Wild thimbleberries

Even though I twisted my ankle on the Fourth of July, I have recovered enough to resume my trail running. I also got some ankle exercises from a sports medicine doctor, so I've been doing some of those, although I don't have time to do as much as I should. The exercises mainly consist of standing on one foot and jumping and hopping. (That's an ambiguous sentence, but the different interpretations are still correct.)

Anyway, I was able to spend five days on trails this week, although only four of them were for running.

On Tuesday, I saw my first-ever tarantula while running on the Wild Rose Trail, and I wouldn't have noticed it if a slow biking kid ahead of me hadn't pointed it out. But I didn't have my phone with me to take a picture.

On Wednesday, I saw illuminated virga from the top of the Woodbriar Trail.

Thursday was a rather uneventful run on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, though I think I might have seen a tarantula hawk, which are terrifying.

On Friday, I was on a group picnic in Adams Canyon in Layton. I had seen the canyon's big waterfall in October, but it turns out there's a lower waterfall as well, which we visited.

We found a little place to sit down for a picnic dinner. Suddenly this giant black dog comes and walks right through our picnic, eating people's sandwiches before they knew what was happening. The owner came along and seemed surprised and only half apologetic, even as he let his dog keep roaming among us and eating our food. He had a European accent, but wouldn't that behavior be unacceptable anywhere? The dog was friendly, but not well trained.

Ugh. This is why I do not like dogs. I like dogs on an individual basis, and there are some dogs where I think, "If all dogs were like that one, I would like dogs." But there are so many irresponsible dog owners, and yet everyone thinks they are a good dog owner. "My dog isn't one of those poorly trained pooches. My dog isn't mean. It's those other dogs." And it's especially aggravating when I'm out trail running and people have their dogs off leash, and they come up and start sniffing me, or even jumping up on me. See, I'm afraid of dogs. Always have been. So it fills me with a certain sense of dread when a dog comes up to me, especially if they've gotten ahead of their owner and I can't see them. I have yet to be attacked, but I still worry. Even if they don't bite, it's annoying when I have to slow down and walk around them because they get in my way.

The absolute worst is when people don't clean up after their dogs. I'm constantly amazed at how many people don't. I can understand not wanting to carry around a warm, squishy bag in your pocket, but that's what you sign up for when you get a dog. If you can't clean up after your dog, you shouldn't own one. Period. If you don't clean up after your dog, you are a jerk.

On Saturday, my default weekend trails had a race going on, so I wasn't going to compete with them. I had to go to Target, so I thought I would try out Centerville Canyon.

It was not a good trail for running. The first .75 miles were very steep and not shady, and large portions--probably a majority--of the trail were rocky or otherwise unsuitable for running.

There were several well constructed bridges across the streams.

Some of the plants showed hints of what's to come!

 I think it was about a mile up where there was a clearing with this chain swing. I did get on it, but it was difficult (and I am not a short guy), and there was no one to push me, and simply pumping my legs (like on a playground swing) didn't work. So I was underwhelmed there.

Richardson's geranium is one of the few wildflowers in bloom right now.

 I passed some thimbleberry plants. I was quite excited to see them, as some of them were ripe. Thimbleberries are very similar to raspberries. My first one was pleasant and tasty. My second one was dried out and was not good; I had to spit it out. I was feeling guilty for eating them and not leaving as many for other hikers. But when I realized that lots of them were dried out and not so edible, I didn't feel as guilty, since they were just going to go to waste, apparently. (Except they weren't really going to waste, because it's a forest and more would grow from the seeds.) I ate five or six on my run.

More signs of what's to come!

 All along the trail were markers at mile and half-mile marks, which had been someone's Eagle project. At about 2.3 or 2.4 miles, there was a random brown post with a flag sticker on it. It didn't match the mile markers, and it didn't say anything, so I wondered what it was there for. I went past it, and the trail just disappeared. I figured it must have marked the end of the trail. I turned around, but I was really confused. Why did the trail just go up there and disappear? It didn't lead to anything, whereas most trails lead to something, either a landmark or a summit.

As I was walking back down (see, it was too overgrown and rocky to run), I heard some people talking. But I was confused, because I heard them down by the stream, whereas the trail was ahead of me. What were people doing over there? And then I looked over, and through the trees I faintly saw a waterfall! I didn't know it was there, and I had completely passed it on the way up! So I went down and looked at it.

I had read that there were two trailheads to go up the canyon, North Deuel Creek and South Deuel Creek. I had started at the north trailhead, so I thought I would try the south one on the way back. I took a fork that seemed like it might be the south one, but then I thought it seemed familiar, like I had just been on it. But ultimately I did find myself on an unfamiliar trail and exited at the south trailhead. So I don't know where the trail split, but it did somewhere.

The south trail had this random old pipe running along the trail.

I found this trail to be between Bountiful's Holbrook Canyon and Layton's Adams Canyon, both geographically and scenically. I wasn't too impressed at first, because it wasn't good running terrain or that different from some of the other nearby canyons, and the beginning of the trail was steep and exposed. But the thimbleberries and the surprise waterfall redeemed it.