This is the closet for the shoulder-season dawn: high-country dirt that froze overnight, a short-to-medium loop, and a start that feels colder than the forecast. Not snow, not an all-day winter epic — just frost on the trail and a temperature that climbs while you run. Flagstaff’s Schultz Creek Trail off Schultz Pass Road, or Salt Lake City’s Bonneville Shoreline Trail on the Wasatch bench.
The thesis is grip and layers you can peel. A Merrell Agility Peak 6 on Vibram Megagrip for the glazed hardpack, Kahtoola NANOspikes in a pocket for the shaded ice, a 116-gram Rab Phantom shell for the first miles, and a Janji Trail Tight with a pass-thru pocket to stash it. On the wrist, a Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED you can work with buttons through liner gloves, and an Oris Big Crown Pointer Date — the crown built for gloved hands.
Note.
Confirm current pricing at the retailer. Airport temperatures are not trailhead temperatures — canyon bottoms and shaded north sides hold frost longest. Frost melts to slick mud fast once the sun hits it; slow down on the descents. Schultz Creek is shared with mountain bikes and horses. Links go to the brand + model when available.
iRunFar · Nov 3, 2016
Twenty minutes in, the heat comes
“Twenty minutes in. The heat is coming. I can feel all 10 fingers and toes.”
iRunFar — Get In The Winter Running Game (Rhielle Widders)
Widders’ column follows three trail runners through three winter climates. The Ann Arbor runner is out before dawn, “running over these icy, rooted trails,” with a reminder that fits glazed dirt anywhere: “Look down, watch my feet, where they land.” The run ends on the Huron River, “taking in the crack of dawn so I can look over the frosted landscape.”
The Seattle runner brings the layering rule: “I like lots of light, thin layers,” plus a jacket “that is lighter than a feather and packs into its own pocket.” The Salt Lake runner’s morning is a powder day in MICROspikes — that one belongs to the snow kit — but her pacing rule travels, and it is on the Watch Desk below.
Read iRunFar on winter running
From the field
Dress for mile three, not the parking lot. Outside’s winter-tights test found the Janji Trail Tight had “enough warmth for temperatures down to freezing,” yet “they stayed comfortable when temps climbed into the 50s.” Widders’ Ann Arbor runner puts the rule in one line: “Cover the important stuff up, let everything else breathe and ventilate to maintain temperature.”
Outside · winter running tights
Arizona · Flagstaff / Coconino National Forest
Schultz Creek Trail No. 152
“This area, located just outside Flagstaff city limits, is a highly desired location for runners, hikers, cyclists and horseback riders.”
USDA Forest Service — Schultz Creek Trail No. 152
The Forest Service lists it as moderate: 4.5 miles one way from a trailhead at 7,201 feet, with 916 feet of change. It starts at “The Y,” about three miles north of town via Fort Valley Road (US 180) and Schultz Pass Road, and the newer Schultz Creek Loops add 7.7 miles of singletrack. For timing, Flagstaff Pulliam Airport records from 1950–2013, compiled by Dan Stewart for the Garden in Flagstaff site, put the average first fall frost (32°F) on September 24 and the first freeze (28°F) on October 5. The same summary notes freezing temperatures “have been recorded in every month of the year for the Flagstaff area.”
Coconino NF · Schultz Creek Trail ·
Flagstaff freeze & frost summary
Utah · Salt Lake City / Wasatch foothills
Bonneville Shoreline Trail
“Stretching from North Salt Lake to Parley’s Canyon, Salt Lake City’s portion of the BST is a 13.5-mile trail that provides unparalleled views of the Salt Lake Valley.”
Salt Lake City Parks — Bonneville Shoreline Trail
The elsewhere twin. The City says the trail was conceived in 1990 and follows the bench of ancient Lake Bonneville above the valley. It is also where Widders’ Salt Lake runner parks for her dawn run in the iRunFar column — “Twenty-two degrees Fahrenheit feels colder now than when I left the house.” Her morning had fresh snow; on the dry, cold dawns, the same trailhead is this kit.
