The taper birthday trail run that was NEITHER a taper NOR a birthday run!

So, I am now 38 years old.  Yesterday was my birthday.  We were SUPPOSED to run yesterday in celebration of the fabulous day, but the air quality is so poor that we had to postpone.  See this summer is the summer of burning.  There are wildfires all around us!  Colorado, Oregon, and a bunch in Idaho.  The wind blew all of this smoke in and it settled into the valley.  Long story short (too late) the air quality here has been ORANGE. That is bad.  Michele said when she ran a couple of days ago she got home smelling like a campfire.

You may wonder WHY I included so much about the fires and air quality.  Michele told me to because it is HISTORY!  So I did.

When I got to Michele's house she came out wearing a GREEN shirt.  Why is that a big deal?  Because I was wearing a GREEN shirt!  And then Kris came out of her garage with, yep you guessed it, a GREEN shirt!  So we were the mean green running machine today!

Now, to our run.  First off, happy day to be on the trails again.  We always forget how much we LOVE the trails, until we run them.  Then we wonder why we ever run on the roads!  We are trying to check off more trails from the list in order to accomplish our New Year's goal of running them all. Michele noticed that we have A LOT to do.  So today we tackled 7 of them!  Before you get too impressed, they were all easy short ones! :)

We parked at the porta potty by the dog park and archery range near Fort Boise Park.  This is an important first stop when we run trails. AS we were just getting started Kris shouted, "WAIT!" Then she and Michele broke in to a lovely rendition of 'Happy Birthday'. It was lovely.

***Quick disclaimer here:  You will notice lots of pictures again.  I finally got a new phone.  And not just any phone...an i-phone 4S.  So the blogs will be full of photos once again!***

The trail that runs through right from there is called The Ponds Loop #21.  We looked very hard and saw no pond.  Not sure how it got that name.  But it is short, flat, and uneventful.  Why is it then when we were only .1 miles into the run I hear from behind me, "My leg hurts!"  Come on Michele, we just started!  Then a few minutes later Kris chimes in with, "My knee hurts."  I don't know if anything was hurting on me at that point or not, but I wasn't going to say it out loud.  We would have sounded like a bunch of old ladies trying to run.

We turned onto trail #25, Eagle Ridge Trail.  This was quite a climb.  I must confess, we all did end up walking a bit.  However, no matter how high we climbed today we knew that we would be safe.  Michele wore her new survivor bracelet!  She guaranteed us she would save our lives with it if necessary.  It would turn into a rope that she could pull us to safety.  Oh boy.

From Eagle Ridge we turned onto #27 Cottonwood creek.  This was a cool trail.  It was one of those trails that could have been used in a horror movie.  Lots f overhanging trees and narrow.  I was running in front when up ahead I saw an ENORMOUS pile of scat (aka POOP).  I yelled out the alarm, "Poop ahead, big pile!"  Then I leaped over it.  It was created by a horse, so that tells you how large the pile was.  Michele called out the same alarm, "Poop ahead, big pile."  Then she leaped over it.  Kris?  Kris just ran right through it, kicking it everywhere!  I am not kidding, she really did.

Michele and I had been on this trail once before in a freak hail/snow storm.  This time it was much more pleasant.

We came down to trail #22C Mountain Cove.  This is always a better option to run this trail as opposed to the road.  Because, we all hate that road!  After a very short run on this trail we turned left, crossed the road, and got on to Elephant Rock Loop # 23A.  We had never been on this trail before (well Kris said she had and that it was hard).  Turns out if you stay left and go clockwise, it is a very nice loop, really short though only .6 miles.  It has a cool rock at the top.  It looks like an.......

ELEPHANT!

Kris and I got close to it and made our best impression of an elephant.



This run is a loop, hence the name.  Kris asked if it was an out and back or loop (duh).  So Michele says, "It's like a Lolly-Pop!"  What????  "It's like...a loop." I added.  But to Michele it will now and forever be "Lolly-Pop Loop". 

I started to climb up the rock. About half way I realized, "How am I going to get down."  "Don't worry," called Michele, "I have my bracelet if you get stuck."  Luckily, we didn't need it!  The wonderful Kris helped me down, without a bracelet!

