Wednesday Night Wranglin’. A Retrospective.
For two years I led a group trail run in the beautiful Wasatch mountains around Salt Lake City. The most important part of this post is to thank the hundreds of people that came out and made Wednesday nights special. You know who you are. Thank you! Now, some data!
Total Runs: 84
Total Mileage: 537.16 miles
Avg. Miles/Run: 6.4
Total Vert: 153,517 feet
Avg. Vert/Run: 1828
Facebook Group That Make It Possible: Wasatch Mountain Wranglers
Cropjustins: countless
Couples that met on WNW and later got married: 1 (so far)
Grillouts: 3
People Lost: 3–5 (but we found them)
Group size complaints: 2 (same lady)
Badly gashed knees: 1
Bathroom Gregorian Chant Sessions: +/- 3
Smiles Per Mile: ~23
Who Showed Up: All Paces & Faces
# of Times I Explained the Butler -> Mill B Route: 3–5
Mill B?: 1
Routes
Below is a list of trails that we ran categorized by the ideal season to run them. The most important part of these runs was that everyone was welcome, so these are mostly accessible to beginner and intermediate trail runners. Click on the name of each trail for a caltopo.com map.
Summer
These routes hold snow until around May/June/July most years. Upper Millcreek trails are open July 1 when the winter gate opens.
- Broads Fork to the Beaver Ponds
- Desolation Lake/Dog Lake
- Wolverine Cirque Loop (some exposure)
- Lake Blanche
- Maybird Gulch (holds snow into June)
- Red Pine Lake
- Alta/Brighton Loop (this one always draws a crowd. If you have more than 12 people, send two groups in opposite directions)
- Butler Fork Desolation Connector Loop
- Great Western Trail from Big Mtn Pass
- Reynold’s Peak from Upper Big Water
- Reynold’s Peak up Butler down Mill D
- Supreme Loop w/ Sunset Peak
- Old Red Pine to Crest down Little Water
- Elbow Fork to Lambs and Back
- Upper Millcreek Loops
- Olympic Park Loop
- Millcreek Historic Loop
- Mill B North (Mill B?)
Shoulder Seasons
Anything in this list can also be good during a mild winter and will be decent but hot in the summer.
- Mt. Wire
- Avenues Twins
- Foothills Loop
- Temple Quarry
- Bell’s Canyon
- Mormon Pioneer Trail from Little Dell to Big Mountain Pass
- Little Black (TED) (the end can be sketchy for large groups)
- Lookout Peak
- Neff’s Canyon
- Mt. Olympus (Big for an after-work activity. Headlamps needed!)
Winter
These routes are best saved for winter, but can be great year-round! Remember headlamps during the winter!
