salong08

Striding Along - Trail news and miscellaneous chat - 2008
31 Oct-> Happy Halloween and speaking of something scary, the bridge I was looking for to be built over the Jordan River at 11400 South (see Oct 3) has a solution. Unfortunately, it is a major highway going from State Street to Bangerter Highway. This will take a long time to construct. So now you know.
25 Oct-> There is an effort to complete more trail along the railway line that extends south from the last Utah Trax station (about 10000 South and 200 East) out in Sandy on the east side of the tracks. The Sandy Parkway trail has previously ended at 11400 South and about 300 east.   This new section begins at 11400 South but on the west side of the rail road tracks across the street from the Sandy Parkway trail's current southern end. The graded trail, soon to be paved, travels down to about 12000 South where it crosses 700 East. You can pick it up again across 700 East where the trail switches back to the east side of the rail tracks. The trail construction ends at 12300 South and about 1000 East. Will it be called the Draper Parkway trail? The sad part about the Sandy and possible Draper Parkway trail is there are no bridges to make it more accessable to foot, blade and bike travel. Crossing across those roads is not too bad on Sunday but other days of the week are hazardous and require a great deal of care and usually means traveling up to an intersection east or west to cross the street safely.
9 Oct-> JRT update: The Jordan River Trail from Shields Lane (about 9850 South) where there is a tunnel under it has been newly paved northward 0.6 miles to where the bridge needs to be placed leading across the Jordan River to access the Jordan River trail near the Riverside Golf Course. Watch out for free roaming horses.
3 Oct-> More about the Jordan River Trail: it has always been frustrating to me that the Jordan River Trail is not fully connected from Utah Lake to the Great Salt Lake. While they are making progress, it is exceedingly slow. For instance, the section from 10600 South to 12400 South is partially finished, there are trails that do NOT connect from both ends. Earlier this year the trail on the east side of the river going north from 12400 South was extended 0.57 miles and dead ends about 11400 South.
Need a bridge there to complete the connection. Dang, got my hopes up it would happen this year. Alas, no such luck. Meanwhile on the other side of the river, an undeveloped piece of property blocks completion of the trail from 11500 South to about 11900 South.   I am hoping that the other section of trail from Shields Lane about 9800 South north to 9000 South I mentioned 30 Sep doesn't turn out to be a dud like the above mentioned one.   Trails from both ends, but no bridge to connect it.   Agony!
30 Sep-> Jordan River Trail update: the section from 90th South to the tunnel under Shields Lane (about 9800 South) is being worked on. They have plowed a trail (west side of the Jordan River) and layed underbase gravel for a trail from the Shields Lane (South Jordan) tunnel heading north about 0.7 miles. Beyond that, it is marked with stakes all the way to the Jordan River junction where the water drops at a higher level to a lower one. This is the area that will need a bridge and is about 1/3rd of a mile south and west of the Riverside Golf Course club house. There is a new park, Sandy Urban Fishery, across the river from the Shields Lane tunnel between the Jordan River and the golf course. It has a pond with a cement sidewalk all the way around.   For those who travel from Gardner Village (7800 South) on the Jordan River trail, the route is paved and complete about 1.45 miles but swings out to 700 West and 8500 South across from the Boat Repair place. To get back on the nearest section of the Jordan River trail, pedestrians and cyclists have to travel south along 700 West to 9000 South, cross it preferably at the intersection, and turn west a short distance to the east side of the Jordan River where a roughly worked trail begins next to the golf course bridge. Sadly, it looks like they are just planning for the future of the Jordan River trail to just be a sidewalk/trail along the west side of 700 West rather than following the Jordan River to 90th South. This probably means crossing over 90th South at the intersection permanently rather than having a tunnel underneath. The Jordan River trail travels from the east side of the Jordan River by the golf course bridge, past the club house, crosses a bridge (there are some JRT signs for a future trail ) and again parallels the river where it abruptly ends in a flat fenced off area. A new bridge needs to be constructed before it will pick up the new trail being built out to Shields Lane I mentioned earlier.   Also, in recent news, the new train tracks" bridge" crossing the Jordan River just before Gardner Village will begin construction soon (part of the West Valley Trax extension) and the trail will be re-routed around it.   Another trail out in Draper is being worked on that might interest you.   The Porter Rockwell trail has been extended. From Draper Park , you cross 1300 East and go south east, then south, then west 3.5 miles where it used to stop at 14340 South and 300 East. Now, if you continue south under the train overpass, and immediately cross the street, careful of cars going 50 mph, following the signs, you begin a new paved section that goes about 1 mile to 14600 South (near the west side of the I-15 & Bluffdale Exit and the Fred House Police Academy). It parallels the train tracks that will someday be part of the Front Runner train to Utah Valley.    Interestingly, it just stops north of 14600 South but a connector trail has been graded beginning on the south side of 14600 South running south about 1 mile to the entrance of the massive Sand and Gravel + Cement buisness. Stakes pounded on the west side of the graded trail mention a fence being built next to the train tracks (again part of the UTA Front Runner project in preparation for laying the new train tracks out there).   There is supposed to be an Equestrian Trail out there next to the new paved section and further but that must have been delayed.   There is a sign pointing to the Equestrian Trail but the trail only goes 50 feet and disappears.
