twelve miles

 Another incremental increase to A's hiking: twelve miles on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail on Sunday.  It hadn't cooled off quite as much as I had hoped overnight, with a 7:15 a.m. temperature in the low 70s.  But the sun was still behind the Wasatch mountains, and it was partly cloudy and windy, so conditions were better than they could have been.  The BST is dry and dusty (we need rain) and I pretty much had it to myself from the Hidden Valley Park trailhead to the Corner Canyon trails.

Views of the south valley

At Corner Canyon East Bench trailhead (or thereabouts), I veered off the BST and kept heading up into Corner Canyon on the old dirt road.  The road climbs steadily the whole way for another 2.5ish miles to the Peakview trailhead.  That trailhead parking lot was pretty full: I was starting to see more MTBers at this point.  When the dirt road ended, I still needed some distance to hit my six mile turnaround, so I got on the Hoof-and-Boot trail (hikers/runners and horses only - no bikes).  This was a great trail - at least this portion of it - packed dirt switchbacking through gambel oaks beneath the cloud-covered Lone Peak cirque.  

Hoof and Boot

At 6.1 miles I turned around and went back to the car exactly how I'd gone out.  I saw a couple of wild  turkeys and a red-tailed hawk.  I was trying to be good about eating (a slab of savory zucchini bread, homemade potato chips, a raspberry fig bar and some Swedish fish) and remembered to drink water every mile at a minimum.  There were more folks on the BST for the return - the suspension bridge was actually crowded.  I got back to the car in just over four hours (12.15 miles, 4:08 hours) and was happy to get my trail shoes off, just as a little bit of rain blew through.  No blisters - yay!

Lone Peak in the clouds

literal dog days of summer

On a recent weekend in Moab, we did some dog sitting for a friend.  He and his family had to go out of town for a funeral and asked us if we could watch their seven month old lab-pit mix named Marshmallow.  Of course!  We love dogs!  I mean, it's been decades since we've had a puppy in the house but we're experienced dog owners.

Same size but Marshmellow is WAY beefier

We three went over to their house the night before so Milton and Marshmallow could reacquaint themselves.  Milton met him for the first time in June (when he was MUCH smaller), and they spent the evening chasing each other around the yard.  We had brought Milton over for a second meeting in July (when he was BIGGER) and Milton was not impressed with the size or the energy.  This time, with Marsh as tall as Milt but brawnier, Milton wasn't having any of it.  Marsh wanted to play so badly and was in Milt's face; Milt issued correction after correction (barks and snaps) and the puppy just didn't get it.  An inauspicious start.

Calm in the car

Friday morning we took care of our exercising: H ended up doing a five mile trail run with M (after suffering a flat tire on his road bike just a block from hom) while A did the 10.3 mile Pipe Dream - Hidden Valley - Moab Rim hike (which was a bit of a suffer-fest as I felt dehydrated and drank nearly all my water - which I almost never do.  

Our friends dropped Marshmallow off around 1 and Milton was again unimpressed.  Our neighbor and her dog were home so we introduced them ... and Marshmallow, who had no chill at all, was sharply corrected several times by Moscow.  That night was a little rough too: although crate-trained, the puppy was nervous and cried/whined the entire night.  We all woke up exhausted and Milton couldn't believe that he was stilll with us.

Cutieeee

But it went MUCH better from there.  I took the dogs to Millcreek (Milton off-leash, Marshmallow on-leash) for four mile hikes both Saturday and Sunday mornings.  They were well-behaved in the car and Marsh loved splashing in the creek.  He did get a little out of control wanting to meet other dogs, but since he was leashed, it was easier to manage.  He never chewed anything and only had one accident on the kitchen floor; he calmed down for the second night; and he was just such a sweetie, with full-body tail wags and exuberant snuggles.

BOOP!

When his family picked him up in the early afternoon Sunday, the house seemed bigger and it was very, very quiet.  All three of us (Milton especially) were exhausted - puppies are a LOT!  Sweet, but a lot.

csa boxes the ninth and tenth

 I forgot to take a photo of our ninth box, but we got apples, pears, a small watermelon, three tomatoes, some red potatoes, two ears of corn, purple bell peppers, poblano (or similar) peppers, an onion and a cucumber.  The melon wasn't that good (did I wait too long to cut it? did I not wait long enough? the world will never know).  The corn was eaten right away; the peppers and onion were sauteed up for a vegan sausage meal; the tomatoes and plums were quite good eaten out of hand.

