Carol Takes a Hike

Carol Takes a Hike

It was July 1978 as Carol hiked with her first born son Scott to Iceberg Lake in Glacier National Park, Montana. Three weeks later she gave birth to her second son Jeff. What a woman! Great entry for the Broads View photo contest.

Thank you so much for this Broadsview Challenge!

It’s 21 degrees this November morning, but now it’s a habit! My partners, Jim the husband and Doug the dog, join me as we climb the Sky Steps in Durango. I don’t know how many times we climbed up and down this summer and fall, but thanks to the BroadsView challenge, we are doing it! And we are all getting stronger and stronger and stronger.

Nearly every weekend this summer and fall we went for long hikes, enjoying the vast beauty of Southwestern Colorado and a tad bit of Utah. Here are some of the trips my partners and I have taken this summer and fall:

• Pine River Trail
• Emerald Creek Trail
• Cascade Creek (3 times)
• Ice Lake (twice)
• Goody’s Rest (Colorado Trail)
• Little Molas Lake (Colorado Trail)
• Highland Mary
• Missionary Ridge
• Archer National Park
• Canyonlands National Park (both entrances)
• Canyon of the Ancients (twice)
• Upper Hermosa Creek with Broads for Cattle Grazing Monitoring. (That was the day we got lost coming back to the car.)

The high elevations amazed us- and I was surprised we had the stamina to climb so high (12,000+ feet). Let me share these pics with you. The one at Arches National Park was taken on the last day of the BroadsView Challenge, October 17. It is apropos that we found ourselves in Utah on the day this challenge ended.

The End is Only a New Beginning

October 17 Ends the 2020 Broads View Hiking Challenge

Sad the challenge it over. Melancholy as the days grow darker. Challenged by the day to day changes COVID 19 has brought to our lives. Excited for the coming of the winter hiking season and looking ahead to next year!

The summer hiking season has come to an abrupt halt. As I write this the outside temperature on October 26 is 14 degrees at 8:00 am in Ogden, Utah. Wow, time to get out the wool hat and gloves. 

For me, the hiking challenge offered an opportunity to set a goal and work to achieve it. I wanted to discover locations ignored by me in the past and at the same time slow my pace, look around and listen. Summer on the trails exceeded my expectations in many ways. I didn't reach huge summits or go extreme distances but that was okay. A sprained ankle in September required revisiting my final month of the challenge and that turned out to be a good thing!

I picked up trash on the trails along with dog poop left behind by un-informed hikers. I wrote thank you notes to public land managers and local trails organizations, and I donated money. My efforts reinforced how important these outdoor spaces are to my day-to-day life and the lives of my family and friends. 

I ended my challenge on October 17 at Winter's Grove Nature Trails in the Ogden Valley on the east side of Pineview Lake. The Greater Wasatch Broadband of Great Old Broads for Wilderness adopted this USFS trail last fall and have since fallen in love with its charm. 

Bright blue sky greeted Jan Larson (my Broadband co-leader) and I as we wandered along the path that bridges Hawkins Creek and then the north fork of the Ogden River. The towering cottonwood trees, willows and ash were showing off their multiple shades of yellow and orange as we wandered along the trail enjoying the spender this outdoor cathedral was offering. Soon they will be stripped of their leaves in preparation for another winter season. And that makes me happy. After all, the end is only a new beginning. Can't wait!  Barbara

Goals Provide Inspiration

DREAM BIG

"You are never too old to set a new goal or to dream a new dream," said novelist C.S. Lewis. I like that advice! Bruce Lee also said a goal is something to aim for, and I like that too. For me, setting a goal helps with my motivation and this year more than any other I needed that extra push.

As we near October 17 and the end of our Broads View hiking challenge, I'm reflecting on what I achieved and learned over the course of the summer. I learned that no matter where I hiked/biked I discovered something new. It didn't matter if it was on familiar ground or a brand new destination. I focused on slowing down and becoming a better listener. 

I listened to the sounds of nature, hearing for the first times the soft snap of cottonwood leaves as they left their home high in the trees and made their annual pilgrimage to the ground below. I volunteered on a trail project and discovered new friends who share my concerns for public lands. I traveled to new trails near my home that I never took the time to explore and found them to be delightful and worth a return trip. I wrote to trail organizations and thanked them for their efforts and I donated money to their cause.