SLC Parks · Bonneville Shoreline Trail ·
iRunFar · winter running
Smartwatch + Analog
Watch Desk
Two lanes on the wrist, both picked for cold hands. A Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED — buttons, not a touchscreen, with a flashlight in the case — for the mornings you want data. An Oris Big Crown Pointer Date for the mornings you want to start slow and leave the numbers alone.
Smartwatch · glove-friendly buttons
Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED
Five-button rugged GPS watch with an AMOLED display and a built-in LED flashlight. Garmin says it is “built to MIL-STD 810 for thermal and shock resistance and is water-rated to 100 meters,” and the flashlight “provides variable intensities, a red light and strobe mode.” Photographed: 45 mm, Black with black band.
Tom’s Guide’s Dan Bracaglia: “For cold-weather sports enthusiasts, the buttons are grippy and large enough to use with gloves on.”
Dan Bracaglia — Tom’s Guide, Garmin Instinct 3 · updated Jun 25, 2026
Why Instinct here: No touchscreen to fight through a liner glove, and a torch on the wrist for the dark trailhead. Honest caveat from Android Authority’s Ryan Haines: the buttons are “almost flush with the frame,” and that problem doesn’t “exactly go away when I’m trying to do so in thick gloves.” He also flags no downloadable maps — fine for a known loop like Schultz Creek, less so on new ground.
Ryan Haines — Android Authority, Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED review · Jan 28, 2025
Analog · big crown
Oris Big Crown Pointer Date
~$2,400 · ref. 01 754 7798 4064-07 8 20 06 · steel bracelet ·
Buy at Oris40 mm stainless steel, sapphire domed on both sides, Oris Calibre 754 automatic with a 41-hour power reserve, 5 bar water resistance, oversized screw-in crown, and a blue pointer-date hand on a black dial. Photographed: black dial on the steel H-link bracelet.
Oris: “We created it for gloved airmen in 1938, since when it’s proved the eternal value of great design.”
Oris — Big Crown Pointer Date 01 754 7798 4064-07 8 20 06
Why go analog on a frost morning: Widders’ Salt Lake runner: “In the cold months, I start extra slow. I even make a commitment not to look at my watch until two miles into the run.” Note the time at the car, push the sleeve down, and let the hands tell you when the sun should be on the ridge. A crown designed for gloves is the one you can actually set at 30°F. Steel on a bare wrist at freezing is cold — Oris also sells textile straps.
Rhielle Widders — iRunFar, Get In The Winter Running Game · Nov 3, 2016
Pair them. Instinct on the workout mornings or when it is still dark — flashlight at the trailhead, buttons through the gloves. Oris on the slow mornings, when the run is about watching the frost burn off. Rab even cut the Phantom’s cuffs with “enough stretch to vent your forearms and access your sports watch.”
Some buy links are affiliate. We may earn a commission. The price you pay does not change. Gear stays on the kit only if it survives the job. Full disclosure → /disclosure
Merrell
Agility Peak 6 — Vibram Megagrip and Traction Lugs on every lug.
merrell.comRab
Phantom — a 116-gram waterproof that packs into its own hood.
rab.equipmentJanji
Trail Tight — seven pockets and a 25–45°F rating.
janji.comKahtoola
NANOspikes — low-profile tungsten carbide for the glazed stretch.
kahtoola.comGarmin
Instinct 3 AMOLED — five buttons, a flashlight, no touchscreen to fight.
garmin.comOris
Big Crown Pointer Date — the oversized crown, first made for gloved pilots.
oris.ch
Believe in the Run · 2026
The grippiest outsole
Taylor Bodin called the Agility Peak 6’s Megagrip “the grippiest outsole I have ever experienced” — and the foam a step back.
Advnture · Sep 2025
Barely there
Julia Clarke on the Rab Phantom: “I don't even notice it when I'm running.” Drizzle and hard efforts, yes; a deluge, no.
Outside · Mar 2026
Freezing to fifty
Outside’s winter-tights test named the Janji Trail Tight best for winter trail running — warm at freezing, still comfortable in the 50s.
