Varvel Family: August Running

Women's Runs

Sidewinder Full Moon Run:

This was the coolest run! We started later in the evening so we would get to the top of Sidewinder right as the full moon was coming up over the mountain. We got a great sunset on the way up. We stopped and were all amazed at how fast the sun set below the horizon. We made it to the top right as it got dark. We could see the glow of the moon start to shine, and it wasn't much longer before it was peeking up over the mountain. We waited for it to rise a bit, and then we all turned our headlamps on and headed back down the trail in the dark. It looked really cool to have a long train of headlamps shining in a line coming off the hill. The moon was amazing, but none of our phones could capture it very well.

The sunset.

The last little bit of the sunlight.

At the top waiting for the moon to rise.

Here comes the moon!

This looked so much cooler in person. The moon was huge!

We tried to take a selfie with the moon, but it was too dark, and wouldn't work with our phones. My phone was the only one that would capture the group shot pretty good.

I love this picture of us.

Cascade Canyon/Lake Solitude:

The women runners took an awesome adventure in Grand Teton Park. We left early on a Saturday morning, took the ferry across Jenny Lake, and hiked/ran up Cascade Canyon to Lake Solitude. We had an exciting start, and saw a bear right after we got off the ferry. That was Bailey's first bear in the wild, and she definitely got an up close view! The trail was amazing, and the company great. We had lunch at the lake, Bailey and Veronika took a swim, and then we headed back. There was lots of huckleberry picking on the way down the trail, and we even saw a moose. We stopped and had pizza for dinner at Dornan's on the way home. This was my last adventure with Bailey before she was heading back to Boise for school, and it was a great one!

Heading to the ferry!
Amanda-Jennifer-Bailey-Veronika-Tricia-Steph

This was my first ferry ride across Jenny Lake.

We had to be masked up on the ferry, and standing in lines.

Our cute bear friend! Bailey and Amanda were standing directly in front of where his nose was pointed. He was wandering right toward them for a while.

Inspiration Point overlooking Jenny Lake.

Our whole crew at Inspiration Point.

Everyone should add Grand Teton Park to their bucket list of places to visit.

I'm glad she finally got to explore some of the park with me.

Cascade Canyon is the perfect name. There are waterfalls the whole way up!

Lake Solitude!

I love my trail runner ladies!

She can never resist a cold, mountain lake.

Picture perfect!

I love this picture of us running around the lake when we were heading back.

Trail running is my favorite thing! This is why!

Jennifer and Amanda showed Bailey the art of huckleberry picking on the way back down, and Bailey was hooked.

Yum!

This is the same spot we saw a moose on the trail last year when we did the paintbrush Divide.

Such a great day, and I'm so glad Bailey got to go. I'm grateful to run with ladies that love it just as much as I do.

Lookout Mountain:

It's been fun using our women's runs to cover all the Kelly Canyon routes for the Lost Souls Challenge .

Getting started at Buckskin Morgan.

We made it to the lookout. There was some huckleberry picking delays on the way up and back. 😋

Kelly Mountain Loop:

This run was a blast! Sometimes it's fun to have a big group of ladies, but sometimes it's even more fun when there's just a few of us. This was the longest Kelly Mountain route for the Lost Souls Challenge.

The views on this loop are fantastic!

We made it to the top of Kelly Mountain! Now for the crazy downhill section.

I love this picture. This truly shows how Amanda feels about downhill running!

This downhill is crazy! Jennifer fell several times, and by the time we got to the road, she was covered in dirt!

I'm just the opposite of Amanda. I'm very wimpy on the downhill. She was probably already at the bottom while I was tiptoeing down. 😅

We made it! Jennifer with dirty warpaint everywhere, and Amanda with a shoe split right in half! That's when you know it was a great run! 😂

Plogging:

Plogging is when you pick up garbage while you run. We try to do this once a summer for our women's run. We plogged Henry Canyon Road, and I was shocked at how much garbage we found!

Picking up garbage doesn't seem like the most fun thing to do, but we always manage to have a good time.

Georgina-Tricia-Jennifer-Anna-Megan-Angie-Amanda (taking picture).

We filled the back of Amanda's land cruiser. We got more than this too, but we loaded some in another truck.

Firth River Bottom:

Our last women's run for the month of August was at the Firth River Bottom. A lot of us were just coming off of big mileage weekends, so we took it really easy. We ran a little, hiked a little, and talked a lot. Taking pictures with the pups was hilarious.

Stacy & Abby-Tricia-Jennifer-Amanda & Wallace-Georgina

IFTR Group Runs

Apocalypse Run:

We took a break from doing Lost Souls routes, and had an Apocalypse Run. Dan brought Body Armor and survival snacks for us and everything!

