map's trail notes - intermountain west nature and wilderness travelogues

branching off from Moab, UT with something less area-specific.

this weekend: city of rocks national preserve in southern idaho. high sagebrush desert, pinyon/juniper, mountain lowlands, granite.

i like posting this stuff here, a site that looks and feels increasingly stable, sane, and appreciative of writing, in addition to sharing with friends and feeding the social media machine. i don't have any hustle or anything, i just like going to places, running and posting about it.

total tangent, but i love these kinds of one-person-project photo blog sites that you can still find when you're looking up remote areas: https://www.beyondmycouch.com/2015/08/utah-nevada-back-roads-adventure.html

I'll check in on your travels, map!

At some point I'd like to take a month or two to roam around the west again. About twenty years ago I quit a miserable job and rode my little 250cc honda motorbike all over, up to Alturas CA, through Nevada, down to the Salton Sea.. mostly camping with an occasional cheap motel room to shower and clean my clothes. It was a real revelation and I met some great people... discovered some petroglyphs near Pyramid Lake, coyotes howling while I sat by my little fire up some gravel road. I even went to Gerlach, home of Black Rock City which is a cool place to visit when there's no on there

sounds great! there are so many petroglyphs in nevada.

i would like to one day make it to western nevada and the sierras. have to find the right spot. ideally the high sierras, somewhere a little less well-traveled. it's a long drive from here.

high on my list as far as wilderness goes: jarbidge in northeast nevada, the wind river range in wyoming.

East Sierras around Bishop/Big Pine etc are where to go... it's like looking at the Himalayas or something, and far less tourism... there's ever places you can just park on BLM land and stay for a week for free. There's also the White Mountains on the other side of valley, which are massive peaks in their own right, and where the oldest bristlecone pines are found

awesome, thanks! yeah that's around where i've been looking.

Awlright! Eastern Sierras & White Mountains are kinda my territory. I've camped up there a lot, been up to the research station at the top of White Mountain Peak.

If you get up to Jarbidge, set aside a couple of days for Great Basin NP and the ranges between NV-318 and US-93 south of Ely. Great backcountry that's relatively unvisited.

i love great basin np.

lotta mileage between there and jarbidge though. big area.

i'm getting ready for city of rocks tomorrow. new running shoes and hydration belt. trader joe's trip. i'll have a whole cabin with full kitchen to myself (splurged a little on an airbnb after getting a decent tax return), so bringing all my own food. they say the mountain behind it is private access only and included.

it's gonna be windy. probably some smoke from an oregon wildfire, hopefully not too bad. almo idaho has a little hot springs pool i'm hoping to spend a good amount of time in on saturday after the run. sunday and monday are going to be warm, mid-80s highs.

trails i'm excited about: circle creek loop in city of rocks, castle rocks trail in castle rocks state park, independence lakes trail in the range there.

I really wanted to go to the Kalmiopsis Wilderness in Oregon before I left, but it will have to wait

The Kalmiopsis leachiana plant was discovered in 1930 by Lilla Leach in the Gold Basin area. The plant is a relict of the pre-ice age and the oldest member of the Ericaceae Family, and is the namesake of the Kalmiopsis Wilderness.[1

that looks like a very beautiful place. speaking of beautiful places, are you out of the u.s. yet sleeve?

lol we were delayed for a day, leaving for LA very very early tomorrow - will be gone on the 11th and on the island on the 15th I think

safe travels - looking forward to hearing more about it!

Quoting from Wikipedia, the Biscuit Fire in 2000 "burned most of the 180,000-acre (730 km2) Kalmiopsis Wilderness". That was 26 years ago, but Biscuit was a hot-burning megafire that didn't leave much behind but dead and burned snags. The Kalmiopsis Wilderness is still very much in recovery mode, with a lot of brushy thicket and young trees where there used to be mature forest. :-(

that's too bad. a lot more of that coming unfortunately. looks like there is a fire southeast of bend that started as a prescribed burn and is now a wildfire. wnw flow bringing some smoke down here. i have a feeling this summer is going to be nutso :(.

