August Adventures

Hyndman Peak: 

If you read my last month's post, you remember that Joyce, Jenn, and I attempted Hyndman Peak for our first Idaho 12er. We got a quarter mile from the top and had to turn around due to a crazy storm that blew in. Joyce and I went back a few days later and conquered the mountain! We had much better weather, and had the entire mountain to ourselves. This was the perfect way for us to start the quest for all nine Idaho peaks over 12 thousand feet. Nothing about this one scared us. It was just slow going with a lot of rock scrambling along the ridge. We loved it! The hike up to the saddle was pretty, and the views from the peak were amazing! I can easily see how people get hooked on climbing these mountains.

We started in the dark before the sun came up.

I was so excited to be trying this one again!

The pretty lake before the climb to the saddle.

Joyce is a little speck! We were about to climb the last big push to the saddle. That's where it would start to be slow going.

The Ridgeline behind me is what we had to follow to the top.

Picking our way through the rocks along the ridgeline.

You can see the saddle behind Joyce. We had come so far, but still had a lot of climbing left.

Loved these views!

We made it to the top! 

It felt like we were on top of the world!

I do a ton of trail running, but summiting big mountains like this is not something I do very often. I knew this project was going to be out of my comfort zone, so I was thrilled to be at the top of our first one! The Idaho 12ers isn't going to be as much about pushing my body, as it will be about pushing my mind. I'm ready for it!

Love that we're tackling this together. 

Wolf Flats:

Jenn and I had a beautiful early morning 10 miler on Wolf Flats. This one is awesome in the dark.

It's peaceful to run along in the dark hearing the river beside you.

The sun starting to come up.

Bigalow's X2:

Ashlee, Jenn, and I did Bigalow's Beast twice for our hill day. Definitely felt the burn on this one!

Kelly Canyon:

I've loved my early morning Kelly Canyon runs with the ladies this summer. This was a fun morning with Ashlee, Jenn, Becky, and Mark! It was fun to have Mark get to join us for one.

Pretty sunrise!

😍😍😍

We had our Wind Rivers camping trip with lots of running and hiking, but I did a post all it's own for that weekend.

Women's Run: Persied Meteor Shower:

I haven't been able to make a lot of the women's runs lately. Between bottle feeding the cows, and coaching cross country, the timing just hasn't worked out this summer. I was thrilled when they had a late night run on the Butte to watch the Persied Meteor Shower. It was so cool! We were there for a long time, and we saw several of the meteors.

Amanda-Tricia-Nora

We had a great sunset as we were getting started up the butte.

Such a fun night with these ladies!

Big Elk & Bruno:

Ashlee, Ashley, Becky, and I had a beautiful run up Big Elk and then climbing Bruno. Man I love this area. Perfect 12 miler with these cute ladies.

Ashlee-Tricia-Ashley-Becky
Big Elk Creek

Palisades Reservoir from up on Bruno.

Batman Ridgeline:

It's been a few years since Mark and I have done this fun route, so we put it in our training program. We were excited for Jenn and Michelle to see it. Such a great day! We covered almost 22 miles in the most beautiful country.

Jenn-Tricia-Michelle-Mark

The views along the Garden Canyon ridge are so great!

Love all of our adventures together.

This was a fun way to celebrate Michell's birthday!

There are the Tetons in the back ground making an appearance.

Dropping into the Paradise Loop. It's easy to see how it got it's name.

Deer Park/Horse with no Name:

I needed a 10 miler, and I also needed to get a few more Lost Souls routes, so Jenn and I did 'Horse with No Name' and 'Deer Park' for an early morning run.

It was a beautiful morning.

The Tetons peeking up next to the butte.

Endless fields of sunflowers at the end.

Sidewinder w/Cairn:

I don't like doing Sidewinder in the summer, and I really don't like bush-wacking to the cairn this time of year. Too many rattle snakes in this area. I needed this route to become a citizen in this year's Lost Souls event. Jenn agreed to go with me to scare all the snakes away. 😅 Luckily we didn't have any snakes, but we were treated to a great lightning show on the way up, and then an amazing sunrise on the way back down. Great morning!

Made it to the cairn!

We had a stormy sky all around us.

The sunrise on the way down was amazing!

Look at the cairn standing tall and proud in the amazing orange sky!

We got lots of miles along the Beartooth Highway, but I did that awesome weekend as it's own post as well.

Thunder Ridge:

Another early morning with Jenn. I hadn't run anything in the Thunder Ridge area all summer, so we decided to give it a go.

The old swimming pool.

Mount Idaho:

Joyce and I completed our 2nd 12er! I'll be honest in saying this was not my favorite, and I won't be doing it again! I loved the ridge line and the summit, but the rest of the trail sucked! We did so much research for this one, and still ended up in every sketchy situation possible. There were at least 3 hours of mistakes added to our day; some of them our fault, some of them from a bad map. We learn a little more with each climb, and here are some things we took away from this one:

*We are newbies so we're still learning to trust the ridge line. On the way up we thought it looked safer to go around a few things, and we ended up in some sketchy shoots a few times. We handled it really well, but learned our lesson and took the ridge-line all the way back down. Mush better!

*Don't use Alltrails for the big peaks! We were on the WORST trail on the way back! I was more scared on this trail than any part of the peak or ridge. It was pure nuts! We now know that if the route finding is hard, get a gps file from someone who had already done it the correct way. We had read all the reports to avoid this trail, and yet we found ourselves on it anyways. 

*Despite not having a great experience on this one, we are both still stoked to keep climbing these mountains. We want to get one more done this season for sure, and depending on how long the weather holds out, possibly two more.

The sun coming up on our hike up.

Almost out of the trees. We had to climb up to that ridge, and that's where the fun would start.

Making our way over the first spine.

We finally got our first glimpse of the actual peak we were climbing up. We took one look at this ridge line and wondered how the crap we were gonna make it up that. 😅

After getting in some bad shoots, we were finally almost there!

A view from the top!

We did it!

It was cold and windy on the way up, but we actually had nice weather on the peak itself.

The views from the top were amazing. We were looking at all the surrounding peaks wondering if they were ones we were going to climb. We had great views of Mount Borah.

Two down, seven to go! 

Climbing back down. Once we were off the ridge line it should have been smooth sailing, but that's where we got off and had a scary hike out.

On the way back down, we turned around and got a good view of what we had climber up. I drew a blue line on this picture so I could send it to Bailey to show her what we had to climb up to get to the saddle. Talk about one step forward and two steps back. 😅

Kelly Canyon:

I did the Gnarly Climb to Cranky Cowboy with these ladies. Always a great morning in Kellys.

Ashlee-Ashley-Tricia

The Butte:

I needed one more route to be a citizen of the Lost Souls, and Ashlee needed some elevation, so off to the butte we went.

Ririe Roads:

Mark and I were pooped and super busy, so we finished off the month with a nice flat 8.5 miler around our  block a couple times.

I love running along the dry bed.

It was a busy, but fun running month for us. We're hitting the peak of our 100 mile training, and it's going really well so far. I hope we can carry this momentum into our last couple months.