Just ignore the fact that my mohawk wig was on backwards for the picture. 😂

Old Meadow:

I can't believe the difference in this trail compared to when Mark and I did it a month earlier. We hit it right at the peak growing season, and it was so overgrown, you couldn't even see where you were stepping. We were so afraid of snakes. This time it was way better! Things had started to dry up and die, so the trail was a lot more defined. We could even go right up to the cabin.

This is such a pretty area. I want to see what it's like in the spring.

I finally remembered to wear pink!

A blurry picture because it was still a little dark, but we had a fun group on this one.

Some of the group had to head home or to work after the Old Meadow route was done, but a few of us kept going up the road a little farther.

Dan-Jenn-Tricia-Wes-Chris

The Ozone:

We had a big group for this one! Dan showed us The Ozone; an abandoned old town in the Bone area. Everyone loved the loop, and it was a bonus that the sky put on a show for us over the Tetons. We even saw a herd of elk. It was a great morning.

The sun starting to rise over the Tetons.

Such a fitting sign.

Awesome sunrise.

Most of the group at the end.

Teton Canyon Camping Runs

Marion Lake/Granite Canyon:

I've wanted to take the tram up from Teton Village, and run out to Marion Lake since we started exploring Teton Park last year. Mark, Steph, and I camped in Teton Canyon, and Georgina met us at the starting point on Friday morning. The big tram was closed due to COVID, so we had to take the smaller gondola up, and then hike the last two miles to where the tram normally drops people off. I'm actually kind of glad it worked out this way. Although it added two miles of climbing to our overall distance, the hike up was really cool. The trail to Marion Lake was awesome. We ate lunch at the lake, and Georgina and I went waist deep in the lake to cool off. Then we headed down Granite Canyon, which I loved. The trail was so runnable and pretty. We took a connector trail back to Teton Village, and just as we were all getting tired and wanting to be done, we saw a bear. Whahooo! That revived us, and made the rest of the run great. We covered 19 miles, and I loved all of it! I already have another route mapped out in this area for next year.

Taking a fun gondola ride 3/4 of the way up the mountain.

Taking a break on the way up to where we should have actually started.

Feeling like we were on top of the world.

On the way to Marion Lake.

Steph-Georgina-Tricia-Mark

The trail went right through the middle of a field of yellow wildflowers. We could hear all the bees buzzing around us.

Marion Lake

Cooling off before we head down Granite Canyon.

This was a cool field of daisies we had to go through. We could hear the bees through here too.

I love Mother Nature's landscaping.

There were still so many wildflowers up high.

Going down Granite Canyon.

We stopped at the perfect little swimming hole.

The connector trail we took back to Teton Village was in the aspens, and we were the only ones on it. We saw three piles of bear poop within a mile of each other, so we made sure we stayed grouped up through this part.

More bear poop.

Here's the bear to go with all the poop. Mark and Georgina were in the front, and they heard a noise and saw a tree move. They both saw the bear at the same time. Steph and I were coming up on them, and the bear was just off the trail, between the two groups of us. We stopped and waited a minute, not sure if we should walk past it to join Mark and Georgina. It wasn't interested in us at all, so we just walked on. We all had bear spray, and it wasn't a very big one, so it wasn't even nerve wracking, just fun and exciting.

Here's a picture of him looking at us. 🐻

I love Grand Teton Park so much! We've covered a lot of trails there in the past two years, and they are all great. Such a beautiful place. We ended the day with dinner at the Mangy Moose.

Devil's Staircase/Hurricane Pass/Alaska Basin:

We had another long day on Saturday. Steph felt sick on the run the day before, so she stayed at the trailer, and Mark and I met Jenn, Charles, and Carney to do Devil's Staircase-Hurricane Pass-Alaska Basin. We do some form of this trail just about every year, and it never gets old. It's one of my favorite places. The three of them were late getting to the trailhead, so Mark and I headed out and figured they'd catch us when we stopped to filter water. Sure enough, that's the exact spot where they caught up to us. When we were crossing Alaska Basin to head to Hurricane Pass, we took a detour to go to the three basin lakes. Very good choice! We even took a swim! We ate lunch at Hurricane Pass, and then the wind started blowing and we got cold, so it was time to head back. All the hard parts were done, and it was pretty much down hill from there. We saw a moose in the last couple miles. It was trotting through the water right on the other side of the reeds from the trail. We were hoping it wasn't gonna bust through on us. As soon as we all made it past, it came through the reeds and ran across the trail. This was a 23 miler, and I felt really great considering how far we had gone the day before. I had some back problems at the end, but all things considered, it was a great run!