After we finished Elephant Rock Loop we realized our run was not going to be long enough if we headed back from here.  So we extended it.  We are all geniuses!  We got back onto 22C and went left instead of right.  We stayed on this until we hit 22A which are a series of Central Ridge Spurs.  Then a left onto 22 and TA-DA!  We are to #20, Ridge crest.  Kris calls this a side-winder, I call it the windy downhill, and I don't know what Michele calls it, but it is Ridge crest.  It is the perfect section to let loose and run downhill FAST!  Kris and I love this trail, Michele hates it.  She doesn't like the downhills as much as we do.  As I tore it up down the hill I heard her yell, "This is a taper run!"

See we have our marathon next weekend and the next two weeks are supposed to be taper weeks.  But I ask you. Who can resist going blazing fast on a downhill full of switch backs? Not me!

After we got to the bottom of Ridge crest we headed left on #27 Cottonwood Creek.  We then were on the same trail we started on.  We passed the kicked up horse poop again.  And this time it stunk because SOMEONE had kicked it!  I am happy to say this time Kris avoided it!  At this point in the run, through the horror movie trees, we all nearly got killed by the same biker!  The weird part is that we were pretty spread out too!  She was a biker on a mission and the mission was to get everyone else off the trails but her.  She nearly succeeded too!

Instead of backtracking the entire way again, we went up a steep set of stairs. It was part of #25 Eagle Ridge Trail.  Kris started sprinting up them like Rocky, but I made her stop for a picture so she "Lost her Momentum!"

At the top of the stairs we headed left on 25A just to see at the "look out".  Kris would be upset if I failed to mention that she made it to the look out FIRST!  After we looked out and pointed out which trails we recognized I pointed to the very top of the mountains and said, "And there is where 5-mile gulch ends!"  If you fail to see the humor in that, you need to read the Neanderthal post.  We headed back on #25A the other direction until it met up with #25 and now we were going out the exact way we had started ending on #21 Ponds Loop.

It was a GREAT run today!  The air started to bug us about half way into the run, but only while we were climbing.  Kris said it was probably equivalent to smoking a couple packs of cigarettes.  Great comparison.  Michele felt like she got "extra sweaty" today.  Here she is feeling extra sweaty.

After such a great run we always learn so much about ourselves.  This time, Michele learned the she must be "Firm in her convictions!"  A good lesson to follow, Michele. Way to go!  But then later on that same day, we over ruled her desire to start on next trail run at 6:30.  We voted 6:00, overruled her, and won. Maybe next time.

New Race for 2012!!

We found a new race for this year.  It is going to be this September in Horshoebend, Idaho.

 Race 2 The Summit



What a great alternative for Robie Creek (gagging noises).

This will be the first year for this race.  Michele said we should decide after our Marathon in August if we feel good to run it.  Then 2 seconds later she texts me and says that she registered.  So of course, so did I.  I'm in!  I'm always in!  Looks like The Chained Tiger will show up too!

A fall down the stairs = a week off the trails

So, yes I did it.  A sign of old age I suppose.  Going down the stairs last week, in the dark.  y 9 year old had left some toys on one of the steps and WHOOSH! There I go!  At first I was concerned about my knee.  But after a day I realized it wasn't my knee that was affected, it was my BACK!  I took two days completely off to recover it and finally decided BAG IT.  I'm gonna keep running. 

However, I am taking a week off the trails and doing an easier week this week to be safe.  So what did I miss? 

Michele and Kris (the Bossy Bandit) ran Shane's Loop.  Kris dropped her pepper spray, but didn't notice.  Michele ran past it and thought, hmm some one's pepper spray.  Later Kris stopped for an urgent potty need.  at that point Michele said, "Did you see that pepper spray on the trail?"  Kris looked down at her belt and yelled, "That was mine!"  So back they go, 0.3 back to find it, which they did.  It is a GOOD thing they did because....

Next day they do a green belt run.  On the way back near mile 12 they encounter what Michele believes is the fattest cat the she has ever seen.  Nope, as they get closer, RACCOON!  It will not budge, it hisses at them and there is NO ON else around.  The Raccoon starts to walk down the path so they cautiously follow hoping it will soon exit the green belt into trees or bushes but no.  It keeps turning around and hisses at them as if to say, "Stop following me!"

