February 3, 2007
My goal for an early morning training run was to run the entire length of Utah Lake north to south, about 30 miles. I would start at the
My early morning run began in the dark at 4:30 a.m. Storms had come through the valley since my last major ice run. The fog was gone and I had a great view of the lights across the lake. The moon was out, casting welcome light across the ice. Many times I turned out my light and ran only with moonlight.
The morning was very cold. At times it felt like the temperature was very close to zero. I started the run with boiling-hot water and Ensure in my bottles. The bottle that I carried in my hand froze in only an hour. Soon it was frozen enough to taste like ice cream. My hammer gel flask eventually froze so hard that I couldn’t get anything out, even with the top off. It was cold!
With the recent snow, the entire length of the lake had at least an inch of snow. This blanket insolated the ice and only a very few large cracks were exposed and wet. The surface was the most solid I had seen. I didn’t hear any cracking or ice booming. It was a nice quiet morning run without any worries about thin ice.
I aimed my route to stay about a mile off shore as I headed south toward Pelican Point. The ice was much smoother away from shore (fewer ice chunks to trip over) and I was able to keep a good pace going. A few cars and trucks drove south on the highway near the western shore. I shined my flashlight toward them, letting them wonder what the light was doing out on the frozen lake.
After reaching Pelican Point, I used my GPS to set my course toward the far south end of the lake. I had a long run ahead far out on the ice. As dawn approached, the temperature continued to dive. Finally the sun started to light up the sky, but it would be a couple hours before the rays would provide me any warmth.
After about three hours, I was very surprised to see two sets of tracks heading east. They were the tracks Brett and I made a couple of weeks ago. (see 50-mile ice run). Despite the newly fallen snow, the tracks were very distinct and undisturbed. It brought back fond memories of that fun 50-mile run. In about another mile, I again ran across our tracks that headed to the western shore.
The sun was almost peeking above the mountains, but I soon was again shaded by the peaks of West Mountain, the mountain on the south end of the lake.
I set my sights on a point of land that extended out from the foothills of West Mountain. I thought it was only a mile away but in reality it was about four miles away and seemed to never arrive. As I ran about a mile away from the shore I could not see any cars or any sign of human life over on the shore.
My tracks extend straight from the north
I watched with envy the warm line of sunshine as it toughed the western shore. Slowly it crept toward me and when it finally hit me I let out a cheer. The snow made amazing sparkling reflections as its low angle hit the surface of the snow. Little by little the snow became deeper the further I ran to the south until it was over four inches deep. The deep snow slowed my pace.
Cross Country Ski Tracks
View to the south
As I neared the southern end of the lake, I ran across many tracks. ATV tracks and cross country skiing tracks. I worried if I would have difficulty finding my way through tall reeds to exit off of the lake. I decided to follow the skiing tracks in hopes that they might lead me to my to an exit point without having to stomp through reeds.
As my route skirted vegetation sticking up through the ice, I would run on much thinner ice. Several times it started to crack and sink down an inch or so. I wasn’t too concerned because I knew the lake wasn’t very deep here, but still I wanted to keep my feet dry.
Looking north through the field of branches.
Mount Timpanogos peeking over the north end of West Mountain
The skiing track ended and turned back the way they came. The open ice also ended and I had no choice but to make my way through some brush. Using my GPS I could tell that the road to Goshen was still a couple miles away. I did my best to keep a straight course. After a half mile winding through branches sticking up through the ice, I again reached an open field of snow/ice. The problem now was that the snow was about a foot deep. The going was slow, tiring and difficult. I plodded on until I reached the tracks of an ATV. I ran in the packed deep tracks and made better time. I could tell that I was no longer on the lake surface. The ATV tracks led through a break in a fence.
Five miles north of Goshen, looking north
From there I was less than a mile from the road to Goshen. As I neared the road, a couple guys met me and asked if I had seen any coyotes. I had not, but had seen plenty of tracks on the way. They asked me if I had been in this area often. I explained that I had come from the north end of the lake. They were shocked and asked when I had started. I told them that I had started about six hours earlier. I bid goodbye and continued on.
It was nice to finally reach the snow-packed road. I was tired, but pushed ahead at a good pace, looking forward to finishing. With 2.5 miles to go, I called my wife, asking her to make the 35-mile drive to pick me up. For the final half hour, I really enjoyed the run through beautiful ranches in Goshen. More homes appeared and I finally reached Highway 6 that goes through the little town of Goshen. I walked a couple more blocks west to a little store and enjoyed feasting on some junk food. After exiting the store, just two minutes later my wife arrived to take me home.
It was an amazing adventure. One that I’m sure no one has ever attempted.
P.S. Temperatures warmed up for the next two weeks above freezing. But the ice was still very thick and runnable away from the shore. On the following Saturday, I ran across the lake to Pleasant Grove and back. There was just one tough large crack obstacle to get over. On the way back I saw my tracks from my first ice crossing nearly four weeks ago. That afternoon the rain finally fell and the snow covering on the lake disappeared. From the shore the lake now had a green colored sheet of ice. Still I ventured out on the ice. On Feb 17, I made my last ice crossing, a run across to Orem and back. More cracks had appeared and several were very difficult and risky to cross. I had to distribute my weight on all fours to get across a couple and did get my feet wet and hands wet as the ice started to crack into the lake. But, I didn’t fall in. Sometimes I ran over thinner sections (4-6 inches thick) that caused new cracks to form. Sometimes I could hear the cracks extending with ice booms continuing about a mile away. But the ice was still thick enough to bear my weight safely. A couple times I could feel sections drop about a quarter inch as I ran across them…pretty freaky. It was fairly stressful. As I concluded that 22-mile run, the ice was very slick, with a thin wet surface from the warm sun. My run did cause a stir in my community. A security guy at our rec center watched me go out on the ice and followed my progress for some time. When I arrived back over five hours later, some ice fishermen were stunned to hear that I ran across the lake and back. They mentioned that some guy was worried and was looking for me. After I returned home, I received a call from the security guy. He was relieved to hear that I was OK. He learned that I was an extreme runner and I gave him the URL for my website so he could better understand what I was doing. Near my home at the north end of the lake the ice is still nearly a foot thick, but some sections toward the east shore were only a few inches thick. Its time to bid the ice goodbye and hit the trails again.