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The terrain here in Utah is mountainous. Sure, there are valleys, but they are filled with towns and highways. There are, of course, miles upon miles of hiking trails, but most are too steep for running. Finding a trail to run for three hours on was a real challenge. But I found one.
Dry Canyon is southeast of Heber City along U.S. Highway 40, which goes due east to Colorado and beyond. Supposedly, this highway used to be the main east-west highway across the country until the interstates were built.
The canyon is indeed dry, but not any drier than the rest of the canyons here. It is located inside the Uinta National Forest, so I thought that the only things that I would encounter would be deer, people hunting deer, grouse, people hunting grouse, bears, and people running away from bears. I didn’t encounter any hunters…
I was running up this canyon underneath some pretty ominous rain clouds. I hadn’t heard or seen any lightning, and since I was down in a canyon, I felt sheltered from the weather. If there were to be a flash flood, then there were rocks higher up the canyon walls to which I could climb and wait.
After I reached the top of the canyon, on a trail, of course, I was on a ridgeline, but still in an aspen-pine forest. On the way up through the canyon, I had been spooked by a dozen grouse. On the ridge, I was spooked by two deer hurdling through the woods.
About five minutes later, I saw a brown figure in the distance in between the trees. It looked like, whatever it was, it was grazing. I couldn’t see its head, but the first thought that crossed my mind was that there was a bear fifty feet away. It hadn’t seen me, yet, so I certainly had time to back away. I decided to try to see what it was.
It turned out to be a cow. Still, I was a bit confused. I have never seen cows grazing in a forest before. Would it charge me if I got to close? (It was on the trail, so I would have to walk past it.) What does one do around cows? It turned out that at first, a cow tries to scare you by making its eyes really wide. Then, it makes a face that says, “Don’t hurt me, I’m just a cow.” Finally, after realizing I was still moving closer, it looked to the other cows, and they collectively stormed out of the forest in the opposite direction. (Cows are group animals, I guess).
When I had hiked along the ridge to a large clearing – I hate to call it a field because nothing was growing in it – I saw three of the cows huddled together in a circle, looking at me. I have heard of bulls charging people and killing them – bring up an image of the Pamplona bull runs. Were these cows planning something?
Fortunately, they were not. I walked into the clearing, keeping a watchful eye out for a large tree that I could run to and stand behind. They seemed convinced that I was just another hiker walking along the trail, and turned away to go eat more grass.
Peace,
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