It was hotter than the last time we were here, topping out near 100 degrees in the afternoon. We set an early alarm to try to avoid that. My FKT loop was not too long, and I hoped to finish it up before the heat set in. The Wind Caves Loop looked interesting - up Logan Canyon, up the side of the hill and over the saddle, down to Green Canyon and then back to the start:
https://fastestknowntime.com/route/wind-caves-loop-ut
Starting at the First Dam Park (and I super love that name, someone must have had fun deciding what to call it) not long after daybreak:
John makes me laugh...
Here we are:
Start/finish is the tunnel under the road, cool!
The trail was easy to follow and well-signed, a nice change from a few days ago:
Running up the road toward sunrise, with plenty of wind (like the name of the caves implies):
The Logan River is very nice, a pleasant brook to run next to:
OK, so there might be a lot of poison ivy in here? If that's what this is... I couldn't find any reason to believe otherwise, so I chose to accept that identification and tried hard to avoid it. I can do the "vegetation evasion boogie", having plenty of practice with the poison oak around the Bay Area.
One of the picturesque dams as I headed up canyon:
It was a pretty morning:
My legs were feeling good, enjoying the moderate uphill grade, and I actually felt like I was getting into a groove. Nice! Maybe the GVRAT virtual race (or mileage challenge, depending on how you approach it) of the summer is helping.
Nearing the 3rd dam, I came upon this rather-confusing map. Justin (the current male FKT holder) had mentioned a trail closure when he ran it a couple weeks ago. I tried to decipher just how much additional elevation would be involved in the detour, and decided to try forging ahead with the standard route to see if the trail was still passable like it was for Justin. Plus, what does "detoured" mean anyway? Is that the same as "closed" or more of a suggestion?
OK, so this part is "closed", and I decided to look for a way around instead:
Happily, there is a simple (and only slightly longer) way around that doesn't involve hiking up the side of the mountain. I ran out to the road and jogged up the shoulder, which is plenty wide. A glimpse of the dam along the way:
If I'd known that the dirt road to the left was a pass-through I would have taken that one for an even better detour option. Soon I was back on track, finding this trail to get back onto the route:
After crossing a couple small bridges, the campground layout was slightly confusing but I got lucky in spotting the trail sign to aim for. And then there was this surprise - another trail closure? Maybe I should have done more research...
I took a chance and continued along the trail, hoping that since Justin had come this way, it was passable.
Another pretty view along the river, enjoying the shade for much of the way up the trail:
Hey, there's a view of Wind Caves from here! It's the giant rock partway up the mountain in the center of the photo:
Maybe this is why the "trail closure" sign was posted? Seems passable enough to me:
Soon enough I was at the Guinava-Malibu Campground, yay for a trail that wasn't actually closed. I turned left at the road and crossed the bridge, taking a moment for a LLAP selfie:
It's not totally clear how to get out of the campground, but I figured since I hadn't noted any turns I should just keep going downstream. Yep, that eventually worked. Crossing highway 89, I located the trailhead on the other side:
Time to climb "for real", rising up above the river and starting to get some more views:
Another excellent view of the Wind Cave rocks. It would be nice if this FKT route actually went up there, but it would be quite a significant detour and I understand why it's not included. Someday we'll come back and hike this so we can see it more closely (looks neat from a distance):
I didn't want to miss the turn onto the side trail, but it turned out to be pretty obvious:
Next up = climb, climb, climb. And watch the views along the way:
On a grassy section of trail, I looked up to see the head of a small canine bounce away and disappear - possible fox? Bonus!
Toward the top, the trail goes through several steep drainages, with nice tree shade in each one. My legs were like, "hey, do you remember that thing you did 3 days ago?", hmm, they seem a bit tired. Well, at least today was a lot less of a big effort.
Soon I was at the saddle and done with the main climbing. No signs at the top, but at least it was a fairly obvious 4-way intersection. The trail down the other side is on the right side of the little clearing through the aspens:
It dropped immediately to verify that I was going the right way. And what a change of scenery! No more wide open field. Now I was in the deep dark forest. Excellent.
With an occasional view of Green Canyon:
And later, a look back toward Logan:
It was a fun trail to run down, just being careful of the occasional rocks and roots. My legs were like, "uh, still tired here". Fine, I hear you, I won't bomb down the hill today.
I found the dirt road at the bottom, then the mountain bike trail that paralleled it. Per the FKT instructions, I got on the trail as soon as I could, and enjoyed the little curves and swoops and criss-crossing of the road.
Quicker than expected, I was back out in the open and nearing the mouth of the canyon:
One last leg! 1.5 miles on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail:
Happily I wasn't in a huge hurry, because this trail did some ups and downs before it finally dropped to where I had started at the First Dam Park. (What did the fish say when it hit a wall?)
Every FKT (or every workout for that matter) should end with a victory run through a tunnel, woo hoo!
Well, now it's warm. Glad there's a cold pond right over there. I rinsed my legs (and used Zanfel during my shower) - we'll see if that was enough to avoid any negative poison ivy effects.
Minion Man - and Minion Car!
Thank you John for putting up with all my FKT-related planning, running, requests, and detours! You rock :)
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