They have no choice but to follow the rodent because that is the way to their car.  Finally after 5 minutes of this Kris makes a decision, "I'm gonna get closer and spray it."  Side bar here, I would have sprayed it the very first second that I saw it.  But then again I am not as tolerant to animals as others are.

So just as Kris approaches here comes some people an bikers.  "RACCOON!" Michele and Kris yell.  The biker dings his bell, and no more raccoon.  I am actually very glad that I missed this drama.   But the question is...did they miss me?

Kris informed Michele that she "thinks" she missed me this week.  Oh I can feel the love.  Apparently her new nickname is "The Chained Tiger", for reasons we will not get in to but she probably likes it better than the Bossy Bandit.  I now need to think of a good one for Michele........

Polecats, ZigZags, and Goats!

So, we have learned a great lesson as trail runners!  We should NOT do trail runs over 8 miles in the midst of a triple digit heat wave!  Therefore, today's trail goal was a nice 7 or 8.  Also, Kris was coming with us and last week she announced that her trail LIMIT was 7!  The plan was to go back to Polecat and run it with the two inner trails, Doe Ridge and Quick Draw.

We looked at the map on the drive there, deciding the best way to tackle this plan.  Then we got out of the car and looked at the trail head map.  We plotted and schemed and planned.  "We'll go left then up to this then right  here, back down, over this, left again, bypass that, go right down or at the top decided about going back here to this down."  Makes perfect sense right? Haha

So from the trail head we went up and took the left direction of the Polecat Loop.  We ran a short way before we came to a trail head.  Here we took a right onto Doe Ridge Trail  #82.  This was a climber!  "Would be fun to come DOWN!" yelled Michele.

After 0.4 miles Doe Ridge meets with Quick Draw Trail #83.  You can either continue on Doe Ridge (to the right) or take Quick Draw (to the left).  We took Quick Draw Trail #83.

Quick Draw McGraw!

This trail is 0.47 miles long.  Another climber!  Another trail that would be great to run DOWN!  Why are we always choosing the trails to run UPHILL?





At the end of Quick Draw we were back to Polecat.  We took a left on Polecat and started heading on the loop.  Yes, it had moments of downhill but it still had climbing.  We stayed on this until we were right back from where we had started, the initial fork of the polecat loop.  So we went left and headed back up.  We had only run a touch over 3 miles at this point.  I was seriously questioning whether or not we were going to get in 7-8 miles.  These inside trails were like short cuts!

However, this time when we reached to fork to take either Doe Ridge or Quick Draw, we opted to stay on Doe Ridge Trail.  There were some bikers at the fork.  We talked to them a bit.  an older gentleman was waiting for a biker who was still coming down the hill we needed to go up (that's right, we were climbing again).  He said this guy was amazing, "He is 66 years old and still out here."  Well Michele and I happened to be waiting for Kris.  Kris had joined us right at this very moment.  Michele piped in, "Well she is running with us and she is 67!"  The man looked at her with amazement.  I stifled a laugh.  Kris just said, "yep."  Then we ran on.  (Note: Kris is 54 years old and Michele know that).  Then Kris told us that she will "take her OWN time.  Do as she wishes and we can just WAIT for her!"

Finally we hit some downhills!  Switchback downhills, the best kind!  We had come to the Polecat Trail again and took a left.  This was the only way we were going to get in a good mileage amount.  The downhill was wonderful.  It seemed like up to this point we had been running uphill all day!  At about mile 5.5 we saw GOATS!

That's right, in their nice fenced in area grazing on all of the invasion Skeleton weed, a noxious weed in the foothills area.  The fence was VERY close to the trail.  Since the trail is narrow you had to really pay attention to your footing.

I started feeling sluggish right when the glorious downhill ended.  We were an hour into the run.  I could feel my energy gone. So luckily I had brought some Sports Beans.  I took three and gave Michele and Kris each three.  I started joking that I was saving their lives.  Oh boy.  Kris reminded me AGAIN that I left off a vital detail in my last blog about our 15.5 heat run last week. So...

