Chilly Peak

I have been wanting to get up to Ben Lomond Peak but never have made it.  To the right is a picture of it last year with a little snow on top.

I decided that it would be nice to give it a try on Saturday evening.  My plan was to leave home at 5:30 PM and arrive at the North Ogden Divide trail head around 6:00 PM.  I didn't want to hike too much in the dark so rather than going for Ben Lomond Peak I set a smaller goal of Chilly Peak.  This would leave me about 2 1/2 miles short of Ben Lomond Peak but seemed like a better first step.  It would still be a hike of over 10 miles with an altitude gain of about 2,800 feet and my goal was to be up and back to the car in four hours.

Here is a picture I didn't take but it shows where I went back at a distance.   It was pulled from the website www.utahhikes.net.  I really like this website as it has given me a lot of ideas as to were I should go exploring:

One of the interesting facts about this particular trail is it is part of the Great Western Trail.  This is a trail that goes from Canada to Mexico.  It isn't at National trail like the Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, or Continental Divide Trail but it may be some day.

The trail head is located at the top of the North Ogden Divide.  This road connects North Ogden, Utah with Liberty, Utah.  there is a parking lot and various trails branch out from here.  The parking lot is located at (Coordinates: 41°19'12"N   111°53'56"W).  You can see the trail heading off in the top of the picture by crossing the road from the entrance and heading North.

Weather wasn't looking very good Saturday but I was hopeful it might all pass by before I would start my hike.  I headed out from the house at 5:45 PM and made it to the trail head at 6:10 PM.  After hiking for about 20 minutes the last of the clouds passed by and it was nice and sunny.  I passed three hikers coming down within the first 30 minutes and two motorcycle riders a few minutes later.  The elevation gain is steady but not too steep. 

When I first entered the trees on the trail it was quite dense with a fern type plant growing all around the trees.  The trail is wide sweeping switch backs for the first hour of travel.

This is another picture taken from www.utahhikes.net.  It shows the beginning of the trail very well.

Some times you are in the shade of trees but mostly exposed on the side of the mountain.  This provided spectacular views but also opened you up to the heat of the sun.  Luckily it wasn't too hot and travel was pretty easy.

The first pictures I took were at what looked like a good camping spot.  It is the first green camping tent symbol I placed on the map.  It was only about an hour hiking time so it should be an easy one to get to.

Here are a few pictures I took at this spot.

This picture is looking West towards North Ogden.

This one I am looking towards Pine View Dam in Huntsville near Liberty.

I kept heading upwards and the trail left the switch backs of the first section and I headed along the East side of the mountain.  It was covered in pine trees and was nice and cool in the shade of the trees.  The trees came out of the mountain side at an angle an then curved up towards the sky.  I really should have stopped and taken some pictures but I had just re-packed my camera and didn't want to get behind schedule.  I'll get a picture next time. 

After another hour of hiking I made it to Chilly Peak.  I went about 100 yards farther on the trail to get the sun behind Ben Lomond Peak to aid in my picture taking and found another campsite.  This time I saw a fire ring and took the majority of my pictures.  Here are a few for you to enjoy.

This is looking West toward Ben Lomond Peak:

This is looking North:

Looking back down the trail (South).  The trees up on this ridge must have a rough life.  They were completely mangled.

Looking South - The farthest peak you can see in the distance is Mount Ogden Peak.  I live below it in Ogden.  The one that is a little closer is Lewis Peak.

Looking West again at Ben Lomond Peak.

Looking East you can see the fire ring and camping spot I mentioned.  Just be sure your shelter can take a lot of wind!  You could always retreat down into the tree line if you had to but would find it harder to get a flat spot.

After spending about 30 minutes taking pictures I decided I better get going.  This is a picture looking North from Chilly Peak.

Old tree at Chilly Peak.

On my way back home about to pass by the right side of Chilly Peak!

Just below Chilly Peak.

Passed Chilly Peak and on my way home and I decided that since I carried up a small tripod I had better use it at least once.  Here I am getting wind blown as the sun is about to set.

A few more pictures looking South towards the distant Mount Ogden and Lewis Peaks.

