springtime comes to park city

It has been a minute since we were in northern Utah for a weekend.  The long lawn, weedy flower beds and dirty windows were evidence of such; the chores were definitely piling up and we thought maybe we wouldn't go to Moab.  Instead, we took Milton hiking in Park City!

Spring comes later at this elevation

Like Moab, Park City had a dramatic close-down in reaction to the virus.  And so, even as Utah is beginning to loosen restrictions, there are no tourists and few locals on the trails yet, especially if you go on the early side.  Since we were planning to MTB on Sunday, we decided to hike on some of the Wasatch Back trails.  This spring has been bone-dry and we were confident that the trails would be in good shape, even if we ran into snow at elevation.

Happy, happy boy

We parked in the PCMR lot with just a couple of other vehicles and walked up to the trailhead at the Silver Star.  We got on the Armstrong Trail, which is a multi-use trail (but uphill only for MTBs), and let Milton off-leash.  I have read differing information on whether dogs are allowed off-leash in this area or not but (1) it wasn't busy and (2) we met another couple hiking with their dog off-leash, so I'm not too conflicted about it.

For a desert dog, he sure likes the snow

Armstrong is a wonderful trail, one that we could walk forever.  It is wide singletrack and packed dirt (no rocks), which means that even though it climbs consistently, you never feel like you're working that hard.  We took it up the mountain to Dawn's Trail (hiking only), then kept going up on Spiro.  We did not get up as far as the Mid-Mountain trail because at this point, the trail was snow-covered, so when we crossed a ski trail, we came off Spiro and walked down the access road to reconnect with Dawn's.  The snow is compacting and melting and I only post-holed once.

Post-holing casualty

We stayed on Dawn's all the way back to the trailhead, meeting a handful more hikers and trail runners at this point.  Milton, who had run and run and run and run and run, was happy to lie in the sun back at the car while we had our quick sandwiches and beers.  A few more vehicles had turned up in the meantime, mostly with MTBers taking advantage of the dry trail conditions.

Hike stats:  7.64 miles; moving time 2:40 / speed 2.9 m.p.h; overall 3:19 / 2.3; 1,340' elevation