Biscuit was a hot-burning megafire that didn't leave much behind but dead and burned snags.

yes I am aware of this, it remains true that the Kalmiopsis is a unique biological/geological region that is actually a separate continental plate from the rest of the PNW which is why it has dinosaur ferns.

i.e. I don't necessarily want to go there for "mature forest", I want to soak in the vibe

same with the Rogue River last time I hiked it, watching the recovery in process is fascinating

so City of Rocks.. this place is a fuckin fairyland! it is seriously magic. i'm at a loss for how to describe it. i guess just try and hack through the basics. it's basically a big drainage amphitheater carved out of the side of a range, revealing massive spires, slabs, and blocks of granite. the overall tree population is pinyon/juniper mixed in with aspen groves. much of the flora is familiar to me from utah but how it is mixing together is different - for lack of something more solid to say it just feels like it's further north. everything up here (southern idaho) feels like it's a shade darker or something.

the reserve itself is interesting, i've never been on federal land that feels quite like it. the main crowd it draws is climbers, but there is a fairly sizeable and complicated network of trails that run from the higher parts of the land tucked up behind the granite down into the basin, rushing through slightly different zones. a few creeks still have a trickle of water. the wildflowers, folks - they are wild and they are flowering, everywhere. instant happy shots for me. one of my favorite blooms, cliff rose, is flowering everywhere. smells like liquorice. there are big black birds of prey circling everywhere. i think they're turkey vultures.

there's a big trail loop that runs up one creek, through a lot of rocks, and down another creek. one of the best trails i've ever been on. magic! couldn't have asked for a better trail running vacation. the cabin i'm staying in is very nice. red drapes and a giant metal sawblade on the wall give it a lynchian feel and indeed i had a dream last night wherein laura dern was lighting the bathroom on fire lol. this spot is one of the quietest places i've ever been. there is a town two miles up the road with a few farms and a little store. the climbing areas up in the park can feel a little busy but everything outside of that is very quiet. this morning i only saw one other group of two runners.

i'll have to post a pic or two when i get back. wifi here isn't letting me upload anything.

I love this thread already

I am doing big hikes twice a week to get myself primed to do the Lions hike in July with a couple friends

i hadn't heard of the lions - wow that looks like a huge hike! are you camping or doing it in one day? looks breathtaking - in more ways than one haha.

yesterday i did 4 miles. today was 5 with about 850 ft elevation gain. that's enough in one shot for me at this time lol. i got back around noon and i was pretty baked from the sun so it felt good to hang out in this cabin all afternoon. the endless quiet is nice to fall into. cool dry breeze floating through the window and occasional whistle of a songbird.

from yesterday - you can really see the cliff rose in this one - the shrub with small yellow blooms

https://i.postimg.cc/7YJnHhJq/IMG-0526.jpg

facing the other direction, into the granite amphitheater

https://i.postimg.cc/SRMYhXT9/IMG-0525.jpg

a special juniper

https://i.postimg.cc/XqGdY1JH/IMG-0595.jpg

happy in a high meadow today

https://i.postimg.cc/q71mF75w/IMG-0593.jpg

<3 <3 <3

I love this!!

Lions isn't a camping hike but it is 16km, an all day hike, and there's scrabbling and some "please use the provided rope to get up this rock face" moments. Too dangerous for dogs. My brother is a big hiker and he says it's the best hike he's ever been on. I'm gonna have to work up to it... the Grouse Grind is a famous, shorter-but-punishing warm-up, I'm gonna try that one in June and see how I fare

awesome. love those epic show-stoppers.

i stopped at the general store in almo on my way back and talked to the woman at the register for a few minutes. they have a local history display with photographs and things including some self-published manuscripts from a history keeper who passed on a few years ago. i had a feeling this was the case but that entire region of southeast idaho is mormon settler land. they are a bit of a different breed than the city mormons lol. and the idaho mormons are a little different than the rural utah / southern utah mormons. everyone i talked to was very warm and friendly.

i have my own issues with mormonism but i have to admit that with some perspective it's pretty clear to me that their emphasis on stability and brotherhood / sisterhood is one of the better cultural influences in the area, as far as american expansion goes. obviously they have their bullshit and their darkness like anyone else. but as far as farming/ranching vs mining goes, the mining towns were hell afaict and i have difficulty seeing much good in that element of the west - just raw, brutal capitalist alienation and exploitation.

anyway. amazing trip. really great to see those big expanses of the west that haven't been filled in yet, where things haven't changed much in the last 50 years. i passed by a couple of farmhouses that .. well, they make me want to drop out of the city and start a new life lol. a distant fantasy but maybe i'll live to see the day when i'm living in a farmhouse on open land.

