On Monday night, I found a campsite at Tony Grove. My friend from Cincinnati, Steve, was to join me for the next few days. I spent a few hours wandering the campgrounds while he meandered his way to the campsite from Salt Lake City. Despite me telling him exactly how to get to Tony Grove, he let Siri drive him to a dead end. Hours later, he made it.
Meanwhile, I found some great columbine:
On Tuesday morning, we pre-positioned a car at Logan River and started from Tony Grove for ~17 miles of fun. There were plenty of runnable sections, some climbs and lots of river crossings. We even had a pause for some cowboys herding cows.
On Wed morning, we headed down to Temple Fork for the 6.5 mile climb up to Tony Grove. While not a steep climb, it was steady, followed by a nice downhill to Tony Grove.
On Thursday, Steve needed to head off to MT, but not before helping me drop a car so I could run from Logan River to Beaver Mtn. This, to me, was the hardest part to navigate (and I will be there somewhere after midnight). I found the trail fine, and even navigated the drop to the drainage area, however, near the ski resort, there was lots of damage from the winter and the fires of last year. I ultimately missed the turns, but hopefully on race day it will be better marked. This part of the course was exposed and some very technical areas, especially near Beaver Mtn.
I also did some of the trail between Gibson Basin and Beavercreek campground. This was a rocky trail that was mainly downhill.
So to share a funny story: I pulled into Beavercreek campground and couldn't figure out where to park. I saw a man walking to his car and asked if I could park in the large parking spot near his campground for a few hours. He had no issues as he was heading to town for a bit. I put my pack on and started to head out, but heard a lady in the next campground ask what trail I was headed out on and when I was planning on being back. I explained to her what I was up to and she was familiar with the Bear. Turns out this particular family has come out to this campground for the last 30+ years and takes up every campsite in it during early Aug. It was fun chatting with them and knowing that we still look after each other as humans.
I left the next morning to head up to WY for El Vaquero Loco (El Vaquero Loco). I did return on Sunday and hiked a few miles from Beavercreek to Ranger Dip. Lots of rolling atv track with loose rocks.
After 6 mights of camping, I finally wimped out and found camping more to my style...
On Monday morning I hiked from Fish Haven almost up to Ranger Dip (I didn't make it quite all the way), then ran back down. It was definitely the most technical of all the trails I ran and on tired legs it will be interesting.
Sunrise over Bear Lake.
I finished the trip by traveling down to Park City to visit my friend Amy. We haven't seen each other since our 2014 Zion Traverse. We had a good time running and chatting.
Overall, I'm excited about this race. The trip was very helpful and while I know it's going to hurt at times, it will be the time of my life. My impression of the course is that it will be tougher than both Cloudsplitter and Georgia Death Race. It should be, it's not only longer, but has more elevation change (and is at altitude). While the climbs may not be as hard as GDR, the course is more exposed to the elements.
If I calculated correctly, I did ~110 miles with +20k of climbing over the trip. The altitude didn't seem to bother me (whew).
I did post some other photos from around Tony Grove at the following: UT Posts . Photos include moose, hummingbirds and lots of wildflowers.
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