October Adventures

October is my favorite running month, and from my picture below, you'll understand why.

Palisades to Waterfall Canyon:

We kicked off October with a bang! Mark, Steph, and I did Palisades to Waterfall Canyon. We had great fall weather, and Palisades was magical! It was a perfect 20 miles! October is my favorite!

Steph-Tricia-Mark

Love the colors and the falling leaves!

So pretty!

😍😍😍

The sky was foggy and stormy on the way up, and  bright blue on the way back.

The lower lake looked awesome!

Looking back toward the lower lake.

So fun!

Love the colors along the creek.

The upper lake is so low.

Tricia and Steph

The fall reflections on the lake were amazing!

A happy guy!

Big Elk Birthday Run:

Mark, Mat, and Steph took the day off work for the annual 'Tricia & Steph Birthday Run.' This year we did Big Elk Creek. It's one of my favorite fall trails, and we hit it at the perfect time! Holy cow, it was an awesome 12 miler! We also scared a big bull moose and his lady friend up the trail and then had to pass them.

Does fall get any better than this?

Yay for birthday runs!

Steph-Mat-Tricia-Mark

Good thing we stopped here to take pictures, because our talking is what scared the moose. Otherwise we would have rounded the corner with them right on the trail. 😳

The state line.

This was when we passed him on the way back.

This spot was so pretty!

😍😍😍

A little red tree tunnel!

Are you kidding me?!?

The side of the hill was crazy!

Big Elk with Amanda:

Big Elk was so good, that Amanda and I went back a couple days later. This time we had a bright blue sky, and the contrast with the leaves was amazing!

We watched this eagle fly from tree to tree and then finally take off and leave us.

Amanda and Wallace

Love the sky and the leaves!

Can you tell by my big, cheesy grin that I love fall? 😁

Little Kelly Lookout Loop:

Mark, Steph, and I did an evening run up in Kellys. It ended up being so much more awesome than we expected! We had no idea there was a giant almost full moon, until we saw it rising behind us. Pictures don't do it justice, but it was huge, and so bright! Then, in front of us, we had an amazing sunset. We ended in the dark with headlamps, and that was fun! It was just an all around great run.

The leaves were starting to change up Little Kellys.

Tricia-Steph-Mark

I wish cameras did better with moon pictures.

We kept looking behind us, because it looked so cool.

This was the sunset going on in front of us.

Running into the sunset.

Big Elk with Sawyer & Amanda:

We took Sawyer and Amanda on a Sunday walk a couple miles up Big Elk. In just the two days since Amanda and I had gone, tons of the leaves had already dried up and fallen off. Crazy how fast that happens. It was still really pretty, but I was bummed they didn't get to see if at it's best time.

Amanda-Sawyer-Tricia-Mark

well aren't they cute!

A fun Sunday stroll in the woods.

Cress Creek Hill Work:

It's fun living so close to Cress Creek. I did laps on the trail for my hill workout. Someday I'll be able to run the whole loop, but it's dang hard!

The trees were just starting to change along the river.

Such a fun trail.

Kelly Canyon:

Mark and I mapped out a 15 mile loop and tried it last year. It was icy, muddy, and snowy when we did it, but we could tell it would be awesome in the right months. October is the right month! Joyce and I did it, and it's a great loop.

Static Peak:

Gorgeous fall day in the Tetons! I was so excited to finally cross this one off my list. Ive wanted to do it for a few years now, and we thought we missed our chance again for the year. We had it scheduled and then it ended up being stormy that day. It's definitely not one you want to do in a storm. It's very high up and completely exposed. They call it Static Peak for a reason. We had some very unusually warm days in October, so Joyce and I decided to give it a try. Since I was with Joyce, who happens to be the animal whisperer, we saw 7 moose, an adorable bear, a pine martin, and a rad snow ghost. The fall colors were popping, the weather was perfect, and the company great! Couldn't have asked for a better day. It was 17.5 miles, with over 6000 feet of gain, and I was surprised at how sore I was the next day.