On the second Saturday of October I will celebrate the summer of 2020, not on the summit of a favorite peak as I initially intended (since I sprained my ankle a few weeks ago and won't be ready to go far), but somewhere in the great outdoors, in a wild place and on public land. I am so grateful for the many individuals and organizations who are fighting to keep these lands in public hands and am happy to be part of that mission. Thank you Great Old Broads for Wilderness for all your hard work and dedication.

Michelle Obama said, "The only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them." Let's all keep DREAMING BIG!

Checking Out a New Wilderness Area - Muddy Creek

 Utah’s New Muddy Creek Wilderness

Amy Brunvard

I want to give a shout out to the many, many activists who take time to write letters, call Congress, attend protests,  send money and do all the other work it takes to protect public lands wilderness.  Because of all that hard work, the Dingell Natural Resources Act of 2019  included the  Emery County Land Bill which, among other things,  added 663,000 acres in Utah’s San Rafael Swell to the National Wilderness Preservation System.  

This particular wilderness victory feels especially personal to me because the newly designated Muddy Creek Wilderness Area is one of my favorite places.  Muddy Creek lives up to its name. When my kids were little I used to sit all day by the creek while they gleefully coated themselves with the Greatest Mud on Earth. 

In the past, nearly every time I went to Muddy Creek, I’d encounter motor vehicles stuck in the mud.  For many years, Emery County put  Muddy Creek on maps as a jeep road encouraging vehicles to drive down the creek bed through the water and mud.   Muddy Creek became a poster-child for inappropriate RS2477 road claims (i.e.  a state-owned “highway” right of way crossing federal land). The misleading maps waylaid people who thought they could drive in a loop from Goblin Valley through the Swell.  They were chagrined to find out they’d have to backtrack 30 miles since the last five miles of “road” were usually wet and impassible.  Now that Muddy Creek is an official Wilderness Area, stuck jeeps shouldn’t be a problem any more. 

In order to celebrate Muddy Creek’s new Wilderness status, I went backpacking there  with another wilderness-loving friend and our teenagers.  From our camp, we did a day hike up to “The Chute” where the canyon narrows between dramatically high rock walls. This is the sweet spot of Muddy Creek, the place that all the guidebooks show in photos. The creek was hopping with little brown frogs, but the canyon was so quiet you could hear the whoosh of air under ravens’ wings.

Amy

Hiking Challenge - A Memorable Backpack by Di Allison

 Newbies from Texas Take a Backpack Trip

Will and I had arrived in Utah from flat land Texas the month before for his internship at U of U medical center and a medical student working with him asked if he wanted to backpack into the Uintah Primitive Area one long weekend. So we did. 

We rented packs from a sporting goods store in SLC, bought kapok filled sleeping bags with pictures of pine trees and deer on the material as well as a heavy pup tent with wooden poles. We loaded them and more up in our apartment, put the packs on, but I couldn’t stand up with mine on. I was 25 and buff! Will got ropes, white tube socks and big Kotex pads he stuffed in each tube sock and hitched me up with the contraption going over my head to pull forward with. Also we needed to create padding against the front of my body where the pack straps dug in. 

The next day we met up with the young med school couple whose pack set up looked considerably different than ours. About five hours into the hike toward our supposedly beautiful camping area beside a mountain lake in the Uintahs...I cried “uncle” and begged to be left under a large tree on the rock I and my pack had collapsed onto. My pleas of “I’ll be fine, just leave me alone!” went unheeded and I don’t remember the winning argument, but we all set off together once again. The area where we stopped was, indeed, beautiful with a lake nestled at the base of higher peaks. I remember Will caught a couple of small trout we cooked for dinner and a hike without packs the next day. 

My overall memory of it was positive, but I didn’t backpack again until 25 years later.  Maybe  the muscle memory was too pervasive. Then at my first Broads Board member meeting I attended as a new Board member Rose asked us to recall our first back packing trip and mine slowly emerged to the surface. Rose cracked up laughing and I remembered then that I had an ancient photo somewhere to prove it. Several years later I came across it and have meant to send it to her ever since. By the way, those are our heavy sleeping bags you can see across our shoulders and, of course, no comfy pads under them. Whatever!

Hiking Challenge Photo Contest - New Story

Amy has entered the Best Hat/Head Covering category and it's a beauty. Check out the hat and her fun story:

Year: 2015
Location: Fantasy Canyon, Utah
Whose in the photo: Amy Brunvand
Why it's a favorite: My friend Amanda and I went out to Fantasy Canyon on a whim because I saw it on a map.  We didn't know what we would find there and it turned out to be amazing and wonderful.  We took our kids who have known each other since they were infants, and they pretended they didn't want to go but they liked it when we got there.  I'm wearing a dark green wool hat that is at least 30 years old by now.  My friend Lori gave it to me after her dog ate my blue wool hat. There's a Norwegian enamel butterfly pin stuck in the hatband that I've had since I was 15 years old.   If you looked through my hiking photos you'd see a lot of this particular hat.  I especially like this photo because it looks like I have rocks sprouting out of my head, which is exactly what I was going for when I took it. 