Still getting berries!!

The tenth box had a nice variety.  Green beans, two ears of corn, a cantaloupe, two (!) cartons of raspberries (!!), three bell peppers, two plums, two big tomatoes, a cucumber, assorted chiles, five big apples and an onion.  We ate the beans and corn on the first day - a little late in the season but still edible, if not amazing.  The berries were good, if a little fragile: I ate a third and split the rest for my overnight oats.  The melon is pretty good.  The fridge is starting to fill up with apples so I'm thinking homemade applesauce is in the near future.  And what to do with all those nice chiles ///

twenty-five (years, not miles)

On August 25, we celebrated our twenty-fifth (!)(!!)(!!!) wedding anniverary.  Amazingly, we have been out in Utah for most of our marriage, despite having met, originally lived, and married in Maine.  To celebrate the occasion, we took the day off.

This hawk was entirely unimpressed with us

First order of business was a family hike.  In Millcreek Canyon, the odd-numbered days are the off-leash dog days, so that synced up perfectly.  We didn't want to go anything too long and settled on the Desolation Trail to the Salt Lake overlook.  The last - and first, and only - time we've done this trail was back in July 2011.  After doing it again now, we are kicking ourselves for having left it for so long.  It's a great trail!  About five miles round trip, mostly shaded with mostly packed dirt underfoot, it rises steadily (about 1,200 elevation gain) but never steeply.  

Thirsty work

The fact that we were there early on a random Tuesday morning certainly helped - I suspect this trail is very, very busy on the weekends.  We encountered fewer than five people on our way up; while there were definitely more people heading in as we headed out, it wasn't ever what I'd call busy.

At the overlook

There are lots of picnic tables at the trailhead (also a four-stall outhouse), so we got out our cooler and sat in the shade, having celebratory post-hike beers and recounting some of the last twenty-five years.  We did some more recounting back at home, dragging out the photographs from our wedding (everyone was so young in 2001!).

Holy moly

And then because I decided I didn't want to cook on our anniversary, we three went to the Watershed, the local scruffy dive bar with a big vegan menu and a big dog-friendly patio.  Their misters were going full-blast; the waitresses and the bouncer fawned over Milton; and we enjoyed our vegan buffalo wings and vegan bacon (vegan) cheese (vegan) burger with great relish.  

Smooch!

Here's to the next twenty-five!

csa day: box the eighth

 This was quite a good box in terms of variety, although we had been hoping for another melon as well.  We got three big tomatoes (I am hopeful that we'll get lots of tomatoes this year to make up for the fact that the stone fruits are less plentiful), two ears of corn, two bell peppers, two each of jalapeno and serrano peppers, a good sized onion, a head of garlic, three big pears, one each of cucumber, zucchini and summer squash, a carton of blackberries, a not-too-big eggplant, six apples and three nectarines.

Shop local, eat local

The corn and blackberries were consumed the day we got the box - the berries were pretty soft, so that season is definitely winding down.  I gave the garlic away (I can't tolerate garlic that well so fresh (non-jarred) garlic just doesn't get used).  Two tomatoes and the eggplant were turned into a delicious, creamy pasta sauce for the freezer.  The apples are bagged and in the crisper drawer, possibly to be turned into applesauce; the nectarines are good for fresh-eating.  And the pears that don't get eaten fresh (pears are actually pretty good this year), will be turned into a tasty baked good.

eleven miles

Continuing the quest to see just how far she can go, A did eleven miles on Sunday.  The heat advisory had finally broken (Saturday was spent with H trail running and road riding, A and M walking through Dimple Dell, a tiny touch of weeding, reading, watching the weather and hoping for rain, and some cooking (a quart and a half of enchilada sauce for the freezer and buffalo cauliflower "wings" for dinner, since it was actually cool enough to turn on the oven) and a little bit of rain moved through the Salt Lake Valley.  It topped out low 90s which, after the summer we've been having, was delightful.

Heading south

Since I was running out of long distance options at Alta - without adding in a whole bunch more uphill - H suggested some of his routes from when he was training for the trail marathon.  He had some good options and I decided to drive to Hidden Valley Park trailhead so I could hop on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail.  There are other places to access the BST but the HVP trailhead is not hard to find and the trail from there south to Corner Canyon has pretty good footing.

