Lost Souls Challenge

Dan Beck created the coolest running/hiking challenge for Eastern Idaho. Mark and I signed up for the Lost Souls Challenge. We had 100 days to complete a list of 50 routes in 10 different areas. There were 11 areas total, but we could leave one area out. We were all part of a Facebook group to keep track of the routes we had finished, and to create group runs if we didn't want to do them by ourselves. So fun! Whoever completed all 50 routes first, would be the King/Queen of the Lost Souls. Dan would post weekly updates on how everyone was doing, with a list of the routes each person had completed. He would also hide an immunity idol in one of the areas every couple weeks, and then give a different clue as to where it was each day until someone found it. Whoever found the idol could use it to count for any route of their choice without having to run/hike that route. We loved trying to find the idols! The whole thing was super cool!

Mark and I completed the 50 routes together, and we did it really fast, so we were named the King and Queen of the Lost Souls. We finished in 24 days! 👊 It probably wasn't our smartest idea, since it started the same week as our PUTS 50K. Instead of having a recovery week after, we went on to get 3 more weeks of 70-80 plus miles. 😳 My back was on the verge of a disc rupturing by the end, so I had to mostly hike the last few routes. Then we both took a week off to recover. We had so much fun! I hear a winter challenge is in the works, and I'm so excited about it. Mark says we can't try to win anymore though. Party pooper! 😆

AREAS & ROUTES:

Unit 1: Kelly Canyon

(Kelly Mountain Loop, Lookout Mountain, Sidewinder, Little Kelly Canyon, Buckskin Morgan)

Unit 2: Palisades

(South Indian Creek, North Indian Creek, Trail to Quaker Flats, Big Elk, Palisades Creek)

Unit 3: Volcanoes

(Lava Trail Loop, Lava Trail Out & Back, Horse with no Name, Butte Face, Butte Rim)

Unit 4: Tex Creek

(Mt. Baldy, Old Tex, Old Meadow, Trail of Bones, Dragon's Back)

Unit 5: Wolverine

(Narrows & Nasty Little Secrets, Taylor Mt. Peak, Double W Divide, 40 Horse Cave & Dirty Little Secret, Taylor Creek Old Road, Firth River Bottom (Bonus Route))

Unit 6: Fall Creek & Antelope Flats

(Point Lookout, Porcupine Ridge, South Fork of Fall Creek, Echo Canyon, Fisher Bottom)

Unit 7: Pocatello

(Lower City Creek, West Fork of Mink Creek, Gibson Creek, Gibson Peak, Kinport Peak, Scout Mountain  (Bonus Route))

Unit 8: Taylor Mountain Dirt Roads

(Taylor Creek Rd., Taylor Mt. Rd., Trail Hollow Rd., Henry Creek Rd., Henry Canyon Rd.)

Unit 9: Foothills Paved Roads

(Sunnyside, Lincoln-Bone, Foothill & The Rims, Sagewood & 65th, Blackhawk Hill)

Unit 10: Idaho Falls Greenbelt & Canal Paths

(Greenbelt South, Snake River Landing, Idaho Canal, Greenbelt North, Greenbelt Middle)

Unit 11: Idaho Falls Parks

(Sandy Downs, Tautphaus Park, Heritage/Ryder Park, Community Park, Freeman Park)

The area we chose to leave out for the contest was Pocatello, but we're still going to go down and do all the routes. 

Kick Off Run:

July 15th was the start date, so Dan organized an early morning kick off run. We did Trail of Bones & Dragon's Back. Over 20 people showed up, so that's super awesome!

Beautiful sunrise going up Trail of Bones!

Mark rarely gets to come on the early morning runs, but he made it for this one. Yay!

There was a nice, sleeping rattlesnake after we went through the crack. Josh got it off the 'trail' and made sure everyone got by it.

Creek crossing! Stacy said she'd make a treat for anyone who sat in the creek. Ummm, okay! Jeff and I sat in it, and she made us yummy treats!

This is my favorite picture! I think the end of Dan's 'trail' could use some work. So funny!

Next we did Freeman Park and Community Park as easy pre PUTS runs.

Community Park

Next was Heritage/Ryder Park.

Heritage Park

We brought the pups with us to do the middle section of the Greenbelt. They love going on field trips!

The Greenbelts with our cute pups.

I love their cute, happy faces! 💙

PUTS time! As hard as this 50K was, it got us three routes! It got us Trail to Quaker Flats, North Indian Creek, and Big Elk Creek.

I already blogged about PUTS as a separate post, but I added this picture so I'd know which routes it counted for.

