Rim Valley Dream Creek

Some of these blog entries will highlight my favorite runs around the town of Moab.  Here is the account of yesterday's trek:

Moab Rim > Hidden Valley > Pipe Dream > Kane Creek Blvd.





One can start & finish this loop from a number of locations (all of which include ample parking for any size vehicle).  I choose to start at the "Moab Rim" trailhead on Kane Creek Blvd. - just a mile or so outside of town (If heading south on Main Street, take a right on the road in between McDonalds & Burger King. . . this is Kane Creek Blvd.)  This is my favorite starting point because you climb about 900 feet in the first mile.  It really gets the cardio pumping!  From this trailhead a hiker / runner has the option of the wide & edgy slickrock jeep trail known as "Moab Rim," or the singletrack "Stairmaster" option.  I choose "Stairmaster"  and am able to somewhat run for the first half of the climb, and then switch to a fast hike to finish my way to the top.  There is some packed snow. . . not much ice really - and plenty of clear earth / rock where the sun has melted any frozen water away.

Once at the top of "Stairmaster" it's worth taking a minute or two to gaze at the 360 degree views.  It's a clear, sunny day & I can see Arches Nat. Park in the distance when I look to the north.  Across the river, "Little Arch" is visible at the top of the red stone wall.  The La Sal range is to the east.  At this point I lose my long-sleeve undershirt since the path from here to "Hidden Valley" is upon an exposed plateau.  Here "Stairmaster" converges into the "Moab Rim" Jeep trail (as seen in photo to the right).  For the next mile there is gradual up-and-downs with some tricky footwork areas for sure (careful not to twist an ankle).  A fork breaks off where I choose to veer right as to gain higher elevation up more slickrock (veering to the left takes one on the "Sand Hill" route which I don't find preferable to run or hike on).   At the highest point of the loop I can see parts of Dead Horse Point State Park & Canyonlands Nat. Park  to my south-west.  Here I take a break to munch some dark chocolate, pretzels, and gummy worms.  I take sips of water here & there, but am not finding myself too thirsty since temperatures are not getting above high 30s or maybe 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

At the high-point of the loop: looking towards
Hidden Valley 

Another mile or so & the "Moab Rim" trail is now "Hidden Valley" trail.  It remains on exposed slickrock & directs me into a wash where cairns guide the runner along the path.  As I leave the slickrock wash & enter Hidden Valley, the elevation goes up slightly before dropping & the sun hides behind a wall of rock.  Hidden Valley is still covered with a white blanket of crunchy snow, but the trail has been used enough that shoes hit & bounce back without sinking in much (hard-packed snow is one of my favorite surfaces to run on).  Its about a mile or so to get through the Valley where I pick up considerable speed since it is so flat, and then begins the steep decent down to the "Pipe Dream / Hidden Valley" trailhead parking lot.  Here some of the boulders that make the trail are ice-coated & so I am careful where I step, though I try to keep considerable speed.  I've made it a personal challenge over the last few years to get fast down these steep, somewhat dangerous rocky sections of trail.  I've found in races that this technique is very useful in getting past some competitors who are not far ahead.

Along "Pipe Dream," looking north.

It's nice to be getting a tan on in the sunshine again after the chilly shadowland of the valley.  Upon reaching the trailhead ("Hidden Valley / Pipe Dream" parking lot, off of Rim Rock Lane off of Angel Rock Rd. off of 191 if one drives there), I am quite excited because I get to enter the "Pipe Dream" trail, which I've found to be one of the most enjoyable, mellow running trails near town.  It is rolling foothills that rise and fall gradually, and today the conditions are better than I would have expected for late January.  Much of the snow & ice has completely melted away leaving dirt that is not muddy, but moist enough to be firm under foot.  There are snowy sections, but it is packed snow that is easy to run on.  I manage to complete the "Pipe Dream" section without falling once (when I ran this trail last week, I bit some dirt on an icy turn).  When "Pipe Dream" nears town, there are several off-shoot trails that get you off the trail and onto roads.  I choose the "Aspen Ave." route, and am quickly pounding pavement for the next couple miles to get back to the Moab Rim trailhead where I started (Aspen Ave. > S. Mountain View Drive > Kane Creek Blvd.)

One of the many petroglyphs (a bear's paw) near Hidden Valley.

Parts of this loop can be done in isolation.  Sometimes I will just go up & down "Stairmaster" to get a quick hill-climb workout, or even at a slower hiking pace to enjoy a sunset.  "Pipe Dream" is convenient particularly because it can be accessed from in-town.  "Hidden Valley" from the parking lot trailhead is a great morning hike /run, as the sun will shine on the trail which climbs up into Hidden Valley.   There is also a vast wall of native petroglyphs at the end of the "Hidden Valley" trail, if the traveler veers to the right and goes towards the wall, instead of veering straight / left towards the "Moab Rim" trail. 

"Stairmaster" trail is a great spot to watch Jeeps
crawl on the "Moab Rim" trail (Moab Jeep Safari '18)

Roots to Run Upon.

If you told 15-year-old Me that I would run a marathon some day I wouldn't believe you (even if you had a functional flux-capacitor in your vehicle).  Then if you said I'd even run races longer than marathons in the mountains, I'd probably scoff & go home to a family-sized bag of Doritos Cooler Ranch & a 2-liter Mountain Dew.  At that age I had just given up on playing junior-varsity lacrosse since I was such a lousy runner.  Attending practice & not getting play-time in games wore away at my self-esteem & felt like a waste of time.  I preferred hiding in my parents' basement to scarf down snacks & delve into level after level of computer strategy games like Warcraft II & Alpha Centauri.  So what changed 15 years later to make me so enthralled with trail-running that my day-to-day life would begin to revolve around it - to make me feel complete, even?

The initial spark (and I'm sure what grabs & hooks most runners) was my first time experiencing a "runner's high."  I am perhaps 23 or 24 years old & running loops around the Centerville Elementary / Middle School campus near my parents' house in Lancaster, PA.  The terrain around these schools is soft & grassy, with gradual hills that are common in this Piedmont Region.  I have headphones plugged into an ipod with Soul Coughing's El Oso album playing at about an hour into the run when I feel ELATED all of the sudden.  It is a new sensation & I want more!  I actually DESIRE to keep going & milking the exercise for whatever ecstasy can be obtained.  In the past running was always a chore, a pain, something forced on me. . . something to be avoided at all costs.  I don't realize at the time, but the combination of environmental factors involved at this moment is what I would forever seek in my runs: elevation gain & loss, earthy surface (as opposed to asphalt / track), cooler temperature (it was night time on this run though I can't remember what season), and rhythm-heavy music in the earbuds.

Fast-forward to me at age 29 & I've just moved to Salida, CO after tramping around for a few years working in various resort / tourist areas (In those "tramping years" I would run at times but never had made it a regular habit or competitive sport.  In Yellowstone I often ran from Mammoth Hot Springs to Gardiner, MT on Old Gardiner Road {saw a badger once on that trail}.  In New Orleans I remember running down St. Charles Ave. when Mardi Gras was just over & gazing bedazzled at all of the shining beads that had tangled into the trees' branches & twigs.)  My roommate plays an audio recording for me in which Joe Rogan tells a story about a vision he saw whilst in the grips of an ibogaine trip, and I realize that running might be as close as we get to godliness (more on this in another blog entry).  I begin finding the joy of longer runs among Salida's trails in the "S Mountain" and "Methodist Mountain" systems.  Where I once used to eat too many snacks & spend too much time at computer games, in these days I find myself imbibing too much alcohol at too many nights spent at the bars for too many hours.  While trail-running doesn't cure this problem all at once, it beings to give me something else to spend my time on.  It provides a new neurotransmitter reward source besides coffee, beer, & nicotine.   And you get to be out in the mountains, pumping the heart, listening to music, while watching the horizon transform at each bend of single-track & each hour that ticks towards twilight. 

I read a book by Dean Karnazes about "ultra running."  It begins to show the potential of human endurance.  I run more days & stay out longer when I do.  I read a book by Christopher McDougal.  I run my first marathon.  I read a books by Charlie Engle & Kilian Jornet.  The authors motivate more & more as well as entertain with the heroic stories that runners grow through.  Many are narratives of personal victory, while others are studies of how running relates to us anthropologically or physiologically.  Nothing is better fuel for understanding what I am capable of in my own pursuits as a now trail-race competitor.  I'm Peter Panic (AKA Pete Brewer AKA Peer Broozer) and in homage to these writers (and with a push from my brother)  I begin this runner's blog.