Thanks for the Challenge!

 Thank you Old Broads for giving me motivation for my hiking challenge. I've done 11 hikes so far just in my area.  I've had some great company and seen luscious forest, however dry it is. I know my surroundings better an appreciate how close all the trails are.  I'm not done yet!

1- Lambs Canyon with Ann, 3.7 miles,

 2- Deer Crest Loop with Kristi ,4.35 Miles,

3- Solamere loop with Sue,  4.35 miles, 

4- The Avenues in Jeremy Ranch with Stephanie, 4.73 miles, 

5- Black Forest at PCMR using the lift to get up and down, 3.6 miles on top

6- Keystone Trail at PCMR with Kristi, Nina, 3.6 miles

7- Rob's Trail with Allison, 5.2 miles (she crashed on a root and we hobbled home)

8- Keyston to Guardsman summit with Kristi and Nina, 5.1 miles

9- Keystone to Shadow Lake with Kristi, 6.3 miles

10-Lambs Canyon with Joan, Donna and Joan 4 miles

11- Blood Lake with Kristi, Allison, and Christine 3 miles

My challenge was to hike with friends as a covid/social activity.  I haven't been able to do long  hikes in the past few years because of back issues.  I got that fixed and appreciate the Old Broads Challenge to get me out on the trail. In not done yet!

Hiking Close to Home in Salt Lake City

 

Hiking Close to Home in Salt Lake City
By Amy Brunvand

Last Spring when the COVID-19 pandemic first started, Utah Governor Gary Herbert issued  a “Stay Safe, Stay Home Directive” that included the instructions, “do not go to or engage in activities at a State Park located outside the county in which you reside.” The Wasatch and Uinta Mountains were still snowed in.  The health department had closed public lands in southern Utah to camping.  It seemed like a good time to explore hiking trails and open spaces close to home in Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County.

The first challenge is, there are not many guidebooks for these local trail systems. I got a lot of beta from city and county planning documents. In 2016, Salt Lake City began working on a Foothills Trails Master Plan with the Bonneville Shoreline Trail as the backbone.  So far they have maps for the northern edge of the city to the mouth of Emigration Canyon. Once I started exploring I realized that the trails are more extensive than I imagined. I’d been in a rut using the same trailheads out of habit. Salt Lake City is starting work on a new public lands master plan for parks, urban forests and natural areas called “Reimagine Nature, ” and one good reason to explore trails is to be able to offer public input from personal experience.  

Another underappreciated trail in Salt Lake County is the Jordan River Trail, a 45 mile paved non-motorized trail that follows the river from Utah Lake through highly urbanized areas to Great Salt Lake marshes.  I admit, the Jordan River is in need of some TLC—it’s full of garbage and the water is kind of stinky.  But the river corridor also has groves of big cottonwoods, wetlands full of birds, and a rudimentary water trail.  Elliott Mott has published a detailed guidebook about the river trails. So far I’ve done two water trail excursions in the Kokopelli packraft I bought from the Great Old Broads silent auction a few years back.  My favorite river segment  goes through nine acres of restored floodplain at the Little Confluence in Murray. There are so many birds you can’t believe you’re in the middle of a city!

One thing I’ve realized is how important it is to have funds for acquisition of public open spaces. Planning for urban trails is  incredibly complex since they cross a lot of different municipal and management boundaries. Parcels of private property that block trail completion can cost millions of dollars to purchase, particularly if the trail is competing with high-end developers. 

I also have a new appreciation for how wonderful these local trails really are. I doubt anyone ever travels to Salt Lake City  just to float down the Jordan River or hike in the foothills, but maybe that’s just because we’ve been a little too good at keeping these places secret.  

Here are some useful resources to start exploring Salt Lake City and County open spaces:

·       Salt Lake County: Open Space https://slco.org/open-space/

·       Salt Lake City: Reimagine Nature: https://www.reimaginenatureslc.com/

·       Elliott Mott. Jordan River Water Trail and Bike Path. $12.95. https://www.utahmapstore.com/products/jordan-river-water-tr

Where Did the Summer Go?

 

And so it begins; the first sign of the beautiful color change that's on its way.

