Ben Lomond...Almost

As I ran along the shoreline trail, I realized that I had planned to run with Scott. It was 6 AM, and we were to meet at 5. I pulled my phone out of the pack and started to frantically text an apology. My heart raced as I woke up from my dream and realized that it was only 2:30 AM. As I fell back to sleep, I checked the alarm clock to make sure that I would have enough time to have an espresso before our 5 AM rendez-vous at Pioneer park.

The plan was to drive to Ogden and run up Ben Lomond. Snow covered the ground and roads. A “plan B” was beyond imagination at 5 AM, so we headed to the North Ogden Trailhead on a snowy I-15 that was slick enough to have a state trooper slide off the road.

It was dark and cold but we left the wamth of the car. The trail was blanketed with a few inches of powder which covered glassy ice. Scott brought along Yaktraxs for both of us, but we could have used ice skates in spots.

We climbed the first set of switch backs in the the dark as snow sparkled in our headlamps. The hope was that we would have a break in the clouds and snow before we reached the summit. Scott and I both packed cameras in search of a capturing a break in the clouds summit photo. Not only would we not get a break in the clouds, but the knee to waist deep snow drifts led to my planting my thinly covered hands in the snow enough times that I had a hard time handling the camera. Hard gusts of wind on the last ridge before the summit were enough that I didn’t even bust out the old-lady argument to push for a last ditch effort to reach the peak. We were underdressed. The wind was fierce. The footing alternated from slippery to knee deep drifts. Our adventure was done. With little prospect of clearing clouds we snapped a few photos with numb fingers and made our way back down.

Beardsicles?

Looking back at Ben Lomond in the clouds.

The run down was fun if a little treacherous (Scott scored a few category 1’s). A little more than 10 miles with some good trudging through the snow was enough. This is a great run, unfortunately, we arrived one day too late. As we drove down the canyon the clouds started to break. We paused to take a photo of the peak. It was still in the clouds. Maybe next time.