seriously, these are ass-kicking hills out here – no matter which way you go, it’s going to be hilly. I’m not a good runner at all and my route today started with twenty minutes of steady up. I managed to run for 17 of those minutes, and walked for the final three, before turning around and heading – downhill (yay) – for home. I’m not sure I could even name a 17-minute hill in the greater Portland area. I just keep telling myself, as I’m gasping and grunting and wheezing and grateful that no one within 1,000 miles of here knows me, that it’s all training for ski season.

To treat ourselves for refusing to acknowledge that the hills conquered us conquering the hills, we went for a hike. Because that’s what you do here in Utah: you go outside every single day you possibly can. It wasn’t even a particularly nice day today but still, once up in the canyons, the outdoorsy types were out in droves. We explored Millcreek Canyon today (the site of the other Turkey Trot H is guilting me into), which is located at 3800 South, off Wasatch Boulevard, in Holladay. We drove as far as we could up the canyon until the road got too narrow and too snow covered for us, so we still don’t know what’s at the top. (It all goes up though, in case you were wondering, for at least seven miles.)


We turned around and then pulled in at the Rattlesnake Gulch trailhead, intending to take the Pipeline Trail, which follows an old flume up the canyon. We must have missed that trail, however, because we found ourselves going up and up and up, until we were skirting a ridge that took us to a fantastic lookout over the Salt Lake Valley. It took us under an hour to go up, and about half an hour to descend, even accounting for having to stand aside in the brush as all the mountain bikers and their well-behaved dogs blew by us. This was a nice little hike, close to town, immediate view rewards and impressive elevation gain for very little effort.


The best part of the hike, of course, was that the road leading to our apartment back from Millcreek Canyon goes right by the Porcupine. We had to stop in and split a pitcher of Full Suspension pale ale (from Squatter’s Brewery) – it would have been wrong not to stop.