4 Nov -> Took a nice jaunt out on the trails east of Corner Canyon starting at the Orson Smith trailhead pushing my 6 foot circumference Rollatape measuring wheel and wearing two Garmin Forerunner GPS watches (a 201 and and a 305) and an Oregon Scientific Pedometer. I started up the Upper Corner Canyon road (the green gate was open), turned off on the Aqueduct Road heading south.  After passing the Bonneville Shoreline trail (BST) junction, it cuts off on a new trail at a road intersection where the BST also drops into Corner Canyon just north of the Silica Pit.  The trail turns east up across three new bridges (3rd bridge is right by Ghost Falls)  and reconnects with the Upper Corner Canyon road where the Draper Trails crews are preparing to rework the messy trail that meanders through wetlands.  Just up the road a brown gate is across the Upper Corner Canyon road and about 0.4 miles further, a gray gate is across that road.  The Upper Corner Canyon road connects with the new Clarks trail another 0.4 miles further.   I dropped west down Clarks Trail 1.47 miles to a wooden bridge, turned right just past the bridge, and down into the south west section of Corner Canyon, past the Silica Trail  on the BST, down into Corner Canyon flats and across the new bridge across the Corner Canyon stream and up to the Aqueduct Road and took the east going BST up along the benches past the Cherry Canyon Logging trail, the bridge in Bair Canyon, past the Eagle Trail junction, north along the BST until the little connector trail down to the Aqueduct road (comes out by the water tank -> rushing water is heard). Then I headed south back to Upper Corner Canyon road and turned right and back to Orson Smith trailhead.  Wheel mileage = 11.58 miles; GPS 201 = 10.4 miles; GPS 305 = 10.63 miles; and surprisingly, the pedometer = 11.29 miles.  The wheeled mileage is the most accurate, of course.  As long as I was out in the open on trails with no trees and cliffs, the instruments would all measure very close to each other but when I wasn't, well the GPS  watches lost nearly 1/10 th of a mile per mile traveled in the thick tree sections and a little more in the sections where cliffs and mountains blocked out the satellite signals.  The $30 pedometer was more accurate than the GPS watches but it had to be carefully calibrated for my stride for this kind of running/ walking and could not be trusted unless an equal amount of ascent and descent was taken into account.  I had a great time, good weather and enjoyed  colorful oak trees with rusty colored leaves and fiery Squawberry bushes.   There were lots of mountain bikers but also lots of room on the trails.  Be wary of the dogs, there are many off leash and could present a danger but today, the worst I got was a big slobbery kiss on the calf when one snuck up behind me.  The dog owner was surprised.  "He's never done that before!"  Yep, it is always the fault of the runner for bringing out this strange behavior in dogs.
13 Oct ->   The Draper Trails are certainly worth a look -see if you haven't been out there this year.   I stopped at Orson Smith trailhead and ran up on Upper Corner Canyon road (green gate across it usually but it is open now) .   Several new bridges and connecting  trails are now in place along the new Bonneville Shoreline trail and the fall leaves on the trail are a real plus.  I climbed up to the saddle between Draper and Alpine (my GPS said about 4 miles from the green gate) and came down the Upper Corner Canyon road.  They have a new gate across the road just beyond the trail going up to Jacob Ladder on the Movie Road.  They are trying to discourage the many ATV's that are destroying the place.  Then I came down what I call the Ghost Falls trail or Poison Ivy Avenue  and ended up on the new trail that connects to the south end of the Aqueduct  Road . It junctions in where the Bonneville Shoreline trail drops off the Aqueduct Road.  Very pleasant running.  Saw John Maack  and Troy Olson in two different encounters in the last couple of weeks.  Always nice to run into friends.  Both had successful runs at the Wasatch Front 100 miler and were just getting back into the swing of things.  .  There is a new and very nice connecting trail up to the Bonneville Shoreline trail from Orson Smith to the Cherry Canyon trail (about 7./10 ths of a mile from Orson Smith trailhead). The trail splits just before getting to the Bonneville Shoreline trail.  Lot of options and places to run out there.   Rain, snow, or sunshine, the trail dancing is great in fall.     Rocks Tewgo
14 Jul-> After a busy morning, I was finally able to head off for  a trail run in this sweltering heat.  I had to stay close so ended up at the Quarry Trail at the mouth of Little Cottonwood .  Bumped into Gabe and Wayne who kindly chatted with me for awhile before they headed up to the turn around at 3 1/4 miles up the hill.   I kept on going however and took the single track trail that winds along the north side of the Little Cottonwood river and kept going for another mile before I figured I would not have enough water if I didn't turn around.  It was early afternoon and nearing 100 degrees already.  What a scorcher.  Thank goodness for the shady trail sections to run under.  As it was, I had to dunk my t-shit in a small stream on the way back to stay cool enough to run.  Otherwise, walking was barely sustainable.   Nice crop of Salmonberries and some raspberries.  ymmmmm.........
