Mile 249. Ledge recently sent Tortoise a link to the new Quarry Trail in St. George. This evening he checked it out for himself. It packs a lot of scenery into its 0.7 mile round trip, which starts at the north end of 700 West where that street dead ends at a golf course. Lou was hoping this would connect to the nearby trails in the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve, but apparently no. So to complete today's activity, he drove to the Pioneer Hills trailhead parking lot and did part of the City Creek trail, including over 30 pictures. Today's thought is by Neill Marriott ...
Cheerio!
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| This trail is popular, it just opened 2 weeks ago and the map container is already empty. There's lots of signs at each end, and the trail is easy to follow. |
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| First of two tortoise fence crossings. |
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| Followed shortly by a second crossing. |
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| One of several trail features provided through the efforts of local Eagle scouts. |
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| Rachel, this picture is for you |
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| View at the end of the trail looking back on the 700 West Street. |
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| Preparing to cross under Red Hills Parkway to access City Creek trail. |
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| City Creek trail heads off to the right near the crest of the parkway hill |
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| And almost immediately enters the desert reserve. |
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| Delicate flowers adorn the trail |
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| City Creek Trail goes to the right, Tortoise's path today. To the left is a connector to Owen's Loop trail, more on it presently. |
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| Views in a couple directions from today's turnaround point. |
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| Unique view of the lit Dixie "D" above the city ... but the city itself is hidden by the ridges here. |
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| The Quarry Trail |
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| The left fork is City Creek trail. When the light faded on that, Tortoise then walked on the trail adjoining Red Cliffs Parkway as far as the Owen's Loop trail junction. Lou is looking forward to walking it one day before too long. |
Today's walks totalled 3.22 miles. They had an average 3.4 tortoise rating earned by climbing 455 feet in the 1.61 mile uphill portion. Average elevation was 3129. This walk burned 505 calories. It was Tortoise's fortieth 5k walk of 2016.
Here are the overall stats so far for 2016:
249.08 miles walked, compared with Lou's goal for this date of 257.96 miles.
17,891 total feet climbed so far in 2016, compared to a year-to-date goal of 15,876. Lou hopes to climb more than the 61,316 feet he climbed in 2015 -- but in 16 minutes less each day than his 1:07:04 hour average in 2015. So far in 2016 Tortoise's walks have averaged 50:37 minutes each.
His average pace so far in 2016 has been 16:28 minutes per mile, slightly more tortoise like than his goal of 16:05 minutes per mile, but a noticeable difference from his 18:25 minute per mile pace in 2015.
Lou has walked 282 consecutive non-Sundays since his 8 missed days May 2-11, Overall he has walked on 385 of the 394 non-Sundays in 2015-16, a 97.72% consistency rating.
One step at a time can lead to great things!
And now for today's walking thought ...
"As I stood at the front door of Aunt Carol's house, I wanted to shrink away. The door opened--I stood there like a scared rabbit--and Aunt Carol, without a word, reached out and took me into her arms. She, who had no children of her own, knew--her nurturing heart knew--that I needed a place to belong. Oh, the comfort and sweetness of that moment! My fear melted, and there came to me a sense of being anchored to a spiritually safe place.
"Love is making space in your life for someone else, as Aunt Carol did for me."
The tortoise is smiling!
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