theoldwolf

Well, the weather-guessers sure got it right for today. It was absolutely specacular, and it looks like tomorrow will be even better. Trust me, I'm enjoying it.

Today I toddled out at 11:15 AM for my last megawalk of the season - at least the last one in pleasant weather - and walked 8.5 miles up City Creek Canyon. The leaves are down in most places, just a few golden holdouts:

The temperature was a balmy 59° F and City Creek was running higher than usual because of the recent rain/snow we had. The sound was peaceful.

There are wild apple trees along the road, and some of them still had fruit. A few apples during the march, surprisingly un-wormy, made the walk all the more pleasant.

By the time I got to the top of the paved canyon road (7.5 miles), I had walked through several areas where the sun hasn't reached for a while because it's too low in the sky, and the roads were icy. It's amazing how quickly the ambient temperature can drop when there's no radiant heat coming from the sun or from the surrounding ground. The temp dropped to a chilly 33°F in those spots, and I was glad I had brought an extra jacket.

Continued up into the upper canyon another half mile, but by the time I had walked through 3 zones where I was walking on ice, I decided to pack it in. I also was pushing myself, since I hadn't done much exercise at all on my trip, so it was time anyway.

I stopped in the last sunlit area before the canyon became almost permanently shaded and rested on a log, dined on a nutrition bar and had some water, and headed back down.

On the way I found a pretty little sheltered picnic area covered with leaves:

I stopped there for a few minutes, and enjoyed the cool and the sound of the river flowing by - and also realized that I was sitting next to Old Man Willow:

Every time I walk the canyon I notice this phenomenon - a huge chunk of aggregate has tumbled down from an outcropping high above and landed across the stream. It's hard to get an idea of the scale of this thing from the picture, but it's absolutely massive. The river washed a hole in it and tumbles merrily through.