The Opposite Of Desert Rampage

While everyone else went to the Desert Rampage mountain bike race in St. George, we stayed home (but I did shave my legs, as promised). We wanted to go, but one thing after another came up (Jolene getting sick was the last straw). So instead of riding my bike on dry dirt in short sleeves, I went snowshoeing.

DJ picked me up, we met Tony and carpooled up American Fork Canyon to Pine Hollow.

As a side note, I went to college with Tony and hadn't seen him in years. I enjoyed getting caught up with him.

I expected more fresh snow from the last storm, but there was only 2-3 inches and the old snow had a crust hard enough to walk on. In fact there was a lot of dirt at first and we carried the snowshoes. After half a mile it was obvious we wouldn't need the snowshoes so we hid them behind a tree and continued to boot it up the trail.

Pine Hollow is, true to it's name, thick with conifers (or PLTs - Piney-Looking Trees). I tried to identify the trees from Alex's guide, but couldn't remember what feature went with what tree. Still it was fun to examine the features of the cones and twigs I found on the ground. Consulting the guide at home I see that most of the PLTs there are Douglas Fir with a few Englemann Spruce.

Once we got out of the hollow a bit, we were treated to this fantastic morning view of Timp. I love living near this magnificent mountain.


We hiked up Pine Hollow then went out on the Ridge trail a ways where I took this picture.


And a little farther along the trail I took this one. Timp just looked so good covered in snow with the thin, low clouds floating by I couldn't keep my eyes off it.


We considered going farther out to the Mud Springs trail, but time was short so we headed down a ridge that joined back to the Pine Hollow trail. The Utah Velo Club group caught us and went down that way. The descent was fun as we jogged down, slipping and sliding.

A little snow had been coming down off and on, which you can see in this photo I took almost down to the trail.


It felt good to get out into the mountains. With the recent thaw I was reminded that Winter is on it's way out so that helped me savor the moment. Now many months from now we'll have a 90 degree day and I'll think back to this day and how refreshing the snow and cold was. The contrasts of the seasons are one reason I so enjoy living here.

P.S. The reviews are mixed for the Watchmen movie making me even less interested in the movie. I'm sure the visual effects are good, but I'd rather keep the images in my head from reading the book. In fact, I may read it again soon to see what details I glean from a second pass.