Sage

There were only a couple of other vehicles when I pulled into the lot at 6:50 a.m.  Grabbing my bagel, I climbed up (kind of steep, kind of loose) .3 miles to the BST and turned right, heading south.  The last time I was on this portion of the BST was April 2010; I'm guessing it hasn't changed all that much, other than having had lots and lots of people on it, but I sure didn't remember much of it.  One nice thing about this section of the BST is that it stays in the shade well through the morning this time of year.  Another nice thing is that once you get up on the bench, it's pretty level and the path is nice to walk on - mostly packed dirt/sand with some rocky sections.

NO DOG okay okay jeez

From the Hidden Valley trailhead, it's 3.3 miles to Corner Canyon.  Dogs are not allowed on most of the trail because of watershed/private property owned by water companies.  This would have been too long a hike for Milton anyway.  At Corner Canyon, there are maps and outhouses and picnic tables and, as the morning continued on, lots and lots of MTBers.  I can't picture how busy it must be on Saturdays.  There are tons of MTB and mixed-use trails (foot, dog-friendly and equestrian).  I continued out along the BST for a while, then turned off onto a foot-only (Burnham Creek) trail and then a foot and horse (Hoof and Boot) trail for a while.

Didn't have to dodge MTBs here

All this faffing about on little trails messed with my distance plan, however, which had been a solid 5.5 out and back.  I wanted to stay in the shade as much as possible - it was humid from last night's rain but the temperature was nice - and ended up heading back on the BST a little short on distance.  This meant that when I got back to the Hidden Valley connector, I had to continue going north on the BST for about a half mile.  Which isn't that big a deal except: (1) had already done 10+ miles and (2) the trail north was incessantly, steeply up on an old, rocky, loose road.  If I wasn't already sweaty from the slight humidity (I was), I definitely was by the time I'd gone far enough to turn around.

Or here, on the Hoof and Boot Trail

I finished with 11.07 miles in 3:50 hours.  The Bonneville Shoreline Trail is a great resource that I have completely ignored in favor of Little Cottonwood Canyon, Big Cottonwood Canyon and Millcreek Canyon.  It is heavily used, due to its proximity to the city, and it bakes in the afternoon sun.  But at the right time of day, in the right time of year, it's fantastic, with lots of little side quests available.  

Suspension bridge at Bear Canyon

middle (august) management

On a recent, mid-August long weekend in Moab, it was still hot. (It would have been just as hot if we had stayed in SLC for that weekend, dang lingering high pressure/heat advisory.)  But you expect it in Moab: same elevation as SLC but further south.  So we did what we've been doing all summer* which is: getting up before the sun, getting on the trail at sunrise and getting our exercise done well before noon.  On the one hand, you're all WOOHOO I got all my exercise done before noon!  On the other hand, you're like OMG now what do I do, I can't crack a beer yet lol.

We drove down mid-afternoon Thursday so we could take Friday off.  Friday found all three of us on the Pipedream trail: H and M doing a five mile trail run and A doing a seven mile hike.  The fellas left first and we crossed paths as they were heading back.  It was pretty quiet out there.  Then, H did a solo 26-mile road ride on the bike path.  Then there was lunch, reading, catching up with neighbor A and, eventually, beer.

Prickly

Saturday was much like Friday, only not quite.  While H did a six+ mile Pipedream trail run, A and M instead drove to Millcreek for a four mile hike and creek splash.  We saw a trail buddy who gave us a heads-up about fairly recent bear scat in the canyon (bears have been venturing down into Moab from the LaSal mountains since the heat is impacting the vegetation they usually eat this time of year), and Milton got a bunch of dog cookies from a lady at the trail head.  After that, both H (25) and A (21) did a road ride on the bike path.  Then there was lunch, reading and, eventually, beer.

Finally, Sunday found Milton taking a rest day (after an extended neighborhood stroll) and H and A back on their road bikes.  H did 20 miles but A only managed ten, after getting a flat in the same place as her last flat, just south of the Arches NP entrance.  That's only a two-ish mile walk back to Lions Park, though, so I hike-a-biked there (three different cyclists stopped to see if I needed help) while H hied it back to the house to get the truck and the dog and come pick me up.

That was pretty much it.  We got back to the house, cleaned it and ourselves up, stopped in Green River for a delicious Krenshaw melon and were back in Sandy mid-afternoon.

