April Runs

Trail of Bones:

We kicked off a month of running on the Trail of Bones. Always fun in this area!

Lots of dead things along the way.

Pretty views.

Way above Willow Creek.

We always see lots of cute friends on this run!

Wolf Flats:

Jenn, Mat, Mark, and I did a social distanced run through Wolf Flats. We started at Stinking Springs and ran down the dirt road along the river for 7 miles, then turned around and headed back. We started just as the sun was coming up, so we got a nice sunrise over the water. It was a beautiful run, and we saw two moose in the water on the way back to make it even better.

The sun starting to rise.

So pretty!

We had the road pretty much to ourselves. I'm glad we did this one early in the season, because that road becomes like a highway in late spring and summer.

Big kitty tracks!

Selfie!

A picture with the moose in the water behind us.

Those two brown dots in the water are moose!

They got out of the water as we went by. The baby is peeking over the bushes.

Trail of Bones:

We have been enjoying the trail of Bones in the evenings. We have even gone out there to walk a few times. We always get great sunsets at the end of our runs and walks.

Wilson Run:

Since we're supposed to be running solo, Josh, from IFTR, issued us a Wilson Challenge. We all made our own Wilson's to take on a run with us. There were some hilarious pictures and videos. Luckily for us, we have other runners under our roof, so we don't always have to be alone. We jumped on the Wilson bandwagon anyways, and brought ours to a stadium workout with us.

Mine looks just like the original Wilson, but Mark and Bailey went a different route.

Over The Top Course:

We still have lots of snow in our mountains, so we've taken several trips to the Pocatello trails, and really love running down there. We decided to run a version of the Over the Top course. We did one loop in reverse, but think we did the rest correctly. Fun trail! It was 16.4 miles, because I dropped my phone towards the end of the run, and we had to go back up the trail to find it. Luckily someone had picked it up, so when Mark called it, they answered and told us they were heading down the trail in our direction. Whew, that was stressful!

Jenn-Tricia-Mark-Steph-Steph's sister in law

It was very windy on the ridge! My hat had just blown off, but luckily Mark got it back for me.

At the top, and ready to head down the fun part.

This park of the trail was really cool.

Blackfoot River Road:

We tried out a new area and it was great. This run had the cutest baby cows, lots of deer, fun down hill running, and an amazing sunset. 

So cute!

The good part about waiting till the evenings to do our runs, is that the Idaho sunsets never disappoint.

Upper Palisades Lake:

Mark, Steph, and I did our long run of the week to Upper Palisades Lake. It was quite an adventure. On the way up we came across a moose. He could care less that we were there, so we went right on by him. We took a few pictures, and named him Hammy. We see moose up there all the time, and I think they are so accustomed to people, that they usually just stay put eating, or mosey off. We had a great rest of the run. It was a beautiful day, we made it to the lake, and then headed back down. Hammy was still in the exact same spot on our way back. We grouped back up, got our bear spray out, and started walking past him. This time he put his ears back and charged us! Holy cow, it was scary! We're wondering if he was injured, because he seemed to be moving a little sluggish. We gave him his space, and he walked right onto the trail and wouldn't budge! We had no way to get past him. We tried blowing our whistles, clapping, making lots of noise, but he wasn't about to move. He eventually walked slowly up the trail, but wouldn't get off of it. Hammy turned into a total brat! He eventually went into the water, but that was still right next to the trail, so we didn't dare try to pass him. It took us over 30 minutes to finally get by him. He went downstream, and we found a good place to run by. Even with that, he saw us and got out of the water and started following us down the trail. We warned the other hikers about him, and let everyone know to be on the lookout. Man, I've had my fair share of moose encounters in the past year! I've gotten too up close and personal several times. Luckily this was the only mean one! Despite Hammy, it was an awesome 17 mile day.

Hammy the unfriendly moose!

The Lower Lake

We never get tired of this trail!

So pretty!

Me and Steph

We had to go across a few sketchy snow places.

The upper lake still nice and frozen.

Some areas of the trail need a little work after the winter.

Don't be fooled by his cute face; he was a total brat!

Bad Hammy!

Tex Creek Cairn:

A few of us did an early morning run out to the Tex Creek Cairn. The Cairn is huge! We did some other fun exploring while we were out there too. I can't wait to take Mark, but I'm a little scared of rattle snakes, and ticks, because you have to go off trail to get to it.

Jenn-Carney-Dan-Tricia

Sunrise Butte:

Nate planned a sunrise Butte run, and it was awesome. I've done the butte a ton of times, but never early enough for the sunrise. So worth getting up early for! We did 6.5 miles, and I found a couple new trails that I really liked.

I love the silhouette of the Tetons as the sun is starting to come up.

This is my favorite picture from the run! So pretty!

We got to see some deer too.

Earth Day Plogging:

My friend, Veronika, single handedly planned almost all of the earth day events for Idaho Falls. She had worked on them for a long time, and then Covid-19 hit. Her community plans had to get switched up a little bit. She still had a plogging event, but now we needed to do it solo. Mark, Bailey, and I went out to the Taylor Creek area. SO MUCH TRASH! We only covered about a mile along the dirt road and filled 7 garbage bags! The IFTR women had cleaned this same area at the end of the summer last year too. I wish people could just be more respectful and clean up after themselves.

Seven bags of trash, plus lots of other stuff!

This section of the road looks so much better now!

Gibson Jack-Elk Meadows-Slate Mountain:

Our long Saturday run took us back down to Pocatello for a twenty miler. Mark, Steph, and I did a cool loop that someone suggested to us, and loved it. We hit some snow on the first half, and that slowed us down a bit, but the trail was awesome! So fun finding new places to go!

Going up the Gibson Jack trail.

This is where we hit the snow, and we had plenty for quite a few miles.

We also followed big cat tracks for a good portion of one of the trails. They were pretty fresh, so I was a little freaked out.

Such pretty views all around us.

Starting up the Slate Mountain section.

This was a pretty big climb.

Coming down Slate Mountain was my favorite part of the run. Cool trail along the side of the mountains, and great views all around us.

Tricia-Steph-Mark

Foothills:

I crashed the early morning INL group run. Jenn, Juan, Luna, and I did a run in the foothills. We started out in the dark with our headlamps, watched the sun come up, and even saw a moose.

Jenn-Tricia-Juan-Luna

Trail of Bones:

Bailey was finally cleared to run on trails! Whahooo! They had never done the Trail of Bones, so we took them out there for her first trail run since her shoulder surgery. Bailey came upstairs and Mason came downstairs, and they were dressed pretty close to the same. So, Bailey went back downstairs to change her shirt, so they would match even better. Hahahaha, total dork! Fun run, and even without training for a long time, they left us in the dust.

Trail of Bones marker.

Overlooking Willowcreek.

Right after I took this picture, they both took off, and ran the last two miles really fast.

April was a weird month for running. Our Spitfire race was postponed until the fall, and the Cold Water Traverse was canceled until next year. All the organized group runs were canceled, which was a bummer. We still got together to do smaller groups, and I'm really glad, or I may have gone crazy. Covering the amount of miles that we do, especially on weekends, is so much better with friends. I hope things start to get better in May.