Earth Day and Arbor Day

There are only eight holidays that I formally celebrate (for now), but that doesn't mean that I don't acknowledge that other, lesser holidays exist. This week we had two very similar holidays, Earth Day and Arbor Day.

Arbor Day is an older holiday and is a state holiday in Nebraska. Basically, I really only know about Arbor Day because of It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown. Yes, that's a real thing. Earth Day is a much newer holiday and has hippie origins. We don't hear as much about Arbor Day as we do about Earth Day, so I suppose Earth Day is taking over. Which is kind of understandable, since trees are part of the Earth. I'm moderately tree-hugger, so I have no objections to Earth Day.

Anyway, I had enjoyable "celebrations" on each of these days.

Everyone was excited about Google's animal quiz (I'm a pangolin), but personally I found their Pony Express game much more entertaining (but maybe that's because I'd just been reading about the Pony Express a few days before).

Anyway, I went trail running on the Wild Rose and Chukar Loops, and then I went exploring on another nearby trail that has some very steep places. It was an overcast evening and perfect. There were lots of wildflowers. The internet tells me the most prominent, yellow ones are balsamroot, but I also saw pink, purple, white, and red wildflowers. On top of one hill, I saw a hawk flying in the distance, and I even had a medium-sized bird swoop down in front of me. 

Then on Thursday, I was doing research for work and came across North Canyon. Now, there are multiple places in Utah named North Canyon, including one in Bountiful, but I didn't know what one they were talking about. However, after digging through things, I determined that they probably were talking about the one in Bountiful. That excited me, because I knew right where it is and have been near it on many occasions, even though I'd never been there. I decided that I needed to visit it, since I just came across it, and Friday would be a perfect day to do so, since it was Arbor Day.

I worked some last Saturday, so I didn't need to work all day Friday, and I was excited to go to North Canyon. Unfortunately, it was rainy. Usually when it's wet and rainy, I don't run, especially not on trails. But I had to go on Friday, since I had just discovered North Canyon in my work, and Arbor Day only comes once a year. So when the rain let up at my house, I got in my car and drove to North Canyon Park, where I expected to begin my run. But it was raining pretty hard then, and I didn't want to get out. So then I decided that I would drive to the trailhead, since I knew it was still a distance from the park.

I'm glad I did, because it was a bigger distance than I had expected. But when I got to that trailhead, it was still raining hard. So I sat in my car for a while, hoping the rain would let up.

And eventually it did! Everything was still wet and muddy, but at least it wasn't raining on me. My usual trails are more desert-y, but this one looked, smelled, and sounded like camping. There was actually a very rough dirt road that went up for a mile and a half or so before it reached the real trail. But I wouldn't want to drive on that road, and I think it would be basically impassable for anything but 4-wheel-drive. I had to watch out for enormous puddles. When I got to the real trail, there was a sign saying it was open to hikers, cyclists, and motorbikes between May 1 and November 1. I was surprised it said it was open so late in the spring, but it makes sense, because my research said that there was still fifteen feet of snow in the canyon in June 1853, and I saw a few large patches of snow. It would be a hard trail on a bike or motorbike; there was one place with a tree lying at an angle across the trail, and only Evil Knievel would be able to get across it on a bike. There were lots of bridges over various bodies of water. I saw aspens, coniferous trees, a squirrel, and deer. (Deer are not special. They are all over our neighborhood.) I was sad last fall that I didn't get to see any yellow aspens, so I may have to return to North Canyon in October.

I don't take a phone or a camera when I go running, so you get no pictures. Sorry. But you probably wouldn't care anyway.