Good to be back in the Uintahs on a fine autumnal weekend. Pete has been wanting to get up and do this particular run for quite some time. It turned out to be perfect weather, perfect scenery, and a not so perfect run, for me at least. Friday night Pete, Court, and I arrived at the West Blacks Fork drainage on the North Slopes of the Uintahs, after a really long dirt road and a brief encounter with a porcupine. We found a great campsite and fell asleep to the bugling of elks. Probably the time of year for elk action, because they were keeping up the bugle calls all night. After a late, 9 am, start we headed off into the forest on no particular trail, just south. At mile 1.5 we found the actual trail and started a steady run. At this point I could tell my legs were heavy, I felt weak, and short of breath. Our starting elevation was above 9000 ft and my legs had not yet recovered fully from the Wasatch100 2 weeks age. And the interval sprints on Thursday left my quads throbbing going into the run. We kept on, passed some great views of Mount Beulah and took a breather at the beautiful sky blue alpine Dead Horse Lake. 11 miles into the with run perfect temps. We started up the formible Dead Horse Pass.
When you look at it it does not look like it is even possible to go up and over it. But in reality in has a good switch backing bouldery trail and before I knew it we were on top looking out on to the southern Uintah lakes and valley. We cruised down the pass and kept up a good pace. I wished I had a pole to do some fishing at Continent lake. Last time I had been there we were slinging 14 inch trout one after another. Mile times from the pass, went about 11, 11, 14, 11, 18, 12, 24, 12. I thought it was a bit flatter, but as we passed Jack and Jill lakes, the up and downs were constant and steep. Court went out ahead and Pete and I started dragging. I was so weak. I had sore legs and the start of a sore throat. Despite the slow speed we all made it up Rocky Sea pass and started running fast again. We had logged 25 miles and had 8 to go, but at least the end was in site. Pete and Court went out ahead and I plugged back in the headphones and slogged along. I was feeling better, especially having eaten some of Pete's food. (I totally under prepared on the fuel side of things) We all finished about 5 pm at the High Line Trail Head near Mirror lake. I was about 13 minutes behind the others. I was tired but felt great. Now all we had to do was get back to the car. After sticking our thumb out for over an hour some kind souls let us jump in their truck. Down at the Bear River Lodge we started getting nervous. Everything was closed, it was getting late, and we were still a 3 hour bike trip back to the car. We all agreed we had the energy to slog it out, but needed to call Amanda so she would not worry. Then we ran into some great folks drinking beer at the Uintah Adventure Lodge across the highway and they loaned us a phone and Truck (for $40) Arby's. Home by 10. yay.
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