The rest of the hike wasn't very eventful.  I tried to jog a little to make up for my extended time taking pictures but my calf muscles kept cramping up on me when I tried to run. So I had to keep it slow and steady.  I ran out of daylight while passing through the thick trees on the East side of the mountain. I had to break out my light and use it for the last hour of hiking.


I made it back to the car at 10:20 PM.  I was a little sore but very happy that I took the time to make this hike.  One of the main reasons I have been hiking so much is in an effort to lose weight.  I weighed 220 lbs about 7 months ago and am now at 190 lbs.  Mostly I can attribute this to just making a consistent effort to eat less, eat healthier foods, and be more physically active.  Well it is working and hiking is my exercise of choice so I thought I would create this blog to share some of my experiences.  If you live around Ogden Utah hopefully this will inspire you to head out on the trail.

High Uintas

Bradley and I have been talking about going back
packing in the Uintas all summer long. I decided that it was a little slow at work and the weather was nice so I took Thursday and Friday off so we could do it.

I needed to find a lake to go to that wasn't too far from the road in case Bradley wasn't in a hiking mood and I had to carry him and all of our gear. I asked around at work where a lot of people frequent the Uintas and was told by two guys that Ruth Lake is an easy hike and would be good for our first back packing adventure together.

It was a perfect pick. It was only 3/4ths of a mile to the lake and the amount of up hill wasn't very hard. It also helped that Bradley was in a hiking mood. He stole my trekking poles and took off. He made a lot of stops and slight detours but it was fun to follow him along.

Here is Bradley showing me the best route to take up the trail. He was very watchful and if I didn't follow him exactly he would send me back down the trail to come up, "the right way". It was really fun to see him using the trekking poles.



Here he is telling me that he is a, "strong hiker, the strongest in the mountains". He was quite funny. After a while he noticed me looking at my watch to (it is a compass watch) orient our map. He decided that he would come up with a pretend watch and every 10 steps or so he would make us both stop while he consulted his wrist. He would then inform me which way his watch told him we had to go to properly negotiate the trail. He was very serious about this.

At one point on the trail he told me that his watch told him we needed to go a certain way to find the letters. I was really surprised, as I think he was, when we went around a corner of rocks and there was a trail marker sign saying the Ruth Lake was straight ahead (letters!) Bradley started cheering saying his watch told him right! It was pretty funny.



Here is Bradley having a break. We were nearly at the end but he said he needed to rest and just sat down right on the trail. After a few minutes of resting he stood up and continued to lead me on.

Nearly there but we had to stop at this small lake to throw rocks in.



Yeah! 1 hour and 16 minutes later we finally made it the 3/4 of a mile to Ruth Lake. Bradley was very proud and started cheering. I decided to let him pick our campsite. We looked at about 5 different spots and he picked the best one all by himself.

Bradley happy at camp.

Here is Bradley checking out the campsite he chose and letting me know that it was time to make a fire to, "die the bugs." Yes there were a lot of mosquitoes around.

Here is our 1 1/2 pound tarptent. It was cozy inside but worth it considering it's weight. It is actually only a single person shelter but with Bradley as skinny as he is it worked out fine for both of us.


Here we are looking for a stream coming into the lake to get some water from. We were camped in the trees behind us to the right of the picture.




Bradley jumping over a small stream Friday morning.

With Bradley cars are a necessity of life even when back packing. He did carry all his toys as well as his blankets in his own backpack so I can't complain.

Here we are right before heading back down the trail to the car.

This is my favorite picture of the whole trip. It was right as we were leaving and it was our last look at Ruth Lake. Bradley stood there awhile saying, "goodbye Ruth mountain lake".

When me made it to the car this was his state about 3 minutes after buckling him in. It was a lot of fun and Bradley was a great back packing companion. I am sure we will make this a yearly tradition as long as he stays interested it camping.

Christmas in July

We had an Ekstrom family reunion at my grandparent's cabin. It was fun to see my cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. In looking back on my pictures I think next year I will make everyone sit for a group picture since there were quite of few I missed getting pictures of. The weather was really nice and we had a real fun weekend.


Here is Daniel peeking out of our tent. He was supposed to be sleeping right now.