I ran out of water running last week.  I was so hot that I was also getting goosebumps on my skin.  We were about just over a mile and a  half left to go.  Kris had LOTS of water.  She told me I was getting heat exhaustion and to slow it down.  Then she kept letting me have her water.  It helped a ton and I was then able to pick back up the pace and bring it in strong.  So, KRIS has saved my life on the trails!!

Now that that is taken care of, back to Polecat.  We climbed a lot again but then we came to the Doe Ridge Trail ahead.  We took the entire trail down to Polecat again.  It was downhill the while way.  Michele was right when she commented that this would be nice to run downhill, IT WAS!

When we finished we compared mileages on our watches. Remember Michele's always says that she has gone further than I have?  Mine was 7.05, Michele's was 7.19 and Kris's said 6.9.  To that Kris announced, "Remember, my watch won't go past 7 miles on the trails or else I will be DEAD!"

Nice run, a very good challenging trail course to get a good workout in.  In order to get 7 miles in we really did a lot of Zig Zagging back and forth from one trail to another, but that's what makes it more interesting!  

One warning though: since there are so many switchbacks, it is a dangerous CAR ride home.  Michele takes the corners as if she is still running.  SLOW DOWN!

Our Attempt to Kill Kris....Failed

Now that wasn't truly our goal today.  But, she sure thinks it was!  Let me explain.

Our goal today was to get a 16 mile trail run in today.  Kris wanted to run with us but not THAT FAR! So, we compromised......

Michele and I arrived at the Camel's Back parking lot.  We called Kris and told her to leave her house now. Then we ran Hill road to Bogus Basin Road. 

Now before I get in to this run too much I need to mention that the temperatures have been triple digits for like 5 days in a row!  Today was forcasted to be 104.  We left as early as was possible, but it turns out later we learn...not early enough.

So Kris passes us in her car as we are running up Bogus Basin Road.  As you would expect she hollers at us out the window and sufficiently harasses us.  She parks at the trail head and waits for us...THIS is the compromise. It is about 3.25 miles for us to get to the trail head #31 Corrals.  When we arrive we are ALREADY HOT, and ALREADY SUPER THIRSTY.  But we count up how many ounces we have and think...yep we are good.  I wish there had been a little voice saying, "Nope you don't have enough, it's too hot today!"

We LOVED Corrals.  From the first trail head that it.  We had nice rolling downhills with a few ups.  If you start at the SECOND trail head it looks like a killer climb. Don't do it!



I brought my pepper spray today.  There have been a lot of fires and we thought there may be a chance that some animals that we don't want to meet may try and meet us.  As we ran Michele looked up ahead and shouted "Animal on the trail!"  Instantly we clumped together and I reached for my spray.  You can imagine how dorky we felt when we then realized it was a DOG.  But in our defense it's owners were a bit behind it and out of sight.

Kris started going on and on about what if we saw a Wolf.  "There are wolves by Table Rock, the fires could have driven them here."  When neither Michele or I really answered she said, "Oh you two would run ahead fast and they would get me and eat me up.  Then you can remember your friend who saved your lives by being eaten by wolves."  Michele laughed and said, "Jodi you can write a book about it."  "yes," I answered, "And I will call it the last sacrifice."

After a great enjoyable run on Corrals we can to a fork and took the left to go onto Scott's Trail #32.  Now Michele and I ran this particular trail in February, so we were prepared that it was a DOOZY.  Kris however, it was a first for her.  How did she feel about it?  "Every night I pray and thank God for such wonderful friends who get me out the door and running each morning.  I think I am going to STOP doing that!"   She was already feeling like we were going to kill her/

At this point I was already feeling dehydrated.  But I kept drinking and tried no to push it too much.

Scott's ends at the 8th Street Extension.  We took a left (actually we debated about left or right.  Michele insisted it was left, we weren't sure so we followed her insistence- to a success).  We came to the Hulls Gulch Interpretive Trail head #0.  This trail was AWESOME!  Definitely one to do in the spring!  I wish we had a camera today.  We crossed many bridges, it was downhill with switch backs, there was a tiny waterfall which would be much better with the early spring run off... Just absolutely loved this trail.