It's Labor Day 2020, September 7.  The city temperatures are in the low 90's today with a 30 degree drop expected by sometime tomorrow. The mountain maples, the first trees in our area to make the transition from green to red, are starting to change. Is it time to put the shorts away or will we enjoy an extended Indian summer this year? That's what I love about the changing seasons - a little uncertainty from day to day.

With only 40 days left to achieve our goal of visiting all the trails on the TFNU 2020 map, I'm thinking we might not make it. By October 17 we will have explored all the new trails we have never been to and that was really the main point of the challenge. We have also written letters to public entities thanking them for their efforts and have donated dollars to their fundraising.  We look forward to the next month, celebrating everything Mother Nature has in store.

In August we rode the Centennial Trial from South Ogden through Riverdale and the Weber River Parkway then onto the Ogden River Parkway and back to the east bench. We also assisted the trails foundation with placing information signs on two trails we had never visited - Pleasant View to No. Ogden Divide and No. Ogden Divide to Coldwater Canyon, both part of the Bonneville Shoreline trail.

We also made trips into the Uinta and Sawtooth Wilderness areas, discovering new terrain and revisiting old favorites.

It's great to be alive and enjoying everything our public lands and wild places offer us daily!

Park City Hiking Fun

 Several hikes in Park City.  Getting to know more fun trails.  It helps when you have a pass and can take the chair up and just hike the rolling trails  up high.  So much to see! PCMR to Guardsman Pass.  Amazing. I had good guides.

Broads View! 2020 Hiking Challenge Part II

Broads View! 2020 Hiking Challenge

PART II - PHOTO CONTEST

Nothing to track, just send us a photo!

PART II. What’s up with that?

 
We are nearing the half-way point of the 2020 hiking challenge and it’s been fun seeing how all the participants are doing. Everyone probably slows down a bit during the dog days of summer so we thought of something ALL Great Old Broads and Bros can be a part of – PHOTO SHARING!
 
So, here is the deal. Email your VERY favorite hiking photo (with you in it) to us and tell us the location of the photo and the year it was taken, the name(s) of the people in the photo, and why it’s your favorite. It can be old or new, doesn’t matter, just as long as it’s your favorite. We will post all photos on the BLOG and that will help us get to know one another since it’s impossible to gather together in person. Email your photo as an attachment to greatwasatch@gmail.com.
 
PRIZES WILL BE AWARDED TO:
First to submit a photo
Oldest photo (need year photo was taken to qualify for this prize)
Most scenic photo
Best hat or head covering
Most broads and bros in one photo
Photos must be submitted by the October 17, 2020 deadline.
Prizes will be awarded by the end of October
Please join in the fun and submit your photo today!

www,thewasatchbroadsview.blogspot.com

And here's the first photo! It's mine so I'm not eligible for any prizes, but I wanted to share this with you. It was taken in 1973 at the top of the Grand Teton in Grand Teton National Park. My boyfriend, and now husband indulged my need to climb this mountain that he had been doing since he was 11. This photo reminds me of the struggle (2 days of hiking and camping on the mountain, one day of climbing) and also the reward I felt when we got back down. Those feelings have stayed with me throughout my life.

New Month, New Trails

Our 2020 Trail Challenge was to hike or bike all the trails on the Trails Foundation of Northern Utah's trail map. There are 66. Well, we got the new 2020 map and there are 77 trails. Not sure how we are going to get them all in by October 17 but we are working on it! So far this week we checked out two trails new to us. Today it was Gibbs Loop, an urban trail above Weber State. Fun loop with a stream for the dogs. On Monday we ventured to North Fork Park and hiked the new Cutler Twist loop on the north end of the park. Lovely canopy of oaks and elms keeping the trip cool. Check it out! 

Always Something Unexpected

An urban trail, flowers on the lower east bench are spent, no expectation of something unexpected on today's hike. And maybe that lack of an expectation created the environment for an unexpected discovery. It was internal, not external - a calming peace mixed with the joyfulness of being outside. I take for granted the rejuvenation found in my outside world. I suppose that's why this trail challenge is so important. It continues to remind me to get up and out the door and do it early in the morning because it's July and if you don't get moving early it's too hot. Get out and get moving, that's the mantra for this month!

I hiked the Solamere Trail at Deer Valley with my friend Kristi June 14th.   It’s only 4 and 1/2 miles with a great view of all the ski resorts and the Jordanelle from the top.  Not many people and I even saw a red tailed hawk dive into the ponds near the parking lot and catch a coy fish.  Spectacular!