fourteen miles

 If you've got to do fourteen miles, you could do worse than doing it on the Pipeline Trail in SLC's Millcreek Canyon.  If you start at Rattlesnake Gulch and walk to Elbow Fork, it's cake.  (Sort of.  I mean, you're still doing fourteen miles.)

Nice day for a hike

On Saturday, A did just that, leaving the house a smidgen before 7 a.m. and getting to the Rattlesnake Gulch trailhead at quarter after 7.  Traffic was light and there were just a few cars in the trailhead parking lot.  It has literally been since the first year we moved to Utah that I've set foot in Rattlesnake Gulch.  That's how the Pipeline Trail is accessed: .7 miles basically straight up, with loose rock underfoot.  The first mile took me about 24 minutes due to footing and steepness; the second mile was almost eight minutes faster, since I was on Pipeline.  

Looking down on the road below

The temperature started in the 50s and didn't get out of the 60s; it was a mix of sun and clouds and, with the Pipeline Trail being largely shaded, it was quite pleasant for a hike.  Also, once attaining the Pipeline Trail, it is good footing, with a gradual uphill climb to Elbow Fork, with the exception of the steep, switchback-y climb from Church Fork to Burch Hollow.  I made good time, settling in for sub-20 minute miles - mostly around 17-18 minutes.

Leaves - and seasons - changing

I hit the seven mile halfway point just before Elbow Fork.  It seemed silly to turn around in a random spot on the trail, so I continued up to Elbow Fork, noting the changes wrought by this summer's construction.  I swapped out my food wrappers (bagel, fig bar, trail mix) for new food for the downhill (potato chips and Swedish fish) and kept on walking.  Per usual, my feet started hurting a bit around miles 9-10; by the time I was descending Rattlesnake Gulch they were pretty sore.  I finished up with 14.26 miles in 4:37 hours, took my trail shoes off as soon as I could and pounded a beer and a coconut water barefoot in the parking lot.

Snek

I usually do my long hikes on Sundays but picked Saturday for this hike since it was an odd-numbered day, which means off-leash dog day in Millcreek Canyon, which means fewer MTBs on the trail.  I was pretty pleased with this decision, as it would have been VERY annoying to have to step aside for many MTBs over the course of fourteen miles.  Instead, the trails were foot-traffic heavy (not that heavy, actually, I expected it to be much busier than it was) and I entertained myself (no headphones/music) by counting who I met: 40 trail runners, 89 hikers, 45 dogs, 3 MTBs and one rattlesnake (early in the morning, still so cold from the night before that he didn't even lift his head).

csa box the eleventh

 Box #11?  Already?  I mean, I'm ready for summer to be over (way too long and hot) but I'd really like fall to last a long time.  But box #11 means we're almost at the end.  I didn't take a photo this week but this is what we got: a carton of raspberries (kind of squishy but still tasty), a small watermelon, a tomato, some plums (squishy, unfortunately), apples, two red onions, two lemon cucumbers, a couple of ears of corn, some tomatillos, jalapenos and some purple-skinned potatoes.

The corn, berries and melon were all eaten fresh; the watermelon was much better than the last one we got.  I made the tomatillos, an onion and a couple of jalapenos into a chile verde-ish sauce that we ate with rice and beans.  The potatoes got turned into baked potato chips (really good snacks for hiking since they're salty and carby).  And I'm going to quick-pickle those weird little cucumbers, I guess, because I can't think of what else to do with them.

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