September Running

 Women's Runs

Luau on the Volcano:

We kicked off the September Women's Runs with at luau on the volcano! So fun! We met at the North Butte parking lot and then headed out to do the 'Horse With No Name' route in the desert. The plan was to climb and go around the rim of the butte after that. Well, we may have gotten a bit lost in the desert, so it was almost dark by the time we got back to the parking lot. We had some luau treats, and then four of us decided to still climb the butte face in the dark. Fun times!

Luau!

Heading out to the desert.

The air quality was still really bad from the fire smoke, but it made the sun glow bright pink.

The old lava rock house.

Fun group tonight.

We had a great sunset as we made our way through the sage brush.

Amanda-Tricia-Georgina-Stacy
The top of the butte in the dark!

Idaho Canal:

Since it's getting dark earlier now, we are starting to stay closer to town for our runs. The Idaho Canal is a pretty run in the fall. 

Idaho Canal

Since we had Labor Day in September, we skipped that Monday, and then I missed a women's run this month, so I only had two. 

IFTR Group Runs:

Kepps's Ridge:

Dan is the organizer of the early morning group runs, but he goes down to Utah to work on his family's farm in the fall. He still put together the first two group runs of the month. After that it was just random people throwing stuff together. Kepp's ridge ended up being all ladies. It was dark almost the whole run, and we were running with a full moon. Super cool morning.

Just the ladies!
Margaret-Jennifer-Jenn-Stacy-Ginger-Sandy-Tricia

Up on the ridge.

It got light for the last mile.

Taylor Creek Road:

This was the first really chilly morning we've had. Taylor Creek Road is a good one to do in the dark.

Elli-Jeff-Tricia-Margaret-Jenn-Ginger-Mike-Jennifer

Indian Runs up Blackhawk:

Carney set this one up and I loved it! It about killed me, but was fun to push myself like that again. We did indian runs from the church parking lot, all the way up Blackhawk. I bailed out at the water tower when I started dry heaving, but some went all the way to the dirt road. 

Carney-Wes-Jenn-Tricia-Mike-Nate

I finally got a shirt for 'wear pink Wednesdays.'

Foothill & Rim/Blackhawk:

Jennifer and Amanda still needed a couple of the paved road routes for the Lost Souls Challenge, so we started at 5:00 AM, and got two of them done.

Stacy-Amanda-Tricia-Jennifer

It was really dark, so we were going to use the lights at the substation at the top of Blackhawk hill to take our picture. In the process of walking up to it, we set off some kind of alarm. We decided to just sit in the road and light ourselves up the best we could with our headlamps. 😂

Freeman Park:

Josh set a run up at Freeman Park. We went around the river for a nice chilly morning. We forgot to take a picture.

Pocatello Runs

City Creek/Kinport Peak/Gibson Trails:

There are always going to be rough running days, but I'm fortunate that mine seen to be few and far between. This happened to be one of those days. We went down to Pocatello to do four of the routes for the Lost Souls Challenge. We already finished the challenge, but we wanted to finish all of the routes. Pocatello was the unit that we opted out of, but we still planned to get the routes done before the challenge officially ended. City Creek and Kinport Peak went well. It wasn't hot yet, and things were good. By the time we hit the two Gibson routes, I was spent. The temperatures hit the 90s, we had a lot of elevation, we covered 21 miles that day, and I was just done! We got them finished though!

City Creek

The fall colors were just starting to pop in Pocatello.

The top of Kinport Peak.

I spy a big moose!

I spy a moose's butt.

Finishing up back through City Creek.

We turned the two Gibson routes into one loop.

Gibson Creek
Don't let the smile fool you, I wasn't having a very good time.

Gibson Peak

Gibson Peak
I was a little happier, because the climbing was mostly done.

All I cared about at this point, was getting a peach slushie.

West Fork of Mink Creek/Scout Mountain:

We went back down to Pocatello a couple weeks later to finish the last two routes, and we had a much better experience. The weather was cooler, we had Mat and Carrie with us for company, the fall colors were awesome, and we got some really cool clouds. An all around great day! It poured rain on us the whole way down, but right when we got to the trailhead, the rain stopped.

West Fork of Mink Creek:

We loved this trail. It was made for fall.

Mat-Carrie-Tricia-Mark

Scout Mountain:

We had awesome clouds swirling on this one. Once we got to the peak, we were above the clouds. If we looked off one side of the mountain, all we could see was pure while, and off the other side, we had a clear view. It was pretty cool.

Scout Mountain Peak

Hanging out above the clouds. It was making my hair get really big.😂

Along the trail at the top. Off to the right was just white.

Looking to the right.

Looking to the left.

