Zion and Beyond

It’s been a few days since arriving back to a surprisingly springy Flathead Valley, and I feel the need to share a small adventure that you may want to embark on one day when you are feeling particularly “carb’d up”.  To celebrate a truly successful (but not without challenges) first year of marriage, and since I haven’t been able to give up the concept of “spring break” since college, we packed up the toaster (Honda Element) for an action packed week in St. George, UT- home of our first ever vacation together.  We were originally considering Moab, but the forecast looked all to similar to home so we traded in the backdrop of the snowy La Sal’s for a couple degrees of latitude closer to the equator.  Two years ago we camped out on Gooseberry Mesa and had a funtastic week in 90+ degree weather while learning how to succeed at a mountain bike vacation with a very novice mountain biker.  Needless to say, there were 100% fewer “Trail of Tears” experiences this time around, and from my perspective, we had a killer time with no shortage of turning the pedals.  The mountain biking in St. George is one of a kind, and I’d say a cut above Moab… but I haven’t been to Moab for a couple years and I’ve heard they’re making great leaps in the construction of actual singletrack.  The notorious Jem Trail, The Guacamole Trail, Gooseberry Trails, and various others offer a variety of different technical and aerobic levels to please ’em all.

With the anticipation of The Rut 50 K coming up this summer, we also wanted to spend some time breaking in the legs to some longer runs.  Our first run consisted of a 13 mile loop that took us up an amazingly fun and exploratory wash to an elevated terrace at the foot of the entrance to Zion.  We had a great day and felt pretty dorky with our running specific Nathan packs.  Neither of us have really been running much at all, but we both were overly zealous to get out and see some new country by foot.  Unfortunately, that means overuse injuries can spring up in the matter of an afternoon, which they did for Jen.  The outside of her left foot became pretty sensitive and limiting, but did cooperate enough to allow for riding the remainder of the week.

Towards the end of the trip we were thinking of heading back to make sure we made it back to don our one piece ski suits for closing day at the Big Mountain.  However the lure of one more sunny day was strong and I hatched an idea that I wasn’t sure would work, but if it did, it’d be legendary.  On our final day in the desert, we figured we could leave the few stores of glycogen we had lingering in the sand.  We had moved camp to the Kolob Terrace Road in Virgin, UT, and I woke Saturday morning and shuttled the toaster down to the park border with Zion, slammed a delicious ristretto and Ranger Cookie and pedaled the 15 miles back to camp where Jen awaited with her bike and backpack full of running shoes and shorts.  We continued up the Kolob Terrace Road, which gains an astounding 4500 vertical feet over approximately 20 miles.  It was truly the longest road climb I’ve ever experienced, and though it was incredibly scenic, it was pretty brutal with the added pack and unrelenting steep pitches of red-tinted pave.  Jen had allowed herself to think the ride was going to be the easy part, and was mentally not prepared to spend nearly three hours pedaling uphill in the little ring.  She had been preparing herself for the 15 mile trail run on a foot that had reduced her to a painful and uncomfortable stride.  I had tried to be the voice of reason and discourage her from doing the run, but Curtis’ don’t quite anything they set their minds to.  After locking the bikes to a tree and trading out the spandex and cleats for running shorts and shoes, we started the amazing descent from 8000′ to the canyon floor of Zion canyon at 4000′.  I had read a few blurbs here and there about the West Rim trail and had a map to help orient the run, but I had no idea what to expect as far as terrain, trail, and difficulty.  The trail was amazing.  It was the most beautifully manicured trail that somehow dissected the park from a ridge and trended a beautiful route from the high terrace, to the dramatic West Rim overlooking deeply gorged canyons, and finally criss-crossing petrified sandstone dunes as it plummeted to the valley floor.  The run took us a little over three hours, in part from Jen’s foot becoming incredibly painful, and in part because I couldn’t stop snapping photos and just stopping to take it all in.  On the way down I took a short side trip to Angel’s Landing because I couldn’t resist the fun to be had scrambling along on smooth rock bounding around tourists like a gnat on a turd.  I barely managed to catch back up to Jen after pounding down 1500′ of poured concrete trial (quads have been toast ever since) and we locked hands as we hobbled to the shuttle stop and shared smelly hugs and sticky kisses that 8 hours later we had completed the circuit (thanks to the 20 minute shuttle ride back to entrance).  It was a truly blissful way to see a lot of Zion both on bike and foot while hardly having to share it with the thousands of tourists.  We were actually encouraged to see a couple backpackers here and there along the trail.  We managed to get by with a liter of water each on the run, some gel, and bars.  We were both glowing from a full day out in the red rocks of Zion under the warm sun.  We were fortunate to dodge mutliple snow and rain showers, which really just added to the beauty of the sky through the day.

And when we finally drove back up to the bikes, they were covered in an inch of snow!  The adventure didn’t stop there though… No I figured in my great knowledge of roads and google maps, I thought I had found the magical way to start the drive home from the Kolob Terrace summit.  Around 9 p.m. we were still climbing (upwards of 9200′) and were having to punch it through multiple stretches of snow covered desert gumbo.  Jen, with her white knuckled grip on the ‘oh $hit’ and deep wisdom had stated multiple times that we should turn around.  Me, with my Curtis-esque stubborness figured I could will the little toaster over the mountain and pop out in Cedar City.  Mr. Snowdrift at the top of the mountain said, “Not So”.  Three hours later and one more trip on the hill from hell (Kolob Terrace Rd), we finally sputtered into Cedar City on fumes (us, not the toaster) and bit the bullet for a night at the Super Duper 8.  After a week of dirt-bagging, the ego really took a hit to have to bow down to corporate America and spend a ridiculous amount of money for a place to sleep for 6 hours.  The shower was nice, and it was pleasant not having to use a trowel to bury the morning’s calling, but I still was irked that the mountain pass had beaten us into submission after an epic day cruising through Zion.

Thankfully, we had safe travels home and didn’t even get acosted by the Idaho State Troopers! Now it’s back to the swing of real life; work a day, play a day, and try to get caught up on life a day- repeat.   If you ever find yourself in Zion, this loop was seriously awesome and an adventure that pushed the physical limits, but didn’t break them.

If you’re a super duper runner geek, check out this link for some more inspiration on running in Zion- a Blog by Luke Nelson.

http://challengeofbalance.com/2012/05/new-zion-traverse-fkt-and-a-week-in-zion.html