A Breath Of Fresh Air

Rarely is November greeted with early fall-like weather here in Salt Lake. This year however, we’ve been obliged with such; Shining sun, 60’s and 70’s, and generally mild weather for this time of year. I promise I’ll be the last to complain about it, though! I dread the winter every year, more so because of the cold than the snow, though I’m not a fan of either, really. With my first winter of running coming up, I’m being blessed (or cursed) with more than ideal conditions right now. I used the weekend to take full advantage.

I made it into the hills for the first time in weeks. Not my ideal training regime by any means, but time has been constrained as of late so I’ve been relegated to doing most of my running on the roads… Arrgghh! The whole daylight savings thing has thrown off my timing as well since it gets dark much earlier nowadays. Guess I’ll have to consider doing the bulk of my running in the morning. The weather was excellent though, albeit windy. That’s ok as I’d rather deal with some winds on the high ridges than rain and cold weather any day of the week! The point is, I got out there and did what I love doing for the first time in weeks. It felt good!

View to the south from Big Mountain

I decided to go up in the East Canyon area up near Big Mountain. The route I had planned was nice for a number of reasons… First, it’s a loop which makes life easy since I depart and finish in the same place. Second, I don’t go over the same trail twice as I would on an out-and-back. Finally, the area is familiar to me so I didn’t have to worry about taking a wrong turn somewhere. All in all I’d wind up doing about 15 miles with several thousand feet of elevation mixed in there.

So I started my morning near Affleck Park and ran the Old Trail that parallels the road. This trail eventually leads to Big Mountain Pass. From there I made my way up Big Mountain and circumvented the opposing valley in a counter-clockwise direction which dumps you off on the opposite side of the valley near Lookout Peak. From there it’s a 3 mile descent back into Affleck and another half mile or so to the car.

View of Salt Lake Valley from atop Big Mountain

For the most part, the run was very enjoyable. The wind on top of Big Mountain however, was unreal! At times I was leaning so far to my left that I would’ve fallen straight over had there been no opposing force from the wind. Once I was down off the ridge line though, only a slight breeze was present. It was quite nice as it aided in cooling me down a bit. I did run into snow in a few sections of northern facing slopes as well. Unfortunately, it was so slippery that I wasn’t able to run (let alone walk) most of the final mile up in the bowl before my long descent. Though I probably lost 15 minutes or so in this section alone, I’m not gonna lie, it made for a nice break.

Some of the snow covered slopes I passed through

All in all, it was a great day for running. Got my longest run in since the marathon (both time and distance) and got to spend a few hours up in the mountains breathing the crisp, cool air.