Trails

 A big part of my summer is hiking or running in general.  It's probably the best part of summer.  I get to hang out with my friends, get exercise and feel strong, and enjoy the amazing healing power of being in the mountains.  

This year I went all in with Jen and the Lost Souls Challenge.  The idea is to hike 50 trails/routes in 100 days.  That sounds kind of crazy, huh?  It is.  But some of the routes are short and you can do multiple in one day.  And I often run 4-5 days a week anyway, so it wasn't that hard.  The hard part was trying to do all the weird routes that Dan Beck chose and still fit in some fun routes that I wanted to do.  I ended up with over 50 total because I counted my marathon, my Spartan, the run from Spudman, and a good amount of the other bucket list trails I did this summer.  Here's a few worth noting.

June

Bear Creek Hot Springs- there's something about hiking to a natural hot springs or water fall that I am very much drawn to.  This was a gorgeous hike and I'm honestly surprised it's not more popular in the area.  There are over a dozen river crossings, one large hill near the end where the mosquitoes come out and try to eat you alive, and the hot pool is a little sketchy looking.  But it was still really cool and I want to go back.

Sheep Creek- this one is part of the palisades trail system and I've heard about it a few times.  I have wanted to do it, but it was rough.  There was MASSIVE avalanche damage.  Over a mile of hiking on downed trees and branches and pines.  And there was snow too.  It was quite steep and I was having a hard time catching my breath with the altitude I guess.  And Sherri and I had planned to loop to Little Elk Creek so we drove two cars and dropped one, but then Sherri left her keys in my car so that didn't work.  At least she realized before we got down the other side.  And honestly, I was so dead when we turned around, I was happy to call it.  We hadn't connected to the other trails yet and I didn't know how much further it was but I was ready to go downhill.  Down was much better.

That night Jen and I joined the ladies group run to do something at Kepp's.  I was nervous I would be beat but I felt pretty good.  And it was a short route. But we got a cool pic!

Part of the reason I was able to get all my routes is because instead of going for a run on my regular routes, I would find a Lost Souls route not too far away and go run that instead.  This one is called Buck Road and it seemed like a good idea but it was pretty brutal.  Rolling hills but mostly uphill for three miles, then back down was more fun but I was so beat it was hard.

Sometimes it was hard to get friends to come on these weird routes with us.  But sometimes they would.  This was Little Kelly's.  It was cool, but the cows are somewhat unnerving at times.

July

Fall Creek area- some trails are dumber than others.  Most of them are just fine.  Little Currant was just dumb.  I really should read the other comments before we head out on a trail.  But this was not really a trail, just kind of.  And there was stinging nettle everywhere! Ugh!  We managed to avoid it for the most part, Sherri stayed in front and stomped down all that she saw.  We survived somehow, and the run down the other side was much better (pictured)

Alaska Basin loop- this was a big bucket list one.  Sherri was the main one that wanted to do this but she bailed because she was having problems with a muscle in her calf and she was nervous.  It was really, really cool.  And really long.  17 miles is just long.  And I think it was closer to 18 actually.  The last few miles are mostly flat so I was running just to get done because I was beat.  I got going a little fast and I fell SO HARD right on a huge rock.  It was ugly.  I didn't even see it coming.  The ground was just suddenly at my face and I threw my hands down.  My hip and hands took the brunt of it.  I had some scrapes on my knee and down my leg.  I got up and started running again, but there was some real pain in my hip that I knew was going to last for awhile.  My hands were very bruised as well.  My concern was I had a Spartan race a week later and I really needed my hands!  It worked out fine.  There must've been some good internal bruising on my hip/side though because it hurt to run, and it hurt to try and use that oblique muscle.  The palms of my hands hurt for weeks!  But I mostly used my fingers and upper hand at the Spartan.

Menan Butte- I've always had a bad attitude about Menan Butte.  I had heard it's super hot and exposed and just rocks and sand so it's not pretty.  But being someone who hikes in this area, I knew I needed to do it eventually.  I think it was one of the routes, so we headed out early one morning.  And it was really cool!  Yes, you are hiking on lava rock, so it's not forest like I prefer, but it was cool!  And the views were amazing.