We went up the day after PUTS and did a nice easy recovery hike with the dogs on the Palisades Creek route. They love coming with us on the easy ones. They're too old to go far now.

Palisades Creek Trail

Before we realized it, we had our first 10 routes done in under a week. At this point, we weren't trying to win, but this is when we got the idea in our heads that maybe we could.

The Women's Run covered the Buckskin Morgan route.

We had a huge group on this night!

Mark and I would meet for his lunch break and walk the short greenbelt routes, and then run a route together in the evenings. On this day, we walked the North Greenbelt route, and then ran the Idaho Canal route that evening.

North Greenbelt

Dan's early morning run covered the Horse with no Name route, so a few of us decided to meet extra early and bust out the two Butte routes as well. Then later that day, I went and did Tautphaus Park. That's 4 routes in one day! 👏

Sometimes it's hard to get up early, but a good sunrise from the Butte makes it worth it.

The old lava house on the Horse with no Name route.

The volcano looked like it was erupting with the sun coming up over it.

It's always more fun to get the routes done with a group.

Tautphaus Park was fun, because we run by the backside of the zoo. I stopped to say hi to the camels.

 

Camels!

These guys just wander around the zoo.

We got 3 routes done the next day too! I met Mark for lunch again to walk Snake River Landing, and then that evening, we ran two of the dirt road routes. We did two dirt road routes, because we knew there was an idol hidden on one of the dirt roads. I was pretty sure I knew what route it was on, and we had that one scheduled the next day with some friends, so we decided to do a couple to eliminate them.

Snake River landing

Henry Canyon Road. No idol, but we found this poor guy.

Henry Creek Road. No idol here either. 

That gave us 20 routes, and kept us in the lead by a good margin. 

We met Jenn and Steph early the next morning to do Trail Hollow road. This was the longest one in the dirt road section, and I was pretty sure the idol was hidden here. I thought for sure it would be on an old mattress, and I was shocked when it wasn't there. Don't worry, we still found it at the turn around point, under a cattle guard!

Trail Hollow Road early in the morning gives an amazing sunrise over the Tetons!

The turn around point.

 

Yay, we found the idol!

That afternoon, we took the dogs to do the South Greenbelt route.

Reeses and Oreo are loving the challenge!

On Saturday we organized a group run to do the Lava Trail Loop and the Lava Trail Out & Back. Most people had never done it before, and we figured it would be a long trek over lava rock for 10 miles, so it would be a lot more fun with friends....and it was! It was like a 'chose your own adventure' course!

Getting ready to start to long trek through the lava field.

We had a great sunrise.

So pretty!

A picture at the turn around point.

The whole group gathered around the poles we had to find and follow for 10 miles.

 

We had to cross big crevices like this. Those aren't easy for my short legs to jump over! 

We had to be careful not to fall in any holes!

This is where we started to get a little crazy! We had already covered 10 miles in the lava fields that morning, but we decided to drive out and get some of the Tex Creek ones done. It's a longer drive to those ones, so we wanted to do them on a weekend when Mark was home. That gave us 4 routes for the day, and two of them were in the 90 plus degree range. We did Old Meadow, and Old Tex.

The view from the start of Old Meadow. If you look closely, you can see the little rock house we have to run down to.

We made it to the house!

Don't let our smiles fool you....we were scared of snakes, and wanted to get the heck out of there! The trail was really overgrown when we did it, so you couldn't see where you were putting your feet. Mark went in the front and poked the ground with his trekking poles the whole way.

Then we found these tracks, and were praying we didn't run into who they belonged to. 😳

We both really liked Old Tex. It's quite a drive to get to it though.

We had to make it to where the two creeks come together.

Pretty area. We want to go back in the spring.

Call me crazy, but I did 4 routes that Monday too! Who knew that I had this competitive spirit in me?!? I walked two of the foothill paved roads in the morning. I did Blackhawk Hill, and Sagewood and 65th. I liked them both!

I made this cute friend on the Sagewood route. He loved me! 😊

 

That night for the Women's Run, we covered Little Kelly Canyon.

Little Kelly's with my favorite running crew!

Right after the Women's run, Mark, Steph, and I hurried over to do Sidewinder before it got dark. We booked it back down the hill, and got to the parking lot right at dark. I didn't want to run fast down the hill because by this point my disc was giving me some trouble, but I also didn't want to use my headlamp. We were already getting swarmed by TONS of bugs, and I figured my light would make it worse.

Pretty sky!

