Solitary Trio

There's still a lot of snow on the shady sections of the upper trails.  I've been trying over the last couple of years to find more private trails ~ ones that I can run along and let my mind wander; clear my head.  Where I don't have to worry about getting run over by a bicycle or running into a bunch of people, like many of the trails that are closer to the City of Salt.

I went to one of my favorite spots with the dogs this weekend ~ near Park City.  I like to think of the area as my backyard, even though it takes about 30 minutes to drive there.  I rarely see very many people there, because it is in a housing development high up in the mountains, and only a few residents ever use the trails in that area.

So as I got about a mile and a half up the trail, I looked to my left along the main trail and it was covered in about 8 feet of snow from the prevailing winds.  I hopped through the brush to the west-face of the ridge where there is a nice little historic trail ~ very little used and few people travel on it.  It was covered with just a skiff of snow and was pretty easy-going.

The prevailing winds from the west were brisk at about 15 mph, and the temperature was a lot cooler than I had anticipated ~ the stellar sunshine fooled me into thinking it was in the 60s, but I think it was only in the 40s up on the ridge top.  I really was quite underdressed in shorts and a light windbreaker.

I took respite from the wind behind a big piled up rock cairn on one of the peaks.  I made the dogs snuggle in close to me so that I could get warm and we took in the views all around.  I could see one person on the trail far below us and wondered if he or she would turn back at the slippery, steep section of the trail.

We skipped back down from the peak to the main trail, which had a couple of really slick spots of crusted snow.  Only about 20 feet across and my feet hit dirt again.  Managed to get down the slippery, steep section of trail without falling to meet up with the person we had seen below ~ a very nice lady in her mid-50s.  She greeted the dogs as I concentrated on the technical section (the dogs made it down like it was a piece of cake, the little goats that they are) and I stopped to talk with the woman for a few minutes and tell her that getting to the peak was well worth it for the views on this fine day.

There were several groups of people walking the main canyon road, but the one woman was the only person I saw on the trail.  There are really some gorgeous, solitary trails around, if you are willing to look a bit and do a little bit of exploring.