* Seems like forever, really.  This has been such a hot summer - we can't wait to be cold again.  Remind me that I said that when I'm bitching about how cold January is.

csa days: boxes the sixth and seventh

 For as much as our farmers have been struggling this growing season, we CSA folks have been getting some unusual and fun things in our boxes!  Much appreciated!

Our sixth box contained a carton of blackberries (likely the last of the summer), a big head of cauliflower, a cantaloupe, tomatillos (!!), two ears of corn, a couple of chonky pears, two green peppers, a couple of peaches and one apple.  The berries and corn were consumed right away; the melon was chunked up for immediate consumption as well.  The peaches took a couple of days to ripen and the pears took a full week, but were really very good - and this coming from someone who doesn't prefer pears at all.  The tomatillos and peppers (plus a small zucchini and summer squash that were languishing in the crisper drawer) were eventually cooked down into a nicely spicy enchilada sauce for the freezer.  And that giant cauliflower (would rather have broccoli but better than more dang squash) was cut into florets, blanched and frozen for future use.

Psyched about those tomatillos

Box #7 had a couple more peaches (not yet ripe as of this posting), a couple of pears (ditto), a couple of nectarines (tart and sweet), small orange and red bell peppers, larger green peppers (love to get peppers - we use a lot of those), two ears of corn, a teeny zucchini, two tomatoes (!) about fifteen brussels sprouts (!!), another cauliflower, an onion and a cantaloupe.  The melon was cut immediately and eaten (good but it suffered in comparison to the Krenshaw melon we picked up in Green River) and the rest of the fruit was eaten as it ripened.  The corn: eaten day of, and better than the prior week.  The sprouts were blanched and frozen for future use - I'm picturing a big tray of roasted veg this winter.  And my hopes for this smaller cauliflower are to transform it into vegan buffalo wings, if it cools down enough to turn the oven on.  If not: florets, blanched, frozen.

Fun little peppers

ten miles

 Continuing with the incremental increase in distance project, A did ten miles up at Alta on Sunday.  (Saturday was spent with early morning dog walks (A and M), trail runs and bike rides (H), before it got back up to the triple digits.  This excessive heat is getting, well, excessive.  We're over it.)   It was already 80F at the house in the valley when I left to drive up Little Cottonwood Canyon, but a lovely 62F at the Albion base parking lot.  

Chunky whistle-pig

It's getting more difficult to put together the mileage I want to do up at Alta without also dramatically increasing the amount of uphill hiking.  I'm looking to challenge my distance, not elevation.  For this ten miler, I did what I did for the nine miler, with just a couple tweaks: up on Supreme, I decided not to do that half mile on the ridge towards Devil's Castle; when I got out of the campground, I veered right on another access road, which took me up to the top of the Sunnyside lift where I hopped back on the trail to the Catherine's Pass trailhead, before rejoining the regular route down Homerun.  

Past peak, still pretty

When I got to the Albion Meadows gate, I was at 8.4 miles.  It's only .6 miles to the car from that gate, so in order to meet my miles, I walked UP the Summer Road half a mile, before turning around and going back down to finish things up.

See those tiny yellow dots? Those

are the coneflower's actual flowers

There are noticeably fewer folks up hiking than even last week, and hardly any kids.  What there was a lot of this time were marmots.  I stopped to observe a big one and a small one under the Sunnyside lift; when I got up to Catherine's Area and Devil's Castle, I could hear a bunch of them yelling at me; and when I came back down to the CA trailhead, the big one was still there (I'm assuming it was the same one).  I also saw a couple of pikas up under the Castle - they also yelled at me.

Surveying his domain

Hike stats: 10.12 miles, 3:47 hours.  Would have been faster if I hadn't stopped to talk with the marmots.

csa day: box the fifth

 Got some high value stuff in this box (although I was sure we were supposed to get a melon too ...): green beans, sugar snap peas, a couple heads of broccoli, two cartons of blueberries, one carton of blackberries, a red onion, one each of zucchini and summer squash (sigh), big fat peaches, some donut peaches and a couple of ears of corn.

Request to double the berries and

halve the squash (wishful thinking)

As per usual, the corn and green beans got eaten post-haste.  The blackberries too - we snarfed those down quick (they're H's favorite).  The pea pods went to that tofu, rice and ginger sauce recipe; and half the broccoli went to a red pepper, tofu and rice noodle dish with a hoisin-peanut butter sauce.  Some of the blueberries went into morning oatmeal and the rest were snacked on - they were only okay but it's obvious that Maine blueberries are the best blueberries.  And the peaches were delicious just eaten on their own - no need to cook them down into pie filling this time.

nine miles

 After a couple of days respite, even with some scattered rain, SLC was right back up in its nonsense with triple digits for the weekend.  This of course involved getting up with (or before) the sun to do outdoors things (walking, trail-running, road riding, weeding) and then hunkering down indoors with A/C and cold drinks, grumbling all the while.  

