Hikes

It's been a great season of hiking this year. I've gone up, around and down the North Menan Butte (3.4 miles, 964 feet elevation gain) five times so far:

Me and Peach on May 10.

Peach and me on May 16.

Seth, Andrea, Peach and Miriam on May 31.

Winnie, Peach and me on June 7.

Peach and me on August 16.

I was hoping to get a hike once a week as long as we were in town. Sometimes it works for people's schedules to come with me. Sometimes I hike alone. In all cases, the scenery and weather have been superb.

Friday, June 21: Pole Canyon (6 miles, 1,627 feet elevation gain)

The last time I hiked this was when I was a stake assistant camp director. Rather than stopping at the saddle, I hiked an extra quarter of a mile or so up to a bench so I could have a better view while I stopped and ate my Cliff Bar. I only saw a few other people on the trail.

Saturday, July 20: Darby Canyon Wind Cave (6.5 miles, 1,811 feet elevation gain)

As we drove through Tetonia and Driggs, it started to rain, then rain harder, then hail. We questioned whether we'd be able to go hiking at all, but we continued on to the trailhead. It was still raining a bit when we parked, but we sat and waited for a few minutes to see if it would stop. When it quieted down and we checked the sky, it seemed like we'd be okay to hike. So hike we did. It sprinkled on us for a little while at the beginning of the hike, but it cleared up as we progressed. After coming out of the cave and starting our way back, however, we heard continuous rolling thunder. We trekked out of there as quickly as we could (I believe it took us 3.5 hours from leaving the van to getting back to it) and couldn't believe the people who continued hiking up the mountain with the thunder. We didn't read about anyone getting struck by lightning after we got home and checked the news, so I guess they all turned out okay.

Seth and I with the Wind Cave in the background.

In the cave. Seth has officially gone farther in the cave than anyone else in our immediate family. He decided to do the army crawl part that I can't even stand to look at. In fact, I learned just how serious my tight-space claustrophobia is as he crawled back in there and I had to move farther and farther from that opening and still ended up crying and overwhelmed at the thought of going up there. As soon as he came back out, I was fine.

Climbing back out of the cave.

Thursday, July 25: Elk Mountain Fire Tower (7 miles, 2,339 feet elevation gain)

My goal this summer was to gradually work up to the bigger hikes, so I scoured my AllTrails app for a good trail that would be a little bigger and harder than the Wind Cave. The Elk Mountain trail is a new one to me; it's outside Alpine, Wyoming. I only saw three other groups on the entire hike, and two of them were really close to the trailhead as I was coming down and they were headed up. I pushed myself on this one and made it up and back in three hours with about 20 minutes of rest time at the top. 

At the Fire Tower. From a distance, this reminds me of the Beacon of Gondor. Up close it's just a rundown shack. It was still a cool destination for a hike, and the view from the top was beautiful.

Friday, August 2: Green Lake (10.3 miles, 2,667 feet elevation gain)

I hadn't been hiking with my parents yet this summer, so I invited them to come along on this hike that I hadn't gone on in 25 years. Grandpa Scott was too busy wiring the addition to their house, but Grandma said she could come with us. It was with cautious excitement that we followed bear tracks for the first half mile of the trail (they were headed downhill while we were headed up). We tried taking it slow and easy for Grandma (she's 73 years old, after all), but despite our deliberate pace and all the electrolytes and energy gummies she used, she still ended up feeling sick. We managed okay on the way to the lake and ate a lovely lunch on the shore before heading back out.

We had to go uphill a ways because the lake is in a bowl, but once we made it to the top and were headed downhill, Grandma seemed to be doing better than she had the whole hike. She was zipping along, keeping up with Ana for the most part. 

Unfortunately, that didn't last. She was headed downhill at a rapid pace when her shoe caught a rock sticking out of the trail. She tried getting her feet back under her as her pace accelerated and accelerated, and then she fell and rolled off the trail.

Grandma lost consciousness at some point, and after she fell forward on the trail, she started to roll off the trail and down the hill. I was able to make it to her and hold her from rolling any farther, and then she slowly came to. When she was ready to sit up, I carefully helped her and tried to assess how hurt she was. In the end, she bruised up around her right eye and the back of her right hand. After seeing a doctor, he decided she had also slightly torn a ligament in her right shoulder.