However at this point our fluids are rapidly decreasing and becoming very warm.  Drinking warm Gatorade or water to hydrate is NOT FUN.  I was really starting to feel the energy zap out of me and head straight to the sun.

When Trail #0 ended we had a brief run on #4 (thankfully VERY BRIEF) and then we turned onto Crestline Trail #28.  This is a trail we are familiar with and have ran many times.  Only problem today was THE HEAT.  It was really beginning to take it's toll.  We were all slowing down and talking less.

Something new on this trail was that we didn't stay on it until it meets with Kestral.  We turned right on Red Cliffs #39.  We all liked this trail much better.  It is still downhill, just not as steep.  Well, I'm not sure if Kris liked this better or not.  At this point in the run she was convinced we were trying to kill her.

When we came out to the 8th Street Extension we had three options, hit Kestral to Owl's Roost, the road or this back gravel road that connects with Red Fox.  Kris decided for us "THE ROAD! IT IS SHORTER!"  None of us disagreed.  We wanted this run finished!  We took the road to the parking lot and then joined the Gold Finch Trail out to Red Fox and DONE!

The full mileage was about 15.5, just over 3 hours.  It was HOT!  We were all out of water and walked to the drinking fountain at Camel's Back where we drank enough to last a normal person a few days!  We were so sapped of energy!  Kris was now convinced we were definitely out to kill her.  "I now know my trail limit!"  she announced, "SEVEN!  My limit is SEVEN MILES!"  It is always fun to have her along...I sure hope she changes her mind.

This run really dehydrated me.  Another day of losing over 6 pounds on a run.  And that weight was taken after a couple water bottles, a sprite, a PB and honey sandwich and french fries.  Imagine if I weighed myself before ANY OF THAT!  I think it was so bad because I wore the socks that I got from the Race to Robie Creek.....I should have known better.

Happy Fourth of July!!

What a great way to celebrate and remember all of our freedoms!  A wonderful trail run!  This is the same route we did last year.  Michele and I have decided on holidays to run certain routes.  We are just stinkers for tradition!

On the drive up Mountain Cove Road I saw a sign that said, "WeRentGoats.com"  Michele and Kris didn't believe me.  But then when we hit the corner.....

GOATS

Apparently the do rent goats!

We parked at the last parking lot with a permanent bathroom along mountain cove road.  In the past we have parked higher up but it makes for the run to start with a sudden uphill.  This way you get a warm up in before hitting the hill.  The parking lot says Freestone Trailhead (not sure why).  We headed left onto Mountain Cove Trail # 22C.

Th road we are running parallel with is the before mentioned Mountain Cove Road.  This is where the Les Bois 10K is run.  I do NOT run this road unless there is no other alternative.  And today, there is an alternative!

This is a nice shady trail.  We had started at 7:00 AM, so it was shady at that time of day..haha.  After a bit it comes out to meet with mountain cove road.  A sharp left onto Ridge Crest #20 and we encounter the hill.  This is a tough one to do because you are just getting started in the run.  My goal is to try and run the whole thing.  Michele and Kris' goal?  I am not sure.

After you reach the top of the hill we were at 3/4 of a mile.  You have to then take a left at the next fork which is Buck Tail #20A.  This is a fun trail!  Minimum hills, nice foot surface, single track, grassy, curvy...very runner friendly.  I stopped a few times to have Kris and Michele catch up because, while I wanted to run a quick pace, I was afraid of missing the "fun".  The last time I ran ahead of those two, they finished the run with all of these funny experiences that I missed!  So I was ok with a few stops.

From Bucktail we came to Shane's loop #26A.  Now you can run it either way, Hence the word "loop".  We always choose to run it counterclockwise, that means starting on the right fork.  It has less distance of uphill (although steeper).   This is also a favorite of ours.  I walked the first hill, but then Kris started razzing me about it so I didn't walk anyone of the others!  Later we saw some other runners coming behind us in the distance.  Kris pointed them out and said "they are probably going to catch up and pass us".  I called out, "No they won't! Come on girls we don't want to let them pass us!"  Kris, throwing water on my enthusiasm noted, "Yes we do and yes they can."  She has no competitiveness in her I swear.

