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