DESOLATION TRAIL MARATHON
29      SEPTEMBER        2007

	Name, Age	Finish Time
1	Brian Hamos,44	4:49:10
2	Arnie Hulquist,49   David McKnight,51	5:13:03   5:13:03
4	Alan Watson,58	5:24:00
5	Sarah Evans,35	5:56:25
6	Adam McFarland,32	6:23:34

Bailout at Thaynes Canyon	~ 24  Miles
Dan Hall,39 Sandy White	4:27:11 4:27:11

Bail out at Dog Lake, down to Big Water & down Millcreek Canyon Road to Box Elder Picnic Grounds	~ 20 miles
Grizz Randall,63

From Park City? bailed out at Dog Lake and ran down to Big Water and down Millcreek Road to Box Elder Picnic Grounds	~ 18 miles
Marit Glenne,57 Deborah Wagner,57

Bailed out at Butler Fork and hitchhiked back to his car	~ 16 miles
Frederick Gabriel,48

 

Ran from Upper Big Water  to the Dog Lake junction along the Desolation Trail to the finish via Thaynes Canyon	~ 16 miles
Margaret Moore  Kevin Moore

                             

Ran out & back from the finish to Top Dog Saddle & back?	~ 14 miles
Tom Shultz

Ran to Blunder Fork aid station and down to Mill D * Drew , Wendy & Jodi did this route but started earlier (6:30 am). From Drew: "Weather was overcast, slightly threatening at the beginning.  Beautiful sunrise squeezing through the clouds and lighting up the ridgetops above Brighton.  Minor snow flurries turned into a full-on snowstorm coming over Red Lover's Ridge and down near Desolation Lake.  The wind really picked up at that point causing the snow to fly in a horizontal fashion and bite at the face.  It turned into white-out conditions for a little bit.  What a blast!  We did not stop at the Blunder Junction aid station as they were barely setting up as we passed.  It was a great morning for a mountain run."

~ 12 miles

Doug Wahlquist,61   Kathie Schmutz,49 Duane Schmutz,60 Cindy Howard,50     Jodi Martin Fessler   (40 & holding)*      Wendy Wittwer,36* Drew Wittwer,37*

To Blunder Fork and back	~ 4 miles
Thanks to John Grobben, Adam Grobben, , Ken Shoulders, Amanda Kearns, Lexi Kearns, Stephanie Killian, Taylor Davis, and  Irv Nielsen.   Claude Grant, Adam Grobben, and Cindy Howard also hiked water in on a previous week day

Hiked water into Mill B and other trips to clean up the course, rebuild some trail and put up stick signs	many miles
Stan Crane

       Since the Desolation Marathon was created by Kerry Fletcher in 1982, Mother Nature has played her naughty little games and helped create excitement as runners tried to anticipate what they might face as they leave Brighton for conditions unknown.  Some years are just terrifically good weather.  Many years have started off terrible only to become tranquil and pleasant.  Some years were down right hot and uncomfortable.   In 1986, the race was canceled by 2 feet of snow prior to the ran.  This year started off a little damp and cold but conditions generally were pretty good until the descent from Mount Raymond at mile 17.  Then things got miserable.  The scenery is a pretty big constant.  Runners were greeted with somewhat subdued leaf colors but the moisture made them stunning in yellows, reds, oranges, browns, and greens.  Contrast that with  4 to 8 inches of snow, and wow, pretty good show of autumn coloration.  The snow just kept coming all day.   As is usual for this race, many runners went off on their own version of the Desolation for their own purposes.  Grizz needed some road mileage and fulfilled his needs with about 7 miles of pavement from the top of Millcreek down to Box Elder on the road.  Frederick needed his car back and so left the trail half way, headed to Big Cottonwood highway and went back to get it at Brighton. 
      Also customary is runners getting lost.  This year was Dan Hall's & Sandy White's turn.  Dan and Sandy were in the lead but took a wrong turn off the snowy trail and came down Thaynes Canyon and danced through the ditch of rocks  instead of the Salt Lake Overlook trail.   This DQ'd them from the marathon trail dance but gave them winning slots in the 24 mile Thaynes Tango division.  So Brian Hamos (co-winner in 2006) came up with the win in a spectacular win under 5 hours for the difficult conditions.  Sarah Evans came up with the win this year after finishing second in 2004.  Welcome back to Adam McFarland who last ran the race in 2000.   A Pancake Stan impersonator made his appearance and served sourdough pancakes out of the back of his van where the grill was set up to keep it out of the snow.  Box Elder Picnic Grounds picked up about 4 inches of snow in 3 hours while runners trickled in to the finish.  Wet heavy snow.   Very cold and miserable, more like winter except there were mostly green leaves on the Box Elder maple trees nearby.  Still, it really looked like winter up there!   Congratulations to all who helped and to all who participated in any fashion.   It takes some courage to start an endeavor like this and pursue the trail dancing through rain, mud, and snow.   As Badger Grobben would say, "Beats staying home and pulling weeds."
Irv