as luck would have it, a few days later i'm in cedar city for a work conference. cedar city sits right at the base of the high plateau in southern utah that drops into zion and has bryce canyon in it. the town is on the west side where it plateau meets the great basin. it's about 5500 feet high.

cedar city is kind of a bad vibe for me for a few reasons. i'm also a little on edge because i didn't like this conference ten years ago, there are a lot of mormons attending, and i'm not sure how i'll do. i'm going to be easy on myself.

i got out for an evening run after i checked in to the motel. cedar city has what looks like a huge network of mountain bike trails in the pinyon / juniper foothills that rise up on the east side of town. there is sort of an insistent and impressive ascent from that elevation into an aspen and spruce basin below the peak, cedar mountain, at 9200 ft., and it looks like some of the trails go all the way up. my run was a 4 mile loop in the pinyon / juniper. there is a lot of dark-colored rock here, which i'm guessing is volcanic. it creates a fun, technical trail. i didn't see anyone the whole time! the ascent was very gentle with long, dipping switchbacks. sort of a classic mountain bike flow type trail. i love running the mountain bike trails. they were my introduction to trail running. it's a pleasure and a rarity to be out there alone on one.

ok so next up is a camping trip, two weekends from now. i bought myself a tent online last night. i looked at campgrounds this afternoon and decided on one.

my criteria were: decent-looking trails, a reservoir or lake for swimming, far enough away from the wasatch front to get a dark sky, nothing below 7,000 feet or so (hot), and sites available for reservation through recreation.gov because i don't really want to gamble on first come first served on a weekend.

i found a good spot at joe's valley reservoir in central utah. it's halfway down the eastern slope of the wasatch plateau. you can follow the drainage into the san rafael swell to the east but it's gonna be hot down there so i'll probably be at the reservoir and in the mountains above it, to the west. hoping for more wildflowers, which i'm sure i'll see, though it hasn't been a big wildflower year here (dry). i'm looking at three nights, the longest i've ever camped. hoping it's the start of a new chapter of these trips for me as motels are expensive and often uncomfortable. i'm sure it will take a few trips for me to dial in my gear and preferences etc. but i think it will be worth it.

ok recreation.gov canceled my joe's valley reservation because construction is taking longer than anticipated.

honestly a blessing in disguise because i ended up finding a good spot at a much smaller campground on a lake a little farther south and farther away from civilization.

always nice when serendipity happens (instead of sh*t)

I had to cancel on a Sierras backpacking trip after I picked up a nasty cold in Humboldt last weekend

My hiking partners still went... Bummed I couldn't make it, but glad I didn't try... it just got worse over the weekend, I would have slowed them down, if I could have even made it up there

map, pardon the extremely basic nature of this question, but we're gonna be in Moab for a few nights in July and will see what we can in Arches and Canyonlands. Any recommendations in terms of things to absolutely or absolutely not do?

oh right on. it depends a little on the weather. july is generally hot but the summer forecast this year is saying there is a significantly greater chance of a wet monsoon. on a dry sunny hot july day i would recommend a colorado river float. the river will be very low this year but i think floating will still be an option. i don't have any particular outfit to recommend.

there are two hikes next to running water i'd recommend: mill creek and onion creek.

mill creek is 1.6 miles and mellow with pools at the end (people like to jump in from above). it is very, very popular. it can get slammed on weekends so if you don't want to deal with crowds, best to avoid. but a lovely hike nonetheless if you're looking for something a little more mellow, still beautiful, with water fun involved.

onion creek is much less frequented. it's in a very beautiful area. the drive there is equal to the hike. it's in an area called castle valley. crazy beautiful, very unique. terry tempest williams lives there. anyway the trail runs along a creek that runs year-long though it will probably just be a trickle in july. it goes forever and there isn't really a "destination". but it is still largely undisturbed desert wilderness and very beautiful for that. if you're looking for quiet contemplative beauty with the chance to get your feet wet i'd recommend this one.

n.b. if there's a chance of thunderstorms in the forecast, AVOID BOTH OF THESE HIKES.

i know arches is a must-do for visitors but if it were me i would avoid. always a huge line of cars to get in. they used to do timed entry but apparently they got rid of it this year. i hear it's even more of a mess. not worth it for me.