On the last really steep hill I ran and Michele and Kris sang the ROCKY theme song as I did.  I even did the Rocky Balboa dance at the top with my arms up and everything!  The best part now, all downhill baby!

You will notice that we lack pictures lately.  I recently dropped my cell phone and broke the camera.  Only occasionally will Michele bring hers along.  (the goat picture was from the car).  So you are forced to use your imagination.


Back to the trail....


After Shane's Loop (back to where we started) we headed Onto Central Ridge #22.  This trail is much wider and you can run in more of a pack instead of single file.  You will notice that there hasn't been much silliness today.  That's because we are used to this trail, semi-pros at it.  There are therefore, no surprises and no near catastrophes!  Hence, less moments of insanity.  However, there was this DOG....

Coming down the end of Shane's Loop this hyper dog passed me.  Okay, whatever.  Unbeknownst to me when it passed Michele and Kris it tried to jump all over them and then it tried to jump on a passing biker.  let me tell you.  It is a good thing that DOG didn't try to jump on ME! If it had there would have been a very loud screaming followed by a DOG being kicked off the ledge, tumbling down the ravine, and then my wicked laughter! (you think I am kidding but I assure you I am quite serious.)

Central Ridge leads you to a fork and then we take Ridgecrest #20 on the left.  We saw A LOT of bikers today.  They were all very friendly, there was just a lot of them!

Ridgecrest is a very steep downhill with lots of switchbacks.  Michele swears that ONE DAY, I am going to take a header down them because I go to fast.  Well folks, today was not that day!  I love this part of the run!  I go tot the bottom and had time to run up and down the trail to get my watch caught up to Michele's which was .1 ahead of me!  I cannot stand when they read different distances.

At the bottom of Ridgecrest, we went right onto Toll Road #27A.  No more uphills today, easy run back to the car.  No excitement, no danger, no puppet legs.  Toll Road took us back out to where we could get back onto Mountain Cove Trail and then less than a mile back to the car.  As we ran I pointed out the WeRentGoast.com sign.  They were both surprised.  Turns out they thought I made it up.  Why would I make up something as ridiculous as that?

All in all it was a GREAT run!  A good 7.15 miles on a beautiful day!

I love America!

Neanderthal Asylum!

Wow.  Today's trail run?  I am almost at a loss for words....notice I did say ALMOST.

Michele and I sat in her backyard last week while the kids were swimming with my ridge to rivers map, deciding what our next trail run should be.  We wanted to get a 14 miler in, to stay on track for our marathon training.  We were very excited when we mapped out a course that looked to be between 14-15 miles.  Michele wrote it all down on a tiny slip of paper for our hydration pack and we congratulated ourselves on such a great idea!

That was a week ago.  It is amazing how utterly and completely wrong we were!

We begin at the parking lot at the trail head for 5 Mile Gulch.  WooHoo here we go, so pumped up for our run.  "What do you think it's gonna be for time?"  "Probably 2 and a half hours." Oh boy, were we off!  We have ran part of 5 Mile Gulch before.  It is steep but not unbearable.  However, when we came to the turn to take Watchman and didn't, we regretted it!  I am still regretting it.

Our course for today began with running the entire length of 5-Mile Gulch, trail #2.  The 2 must stand for how many minutes you are on it before you realize you should GET OFF OF IT!  This trail was so steep!  A couple miles in our calves and achilles were on fire!  We had to stop and biofreeze them right away!  The elevation climb turned out to be 2092 feet.  This was achieved in just over 3 miles!  That is over a 620 foot gain every mile.  There were many moments when we both thought that this was a bad idea but neither of us voiced it.

Our Garmin watches are set to "auto-pause" when we are stopped.  There is a beep noise when this occurs. As we desperately climbed up this trail our watches keep auto-pausing becasue of the slowness of our progress.  We finally decided to de-activate that feature.  It was like being "gonged" or "buzzed" off from a talent show contest.  You are so bad "Bong" you lose! Michele said she felt she was on America's Got Talent and was getting "X-ed" because we were going so slow.

The incline was so steep that we had to walked hunched over like a neanderthal with our knuckles scraping the ground (hence the title of this blog).  I later demonstrated this pose to Michele.

This is how it felt like we were walking!!

