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

riding and hiking

 Saturday was the Fourth of July and the massive (lol) Moab Independence Day parade finishes up right in front of our street.  This means that by 9 a.m., you're either stuck in there, wanting to get out, or stuck out there, wanting to get in.  Luckily, the parade only lasts about 15-20 minutes so you're not stuck (either way) all that long.

Here comes the sun

But we got up and got going as a family, arriving at the Amasa Back trailhead not long after 6 a.m.  H and M did a four mile trail run while A did a six mile hike.  It was super pleasant down in the completely dry Kane Creek wash, which was totally shaded at that time of day.  We were the second vehicle in this parking lot, with the other belonging to BASE jumpers who'd gotten an even earlier start than we had.  The runners did an out and back; A also did an out and back, since six miles was the distance goal and I couldn't remember if our regular Hymasa MTB trail/Amasa Back 4x4 trail loop would get me there - I didn't want to have to trudge around the parking lot to hit my distance goal.  Obviously, H and M finished up first, and sat in the shade of the truck, reading and watching the BASE jumpers land successfully.

#antifascist

We got back home just minutes before the police shut down our street for the parade.  We didn't watch it this year - when you've seen it once, you've seen it for all times - but we did walk down to Dave's for coffee, marveling at all the people who did come out to see it.

M and A surprised three baby raccoons

on our walk; the mama just waddled

away into the underbrush, unconcerned

On Sunday, A and M did a three mile town walk and then the two people did a 25 mile (21 for A) road ride.  Same route, same level of traffic, same bugs.  One thing that was different: the Rock Shop owners have rerouted and are improving a spring that crosses their property, such that water is available for passersby.  We chatted with the man who was doing the rock work and he invited us to refill our water bottles, and then come back anytime with jugs.  The springwater wasn't cold but it tasted good.  And we thought it was awfully neighborly for them to make it available to folks.

hiking and riding

After A got back from her back-east/family trip, during which H and Milton got to spend ten days in Moab (not all fun and games: H had to work during the week), we all had four days at home in SLC before heading right back to Moab for the long holiday weekend.  As is evident in this blog, we go to Moab for all the long weekends, if we can, and tend to try to stretch them out by a day or two as well.  This time we went down Thursday afternoon and came back Monday afternoon.

All these teeny lizard tracks in the sand

It got hot (but not as hot as it's gonna get) down there, with temperatures increasing through the weekend.  So we made sure to get up and get going early, so that Milton could accompany us on all the Milton-accessible activities.  And when it got hot in the afternoons, we left him snoozing in his crate at home while we went to a bar to watch the World Cup group stage games.

Dunno what this one is

On Friday, while H did a two mile trail run, A and M went to Millcreek Canyon.  We got there a little after 6 a.m., just as the sun was coming up, and were the second vehicle in the parking lot.  We did our usual four mile loop - out along the rim trail, then dropping down into the canyon just above the cowboy hot tubs, then walking out along the creek.  The water is low but still flowing.  We didn't see anyone until we got below the creek juncture, and even then it was just a handful of folks.  

This one's a paintbrush

Tourism is down this time of year: people who live in Utah and Colorado know that it's just too hot for activities, so it's mostly Europeans or folks from back east who don't know any better/are locked into summer travel because of schedules.  We have friends in the hospitality industry and I know they worry during the slow season.  But gosh, for those of us who don't like crowded trailheads, this is nice, despite the early morning starts.

This one's a goofball

After the trail time, and before it heated up too much, H and A did a 21 mile road ride, along the river / up past Arches NP, back along the river.  There were very few people on the bike path but there were quite a few noseeums - ick!