canyonlands, however. the island in the sky district - the area of the park that is close to moab - is at about 7,000 feet, so it's cooler. the drive up there is stunning. many trail options there. most tour buses just stop at the overlook. so you can get some quiet depending on the trail. mesa arch is probably the busiest one.

all of the hikes in arches and canyonlands are all exposed all the time. i would not recommend hiking or being outside from 11:30 to 5:30 if the highs are 95+. 100+ and you're just asking for trouble.

a fun local dirtbag thing to do is to pull up at a "beach" along the colorado and chill for a few hours. lmk if that appeals and i can share a spot or two.

a few food notes:

there are a lot of burgers / pizza / pasta. most are ok. some are newish and i haven't tried.

burgers: milt's is one of those famous little shacks, pretty good burger. proper burger is good, they're a bit "newer generation" and started in slc.

mexican: Giliberto's for a solid, satisfying, relatively cheap, authentic workmanlike dinner. also the food truck right next to back of beyond books for a good quesadilla lunch (i forget the name). there's a food truck park right there too.

highly recommend moonflower co-op, specifically the deli in the back. deli food, you say? how exciting. but for real. they are delicious. i often go there for both breakfast and lunch. it is probably the most high-quality food you can get in moab.

98 center. good "gentrifier white" vietnamese. it's really good tbh. also a good drinks menu.

i don't know anything about getting a good drink in moab though, you're on your own there.

Awesome, thanks for that! We’re looking forward to it.

i don't have any particular outfit to recommend.

xp sure thing! hope you have a great time.

ok some additional thoughts.

re: arches. if you go, go early. like leave your hotel before sunrise. go straight to the delicate arch trail. it's at the end of the road and it's the best thing in arches imo. the hype is real. the hike is on the tougher side, especially if you aren't used to hiking on slickrock, which you probably aren't. it gets crowded. the earlier the better, because of the heat and crowds. then on your drive back stop as desired. this is how i would recommend doing arches.

corona arch. it's a big, impressive one. NOT in the park and much less crowded. similar hike to delicate arch - about 3 miles round trip on slickrock, moderately challenging.

grandstaff canyon. lovely hike along the bottom of a canyon with high rock walls. probably alternating between intense heat in sandy areas and some cooler riparian spots with light shade. canyon overhangs and alcoves offer respite from the heat. maybe a good one to do in the evening. not as narrow so i probably wouldn't freak out about flash flood danger if there are some thunderheads but i'm not the last word on that.

check out back of beyond books. it's a cool store. freak them out by asking if you can see their mein kampf. tell andy the owner matt said fuck you. j/k don't do that.

Cool, thanks! I was just looking at Corona Arch actually. And will definitely check out the bookstore.

Any thoughts on Arches at sunset vs. early in the day? We'll be getting into town late afternoonish and were thinking it might be not as bad to go there toward evening. But maybe that's wishful thinking.

totally worth a shot, i feel like i've seen it start to clear out around sunset before, and there is still plenty to see on a drive through the park even if you don't want to commit to a longer hike.

feel like i just spent way too much on groceries. did i really need breakfast bars AND granola? slow-roasted tomatoes AND olives for the sandwiches? ham AND beef braseole? two kinds of cashews? the thought of being away from easy food access turns me into a pig. i also bought water when i probably could have rustled up enough empty containers and filled them with tap water. i guess i'll just keep the containers and do that next time.

it's gonna be chilly, highs barely scraping the 70s. the lake is at ... 9600 feet lol. i doubt i'm going to see a lot of snow though.

one of the towns on the way has a mtb trail system up in the hills. i'm gonna hit that on the way for a run.

i bought the uco candle lantern. unreasonably excited about it. also a little hatchet, which i didn't have. and a book because why not (black elk speaks).

two weeks ago i did a 4 day solo bike pack from montrose co to moab. so great- from 7500’ in montrose over 9k in uncompahgre, down to like 4500 at dolores river then blammo to 10500 at geyser pass in la sals, then to 4k or whatever at moab.

very minimalist, saw very few or no people for hours. i made a tremendous error in electing not to burden my load with long finger gloves based in forecast. starting at 9k on day three temp plummeted to 32.6°F and just dumped snow. my body was dressed fine— but my hands fuuuuuck. non functional.
what an outing.