13 Sep-> What to say? That is the question. My personal life has dominated the running scene (meaning, not much running) to a great extent this summer. I will just mention a few things of local interest. The Jordan River trail has a new trail head at the Narrowes. You can access it from the small road just north of the Veterans Memorial, 17111 South Camp Williams Road. Camp Williams Road is being widened and is under major construction. The new trail head adds about a 1/3 of a mile so the distance from the Utah Lake/ Saratoga Springs parking lot by the Remote Controlled Model Airplane park is 9.6 miles.   There is, unfortunately, no JR trail traveling from the north yet to connect up with the Bluffdale JR trail. What is good news in this section is a new underpass for runners which will take you under the main road going from Lehi out west. This was getting very dangerous to cross. It is about half done now and hopefully will be done later this year.   Also, there is a trail heading west from the Saratoga Springstrail head parking lot. It dead-ends 0.8 miles further. This trail will eventually connect to the Provo River trail which drops to Utah Lake and continues on the east side of the lake and heads over to Saratoga Springs.   There has been no further work done on the JR trail since they paved 3900 South to 3300 South after putting a bridge over 3900 South.   At least until you get north where the new Legacy Parkway Highway will be opened this weekend. The JR trails are supposed to all connect to this with a paved trail on the east and a dirt trail on the west. Should be fun exploring this fall.   In other local news, most of you are aware of the huge fire that roared up the mountain side west of Draper in the Corner Canyon area. It was a narrow escape for local runners Troy Olson and John Maack who have homes next to the Orson Smith trail head. They got evacuated but the fire was halted a few hundred yards away. Sand bags were placed by their homes soon after to prevent floods rampaging down the newly denuded mountain side.   Trails are open now with the typical burn smell. Other than that, the Wasatch Front 100 Mile Endurance run was successful. After Western States 100 was stopped this year due to forest fires and smoke, the race committee and participants were nervously watching for trouble. The Draper fire did cause lots of anxiety for us. But it was a good year although the sudden cold was a little hard to adjust to.   The biggest problem for the race is the popularity of the aid stations. Everyone wants to go to them and hang around.   This year, more self-control was expected and only one crew car was allowed an hour before the runner came in. Kudos to the Wadsworth Construction Company for clearing out the Lambs Aid Station after the bridge deck replacement. It was a new thing completed the day before the race. What a relief that was! A staging area was offered at Little Dell for Big Mountain and Lambs for crews and pacers. This was a fun and successful big old tail gate party atmosphere at the staging area.   Made me want to bring my Dutch Oven and cook a few spuds and stuff.
Agony and Ectasy moments: What a pleasant surprise that John Maack was able to keep his focus and finish after the fire incident. Troy Olson paced him the last section.   Derek Blaylock DNF'd at Lambs as did Lee Moss.    Lorie Hutchinson, after a fourth place at the Badwater 135 mile, DNF'd at Millcreek. There were 79 DNF's and those are just a few of the ones I noticed for the agony side.   Back on the ectasy side, Jill Bohney and Roger Adams finished after being left off the acceptance list due to the hated lottery. Made me happy, I can tell you. It was fun seeing Leland Barker, 50, take fourth at Wasatch and Dave Hunt (8th) for the Crimson Cheetahs. Sorry, if I just mention the locals I bump into more often or are more familiar with, I don't mean to exclude anyone. Tom Remkes and Cory Johnson are going for the 4th leg of the Rocky Mountain Slam at the Bear 100 coming up after good runs at Wasatch. Good going guys (funny how Leadville is being avoided this year, they must have heard about their terrible weather). How 'bout Carter Williams (9th) getting in a 24:44 at Wasatch. Blistering! Jeff LaMora (11th) finished way up on the runner board with a 25:12. He had a good finish at the Headland Hundred this year in California. Remkes (16th) pushed a 26:11. Phil Lowry (29th) ripped a good run, too, in at 28:12. Cory Johnson (33rd) at 28:31. Brian Hamos (51st) just missed that sub-30 hour time in at 30:05. Sarah Evans, 5th place for the women and in at 30:21. Charlie Vincent (57th) came in at 30:46. Greg Moellmer (61st) did 30:51 despite Medical School and new baby showing up. Maack (62nd) was 30:52.   