Summer is over when fireweed

blooms to the top

But on Sunday, A did her early morning walking up at Alta, this time putting together a nine mile effort.  I pulled into my parking spot around 6:40 a.m., noting 61F and fewer cars than the last time I was up there.  We're now 2-3 weeks past peak wildflowers and that (thankfully) has cut down on the number of photo shoots and looky-loos.  I mean, it's still busy but it's not quite as busy.

Flax (maybe)

Since I was looking to do nine miles, my route was like last time (8 miles) except that I would take the high road to Cecret Lake (adding another .5 miles) and going out and back a little bit up atop Supreme to make the mileage.  After two miles, I'd seen three mule deer, four hummingbirds and one fake "service dog."  No brides, though.  Just over three miles got me to Catherine's Pass and the sky was noticeably smoky - not terrible but definitely a yellow/gray tinge.

New Roka sunglasses (old everything else)

At the top of Supreme, I did a .25 mile out and back on the trail up to Devil's Castle, turning around just when it started to get some exposure.  On my way back, I passed a couple of hikers who were intending to do Devil's Castle; I wished them well and did not at all wish I was going with them.  Five miles found me halfway down Rock N Roll, just before turning off the cat track/dirt road onto the hiking/MTBing trail that goes under the Apron to the lake.  I had to pause for a couple of minutes there under the Apron when a very brave pika ventured within a couple feet of me.  Unfortunately I didn't get a photo - I didn't want to move and startle the little guy - but SO CUTE.  Bigger than a hamster but smaller than a guinea pig, and looking like a cross between a mouse and a rabbit.

Definitely a tinge of smoke

6.2 miles brought me to not-so-Cecret Lake and the hordes of people on its shores and making their way up and down the rocky switchbacks.  It is fantastic that the mountains are so close to the city (that's why we moved here, of course) but I sure do wish some of these folks understood trail etiquette.  I couldn't get out of there fast enough.  Luckily, it was all downhill and I finished up the last miles without incident, getting back to the car with a distance of 9.05 miles and a time of 3:36.  A bottle of Gatorade, a sneaky beer and a packet of trail mix later, there was nothing left to do but go back down into the heat.  Can I put together ten miles next weekend?

Flowers holding on at higher elevations

pie and beer weekend

Here in Utah, July 24th is Pioneer Day, the state holiday celebrating the Mormon pioneers' arrival in 1847.  For the non-Mormons among us, it is known as Pie and Beer Day and is a welcome day off from work.  Since it fell on Friday this year, we of course loaded up the car with t-shirts and the dog and went off down to Moab.  "In July?" you say, "isn't Moab stupid-hot in July?"  Well, yes, it did hit 106F but in all honesty, it really wasn't that much cooler in SLC, thanks to the heat dome parked over the west.

Morning light against the cliffs

The heat just means you have to get up and get going early, if you're of a mind to do things outdoors.  On Friday, while H did a five mile trail run, A and Milton drove to Millcreek Canyon for a four mile hike.  The creek is still flowing, but not a lot.  We made sure to be out the door by 6 a.m., getting to the trailhead before the sun had come up over the La Sals.  This time of year, if you go early enough, this hike keeps you out of the sun until the last quarter mile or so, so it's a good one with dogs.  After the trail time, H and A got on their road bikes for a 21 mile ride along the river/up to Arches NP/back along the river.  It was a bit too late in the morning for A, however, who struggled with the growing heat.

Total goober

So on Saturday, H did a six mile trail run, and then did a solo road ride (20 miles), while A and M returned to Millcreek for a 5.8 mile hike.  This time we went up the canyon a little further, crossing over to the other side (and flailing somewhat through the prickly plant matter) for the walk back down canyon.  We paused to chat with another hiker and throw a ball for his rescue dog (Milton watched, completely baffled as to why anyone would want to chase and retrieve a ball), and then chatted briefly with our neighbor A and her dog.  She was getting an admittedly late start and decided to bail out on Millcreek and instead drive up into the mountains for a hike to Clark Lake.