wow, way cool. it's always some little thing that ends up being a big deal amirite?

i am back from 3 days camping on the wasatch plateau. overall a good trip and a "success". i wanted to see if i could camp and still run, which i kinda did. i will definitely be doing more of this kind of trip in the future. probably not in this particular area though. it definitely has its beauty - high west mountain country with flat-top "peaks" circling basins that drain into rock canyons. but two things - lack of inviting trails and prevalence of cattle grazing - mean i won't be coming back.

cattle grazing. jesus. i can't think of anything that destroys the land more than grazing, no matter what a century of cattleman / government propaganda would have you believe. just based on feeling and having been outside a lot, mountain bike trail systems or even ski resorts do less damage to the land than cattle grazing does. every time i see cattle in the desert it just boggles my mind, but it is very entrenched. i actually found a really good piece on it here just now: https://andthewest.stanford.edu/2019/cattle-or-tourists-utahns-debate-which-is-harder-on-public-lands/. pretty much everything said on the side of the cattleman had me rolling my eyes.

Cattle “is what the country lent itself to,” said Troy Forrest, a program manager focusing on grazing for the state of Utah. Instead of grazing, Forrest points at another culprit behind damage to the land. “The footprint of recreation,” he said, “is much bigger.”

that, tex, is a massive pile of bull-shito

Edward Abbey to thread:

https://harpers.org/archive/2015/02/cowburnt/

the camping itself was, idk 3 stars or something. the campground was next to a lake. it had about 10 sites in it. it felt like an afterthought, more for cars pulling campers than for tent camping. it was only $7 a night and with no one else there the whole time except for a few people passing through to fish or check out the lake it sure was quiet.

the birds. when you're alone out in the forest with nothing to do you can just listen to the birds. constant entertainment.

by the third day i was basically trying to find shade all the time. then getting cold. felt like 30 degrees difference between sun and shade! the second the sun emerged from a cloud, boom, baked potato time. it was a little exhausting. i'm sure there's a great shade structure worth paying for to take on car camping trips but my bare minimum of setting up and taking down already feels taxing lol.

xp oh of course ed abbey has some piece about that. i read the first paragraph and it's a mistake to try to turn cattle into vile creatures imo. as always there's a good point somewhere in what ed abbey writes but he sabotages himself with his vast terrain of hangups.

yeah, was gonna say - we have a lot of hiking areas in the Bay Area that are 'mixed use' - meaning that we share them with cattle, generally black angus. It's been like this forever, they terrace hillsides with their grazing - but I *expect* to see water tanks and cattle on these hikes; we generally steer clear of cows (though I've been charged a couple times when they were close to the trail)

These have been ranchos since the Spanish arrived, I don't see them as pristine lands anymore so the cows don't bother me

nice trip map. yeah, i just cannot w abbey, regardless the areas in which he was correct. after finishing monkeywrench my takeaway was “gross” lol. i could recommend it to gen z as a great way to understand the mindset of the postwar era i guess.

i love great-basin-tales americana, and i really like stegner’s style, i kind of shorthand him as a non-emotionally-disabled hemingway.

a distant family friend wrote a book comparing abbey and stegner, i thought it was good. https://a.co/d/2Vc0YQe

i keep meaning to explore the wasatch and uintahs more, but not til after escalante.

i've been recovering from strep (when i was younger, amoxicillin used to work fast. this time i needed the whole round, and even now i'm not at 100%).

thus it's been a week since i ran outside. feeling pretty good this morning so i decided to drive up to park city to a trail that has been staring me in the face for years. for whatever reason, i hadn't tried it. park city trails can be a little daunting because parking is often a challenge and a steady stream of downhill mountain bikers is something i'd like to avoid.

this one is mostly uphill traffic though, and no downhill allowed at a certain point. i passed a few hikers, a few runners, a few mountain bikers coming up. it is single-track but with a little extra on the sides. it also moves in long straight lines. all of this makes passing a piece of cake. the incline is right at my sweet spot, which it maintains for the first two miles, and it's just technical enough to bring up the adrenaline. it starts just outside the bounds of canyons ski resort and does a few long switchbacks up through old-growth pine and aspen forest. at about two miles it reaches a meadow along an open side of slope. at this point, i stopped. a red-tailed hawk circled my way. i have ambitions now to push up the second big slope and arrive at the ridgeline on top, where the wasatch crest trail is.

