Unbelievable….seriously, unbelievable. I got lucky today. I was invited to go on the annual 4th of July run to Ben Lomond Peak. This is a run I have never done but I will definitely be back. We met at 4 am at the top of North Ogden Pass. This is a pretty large group and unfortunately I don’t know many people. I ran with Cory Johnson, Tom Remkes, Ron Remkes, Phil Mendoza and Matt Connors. There were others we saw as well, Jamie Remkes, Katie Johnson, Chad Carson, Niells (?), Marc Collman, Celeste Collman, Chad Carson and others. Cory and Tom are getting ready to go to Hardrock so they took it easy which was fine by me, that way I could keep up. It was dark at the start and we began our climb up the switchbacks. Seeing was definitely not an issue as Cory had the new Petzl ULTRA headlamp. This thing could be spotted from outer space. It actually helped out with the climb as we all were trying to come up with funny jokes as to how bright this sucker was. We did some fast hiking most of the way with a few short runs to get the legs going. As the sun came out, I looked around and it felt like I was no where near Ogden. It was breath-taking, that’s right breath-taking, I can say that. Flowers everywhere not to mention the rising sun. This run definitely lived up to its reputation. We got to the climb up to the peak and it was steep. Phil cruised up first like a damn mountain goat. It was “now you see me, now you don’t.” I brought up the rear and finally reached the top. WOW! I was on top of the world……at least in this area I was. We stuck around a bit and talked and a few pictures were being taken. Then we saw about 6 mountain goats, the real ones. It was pretty cool.
We decided to head back down and tackle the steep descent off the peak. I only slipped once and landed on my butt which is where all the cushioning is so it wasn’t bad.
Heading back to the trailhead was great. It is mainly down with a few little rollers but the views make it easy. I took off and felt good. I stopped a few times to look around and take in the view. Tom, Cory, Phil, Matt and myself formed a line and had a good pace going down. About a mile or so from the end I thought it would be fun to roll my ankle. Man, what a way to wake up a bit. It rolled pretty good, best one of the year (so far). I caught up at the end and we cruised into the parking lot.
After the run, everyone goes to Marc Collman’s house for breakfast. It was great. I got to meet some new people, have an amazing run and eat Jamie Remkes’ ham. What else is there?
Thanks everyone!
16 solid miles. Started at 6000 feet going up to 9700 feet.
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