Art shot!

Sunday qualified as a partial rest day in that none of us went out on foot (other than an on-leash neighborhood walk for Milton).  But H and A got on their road bikes and did another 20 miles on the bike path.  Since we hadn't gone hiking/running first, we were able to start before 7, which definitely helped with the heat.  A was faster than she'd been on Friday (but by no means fast).

Goober in motion

Other weekend activities included reading, crossword puzzles and drinking beers with friends.

csa days: boxes the third and fourth

 Ask any Utah farmer (of human food, not the alfafa farmers who take more than their fair share of water, grow hay and sell it to China for their cattle) and they'll tell you that 2026 has been a rough year.  The super warm March that caused the stone fruit trees to blossom early, only to lose those blooms - and nearly the whole stone fruit crop - with subsequent hard frosts.  The little-to-no rain we've had.  And now the really hot summer with multiple triple-digit temperatures in northern Utah, making the food crops ready faster, but also shortening the season for cooler weather veg, like lettuces.  Even now, the green beans and corn are tougher sooner.  But I'm still proud to support local growers through our CSA and am excited every week to see what we get in our boxes.  It encourages creativity in meal planning and keeps money local.

Regular carrots this time

Our third box had a good, if on the verge of overripe, cantaloupe, carrots, apricots, donut peaches, green beans, five (!) ears of corn, a cucumber, a zucchini and sugar snap peas.  We ate the corn and beans ASAP, of course; and had the peas, still in their pods, sauteed in a ginger sauce with tofu and rice.  The melon and cucumber got eaten and the stone fruit was flash-frozen for baking later.

I prefer regular watermelon to yellow,

but we'll make it work

Box #4 contained a yellow watermelon, a cantaloupe, four ears of corn, green beans, pickling cucumbers, a couple of squashes, regular peaches and donut peaches.  Again, the corn and beans were consumed immediately.  The melons were chunked up and about half the watermelon was flash-frozen for margaritas, while the rest were eaten - sweet enough for dessert.  The squashes were shredded and flash-frozen (I'm imagining zucchini bread, cornbread filled with zucchini and zucchini fritters, all when it gets cool enough to cook).  Still haven't come up with something for the little cukes: there are only a handful of them, so maybe a very small batch of refrigerator pickles.

eight miles

Continuing with my plan to up my miles, I returned to Alta on Saturday morning for an eight miler.  I prefer to go on Sundays (slightly fewer people because of church) but this weekend, if I wanted to go to Alta, I had to got Saturday.  The second weekend of the Wasatch Wildflower Festival had arrived, you see, with festitivites at Snowbird on Saturday and at Alta on Sunday.  It's a madhouse enough up there right now without involving festival goers.

Wasatch penstemon

I pulled into a parking spot above the Albion base area at 6:40 a.m., just me and dozens of other cars.  The route was the same as last time, plus a little extra to get my miles in.  I walked up the Summer Road to the gate, polishing off my bagel as I went.  Then it was up through the Albion meadows: no moose this time and only three bride photo shoots.  

Western coneflower

At the Catherine's Pass trailhead, I continued on up to the pass.  Hiker traffic dropped way off up there, away from the fields of sunflowers, lupine and penstemon.  There were still plenty of flowers, however, and the ones that are more my favorites, like sulphur buckwheat, anemones and elephant's heads.  The gentian spikes were tall but the flowers hadn't opened yet.

Paintbrush, sulphur buckwheat and

unopened anemones

There were a handful of other hikers at the pass, so I said good morning and continued on up.  That next bit, from Catherine's Pass to the trail junction to Sunset Peak, is such a slog: steep and sandy.  At least there's some shade.  At that trail junction, I turned west(ish) and walked along the top of Catherine's Area to the top of Supreme.

Columbine

When I got to the ski trail junction of Big Dipper and Rock N Roll, I turned off the access road and took the Devil's Castle loop hiking/MTBing trail.  I really like this bit as it goes under the Apron: it's green and shaded and the hard packed dirt trail winds among the boulders.  Just past the Apron there's a split in the trail: go high to Cecret Lake or go low.  I went low, to hit my mileage exactly (and also to avoid the hordes of people I knew would be on the Cecret Lake trail.

Tiny bit of snow in the Apron still

After pausing to admire a big mule deer doe, I came out on the main trail at the bottom of the campground, then did a short stretch on the Summer Road before jumping on Home Run.  I prefer to go up through the meadows on the main trail and then down on Home Run: it's not as steep and usually has fewer people.