the mountain is in such good shape. flora and wildflowers looking so big and juicy. bees everywhere. trees struggling a bit like everywhere but still remarkably healthy. the area has seen a lot of development adjacent to it - houses, resorts, etc. the ski resort begins one ridge over. comparing this experience with last weekend - where i thought that remoteness would create environmental health - is instructive. the cattle range was like a nuclear blast or something. while the kind of human development that happens "at the top of the human food chain" so to speak, in this particular instance in park city, is... remarkably good for the environment.

file this under "sucks but unsurprising." yesterday i learned that the push for utah government agencies to create databases of mine sites isn't for safety or conservation or anything like that. it's to identify places where minerals that are currently of interest might be located. potentially piling more extraction on top of abandoned extraction.

the cattle range was like a nuclear blast or something. while the kind of human development that happens "at the top of the human food chain" so to speak, in this particular instance in park city, is... remarkably good for the environment.

one of the aspects of the part of utah i went to last week is that... the towns are struggling. they give off an air of desperation. these are the places that county and state social services target. it has always been a bit of a mystery to me as to why. i know that a lot of those towns originally appeared because of coal mining on the eastern slope of the wasatch plateau. coal mining is still a job source for the area. here is what i'm starting to understand: the land-destroying industries, mining and ranching, aren't just about siphoning wealth somewhere else, they also completely drain the land of its life. this isn't just some economic data point - that poor, decimated land leads to poor, decimated people - though i think that also tracks. i think that when people know nothing but destruction when it comes to land stewardship - destruction for dollars - they undergo a deep spiritual crisis. this is what i sense in some of these places. full-range sickness.

i think the best economic decision an area like that could make would be to stop the fucking cattle ranching and start building a big ole mountain bike trail system. buy into the utah tourist economy as much as it sucks and is its own greedy machine. at least the land itself - the land that the people are living on - will start to regenerate. there is just nothing quite like the problem of unhealthy land.

it is a crazy cycle. here much mountain space is incredibly community-destroying, immiserating, resort capitalist real estate bullshit. companies like vail resorts import young labor from afar, it’s seasonal and temporary, and they build dormitory settlements. huge portions of prime space is go to mansions for real wealth, mcmansions for fake wealth, and homes and condos for norms who are DYING FOR A MOUNTAIN HOME but which are empty the 80% of the time they aren’t filled by vrbo shites. it’s mostly a real estate play.

a friend of mine who has lived in a front range mountain town since 92 is leaving the mountains to go back to maine. she has no good words, and the communities have been eviscerated by the resort. the middle has been scooped out.

yeah it's way bad out here. no storybook "best mountain town as featured in outside magazine" is exempt. ironic that "the east" - starting with the plains and moving east - is starting to look like it has more opportunities and less expense, depending on where you look. not to mention water. mountains are overrated imo. from a trail running pov some of the best / most fun trails i've run were in rock creek park in d.c.

to everyone with that cute "mountains, please" bumper sticker: bitch, please.

Lol

i kid tbh

Entirely believable and entirely twee

the high down here tomorrow is 106 😬, but my partner has the weekend off for the first time in forever so we're going up into the uintahs! my first visit this year. i think we'll do the lofty lake loop. lakes and peaks. wildflowers should be good :). i've never done it before and somehow never clocked that the uintahs have a ton of trail running potential. inclines are generally not as intense and relentless as they are in the wasatch and there are fewer mountain bikers. every time i'm near a lake and it's somewhat warm and sunny i'm like jennifer coolidge wanting to jump in the lake real bad.

the wasatch always blow me away with how much steeep vert they have, and the incredibly smooth easy flow track the locals make of it. i don’t know the uinta trails. yet, yet. but the dif between wasatch:front range is like the dif of front range:white mtns (which are gnar rocks and roots and damp). each range has it’s flavor.

i dont run much, but did imogene in san juans. map have you ventured down there? ouray? sick outing. i outran my runner friends by training lots of steep loose descents.

i have been to ouray! it was a weekend drive out from moab and i didn't run, just checked out the hot spring. correction, i didn't make it all the way to ouray as the hot spring is a few miles before it. i would love to spend some time in the san juans some day.

that is cool, i like hearing about your adventures.

