Georgia!

We kicked off November with a trip to Georgia for a 50k race. It was a quick trip because we had never left the donkeys, so we didn't want to be gone long. Joyce and Phil are awesome, and they stayed at our place to watch the critters for us. Clover, Willow, and Reeses were very loved and spoiled while we were away.

We spent all day Thursday traveling. We had to get up early and drive to Boise for our flight. Then we flew into Atlanta, rented our car, and drove a couple hours up the road so we'd be closer to where our race was. 

We're off! On our way to the Boise airport!

On Friday we hiked and toured Tallulah Gorge State Park. We couldn't believe the beautiful fall weather! We were in shorts and short sleeves the whole day. The park is gorgeous! We missed the peak of fall by a week or two, but the trees were still amazing. After the park, we drove to the start line of our race, so we'd know where we needed to go the next morning.

Eric-Steph-Tricia-Mark

The gorge is so pretty in the fall!

We hiked all the way around the north and south rims.

So many cook trails.

I had never seen so many leaves on the ground.....until the next day.

We hiked down a gazillion stairs to get to the bottom of the gorge.

Steph and Eric used this trip as their 'funny moon.' What better way to celebrate a marriage then by rooming with me and Mark! 😂

There is a cool suspension bridge that goes across the gorge.

After the rim hikes, we drove to another part of the park and did some more exploring.

I loved all the crunchy leaves so much!

We found Christmas holly! We had never seen it before, and had no idea it grew as a bush.

Saturday morning, Mark, Steph, and I ran the Sky to Summit 50k. I thinks it's my new favorite course. Brutal climbs, crazy, scary downhills, pouring rain all day, the most leaves I've ever seen in my life, amazing waterfalls, plenty of mud, and basically the coolest trail! It was everything an ultra should be! The temperature was great, despite the rain, and Mark and I have never been more grateful for our PUTS hats with the long brims to keep the rain out of our faces. We all surprised ourselves and did better than expected for how hard the course was. 

Getting ready to start!

I kept saying the trail looked like something from the movie, The Village.

So many leaves!

There was an out and back section, and we saw Steph on our way back.  Her and Mark had both taken a tumble.

The clouds broke for just a second, and we got a glimpse of all the colors we had been missing the hole time. That part was a bummer, but the stormy weather added it's own element of fun to the race. We loved it!

It took us roughly 7 hours and 43 minutes to finish.

We didn't get tons of pictures because our phones we wet the whole time, but we did get one of the three of us after we finished.

We love Georgia! We totally want to go back and do more exploring when we have more time. Sometimes when we randomly pick races in other states, we're taking a risk that they won't be good, but this one was perfect!