October Running

 

Women's Runs:

Our first Women's Run of October was on my birthday! We went to New Sweden Farms and ran through the corn maze. My awesome friends had a little birthday party all set up for me. Amanda had decorated her land cruiser, and she even brought Wallace in a cute party hat. 😊 Fun times!

Birthday clebration!

Trying to find our way out of the maze.

I sure love my runner ladies!

This is how happy I am every Monday night for the Women's Runs.

The next Monday night we ran around Tautphaus Park so Amanda could finish that route for her Lost Souls Challenge. After our run, we went across the street to the U Pick Red Barn Pumpkin Patch. It was decorated so cute. 

Tautphaus Park

U Pick Red Barn

We had 'The Great Pumpkin Run' at Sandy Downs. Amanda had gone early and hid small pumpkins all around the sand dunes. We found them as we ran. She also had some big pumpkins at the base of the sand hill, and we did hill runs while holding them. Trust me, it's WAY harder than it sounds. Fun Fun!

Stacy wore her Halloween costume because she was going to miss the Halloween run the following week. 

Hunting for pumpkins!

I love this picture!

Hill runs with pumpkins!

I ended up having to miss the Halloween costume run! 😢 It's one of my favorite runs of the whole year. I ended up with stupid covid, and I was still on my ten day quarantine. I felt fine, but I couldn't be around people and spread the love.

IFTR Group Runs:

Dan's been gone to Utah harvesting pumpkins on his family's farm, so the early morning group runs have been a little different. It's been hit or miss. Someone usually steps in and organizes a group.

Cloward's Road
Margaret-Eli-Ginger-Tricia

Eagle Pass Road
Margaret-Ginger-Eli-Tricia-Jenn

I also did some early morning runs at Freeman Park, but we didn't take pictures.

Greenbelt:

Mark, Jenn, Charles, and I did a 13 miler around the greenbelt. We started in the dark, but when the sun came up, the sky put on quite a show for us.

Snake River Landing

Tricia & Mark

Dirt Road Running:

I've spent the month trying to run lots of dirt roads. It's been good for me to be able to practice more consistent running, and less walking. The hills are gradual enough that I can run the whole way, but still enough elevation to give me a good challenge. I'm hoping this kind of training will help me a lot for the Dead Horse Ultra. Although the dirt roads aren't as exciting as the mountains, Idaho has not disappointed in the sunset department.

Mark and I did Trail Hollow one evening. The first 4 miles were watching this spectacular sunset, and the last 4 miles were in the pitch dark. I love this picture so much. You can see Mark running in the distance.

Some of my dirt road runs have been for my early morning runs, so all we see is dark. Steph did Kepp's Road with me one evening, and we got another great sunset.

Cotton candy sky.

This was at the very end of our run.

We stopped at the top of Sunnyside Road on our drive home to take this picture. 

My training had been going awesome, and then I got covid while we were in Southern Utah. I thought it was just a minor cold, and I still ran/hiked 48 miles with it. My symptoms were not even as bad as a typical cold. I know not everyone is that fortunate, but that's how it has been for me and most of the people I know who have had it. I still took about a week off of running, just to make sure I would be back to 100% before my big race rolled around. I feel like it has thrown me off mentally. I know I week off isn't going to make or break me, but I feel like it was at a crucial time. Once I was back to running it was time to taper down my mileage, so now I feel like I haven't done a long run in forever. I'm not gonna lie, I'm not feeling as confident about my 50 miler as I was at the beginning of October. Wish me luck, cause I'm sure I'll need it.

Mark also got covid, and his symptoms were quite mild as well, but he's feeling similar to me about his training. He is running a 50K at the same time I'm running the 50 miler. Here's to hoping we've done enough! 

Island Park Scrapbook Weekend

 The Ruby Bucket Retreat has had to be canceled twice due to covid, so a few of us ladies decided to have our own little scrapbook weekend get away in Island park. It was so great! Stephanie hooked us up with a great cabin, we divided up the meals, so we each only had to be in charge of one, and we spent four glorious days scrapbooking. It was just what I needed! I got 50 pages done, I read a little, I went on a short run, and a few walks, I laughed a lot, and basically recharged so I would be ready to function in this crazy world again. 

Kristy-Stephanie-Stacey-Kathy-Jocie-Karen-Tricia-Esther

The cabin we stayed in was so beautiful!

"Right over left, because my hip doesn't work."- Karen 😂

Cute Esther kept us laughing all weekend.

Halloween Fun!

 I love Halloween! This year was weird though. I still decorated and made my house cute, but we didn't hand out any candy. I was actually out of town at a scrapbook get together in Island Park, and Mark had covid, so he couldn't answer the door. Sad! Mark and I still did our annual haunted house date night with the Hughes, and I did a Halloween dinner a little earlier in the month, since I knew I'd be gone for Halloween weekend.

My front porch

Living room

I love my spider. 

Planet Doom. It was actually kind of dumb this year. Still a fun night of dinner and scares with Jeni and Keith.

Halloween Sunday dinner was fun!

Mummy dogs for dinner!

Mac n cheese jack-o-lanterns on the side.

Graveyard dirt cups for dessert.

Amanda made these rad cupcakes. They even had 'blood' inside.

You'd think I still had little kids at home. 😂 I'm just practicing for when I have grandkids.

My Sweet Pups

 Anyone that knows me well, knows how much I love my pups! They bring so much sunshine to my days. They are getting old, and they are starting to feel their ages (Reeses more than Oreo). We've had to buy a ramp for them to get in and out of the back of my car, and the trailer when we take them camping. They just can't quite make the big jumps anymore. When Reeses gets an arthritis flare up and has a hard time getting up in the mornings, it breaks my heart. But considering their ages, they are still doing great. I take them on a two mile walk 5-6 days a week, and that helps their joints a ton. They still act like puppies at heart, and Oreo would defend us to her death if the need arose. They make me laugh on a regular basis. Dogs are just good for the soul.

