Sacramento Pass 5K - Weaver Creek Trail

I've had a sore knee, so I've been walking more than running lately, and during Christmas break I wanted a longer walk. I also wanted to be away from the highway (near where I live, many of the loops I do include a highway section, and the dogs make me uneasy near the highway) and not in much snow. So what better place than the Sacramento Pass Recreational Area trails? 

I've done a post of the lovely 7-mile Sac Pass loop. And that's what I was originally intending to do. But then I didn't have as much time as I needed and somehow ended up on a dirt road heading up the country. I was surprised to see this trail marker, mile 1 for the Weaver Creek trail.

Upon arriving home, I looked it up, and found vague references to this trail, including on the BLM website and this horse-riding blog. Apparently it's a 6-mile trail that leads into Great Basin National Park (I'm guessing the Strawberry Creek area, but I couldn't tell from Google Earth). I will have to investigate sometime.

For this trip, I continued until I reached a four-way intersection along a fenceline. Apparently the Weaver Creek trail continues up hill, but I was ready to make a loop, so I turned right.

This is where it got fun. There were three ups and downs crossing small drainages.

One had a little snow, but fortunately nothing I couldn't handle!

When I got to the next intersection, I turned right. I had lovely views of the North Snake Range. I wish we had more snow up in the mountains, it's looking so very dry for the end of December.

Eventually I could see the upper part of the Sac Pass Rec Area camping (4 designated sites in the upper area, plus equestrian amenities). 

It turned out that the loop was about 3 miles or 5km. It was such a lovely 5k, and just what I needed, simple beauty and an easy-to-follow path so my mind could work on sorting itself out. I need these little explorations to both relax and rejuvenate. I'm excited that there are so many other roads in the area to explore, I have a feeling I'll be back in this area soon!

Red shows the designated Sac Pass trails, orange shows the 5k route I took. Highway 6/50 is in the upper part of the image and Weaver Creek (often dry) is the green line at the bottom part of the image.

I'm hoping you're able to enjoy some post-Christmas outside time!