i've only started running wasatch trails in the last two years and only the shorter ones so far. 2 miles, 800-1,200 feet of gain, and back down - that sort of thing. i am very slow. as slow as you can possibly go on steeper pitches. really more of a trail hopper than a trail runner. part of it is i'm heavy (5'9 220 lbs) and the other part is i have very short legs. it makes it so i'm probably above average at weightlifting at the level of a hobbyist for my age and size, but way way below average when it comes to running. pretty much everyone else passes me. all of this is fine with me, because i just love my shorter runs, my 1-1.5 hours out in the wild feeling a big adrenaline rush and pushing myself. i like the alone time and the music-listening time. but when it comes to races it means there's a big uphill battle if i want to put in a decent showing. i have done a few 5k races in the past. when i weighed a lot less i did a wild 5k at klondike bluffs outside moab. it was march 2 and an hour before start time this nasty deep blue-gray winter storm rolled in. we got a mile in and the hard icy pellets turned into big fluffy snowflakes and then the wind started and we were running in a blizzard. it was such a rush. i still have the t shirt from that one.

i sell myself a little short. i'm ok. i've put in the miles, cumulatively. i've been running trails for more than 10 years now, usually at least once a week, so it's an old hobby, and i have a certain confidence and sometimes my speed ticks up. but: short and slow, short and slow. it's a cycle that suits me and expands ever outward in its own way.

I love this thread

love ya fgti. you'll be back out there soon enough <3.

that is the way, map. just perceive being “out there,” demand that. i totally fuckin love it. i’ve done a lot of things at a lot of dif like, “levels.”

most important factor seems knowing “where” you are, and finding kind souls who will help ya. if buttered up right.

this sorta defined my trip over the la sals in a 32° snowstorm. and others.. it’s part being obstinate and cheerful, part just “well, i’m all i have here, it’s not a lot.”

damn, given everyone’s level of experience; above reads as crazily bullshit and presumptuous— not what i intended.

what i meant was “no surrender, find allies, and make accomplishments— just for you!” ha!

lofty lakes loop was rocks and trees and lakes and wildflowers and streams. i have a head cold so i was a little bedraggled here and there but adrenaline saw me through and it was so worth it. just about 5 miles. the hardest thing about it was mad rockage. i was able to run most of it but relied a lot on "soft-stepping". i've been adding some plyometrics into the workouts lately and i definitely noticed some increased ability to rev up power for temporary stretches. the lakes were beautiful, i must have passed by 7 or 8 of them. jumped in one toward the end. i went with my partner and we have a thing we do where he does his hike and i do my run separately, then we meet back up at the end, so he kept within the first mile or two and explored around the lakes instead. he always gets the best photos. he also jumped in the lake! not normally something he does, i'm proud of him. on the drive back we spotted a very handsome bull moose in a meadow.

high summer uinta realness

https://i.postimg.cc/wT9Zyj61/wildflowers.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/jS51c3w3/moose.jpg

and today was the hottest day ever recorded in salt lake city at 109 f / 42.8 c

holy. shit. moose are more impressive to me even than bison. amazing pics thx

lds are more likely to respond to climate change than regular insane capitalists. they’re quasi socialist within their own domain. i think it’s the tithe-ing maybe.

establishment mormons in utah only care about money as much as any other insane capitalist, they're just very good at lying about it.

holy. shit. moose are more impressive to me even than bison. amazing pics thx

― antimaxx factor (Hunt3r), Monday, July 13, 2026 12:46 AM (fifty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

sure! moose are so beautiful, i just love em.

i’ve come around the corner at 20mph on skinny skis to a hyooge moose just chillin 15 yrds away on track, i thought i was gonna die. he/she cruised thank god. It was like march, no moose kids on site.

wow! they are very large and can absolutely be very dangerous. a gangly teenager popped out right in front of my parked car right after i had plopped into the drivers seat after finishing a run a few weeks ago. just a few feet away. i think she was curious!

i don't know if this link will be accessible (sorry it's facebook), but someone caught a bull moose running at full speed around timpanogos the other day

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1001351799564440

also, this isn't my photo, but the famous timpanogos mountain goats are glorious

https://i.postimg.cc/5NpW9CWr/mg1.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/nhP8BfzF/mg2.jpg

theyre awesome. i’ll see if i can upload some shots of mu co hikes w them

MAP YOU RULE KEEP POSTING