Bradley spent most of the time playing in the sand box. We will have to get him some sand to play in. He sure seems to enjoy it.



Here we are all decorating the "Christmas Tree". It was fun and all the children had a lot of fun helping with the decorations.



The sign is hard to read in this small picture but it says, "Bradley's Brown Bear Hollow".



Daniel spent most of the time clinging to Lesa. This was a time when she was able to let him sleep and for her to get in some reading time.


Daniel really needs to stop trying to eat dirt, rocks, sticks, leaves basically the entire mountain! I hope we can get him over it before we go up to the Tetons in a couple of weeks or we will be spending the entire time digging mud out of his mouth!

4th of July Parade

Our Stake does an annual 4th of July program and children's parade. We thought Bradley would have fun riding his tricycle in it and he sure did. We had a lot of kids from the neighborhood come out and we rode around two blocks. We ended at the church where we had a flag ceremony performed by some cub scouts and a retired military man gave a talk about his service.

They then had some musical numbers and after the program was over we drank milk and had cinnamon rolls.

Running Much?

Why yes, yes I have. I started running with some friends in November in an attempt to get back into shape, and train for a half marathon. Well, that training for the half marathon quickly turned into training for a half and the Wasatch Back Ragnar relay.

Now, here we are, 8 months, 400 miles, and two races later, and I'm addicted. I've been an on again, off again, fair weather runner for a long time, but I never ventured into many races. But now my eyes have been opened. The races make the running and training fun and meaningful. And besides that, they are full of energy and rewarding.

So, enough of the sentimentality, on to the race recap. My first race was the Ogden Half Marathon on May 15. It started in Eden, up Ogden canyon, went around the north and east sides of Pineview Dam, then through Ogden Canyon, and into downtown Ogden. It was a beautiful run. The scenery was gorgeous, the weather was perfect, and it was an all around great time. My friends really pushed me, and I was able to hold about an 8 minute mile pace for just over half of the run. Then I ran out of steam and sent my friends on their way, running the last part primarily by myself. That made it harder, but I was still able to finish at a pretty descent time. 13.1 miles from the start, I crossed the finish line in 1 hour 53 minutes, and 32 seconds. I'm told that's really great for a first half. My goal was to finish under 2 hours, so I was pretty pleased. Here is a picture of me and the two ladies that pushed me in training and on the course, after the race. They are two of the best runners and greatest friends. I am so spoiled to have them to run with, they are such a blessing in my life. (The pink shirts were completely accidental. They were not planned, we're just cool like that)



My second race is the very definition of insanity. It was the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay. It is a 188 mile relay race from Logan to Park City on the back side of the Wasatch mountains. Each regular team is made up of 12 runners who each run 3 times in a 36 hour period. The team is split into 2 vans with 6 runners in each. My first run was 7.4 miles up the Avon pass at 4:00 in the afternoon. It was HOT and hard, but I managed to keep a descent pace considering, and finished the run in an hour and 20 minutes. My second run was 4.2 miles out of Morgan, and through Richville (don't worry, I'd never heard of that town either). I ran that leg in 38 minutes at 1:40 in the morning. My last run was another afternoon run. At 2:45 in the afternoon, I ran 3 miles in 29 minutes and completed my portion of the race by running into Heber. My team started the race at 11:30am on Friday, June 18, and we all crossed the finish line at 9:45pm on Saturday, June 19. We weren't the fastest team, but we were the greatest team (at least in my opinion).

It was the craziest 34 hours of my life, and some of the most tiring. I'm not sure I really slept at all in that time, but I did close my eyes for about 2 hours. When it was all over, I felt physically great, but it took me a few days, and some extra naps to catch up my sleep and really feel normal again. It was crazy, but so much fun, and I am looking forward to next year. Here is a picture of my team at the end of the race, and me holding my medal. I have pictures of me running, but I don't like how I look when I run, so you're not going to get any of those.




There you go. I'm sorry for the long and rambling post, but now you know what I've been up to lately. I still have a bit of a love / hate relationship with running, and I'm not sure I consider myself a runner yet, but I'm loving it now. (I'm already signed up for another half in August this year.)