She was much more skittish

than the three bucks last weekend

When I got back to the car (8.09 miles, 3:02 hours), both the upper and lower Albion lots were full and there were at least 40 cars in line, hoping to drive to the upper lots.  I hid behind the car to change my shoes (so no waiting motorists could hassle me for my parking spot) and then got the heck out of there.  

Little creek winding through a mountain meadow

As much as I love the Wasatch's wildflowers, I can't wait for August when they're all past their prime and crisped up.  The Instagrammers largely go somewhere else then.

Fireweed

The rest of the weekend?  Some food prep and chores, and also going to 'Bout Time to watch the third place (FRAvENG) and final (SPAvARG) matches of the World Cup.  What will we watch now?

csa day: box the second

 The CSA folks have said that produce is coming in fast and furious, ahead of schedule because of the intense heat.  The lettuce is pretty much done, bolting in the heat, and the corn is a couple of weeks early.  On the plus side, we did get some of that local lettuce, which is nice what with the current diarrhea parasite infesting bagged lettuce throughout the U.S. right now.  (This is the dumbest timeline.)

We got: a huge head of romaine lettuce, cherries, sugar snap peas, apricots, two bunches of green onions, four zucchinis (sigh), three summer squashes (double sigh), rainbow carrots and two corns.  I gave away a couple of zucchinis and squashes (seeing how we still had some from last week) and then shredded and froze 3.5 cups of additional zucchini.  I shelled and froze the peas (I know you can eat the pods but I prefer shelled peas) and the carrots.  And then we ate everything else fresh - it's too hot to cook.

Those are some funky carrots

seven miles

 Oooh it was hot-hot-hot in SLC this weekend.  I had been planning to do a seven mile hike (wanting to get back into longer treks this summer), and thus headed up to Alta a little after 6 a.m. on Sunday, hoping to get ahead of the heat and the crowds.  I managed one out of two: when I rolled in around 6:30, I joined dozens of other vehicles - many of whom were professional photographers and their subjects (so many bridal party shoots ugh), hoping to catch the morning light on the Wasatch's amazing wildflowers.

New shoes from Salt Lake

Running Company

Despite the dearth of snow this last winter, the wildflowers are going off right now, just in time for the two weekends of the Wildflower Festival.  Alta's Albion Meadow is in full bloom right now, with sunflowers and primrose and catmint (or horsemint, I can never tell) and lupine and paintbrush and primrose.  If you do go up, please PLEASE stay on the paths and don't cross the ropes, and PLEASE PLEASE don't pick the flowers.

The meadow

After pausing to watch a cow moose roaming through lower East Greeley, I got up to the Catherine's Pass trailhead.  I only saw one other person on this section of trail, thankfully, but did see a marmot, tons of potgut squirrels and three brave mule deer bucks.  The older one, with an impressive, still-velveted rack of antlers, watched me closely but calmly; the two younger ones didn't seem to pay any attention.  I advised them to be a little more skittish come fall hunting season.

Watchful

There were a handful of other hikers at Catherine's Pass (it took me a bit over an hour to get up there, a little longer than usual due to flower and deer photos), and then I ground it out - gasping at the altitude as it has been eight months (!!) since I've been up there - to where the trail splits for Sunset Peak and Supreme.  I did pass a guy, younger than me, in that section though.

Wall in the Wasatch

From there, it was across the top of Catherine's Area to Supreme, and then down through the campground (full) and the meadows, this time on the Homerun trail.  When I got back to the car, there were thirty cars in line, hoping to get to drive up to the upper parking lots; there was plenty of parking down at the Albion base area, however, so they really should have just gotten out and walked.

Scarlet gilia (not so scarlet)

Hike stats: 7.35 miles, 2:43 hours.  Successfully broke in my brand new shoes too.

Deep rose paintbrush (fave color)

And a quick recap of the rest of the weekend, where the high temperatures reached 104F:  Saturday, A and M did five miles in Dimple Dell, while H ran 5 miles and road biked sixteen; A and H weeded; A made apricot-peach jam; A and H went to a local sports bar to watch the Norway vs England World Cup match.  On Sunday, H did a shorter run and ride, then he and M had a good neighborhood walk (including treeing a squirrel, getting barked at by four small dogs and getting buzzed by a hawk).

7.35 miles later