Tricia and Steph
It was just starting to get dark at the top. We knew we'd have to hurry down.

Mark at the top.

That completes 30 routes! We were busting these things out so fast! Our bodies were starting to feel it though.

The next day we had another group run organized to get as many routes as possible completed in the Wolverine section. We ended up with a great group, and we got three routes done! Whahoo! We did Taylor Creek Old Road, 40 Horse Cave/Dirty Little Secrets, and Double W Divide.

We started with Taylor Creek Old Road. We decided to go the downhill direction, which was a good choice, because we had plenty of uphill in the other two routes. It's so pretty in this canyon!

Amanda-Sandy-Jenn-Cheryl-Steph-Fran-Tricia-Georgina-Charles-Mark

We had a good cloud day!

Next was the 40 Horse Cave/Dirty Little Secret. This was a fun one! I've been wanting to go up to the caves since last year.

40 Horse Cave!

I love this picture! It looks so cool!

The whole crew in the cave.

The view from Dirty Little Secrets was amazing!

Everyone made it up. It was a good climb. 

On the way down Dirty Little Secret, I felt stuff squeeze out of my disc. Not good! I could tell it wasn't a bad rupture, but enough to have me really worried. It had been on edge for about a week. I just walked the next route, which is fine, because it was 4 miles uphill. It was the Double W Divide.

This route followed the dirt road all the way up the canyon. I liked it!

We made it!

Some people were gonna be done after the second route, but everyone ended up finishing all three of them. Yay!

The next morning was the IFTR early morning group run. We got the Taylor Mountain dirt road done, and a few of us stayed and did Taylor Creek dirt road after that.

Crazy as it sounds, I actually love starting early when it's still dark outside, and running by headlamp.

The turn around point for Taylor Mountain Road.

I love this area!

Taylor Creek Road was stunning on this morning.

Beautiful wheat fields and an awesome sky.

The turn around point.

On Thursday, July 30, we headed out to go camping up Rainy Creek. I decided to walk a route in the morning before we left. I took it easy, because I knew we would be getting a lot of mileage and routes done over the weekend. I did Foothill & Rim.

We drove to Rainy Creek, set up camp, and had just enough daylight to do the Fisher Bottom Route. We loved this one! Cool old homestead that we didn't know was there. 

There were two sections to the Fisher Bottom route. This path took us to the river.

The other path took us to the old Fisher Homestead. Really cool place.

Friday morning we got up and planned to get a whole unit done. We camped in Rainy Creek, because we knew it was close to the Antelope Flat/Fall Creek Unit. We met Steph, and got to work! We got 4 routes done, and covered 25 miles. It was 96 degrees on our last two routes. We knew most sane people wouldn't be out in that kind of heat doing routes, so this is the weekend that kind of sealed the deal for us.

Our first route was Echo Canyon, and we loved it! We will go back and make a bigger loop of that one for sure.

Lots of fun cows on this route.

We made it to the Cairn!

Great views from the top.

The next one was the South Fork of Fall Creek. 

We followed this road along a creek, up the canyon.

Yellow and purple flowers all along the trail.

The turn around point at the creek crossing.

The third route was not our favorite. It was Porcupine Ridge. The only great thing it had going for it was it's name. It was scorching hot, very exposed, not as pretty, and didn't have a great destination. We suffered through it, and were glad when it was over.

Happy to be at the turn around point.

Steph had to leave to go to work, so it was just Mark and I for our last route. It was so hot, but we were determined to get it done. It was Point Lookout, and ended up being my favorite one in the whole unit. Beautiful trail, and stunning views at the destination. Loved it!

We wound up a hill on this pretty forest trail.

Tons of Indian Paintbrush along the way.

From the top you could see all of the Fall Creek area.

Happy that we were a few miles away from being done for the day.

The view the other direction on the way back down was amazing too.

41 routes done!

Since we were still camping, on Saturday we met Angie and Georgina to do the South Indian Creek route. Like usual, this trail didn't disappoint.

South Indian Creek

We found a rubber boa stretched out across the trail.

We moved him so he wouldn't get run over.

The purple and yellow flowers were everywhere along this trail too.

We couldn't believe how low the creek was compared to a couple weeks before.

On Sunday we took the pups to the Firth River Bottom for a recovery walk. They loved playing in the water. We couldn't bring them away from it, because the sandy paths burned their paws. We saw an eagle in the trees and then flying over the river.

They love the Lost Souls Challenge!

Reeses loved to get in where she couldn't touch, and swim against the current.

Oh, I love that sweet face! This was her favorite route!

