High Uintas High Jinx

For the 4th, we decided to forego the parades, pancake breakfasts, and pyrotechnics, for an overnight trip to the High Uintas with our favorite partner-in-hike, Murphy Brown.

Tuesday was a long day-before-a-holiday at work and so when 5:00 came along, I was only too happy to make a fast break for the door. Mark picked me up at the TRAX, we stopped at home to get Murph and our gear and off we were .... into the quiet cool forests beyond Kamas.

After making a few stops along the way, we got to the Highline trailhead some time after 8 and started walking. For what guidebooks claim is one of the trails that offers LESS solitude in the Uintas, it was amazingly deserted. We ran into maybe 3 groups leaving the trail and by about 9ish, we decided we'd stop for the night and camp at a nearby meadow.

Doused in DEET-free Natrapel, the skeeters weren't an issue really. But by the time we were setting up camp, they must have been getting extra hungry and that's when I decided to pull out:

THE COILS

The packaging said they would protect an 8-10' circumference but just to be safe, I lit up 3 around our perimeter. They worked! No bites while we were cooking! The "coil smoke" didn't really smell like anything ... but I have no doubt that the emissions had to be noxious. Oh well.

We shoveled down some sort of pre-made dehydrated insta-dinners and promptly snuggled into our sleeping bags. Murph was a bit confused .... why are we sleeping when there is a ton of sniffing and digging to be done outside? Several times throughout the night, he decided to slip through under the tent (we had a BetaMid) and go out and get to all that sniffing and digging. Ordinarily that wouldn't bother me much ... but with news of bears eating people at campsites recently, well ... I thought it might be worthwhile to get his appetizing meaty self back. He'd return only to leave again soon after. Oh well.

When we got up the following morning, it was amazingly cool and only got comfortable again when the sun came up. With the infamous coils ablaze again, we cooked up our next pre-made dehydrated insta-meal called "Bandito Scramble." Preparation instructions called for using cold water but, we figured why would anyone want cold eggs? Hot omelettes all the way! We boiled some water and heated ole Bandito a few minutes and sat down in the sun for breakfast.

BLECH!!!

The eggs tasted like a junkyard souffle! Somehow preparing the meal with heat must've transferred some of the titanium pot metallic taste to our precious Bandito. We had a few snack bars but ... faced with several hours of hiking ahead of us, we decided we had to choke down the souffle. Well, on the up side, we must have fulfilled our recommended daily allowance of rusted metals.

After quickly breaking down camp, we were off again. We ran into another group heading back down and were warned that a bear cub was up the trail about 0.5 miles. Hmm, well, maybe I wasn't just being paranoid, eh? We never saw any bear but we think maybe we saw signs of bear (that reminds me, I've got to google bear poop).

Aside from a 1-mile section, the rest of the trail was well supplied with babbling brooks and lakes galore. Murphy dipped his feet and swam in every single body of water, I kid you not. We made our way to Blue Lake, where we stopped for a PBJ, a drink, and a coil-chaser. The rest of this TR is best told by way of pics ....

Sprint to the Summit

No entries for a long time ...

http://www.summitparkutah.net/SPHArace.html

Nuff said ....

TR: Wasatch 2007 Training

Mark has been doing a lot of running at Summit Park, Jeremy, and the Shoreline but I think Sunday may count as the official start of training for the 07 Wasatch. No other fools would join so it was just he and I on that leg between Big Mountain and Lamb's Canyon. After the umpteenth time of wishing I had a small camera to take on these outings, I am making a vow right now to get one this month.

Trail report (TR): after the June 6 snow storm (yes, snow!), the trail was a little moist/muddy in a few sections but for the most part, it is in good shape. Lots of downed trees in the first half ... biking would be a biotch, for sure. Temps in the mid-80s, breezy, quite nice.

Our brush with ole Lancy

We're back from a wild, woolly, and incredibly wet week in the American and Canadian prairieland. First stop was good ole Hartland, for our usual summer visit and the annual Trek ride to raise money for childhood cancer. This was the 18th Trek ride, and Ivan has ridden in all 18 … not too surprising for the biking fanatic, eh? We rode the 100K (62 miles) version but Mark and I are fully convinced that Ivan can still do the 100 miles … get him a few more BBQ chicken wings at the 50 mile aid station and watch him go!

The big to-do this year was the fact that we were gonna be joined by the celebrity-biking-rock-star we like to call: fancy Lancy. A record 3,500 riders signed up this year and I can’t help but think they were more than a little disappointed that he gave a whopping 28-second pre-race address. But they weren’t all there to marvel at his majesty … from the looks of some of the $5,000 bikes and spandex-clad-GU-infused-cyclists at the start line, a lot of them were there to strip him of his imaginary yellow jersey and forever be able to claim they beat Armstrong at the venerable Tour de Waukesha … (if only we all aimed that high). One guy on the chase, took a wet downhill curve too fast and met up full speed with a tree, chest first, broke his ribs and had to be heli-flighted outta there. Another guy somersaulted multiple times before he, too, was sent to the ER. Because he was causing so much bloodshed, Lance-a-lot had to leave before completing the race. Or was it perhaps that he just couldn’t handle the gnarly vert that corn country had to offer? We’ll never know.

The next few days, in between frequent bouts with rain, we managed to check everything off the list: bike around Christopherson Fields, play a little tennis, do a little shopping, and of course, eat, eat, eat. We visited Matt and Shel at UWM and got a tour of the shwanky new med school facility, where we completed a crash course in otolaryngology. Wednesday came too soon and it was time to leave; Mark went back to SLC and I went on to Getty’s graduation in Winnipeg … or “Winter”peg, as the locals like to say.

The butt breakin' and break-in tour

Yesterday, Mark, Matt, and I opted to get on our bikes and go on a 3-hour tour .... a "3-hour tour." We started off at the Canyons, following the dirt road up to get on the Ambush Trail and eventually connecting to the mid-mountain trail. The trail was in great shape and the weather was about purrrfect. We were marvelling at the fact that we had only seen 2 other riders on a long weekend in this biking mecca when we came to a grinding halt ... to portage the bikes over a couple of downed trees. And a few more after that .... and a lot more after that. Overall, we had to portage 12-15 or more times. The price of solitude.

I was feeling pretty good until about mile 15 or so. By then, our soft, smooth, shaded, pine-needle-laden trail had given way to a rocky, sandy, sunny track and I began to feel the woes of a front-suspension bike and an uninitiated butt. I think the caked mud on my pedals made it difficult to click my right shoe on (and off) ... and as a result of the jostling from the rocks, I would biff from time to time. I was a mess and I was ready to be done.

Unfortunately for me, there was no escape; the intersecting roads of "The Colony" were copiously marked private .... and inaccessible to tired riff-raff such as myself. I would either have to continue onwards or backtrack ... which would have taken longer. So onward we go.We'd end up with another haul up Thaynes, before heading downcanyon, and exiting on the Spiro. Another few miles on the road and we finally got back to the parking lot .... 5:45 hours after the start of our 3-hour tour.

Well, there it is ... now that I've done that, I don't have to do it again. Eat your heart out speedgoat ... this girl had a few more than 2 scrapes!