Week 5 - Saturday

Holly and I met up with Paul, Brent, Ryan, Trina, Trever, and Mark at the end of the pavement in Rocky Canyon. Our plan was to run up to Five Mile Gulch, on to Watchman trail, then to Three Bears and back down to Rocky Canyon. About 11 miles and 2100 feet of elevation gain.

We started off in the dark, which made the ruts and washboard road interesting until the light got better. Everything was going according to plan until we got a half mile or so up Five Mile Gulch and started running into snow on the trail in patches. At first I thought this was no big deal, as the gulch doesn't get a lot of sun, and I was certain when we started uphill on Watchman the snow would be gone. However, it got progressively worse, including when we made the turn onto Watchman. By this point, we were no longer running, but rather, we were post-holing our way along the trail. With each turn that opened up southern exposure I expected the snow to disappear, but still no luck. We struggled along like this for a good two more miles until we went up and over Curlew Connector and reached Three Bears. At last, we got back below the snow line and were running again!

We ran south on Three Bears to the Shane's trail junction. From there, we turned east and headed toward Rocky Canyon. After a quick downhill on Brent's "Nutcracker Hill", we were back on the road and shortly back to our vehicles.

I felt terrible about my route choice, but it certainly made for an adventure, and the only complaints were half-hearted. I guess we'll need to wait a couple more weeks at least before venturing back onto the upper RTR trails!