We saw this guy on our drive to the trailhead. We had him all to ourselves for about 10 minutes.

So cute!

We saw two moose on the drive in, and then two right at the start, by Phelps Lake.

Going up Death Canyon.

This was a really cool trail.

We saw this one after we left the old ranger cabin and started the climb toward Static.

Such fun views on the way up.

That is Static Peak behind me. It's nothing like I thought it would be.

A snow ghost!

The Static Peak divide. We still had to climb to 11,308 feet to get to the peak.

Looking down toward Alaska Basin.

The Grand from the very top.

The top of Static Peak. Buck Mountain is the big one to the left of me, and the Grand is farther away to the right of me.

Once the sun was all the way up, it made the yellows pop on the way back down.

Phelps Lake

We saw more moose on the drive out!

Kelly Mountain to Overlook:

Crappy weather was on it's way, so Amanda and I went up Kelly Mountain, and out to the overlook. We wanted one more fall run while the good weather lasted.

I thought this tree was so cool!

Sidewinder-Kelly Canyon-Wolf Flats:

Our final really long training run before Sky to Summit was a great one! Michelle, Mark, and I did a 20 miler up Sidewinder, through Kelly Canyon, and back on Wolf Flats. It was an awesome loop! We switched our run to Friday morning, instead of Saturday, because it was supposed to get cold and windy. Great choice, because we had amazing weather.

We started up Sidewinder in the dark, and Mark and I didn't wear our headlamps. Good thing Michelle was prepared. 😅

The fall colors were amazing!

Michelle-Tricia-Mark

Heading down toward Wolf Flats.

😍😍😍

The stretch along the river was amazing!

Moose Creek Snow Hike:

Joyce and I did a 9 mile snow hike up Moose Creek. We were going to go 12, but there was more snow than either of us expected, so we turned around early. Moose Creek didn't disappoint in the moose department. We came upon 2 bulls knocking antlers to win the affection of the female. Super cool! It was such a gorgeous area. Made me almost excited for winter....almost. I'll definitely go back to snowshoe there this winter.

It seriously looked like a winter wonderland.

Sound on the hear the antlers knocking together.

On our way by them on the way back, we realized there was a 4th one!

Joyce-Tricia

Wolf Flats:

Last long run before Sky to Summit. It was just a 10 miler, and I did it by myself on Wolf Flats. That's the longest solo run I've done in a long time. The last little bit of fall was still holding on along the river.

Women's runs:

I love the October Women's Runs!

Rose Hill Cemetery and U Pick Red Barn:

We kicked off the October Women's Runs with a run through a cemetery, and then a walk through the Red Barn to look at all the pumpkins and fun decorations.

Rose Hill Cemetery run.

I love the decorations at the U Pick Red Barn.

The Great Pumpkin Run:

Next it was the annual pumpkin run at the Sand Dunes. I love this one! I went and helped Amanda hide the pumpkins at the sand dunes, and then we ran around until they were all found. There were some that even required climbing trees to retrieve them. The best park is the pumpkin races up the big sand hill. It's so funny, and so hard!

The Great Pumpkin Run

Racing up the sand hill with pumpkins is no joke. 😅

Wild Adventure Corn Maze:

We went a little over 3 miles, spelled lots of words and made a great sasquatch for our Strava maps at the corn maze. A few of us stayed longer and did the zip lines, and had crazy corn. Very fun place!

Our maze crew!

😂😂😂

We were in the maze well after dark, and I was the only one with a headlamp. 😅

😋😋😋

Halloween:

We had two costume runs this year, but I had to miss the first one. The second one was on Halloween night, so it was fun to have something festive to do.

Twinner hot dogs, and some spicy mustard!

That's a wrap for the October runs. Now we'll be jumping right into all the fun holiday runs.