Eagle in the tree!

Eagle flying over the river.

Mondays are the IFTR Women's Runs. I had already completed the Sidewinder route, and the women were doing that for a full moon run. I met Steph before that, so we could get Lookout Mountain done. I made it in time for the full moon run, and that was amazing! I blogged about that on a different post.

The Lookout Mountain view.

Sure glad I have this crazy friend of mine. 

On Tuesday, August 4th, Mark and I got up early to do the Lincoln/Bone Road route. I actually really liked this one. It's a gradual enough hill that it's runnable, but steady enough to be a challenge.

That evening, Mark, Steph, and I did Taylor Mountain Peak. It's a tough one, but has the best views. We had a bit of a hazy day, but the views were still great. We were also in search of the grenade idol. We thought for sure it would be at the top, but no luck!

Taylor Mountain Peak!

I love this picture!

The views in every direction are great!

Mark and I finished our Kelly Canyon Unit by doing the Kelly Mountain Loop. We liked this one. I had to mostly hike, because my back was in pretty bad shape, and I needed it to hold out for the last few routes.

We made it to the tower.

Made it to the top of Kelly Mountain. Now it was time for some crazy downhill.

We saw another rubber boa. This one wasn't nearly as cute as the one we found on Indian Creek.

Now it was time for the dreaded Sunnyside route. We had put if off as long as we could. It was hot, it was boring, I had to walk the whole thing, and even with walking, my disc was shooting zingers down my right butt cheek, and I was generally in a bad mood. 😆 On a brighter note, I made a fun snake friend, and we saw a beautiful sunset.

Here's my snake friend. I stopped and chatted with him for awhile and tried to keep him from going in the road.

Pretty sunset.

We were determined to finish on a Friday so I could go on a Teton Park adventure on Saturday with the women runners, and then take a much needed week off. We got up early Friday morning and did the Sand Dunes. Running in sand is tough! The only requirements for this route were that it had to be 5 miles, and you had to find the rope swing, and a certain group of trees. I've run there a lot, so I knew right where both things were.

Oh my gosh, we're total morons, but we were laughing so hard at these pictures! 😂

Just a couple of 12 year olds at the park. 😂

We had an amazing sky and sunrise over the sand hills.

That evening, we went with a group of friends to finish it off with Baldy Mountain. None of us had ever done this one, and I ended up really liking it. Very pretty route. It was a fun one to end it on!

Tricia-Jenn-Cheryl-Steph-Mark

That's a wrap! We are now the king and queen of the lost souls!

Some units had bonus routes, plus there is the unit we didn't have to do. Mark and I decided we want to finish them all. So although we're technically done, we're still working on the 'extras.'

Dan was our guide on the Narrows/Nasty Little Secret route. We would have been so lost if he didn't go with us. We ended up trailblazing and made a cool loop out of it. We got back to the cars right at dark.

Just starting the big climb.

Hahaha, this is the kind of stuff Dan calls a trail! 😆

We made it to the top! I was honestly a little worried about how I was gonna get back down. Luckily we decided to blaze our own trail, and go a different way.

On top of the world!

Yay us! Very few people had done this route, because they opted for the easier bonus route instead, so I was excited to try it. It didn't disappoint.

We were getting the smoky skies from all the CA fires, so our sun has been looking very cool and orange.

No trail on the way back. We just made our way across the ridge and then hoped for the best when it was time to come down.

We made it just in the nick of time.
Tricia-Dan-Nick-Mark

Now all we have left is the Pocatello and Out of Area units, which is already in the works.

Lost Souls Coronation: Dam Island

We had our coronation and an early morning group run on the 'Dam Island' on August 21. We were officially crowed the King and Queen of the Lost Souls. Hahaha, so fun!

We got matching Lost Souls bone 'medals.' We also won a really cool bone knife that Mark is super excited about.

Mark wearing his crown.

My crown. Don't I look rather queenly?

What a perfect morning for a run!

People were scattered all over the island, but here is some of the group. Dan is the one taking the picture. He is the mastermind behind the whole Lost Souls Challenge.

More great Lost Soulers and Trailblazers. About a minute after we took this picture, Fran fell and had to get 5 stitches above her eye. 😳 She was back out getting routes two days later! 👊

Total Lost Souls miles in the 24 days = 231.22 miles

 (plus I had 10 extra miles from other runs for 241.22 miles)

That's an average of 10 miles per day. No wonder our bodies needed a big break!

We're go grateful we have such an amazing running community in our area. Life is better because of it!