Deuel Creek Hike: Centerville

I have a goal this summer to increase my knowledge base of the Davis County trails. Saturday I hit trail #2 for the season - Deuel Creek North and South. Attached is a map photo so you can get an idea of the layout of the trail. This trail will be a 5 star trail in the summer when the leaves fill in. It wanders right next to Deuel Creek which is a spring-fed creek and thus runs year-round. Obviously spring run-off increases the flow, so you have the soul music of water along the route. The primary difficulty of the route is getting to the trail head. There is currently no great approach to the trail head kiosk so you end up walking up a road, across a Forest Service bridge, along part of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail and then up a mountain just to get to the trail head. Once you hit the trail though it is beautiful and levels out nicely. There is some scrambling over rocks, but people of all ages were successful in this group - kids, dogs, older folks.

Directions to trail head as of summer 2010: Park at the Bowl Area on 850 E. 100 S. in Centerville. It is at the base of the foothills along a neighborhood road. Head 2/10 of a mile up the dirt road then the trail transitions onto an undefined foot path that heads east to the bridge. The bridge is a F.S. bridge and part of the Bonneville Shoreline trail. At .3 miles you must head straight east up a foothill vs continueing on the obvious trail. The obvious trail is the B.S. trail. Continue to the top of the foothill where you will then see the ATV track to the right. From here you can see the trailhead kiosk to the left that starts the Deuel Creek hike. This is the trail head for South Deuel.

For summer hikers you should note that the canyon is full of poison ivy and long pants are suggested. Poison Ivy does not bother dogs, I'm told. Dogs are allowed on the trail without leashes-if they are well behaved.

At 1.17 miles South Deuel loops around and turns into North Deuel. If you wish to continue straight the trail goes on for 4.5 miles with a handful of campsites and bridges along the way. Found a rope swing that was good fun also.

The loop for North Deuel is not marked. The return trip is more exposed. Mahogany Flat sits another 1/10 of a mile along North Deuel. Nice little camp spot with a great view, but right on the trail. Fires are allowed from Oct - April. Practice Leave No Trace camping. North Deuel empties out right near the dirt road which you descend to where you parked.

Hiking the Bonneville Shoreline Trail: NSL trailhead

April 10th. My friend Bill introduced me to the concept of Meetup Groups. These are hobby groups of all different types (anything you can imagine), where people who have similar interests join up and engage in their hobby together. So, I found a hiking group that will help me explore the Davis County trails that I am less familiar with. On Saturday I took my son and Miss Molly dog and we joined with the Davis County Hiking Meetup group to tackle the Bonneville Shoreline trail. This trail is hard to keep track of for me because it has so many different lengths. Some sections of the trail are finished, some have funding approved but are not yet done, and since it starts in Cache Valley and stretches across the Wasatch Front in sporadic sections I find it hard to keep track of. That being said, it's my own fault for not just getting out and doing every section. Perhaps that can be a summer goal. So this time we started at the NSL/Bountiful trailhead which lies at the far south end of the Bountiful Eagle Ridge Golf course. The entire trail is a dirt road. I must tell you that I loved getting out hiking with my son - spring fever, and I found the views of all the industrial life there at the point of the mountain interesting, but perspective aside, when I look for a great trail the view I want is not one of railway cars, gravel pits and refineries. Once you round the corner above Salt Lake the view of the entire Wasatch Front opens up and you are looking right down on the capitol and downtown SLC. It was a nice cool morning to get out. At the top of the trail you can head down toward Ensign Peak or head up further past more relay station towers and deeper into the foothills. We climbed a bit and then called it quits when Molly got tired and laid down in the snow. 4.45 miles round trip in about 2 hrs and 3 min. A little bit of clay on the shoes, but mostly a cool spring morning and it was much better to be outside than in. Dogs allowed on a leash. Easy access mountain biking.

Alta Spring Skiing

Spring Break at Alta with the boys. Beautiful day. The boys crack me up!! I've never seen other kids do this, but my boys decided it was more fun to lay on the back of their skies and slide down the mountain like a sled. Then they got up on their skis and pretended to be fighter pilots. Their arms made wings and machine guns when they needed to shoot one another on the pass. Full on sound effects with the occasional passing skier laughing at them. My oldest son was a US fighter pilot and my youngest son was left to be Russian, which he was not happy with. He claimed he would be China, until son #1 informed him that Chinese planes were made poorly and would fall apart at the first pass. So then son #2 agreed to be Russian, where son #1 then informed him that China made the Russian planes and exported them. Funny boys. Their second full day at a resort. Son #2 tired out early. We all went home with goggle tan lines.

Ski Utah Interconnect Tour

Ski Utah's Interconnect tour is a ski tour that takes you through 4 resorts via the backcountry. Boot packing, side stepping, fishboning, traversing, untouched powder fields, GORGEOUS scenery, 2 guides, and on a good day the best snow in the world. Thursday April 8th I went on the tour to update KALL 700 Trailmaster radio website. On assignment, but as always my research is fun. The first part of the day we found some nice snow. As the day progressed the deep powder turned to sloppy, heavy crud. It was hard work. Temps in the high 40's I'd guess. Great lunch at Solitude and a long shove across Highway to Heaven with the hopes that no more snow would slide. Avi danger was high in many places today, but the sky was blue and the day was beautiful! The Cottonwood Canyons have to be one of the most dramatic and beautiful places on the planet. Skied Snowbird, Alta, Brighton, Solitude and back!

Guardsman Snowshoe

Saturday April 3rd: Guardsman's Pass Up Big Cottonwood Canyon. At the tailend of a week where the Cottonwoods reported 30 inches of snow in two days and this path, which is usually well trodden by snowmobiles and snow cats was still 6-12 inches deep in powder. Beautiful, light snow. Saw a few snowmobilers on the bottom trail, but as soon as we got to the break-off point where you can head up to the right, we started breaking trail and heading into the trees. Total trip was 2.23 miles and we spent a little over an hour on the trail. Cut out early because Mike had friends coming into town, but it was a beautiful trek on a nice day. Snow flurries and some cold winds when we first started, but inside tree cover was nice and protected. Gene was working on getting his leg movement back and I was just loving being outside in such beautiful powder. Really nice morning, I'm very glad we got out.

Park City Powder

Yesterday I skied with Ski Utah for their member networking day. As our fantastic luck would have it, we were dished a full dish of powder all day long. This was the new best day of the year! The resort was plenty busy, but it was near white-out conditions most of the day and thus the constantly falling snow was refilling the mountain on every run. Good friends to ski with and great powder. I thought I'd just stay a few hours and test out my new ski boots (finally!), but it was so good I just kept getting back on the lift! Jeff Lewis, an instructor at Park City and good friend, lead us around the resort to fine stashes and Bill Weidner and I found some great runs in McKonkey (SP?) Bowl. I'm using the techniques I learned in the Snowbird clinic and the new skill is helping me to carve instead of power my turns. It makes it easier to ski. More than once, as I literally carved between trees in a foot of powder I said, "Thank you God for this run! Thank you for this day! Thank you for this snow!"