Shane Martin (72nd) got a welcome finish in 31:46. Dave Klein (77th) 31:56.   Buffalo Chief Jim Skaggs (85th) popped up at 32:21. Mike Price (88th) now living in Park City was in at 32:29. Jason Berry was 89th in at 32:32 along with Jill Bohney (13th for the women) with a 32:32. Ernie Floyd (100th) finished in 32:48. Roger Adams (#102) at 32:56. John Diroll (#107) 33:16. Eve Davies(19th for the women) in at 33:43. Dave Blaylock (#124) 34:17.   Daren Anderson (#129) 34:25.   Rick Gates (#130) with his out-of-this-world 24th finish in 34:28.   Jim Williamson (# 135) 34:42. Colleen Ford (22nd woman) 34:51. Jim McGregor (#138) 34:53.   Fred Denys (#143) 35:02.    Stephen Kissell (#147) 35:12.   Cindy Howard (#24th woman) 35:13.   Jodi Martin Fessler (#25th woman) in at 35:15.   Out of the 162 finishers, there were 81 Utahns, some of whom I have mentioned. There were 29 women who finished (17.9% of the total field). Thirteen of the women were Utahns. Keeping track of everyone is certainly much harder these days. When the run was only sporting 20 to 40 participants, it was a lot more personal because you knew everyone.
26 May-> Lousy day for running with all this rain, so I am surfing the internet. To my great astonishment, Yiannis Kouros has set another world record (50 to 54 year olds) by running 433.095 kilometers (269.11 miles) at the Bornholm, Denmark 48 hour championship run recently. The second place guy was 42 miles behind him.
Incredible. It took me 3 months to run that much this year. Whew!
21 May -> Last weekend was the Annual Zion Train migration of a few runners to Zion National Park for a trail dance. I ran the Wildcat (middle) section backwards with Sam and Barabara Hill while Joan Moellmer went the regular direction. It ended up about 10.5 miles for the four of us because we had to start or end at the gate up at Lava Primitive Campground. Meanwhile, several runners were doing the whole 38 miles from Lees Pass near the West Entrance to the Grotto near Zion's Lodge and onto the buses to the visitor's center at the South Entrance. Kathie & Duane Schmutz, Greg and John Moellmer, Terry Foust, Dan Moore, Dee McLaughlin did the full Zion Train. Wally & Hooper did the start to the Lava Primitive campground gate (about 25 miles). Deanne Millwood ran from the Grotto to the Lava trailhead and back. Temperatures at the end were nearly 100 degrees and quite a challenge for the northern Utah group since temperatures up north have allowed no heat training to speak of.   The flowers were plentiful, varied in color, and were completely yubba dubba doo gorgeous as always. The Full Train runners found out the Telephone Canyon route was blocked off, so the full canyon rim trail on the west rim was used.
15 Apr -> 3pm   Wow! The temperature is near freezing (certainly below 40 degrees F) and I am getting snowed on.   I am finally done clearing sagebrush from the equestrian trail paralleling the Porter Rockwell trail between 1300 and 300 East.   The tread could use some work but this is a fun rolling single track trail that really needed cleaning up.   Maybe by clearing brush, the traffic on it will increase and help improve the tread. Lot of grass underfoot currently.   Taxes are due today. Ugh.
14 Apr -> 3pm -> Hottest day of the year so far. 80 degrees F and I am not used to sweating so much.   From Orson Smith trail head, I kicked my torso out on the sandy trails and ended up 5 miles later back where I started. I got really thirsty the last mile or so. Time to start carrying water again.
27 Mar -> Corner Canyon is getting better all the time for trail running. Still lots of snow over on the north side of the Traverse Mountain area, so stay over on the Aqueduct and Upper Corner Canyon area. Warning, there is at least one cougar in the area based on the tracks and lots of deer kill. I have a couple of loops, one is 0.9 miles total from Orson Smith t railhead, up the connector trail to the Aqueduct Road and south to the Upper Corner Canyon road and back down to the trailhead. This is a great loop for the kids, too. A longer loop is to take the connector trail up to the Aqueduct Road, south to Upper Corner Canyon road crossing but go straght across and continue along the Aqueduct road to the Bonneville Shore connector trail where you turn left (east and north east) and go up to the Upper Corner Canyon road, turn left (north) and run back to the Orson Smith trailhead.   This is 3.5 miles, so two loops gives you 7 miles.   Well, speaking of weather and better trail running, it is currently snowing quite heavily out side and although I had planned on trimming / cutting more sage brush out on the Porter Rockwell equestrian trail, I think I will postpone that.   Cluck, cluck, cluck.........ya, ya, big, fat chickenitis.