Look at that sweet old lady face!

Reeses got her back legs stuck around the end table. 😂

No one is ever as happy to see me as these sweet girls.

Don't worry Oreo, I'll just work around you. 😆

Somebody was needing some attention!

Yay! All you have to do is touch her to make her happy!

Back from the groomers after a much needed bath. All sparkly clean.

Besties from the get go!

Southern Utah Trip

Mark and I had another Southern Utah trip planned for the spring, and it also got postponed due to covid. I'm so glad it did! We rescheduled for October, and we hit the area at the perfect fall time! The colors were amazing! We got another 48 miles in, and saw some amazing places! This trip is one of my all time favorites that we've done. This was our last big mileage weekend before our big race, so here's to hoping we did enough.

Kolob Canyon

Kolob Canyon is a little section of Zion National Park that is off the beaten path, so it's a lot less crowded. We loved it! 

La Verkin Trail/Kolob Arch:

The first trail we did was the longest, and we ran it to make sure we covered our running miles early on. We did almost 16 miles in a red rock, fall wonderland. It was great! Part way through the La Verkin Trail, we made a detour to Kolob Arch. 

The start of the trail.

We found the most perfect little waterfall along the creek!

I took so many pictures! The yellows were amazing!

Kolob Arch

Hello Fall!

This picture does not do the view justice at all.

Timber Creek Overlook:

We did a short hike to the Timber Creek Overlook. There was a wedding getting ready to start while we were there. What a cool pace to get married!

It was hazy, but on a clear day you can see Mt. Trumbull at the north rim of the Grand Canyon.

South Fork of Taylor Creek:

This was my favorite hike in the park. It's a little hidden gem! It's not on the map, and doesn't even have a sign at the trailhead. It was awesome!

Starting into the canyon.

So pretty!

Making our way to the slot canyon.

In certain areas the rock was so red!

We made it to the end!

Heading back out.

If you are ever in Kolob Canyon, don't skip this hike. It's only a few miles, and is so cool!

Middle Fork of Taylor Creek:

This was a supper cool hike too. The colors were fantastic on this one. This hike leads to Double Arch Alcove which was really cool. You also pass two homestead cabins that were built in the 1930s. This would be some rough country to try to make a living in.

The first cabin.

This is one of my favorite pictures from the day. I think it has just about all the fall colors in it.

I loved the yellow trees against the red cliffs.

The second cabin.

We felt very small walking through here.

Double Arch Alcove.

We went exploring a little ways past the arch.

That covers all of Kolob Canyon! We did a lot of miles, but we saw it all!

Pictures by the sign on the way out.

Kanarra Falls

Kanarra Falls has been on my bucket list since Pinterest became a thing. It totally exceeded my expectations! If you're ever passing through Cedar City, DO THIS HIKE! It requires a $12 permit that you can get online. Seriously, do it!

I was a little bit giddy!

We worked so hard keeping our feet dry on the way there. Ha, what a waste!

The trail leading to the slot canyon was so pretty.

Here we go!

It was seriously the coolest!

Almost to the first waterfall.

Ta-da! Waterfall number one!

Mark climbed right up.

We were out of the slot for a minute, and then we went right back in for the next big waterfall. There were several small waterfalls we had to climb over and get around.

So pretty!

Here we go again!

Waterfall number two! We had to laugh, because when we started, the worker told us not to go beyond this waterfall. He said he hikes up there every couple days to take down the logs and stuff that people prop up to get up the waterfall. When we got there, there was a full on aluminum ladder propped up! 😂

So much fall!

On the way out!

I've hiked in a lot of amazing places, and this is definitely one of the tops on my list of favorites now.

Spring Creek Canyon

Before we went on this trip, I looked on Alltrails to see if there were any other hikes we could do that were by Kanarra Falls. Spring Creek Canyon pulled up and was only five minutes away. That's all I knew about it. We went into this hike having no idea what it would be like, and it ended up being the best surprise of our trip. It's now also on our list of favorites. It was amazing! It was supposed to be five miles, but we explored well past the turn around point.

The very start.

We got excited when the canyon started getting more and more narrow. 

So fun!

At the opening of the canyon the trees were mostly yellow, but we hit some really good red patches too.

This video was on our way out.

So many cool places to explore.

Cedar Breaks

We still had a few hours of daylight left, so we decided to look up things that were close to Cedar City. On a whim we headed to Cedar Breaks National Monument. Best decision ever! It's like a mini Bryce Canyon. 

Spectrum Point/Rampart Trail:

We ran out to Spectrum Point and then kept right on running all the way out to the end of the Rampart Trail. Such a cool trail along the rim of Cedar Breaks. Amazing views!

This was our first glimpse of what Cedar Breaks was.

So cool! There were so many caves, arches, and other fun formations.

Alpine Pond Loop:

After that run, we did some view points and then hiked the Alpine Pond Loop. It wasn't that exciting, but we wanted to see it all, and we needed to kill time before the sunset.

Every once in awhile we'd get a good view on the Alpine Pond Loop.

The pond.

Sunset:

After our last hike, we went to a couple viewpoints as the sun was setting. So pretty! This is what I was waiting for!

It turned so red when the sun was going down.

😍😍😍

When the sun started going down, the temperature dropped significantly! We were freezing!

Ahhh, I love this!

And that's a wrap on our Southern Utah trip. It was definitely one of our best adventure weekends so far!