The last 3 miles out were understandably rough. Besides being battered from the fall, Grandma's sickness came back with a vengeance. I ended up fashioning a sling from our cooling towels for her right arm. Ana hiked an extra 2.5ish miles going back to the van for cold ice water (Grandma said she thought that would help her sickness, and the rest of us only had warm water at that point) and bringing it back to us as we slowly made our way out. We took lots of long breaks along the way. During one of those breaks, I (remarkably) had enough of a cell signal to alert Seth and Grandpa of Grandma's fall and let them know we still had a ways to go and wouldn't be home as soon as we'd expected.

In the end, we made it out about 11 hours after starting. I drove Grandma back to her house where she showered and went in to see the doctor. She's still wearing the sling he advised her to use. We're grateful that we made it back safely and the fall didn't cause more damage than it did.

Ana and Grandma on the trail. The wildflowers were magnificent.

Ana and Grandma eating at the lake.

Selfie on the way back.

The only picture I took after Grandma fell. This shows the flattened vegetation from her rolling off the trail after the fall.

Friday, August 9: Tablerock Face Trail (8.2 miles, 4,094 feet elevation gain)

Rebekah got home from her Nauvoo performing mission on Wednesday, August 7. She went from living at 500 feet above sea level for three months to hiking to a mountain more than 10,000 feet above sea level. But I swear it was her choice. We had talked about going on a different hike this particular day, but Rebekah was game to see how she fared on this one. 

We went up and down the Face Trail (a first for me!) making for a shorter but steeper route. I wanted to condition my knees for our biggest hike of the season. 

Rather than being hindered by the elevation, Rebekah found that the daily exercise she did on her mission made a huge difference in her ability and endurance. She was the first one on top of the mountain.

Rebekah and Ana ... and gorgeous fireweed.

Ana taking a break near the top.

Rebekah resting on top.

Rebekah and Ana pretending to be those blowy air men you see outside of car dealerships.

Cute sisters on top of a mountain.

Family selfie on top.

Seth taking a selfie with Andrea taking a selfie in the background.

Monday, August 19: Mount Borah (8.2 miles, 5,301 feet elevation gain)

This was it. The big daddy hike of the summer. After we tried summiting in 2022 and had to split the party and turn back due to Rebekah's iron deficiency, I knew I wanted to get to the top another time. Because she fared so well on Tablerock, Rebekah said she was game to try for Borah again. Ana said she wanted to come with us. It turned out that having Ana there was extremely handy since there are places where you lose the trail on this hike/climb. She was a great little mountain goat/guide over the rock scrambling.

We drove to Mackay the night before and stayed in a cute little motel before waking up at 5, loading up and arriving at the trailhead by 6. 

The last time I hiked all the way to the top of Borah, I was 13 years old. So although I was familiar with the first half of the trail after making it that far two years ago, I've had plenty of time to forget the details of this hike. Oh, boy. It's a hike. With over a mile of elevation gain, precipitous views and rock scrambling, this isn't a hike for the faint of heart. I honestly don't know how my mom did it back in 1996 (she doesn't like heights) or how my dad did it just two years ago at the age of 72. Rebekah got a little nervous with the rock climbing ("Where do I step?!" "Big step, right there," said Ana calmly.), and I had to go to my happy place and not think too hard about what would happen if one of us slipped. But it was awesome. And worth it. It was such an incredible experience to have with two of my girls. How many people can say they've climbed to the top of the highest peak in Idaho?

The weather was really nice, too. The only complaint we had was the gusts of wind that buffeted us a few times as we were headed back out. Gratefully we were back on a legitimate trail at that point. The thunderstorm we drove through the night before made us a little nervous, but the day of the hike we had blue skies.

At the motel the night before.

We didn't take a photo at the trailhead before starting on the hike because it was still dark. We hiked with headlamps for the first half hour or so. This is the photo we took on the trail once it was light enough.

Headed up the mountain.

Rock scrambling on our way there.

Climbing down the rock face with the help of the awesome rope.

Resting on the last push to the top. The hike starts steep, but it gets even steeper. There are really only two places where the trail levels out, and that doesn't last very long. The last half mile or so you gain about 1,000 feet in elevation, making it very strenuous.

Ana and Rebekah on top. Rebekah made it there first, but she took a weird way to get there and had to crawl over a bunch of rocks to make it to the very tippy top. 

Eating lunch on top. We had the top all to ourselves and stayed there for about half an hour.

Rebekah resting on top.

Summit pic.

Summit pic.

Summit pic. I realized on our way down that we didn't take a selfie of all three of us on top. The girls immediately told me they weren't going back up there to take one.

Ana climbing back up the rope.

The cow welcoming us back to the trailhead.

Post hike selfie. It took us 11.5 hours in all, but it was absolutely worth it.