9 Jul -> Celebrated an anniversary with a 1 mile hike up Days Fork with the family.  Far cry from running it.   Enjoyable , never-the-less except for the nasty deer flies everytime I stopped.   A big thank you to Don Allison for his many years of service at Ultraunning Magazine and best wishes to the new editor, John Medinger.
31 May-> Just a couple of thoughts.  I have seen a new trend this year.  Looks like some in the trail and ultrarunning community are making a big push for money and fame by ratcheting up their "media" solicitations for news coverage.   It remains to be seen how this will play out in the long term.  For instance, coming from one of the big pushers for news coverage, comes a comment you would not predict unless you are a 100 mile veteran: “I am afraid to tell my family and friends, but I must admit that I am already looking for another big adventure. It is such a big world." – Charlie Engle, who completed a 111-day, 4,000+ mile run across the Sahara Desert in late February with two friends.
23 May->  Returned from a trip to St. George, Utah.  Ran 9 miles in Snow Canyon last Friday and 21 miles in Zion Canyon the next day.  Found out that the Montrail Vitesse is a lousy shoe to run in sand.  Lets in the sand from the side and picks up about a 1/2 cup of sand in 1/2 a mile.  Arrrggghhhh.  So, the Friday trail run from the White Rocks trail to the Johnson Cave trail with various side trips was harder and slower than it needed to be since I had to stop multiple times for sand removal.  The Zion Half Train went smooth although the Muzuno trail shoes which kept the sand out also allowed too much forefoot shock and caused me three major blisters.  Ouch! The last 5 miles to the Grotto was very, very hot and painful, I can tell you.  The flowers were a little on the subdued side.  I expected more Carpet Phlox but the drought conditions there were not conducive to flower growth. 
5 May ->  A very cold and windy day.  Cut short a run out in Corner Canyon after a couple of hours.  I wasn't enjoying the weather much but I did enjoy running in the Montrail Vitesse shoes I recently bought.  I had forgotten how much I enjoyed running in them.  I did see 5 deer  (nice to know the mountain lions didn't all of them this last winter).  There was a crew working on the Cherry Canyon trail just above the Aqueduct Road and the new connecting trail the crews have nearly finished from the Orson Smith trail head. 
18 Apr->  Grizz Randall did a great sleuthing job finding out what exotic flower was up in Little Willow Canyon above the Hidden Valley trail head.  Turns out it was Crown Imperial  (Fritillaria imperialis), a cultivated ornamental species.   A very nice flower in the Lilly family.  On the way up to look at it, I spotted thousands of Spring Beauties (Claytonia lanceolata) , and lesser numbers of  Heronsbill (Erodium cicutarium), Larkspur (Delphinium nelsonii), Waterleaf (Hydrophylum capitatum), and Cymopterus longipes.   For the run on the Bonneville Shoreline trail this upcoming Saturday, expect to see thousands of Arrowleaf Sunflower (Balsamorhiza sagittata).
24 Mar-> Draper Corner Canyon 25 K:   You no doubt were out at the Buffalo Runs on Antelope Island today but I had to work swing shift last night and I opted to sleep my normal 7 to 8 hours and go running out on the Bonneville Shoreline Trails, the Aqueduct Road, and some connecting trails from the Equestrian Park area.  I ran this run solo in 5 hours & 2 minutes and it was plenty slow but taking into account a multitude of injuries and lack of training, I will gladly take it.   Highlight of the run for me was watching a fox hunting and then running for the hills when it noticed me.  I pulled out my Salted Nutroll "Power Bar" to celebrate.  Later in the day I crossed paths with "Speedgoat & lady (Cheryl) doing a  training run out there, too.   He is shooting for the McNaughton 100 in April.  The last issue of  Ultrunning Magazine has a great interview with Karl (as Speegoat would say, "3 scrapes").  Utah is lucky to claim this talented trail dancer and my dream is to run only twice as slow as him someday (considering my recent pace -> make that three times as slow).
14 Mar ->Matt Mahoney has a great web site on the Barkley 20 to 100 miler in Tennessee that takes place in April:
 Barkley Marathons (100 miles)
The pictures do a better job at really showing what the race is all about (pain and suffering).  Some of you might be interested at looking at some of their steep woodsy trails.One of my favorite taunts of all time was written by Gary Cantrel: