Jordan River Trail Marathon, Part 3

April 7, 2015

Jordan River Trail Marathon, Part 3

Training is ramping up for the Red Bull X-Alps 2015, and this weekend I am doing a double workout...two grueling days of walking long distances with my paragliding pack on my back.

For the first day I stuck to the flats, finishing up my traverse of the Jordan River Trail with a walking marathon. I cruised at steady 17 1/2 minute miles along the river with a chilly south wind at my back.

After 11 miles, the Jordan River Trail ended with little fanfare. Luckily the trail continued on under a different name, the Legacy Parkway Trail. Unfortunately, the river ended too...eventually meandering over to the Great Salt Lake I'm sure, not that I saw that part.

So the Legacy Parkway Trail wasn't nearly as scenic, pretty much following the Legacy Parkway (Interstate) heading north to Idaho. This section of the trail seemed great for bikers and rollarblades...it was smooth, flat, and straight, just what you want to get a nice breeze in your face as you pedal along.

On foot, smooth, flat, and straight turned into hot and boring. The next bend in the trail was sometimes miles ahead, and the afternoon sun was beating down on me. I'm sure the Great Salt Lake was our there somewhere, but the flat low valley meant I could never get much of a glimpse of it. The biggest hill all day was the stairway build over the train tracks!

Luckily, the trail ended after almost exactly 26 miles of walking for me, and it ended at a FrontRunner trail station. These trains run along the Wasatch "Front" (get it?), and after finding a smoothie near the station, I was able to hop on and end up within a mile or so of my house. Considering I had taken the TRAX near the house to get to the start of my route, public transportation served me pretty well today!

The trail actually continues even further, changing into the 18 mile Denver and Rio Grande Western Rail Trail, ending up in Roy, Utah. I'll be checking that out soon to see if the trail lives up to it's LONG name!

Today's walk took about 7 1/2 hours. I wasn't too sore afterward and had only a minor blister from some different shoes I was trying out. Tomorrow I'll be heading up into Corner Canyon for about 16 hilly miles, for a total of 42 miles on this double. This will help build me up for some even longer stuff later in the month :)

Here's Part 1 of the Jordan River Trail

And Part 2 of the Jordan River Trail