Once we were ready to head back down, the clouds had mostly swirled off and moved to another section.

Baby Bear 50K

We decided a few weeks prior to run the Baby Bear 50K in Preston, Idaho. Mark, Steph, and I headed to Preston on Friday afternoon. We stayed with Steph's daughter's boyfriend's family; great people! They opened their home to us, and were even at the finish line to cheer us on. On Friday evening, we drove to the race site to make sure we'd know where to go the next morning. On the way back from that, Zach gave us the Napoleon Dynamite tour around Preston. 

This is where Napoleon asked the girl to the dance.

The tetherball courts.

Preston High School

Napoleon's house. The field where they kept Tina was right next to it. Tina died a few years back.

The sign in front of the house. 😂

The Baby Bear 50K was actually a huge joke! Worst race we've ever done! First off, there was nobody there to start the race. All the runners were standing there, but nobody showed up to send us off. One guy started on his own one minute after the scheduled start time. The majority of us started 11 minutes after that because nobody could find the race director.  A few started 20 minutes late because they were still trying to find him. When they finally found him, they were told to just start themselves! Seriously?!? He had no intention of coming to the start time. When one of the last starting runners went blazing by us to catch the leaders, he told us he thought the RD was drunk. He could smell the alcohol on him.

It just got worse from there. The aid stations were PATHETIC! Two of them literally just had a sign and a cooler with water bottles in it. There was some food at mile 11(some melted chocolate, a few granola bars, and one bag of chips for everyone). The next aid station wasn't until mile 20, and it was supposed to have food and water, but they ran out! Only 10 of the 50K runners had been through it, and only one of the 50 milers! There were still a lot of runners (including 100 milers) out on the course! One of the 100 milers told us to fill up at mile 11 because he was pretty sure the next stop was out of stuff. A guy that was there waiting for his wife to come in spent 2 hours driving to the other aid station to bring water. He wasn't even part of the race, just a nice spectator. Lucky for us, he got there right before Mark and I did, so we were at least able to fill water. That could be a very dangerous situation. There was a 50 miler struggling out on the course, and the aid station was empty when she came through. So was the next one! It was getting dark, she was dehydrated, and in bad shape. Luckily she got a signal and called the little resort place she was staying at and asked them to get word to the race director that she was still out on the course and in trouble. His response was that he couldn't leave the finish line! WHAT THE ACTUAL HECK! Some random person heard this whole exchange and got in his truck to go find her. 

The trail markings were really good for the first half, and then it was like they got bored. There were stretches a mile and a quarter long without a single ribbon. Intersections without a single marking. I spent the whole time thinking I was lost, or playing 'find the ribbon.'

The finish line was a joke! There was nothing....literally nothing! Just a banner to run under. The race advertised dinner at the finish line for runners and their families, medals, shirts. We had to ask for our shirts, they didn't give us medals, and there was no food or drinks. We found an ice chest and got some grapes out of it for Steph. I'm truly not sure what we paid for. We will never support one of his races again. At mile 20 Steph wasn't doing very good, so she decided to drop out. She told the guy at the aid station, and he said she couldn't, because she would have no way to get back. She had no choice but to press on. She carries a Garmin In-Reach, so she was able to contact her family. By the time they found her, she had 7 miles to go, and decided to finish. Things like that can get very dangerous, but this RD clearly could care less. I've never seen such disregard for athletes in a race before. My advice if you have considered this race, DON'T DO IT! Save your time and money. There are plenty of great races out there, and this is not one of them.

The sun rising about a mile or two into the race.

We had to climb over lost of fallen trees.

Mark

I had to take a picture of this, because it made me laugh out loud. 

It was a beautiful area with great views.

We followed the whole ridge line behind Mark. I really liked this part of the course.

The trail along the ridge line.

Cool dead tree.

This was a crucial part of the race. We were starting the biggest climb, and the water was gone for most of the runners.

What this sign should have said was, "Very steep area WITHOUT a trail, and very few markings, so have fun finding your way!" 

Do you see a trail? Nope, there wasn't one! 

No trail here either. For the next two miles we were just searching for ribbons and footprints.

The only thing it had going for it was the views.

Despite the crappy circumstances, we all three finished!

Palisades Creek

Steph needed a break from adulting, so she asked me if I wanted to go up Palisades Creek with her. Best decision ever! The fall colors were amazing! I've never seen it quite like that up there before. We had no agenda, no destination, no pace, we just went until we felt like turning around. We passed the upper lake, explored the mouth of the lake a bit, and made it all the way to where Waterfall Canyon starts. Lots of chatting and picture taking. It was a really great day!

The lower lake.

The upper lake.

Steph-Tricia