Friday, June 21, 2013

Malan Peak Hike June 21, 2013

Just a little morning hike up to Malan Peak with Mayflower and Michex.  Mayflower got new trail shoes that needed a test drive.  She has the amazing pink laces!  After making it to the peak and trying  a couple of attempts at setting the timer on my camera to get a photo of the 3 of us, some really nice ladies came along and offered to take the photo for us:)   And then Michex made several vain attempts at getting in BOTH sides of a panorama shot.  Which is not as easy as it sounds, by the way.  You can tell that we were only partially successful about half the time.  All in all, a great morning in a beautiful canyon, rewarded with amazing views of Ogden and the company of my girlies:)...and then we ran down the trail!  Woohoo!  Then Mayflower went and got her driving permit when we got home...:)













Sunday, June 9, 2013

Just for fun.

After a very stressful week of long hours and project crunch time at work last week, I decided to take Friday off and treat myself to one of my favorite trail runs.  I did this one last summer while training for my marathon and remembered really loving it!  I was surprised, however, that I still felt some of the same anxieties that I did last year.  I thought they were "training" anxieties, but I guess I was mistaken.  But, after deciding to shorten the mileage a little bit and having Shematite hike the first 20 minutes with me, my anxieties lessened and I was able to really enjoy the trail run:)
The South Skyline Trail starts at the top of North Ogden Divide and goes south, over the mountains, to Pineview reservoir.  Last year I included the detour out to Lewis Peak and back which added about 4 miles.  This time, once I gained the ridge over-looking the valleys, I picked up my pace and kept going to the other side of the mountain, not taking the time to go out to the Peak:) I love bombing down that trail!  I had 2 women pass me shortly after I started.  They were fast and looked like they were heading to Lewis Peak.  I didn't see anyone else until I was about 3 miles from the end of the trail.  I startled 2 mountain bikers who had stopped to rest on the trail, then came upon another biker who warned me of 2 hikers and then a pack of llamas coming up the trail.  After that came 2 dirt bikes and that was it!  There was much less traffic on a Friday than on a Saturday.
Shematite met me at the trail's end and we both soaked our legs in the cool water of the reservoir.  9.5 miles never felt so good:)