August

Seems like we saved all the epic hikes for August.  Which is good because I was conditioned for the altitude and the distance.  This one however, was supposed to be an easy canal run with the ladies group but turned into a full downpour and risk of lightning strike.  Most of the girls bailed when it really started pouring, but Jen and I are not always that sensible.  Plus, one other girl had already taken off on her own and we didn't feel good leaving her alone.  So we followed her and finished the route, even though we had to wait out the lightning a little.  We survived and have never been more wet on a run.

Waterfall Canyon- I finally got to see the waterfall!  We started up Little Elk Creek, which is actually super steep and not much fun.  I mean, it's fine and pretty and all, but so much climbing!  And I saw a dead horse in a dry creek bed which was super disturbing (there was some debate about whether it was a horse or an elk later, but I am pretty darn sure it was a horse).  And we were trying to hurry because Jen was short on time and I was the only slow one in the group because I brought all my super fit friends, ugh!  And Mike wanted to go up to Mt Baird so Jen decided not to do the loop and instead go with Mike to Mt Baird and then head back down and Mike planned to catch up to us.  But we never saw Mike again even though we took our time.  He has some issues with his feet so he probably went slower than he had planned.  And we did hear from Takara later that she found him so he's fine.  But we had a lot of fun once we got to the top and could start heading back down.  The waterfall was really cool (though a couple of them got into stinging nettle).  It was the first time I have swam in the lake (upper, lower is kinda dirty looking).  We were definitely warm when we got to the lake.  I used my filter to fill our waters and we all took a dip.  Jenny F and Takara were a lot tougher than Jenny S and myself.  We were only in for a minute, but the other two swam to the island.  It only took a couple minutes of hiking again for me to wish I had just gotten my hair and shirt wet because I got hot again...  About 2 miles before the end, Jenny F twisted her ankle somehow and something popped and her foot immediately swelled up.  She's tough as nails so she was able to keep walking on it, but she popped four ibuprofen from my pack and we were done running after that.  She did really well until the last half mile or so I could tell she was in a lot of pain.  I felt really bad but I was glad she got out on her own and we didn't have to half-carry her.  Sherri really wanted to do this one too but I can't remember why she didn't come.  I'm sure she had something going on.

Delta Lake- just breathtaking. I didn't organize this one, just came along for the ride.  It was a fun group and this year was much easier than last year.  Whether that's because I knew what to expect this time or it was a shorter route up, I don't know.  But it was fun.  No running on this one though.

And the big one we planned all summer for- Paintbrush Divide and Cascade Canyon!  This was supposed to be 20+ miles, though I think it was 19 according to my watch.  And my watch was the only one that didn't die, so we had to go by it even though it's usually lower mileage than the others.  This one was really cool!  We were bummed it was quite smoky though.  Kariesa had spent a couple weeks in New Jersey so she was less prepared for the altitude.  And Sherri had missed the other two long hikes I had done so I was worried about her and distance.  It was a nice change to have Kariesa wanting a break when I didn't nee one, lol.  She's a beast.  But by the last few miles I was so ready to be done.  I wanted to run just to get it over with but nobody else seemed to want to.  Kariesa said that Jared and his brother would run if we wanted to, but she never started running when she was in front, so whatever.  It was really cool to be up at the top, surrounded by the peaks of all these teton mountains.  But we were also happy to start heading down towards Lake Solitude and Cascade Canyon too.  It's so pretty.  And we hiked along Jenny Lake to get back to String Lake where we parked.  String Lake is so pretty.  It's all just amazingly beautiful.  It was a really great hike, and really hard.

The Lost Souls Challenge was something fun to break up the monotony of regular workouts during the summer, but it was hard too.  There were some trails that were just hard and not much fun, like all the dirt roads we had to run.  Jen and I spent a long morning dropping a car in Firth, then driving back to south Ammon road to run 4 or 5 routes, just on a dirt road for like 14 miles.  Jen handles the miles easily, even multiple days in a row, but it wears on me.  I was beat.  But we got a lot of routes done that day!  I only got lost like 5 times, but usually we found where we needed to be.  I think I only failed completely a couple times.