Timp Run

Last Friday evening I decided I wanted to go for a good trail run. Since I had yet to climb Mount Timpanogos this summer, I decided it was about time. I figured that if I got up at five I could get to the trailhead by six and be up and down by nine, be home by ten and Amanda wouldn't get upset at me for being gone all day. It started out as planned, but then when I got to the trailhead it was packed. There were tons of people and I ended up having to park about three quarters of a mile from the trailhead. That added a bit to my time. There were also so many people on the trail that I kept having to slow down and ask to pass them. I'm not complaining, but if there weren't so many people I surely would have been home by ten. As it was, I didn't get home until eleven thirty.

This is the first picture that I took. It is a couple of miles up the trail, looking out to the east. The sun was just coming up and this is the spot where I put away my headlamp.

That's me and the uphill part of the trail behind me.

Not a very good picture, but that is looking up toward Timp. I think Timp itself is actually to the left side out of this picture.

Even with all the people I managed to reach the summit in almost exactly two hours. I always enjoy the view from up there. It was cold because the last little bit of the climb from the saddle is on the west side of the mountain which is still in the shade at this time of day. In this picture you can see Deer Creek Reservoir and Heber City.

This is looking down from the top to Emerald Lake. If you hike up from Aspen Grove, that is where the trail will take you. If you look closely, you can see some tents.

This is looking down into Pleasant Grove. I just thought that all of these cool fall colors were awesome.

This next one is looking to the north. The highest point that you can see towards the left side of the picture is the Pfiefferhorn. I did that one earlier in the summer one Saturday morning. It was also a fun one, and much much less crowded.

I had someone take my picture, so for once here is a picture where I am not holding the camera.

And here is another one.

On the way back down I almost missed these mountain goats. There was a guy with his video camera and I just thought that he was filming the mountains. After I passed him, I turned around and these four or five mountain goats were only about 20-30 feet off the trail. They are very, very common to see up here. I don't think I have ever been up here without seeing at least one. You just have to look for them sometimes. They are not usually this close to the trail.

After I got back down and started driving down the mountain, I noticed more awesome fall colors so I stopped the car and took this photo of the mountain. Have I mentioned that I love the mountains?

And that was my run. It was lots of fun. Oh, yeah, half way up I ran into a guy I'd run with a couple of times before. He was on his way back down. He talked about doing a 50 mile run in Zions National Park, or at the Grand Canyon. I have been wanting to do a R2R2R run for a while (Rim to Rim to Rim). I've heard a lot about people doing that where they start at one rim of the grand canyon, run down to the Colorado River then back up to the other rim, then turn around and come back to where they started. It is about a 50 mile run. I think it would be a perfect training run for the Moab 100. I think I will really try to do that with him some time in November.