4 Mar -> Measured the loop I described yesterday but run on equestrian dirt and gravel trails. Turns out the mileage is virtually the same: 5.57 miles ( based on my GPS watch - Garmin Forerunner 305). There are several places where more than one equestian trail is available and I took the most prominant one.   I did end up running through about 200 yards total of snow, especially on the equestrian trail heading west from 13700 South 1300 East to 14340 South 300 East.
3 Mar-> My goal with this chat and chew page has changed over the months. I felt pretty silly and embarrassed about being a blog and I don't really want to turn this writing into a personal rant or a brag sheet, so I carefully think more now about what to dump in here. Trails: Now that I have denied any intention to do a personal rant, let me make a liar out of myself by doing one. I often have grand wishes for more trails in our local area and better access to them.   Sandy City has a radio ad I hear once in awhile that claims 65 miles of trails. Hmmmphh, I guess if you count sidewalks as trails.   I can only come up with about 10 to 15 miles and hardly any real dirt trails, just a wee bit in Dimple Dell and that is mostly soft equestrian tread, much of the surface is not "human friendly".   New loop trail in Draper: I started at 13700 South and 1300 East just north of the 1300 E. underpass.   Taking the Porter Rockwell trail and heading west, I ran 1.77 miles to 300 east and about 14340 South, took the sidewalk north of the new half million dollar homes there about a block northwest of the homes (1.91 miles) to the new Draper City trail and headed east. I followed this across Osborne Lane (2.56 miles), 13800 S. 940 East (2.97 miles), 13400 S. 1300 E (3.84 miles) to the junction back with the Orson Porter Rockwell trail (4.6 miles), turned right and headed south back to the start (5.51 miles) of the loop. The mileage is from my mechanical wheel but my GPS watch was very, very close (ended with 5.55 miles on the GPS watch). The trail is paved that I measured. There is an equestrian trail all the way around, however, and should be good running as soon as the snow melts later in March.   Most of it is runnable now and is off pavement except for a few places, primarily road crossings, the sidewalk, and some connector trails.
12 Feb -> Seems like more snow this year than we have had in awhile. 12 foot plus totals for the base up at the ski resorts. Lots of snow up in Heber Valley, Ogden. Sandy and Murray, Utah, got missed but I hear West Valley got dumped on recently. Trail running has been snow packed trails for the most part. Always a bit hazardous when ice is suddenly encountered. So, I have been mainly reading about trail running, short trail runs, cycling indoors. One Ultra that makes our winter running look sissyish is the Yukon Artic. They are running this weekend in minus 40 degree weather! Makes our running conditions down right balmy. Then, of course, like reading seed catalogues and dreaming of warmer weather, it is fun to read the warmer Ultrarunning sites in the winter, like the Badwater Ultra in Death Valley and there is a new one in Florida that runs along or on the shoulder of US Highway #1 from Key West to Key Largo coming up in May. Of course, when the warm weather hits, I will stray back to the cold weather Ultra reports and the horrible frostbite conditions.
12 Jan -> Jordan River Trail in Utah County -> ran the section through Thanksgiving Point Golf Course (an out and back ~ 7 miles).   Plowed, so great running in the warmer weather, about 45 degrees F. Too bad Midvale and Sandy won't plow their Jordan River Parkway trails like Utah County does. Murry section, however, is usually plowed and maintained well. Saw a few Oregon Juncos, Mr. Magpie, and a Red Shafted Flicker.   A black and white animal far across the Jordan River. Could have been a cat. Could have been a skunk. Neat run, without long pants and gloves. It has been awhile since that happened.
1 Jan -> Not much to chip in about. Had a short cold run yesterday at Iron Mesa Park, 8600 South 1700 East. Snowpacked trails, very slow going. Temperature was good unless going into the wind, then it was freezing. The Sandy Parkway has been plowed. Ran last week after the latest storm. Some of it is very icy in the morning -> use caution. I ran the section from 9400 South to 11400 South and back. Haven't had a chance to check out the Jordan River trail but it looks good today south into Utah valley. Lots of robins when I was out there a couple of weeks ago migrating through and several groups of Bohemian Waxwings which are a transient visitor. The usual Magpies and Mallard Ducks in the Jordan River make it interesting. Fred Riemer and Jim Skaggs ran over a hundred miles in Arizona over the last couple of days. That is more than my monthly average these days. Way to go Fred and Jim!