Finally we reached the end of 5-Mile Gulch and Ta-Da! we were in the forest!  It was very pretty but quite a challenge to get there!  The trail came out to a fairly open area.  We took a break and took a breath.  We had climbed in 3 miles almost 3,000 feet in elevation.  It had taken us almost and HOUR!  

H-E-L-L-O.....who's idea was this anyway?

 

From here we headed left onto Trail "D", which is Boise Ridge Road.  This is considered a primitive road and wasn't too terrible to run on.  It was actually a nice break from what we had just done....UNTIL!

We were next to step off from "D" and head left onto Trail 4A (I don't think it has a name).  This was brief and came right out to Trail #4, 8th Street Motorcycle Trail or Hulls Ridge. This was a BAD IDEA!  This trail was rocky, sandy, crooked, rutted, full of moguls. just terrible!  Here we had the opportunity to run downhill...but becasue of the road surface we were forced to WALK!  Walking down hill is awful! I almost bit it several tmes.  This was definitely turning into an adventure tat we did not bargain for!

This is an example of the hills that we had to "walk" down!

There was no way we could run down this one!

We climbed quite high.  That is Boise way out there!

This is getting crazy!

 One thing about this down hill that made it so weird to run is that it was also covered in MOGULS!  Just like on an Olympic ski hill.  You felt like you were on some weird roller coaster running up down up down up down.  I kept making "woooo-woooo" noises as I went up and down them.  This only made Michele start laughing, then she couldn't breathe, then she couldn't run.  We were not even half way in to this run and we were physically exhausted!  When that kicks in you get the sillys and giggles and puppet legs and its hard to focus. 

Finally after what seemed like DECADES we came to Trail #5?  What?  That wasn't on our planned route!  There was no other direction to go though.  So, we headed left on trail #5 Freestone Ridge, hoping that this would get us to where we wanted....and it did!  (turns out we had read the map wrong when we planned out this jewel of a run).  It was great to be back on trails and off of Motorcycle trails.  I do believe that Michelle said at least 4 times, "new rule...we do NOT run on motor cycle trails!"  Yes, it was that bad.  I will say this about trail #4, we've ran it so you don't have to.  Please heed our advice and DO NOT DO IT!

Well, happily we came to our intended trail #42 Fat Tire.  We have ran this trail before and LOVE it! About half way there is a really big flat rock with a huge heart made out of smaller rocks.  This is there because this trail LOVES RUNNERS!  It has a great surface, easy up hills, etc.  Nothing like the garbage we had been running on!

After Fat Tire we came to our next turn.  Onto #6 Femrite Patrol (or Curlew Connector).  We could go either left or right.  Michele said we were always going left, so left it is!  Michele has a neighbor who is a big time biker and owns a bike shop.  He said that Femrite was a killer!  Did we heed his advice? No, we scoffed it off.  One of our many dumb things we did leading to and on this trail!  So off we go.

Well, he was right, Femrite is a killer!  Very tough up hill, rugged terrain and not ankle friendly.  As we approached to trail head, exhausted, I yelled out "NO!"  The marker read Trail #4!!!!  We were back to where we had been several miles ago!  That terrible motorcycle trail.  It was like one of those cartoons when the stupid cat goes in a circle and winds up right back where they started!  We had no alternative but to turn around and head back down Femrite.  Do not go left, go right!

We stop to hydrate and empty our shoes which are full of rocks and sand!  Michele says, "That's it, water emergency I'm out!"  I check mine and I have about 6 ounces left.  Time to ration!  "We get a sip every mile."  I announce.  See it was getting warm, we were VERY tired, AND we had no idea how far out we still were and how much longer we had to go.  Not a good position to be in.

Heading RIGHT on Femrite we run, walk, shuffle, drag, run, jog walk, shuffle, etc.  My shoes are already  FULL of dirt and sand again because I am not really even picking them up off of the ground in some spots.  This trail is going on FOREVER and is NOT runner friendly!  At least not after all the other trail abuse we have been put through.

We finally drop down to  a creek and see a man, a boy, and a dog.  Michele stops and begins rambling on and on to this man.  She is speaking jibberish and babbling.  He is looking at her strangely and so am I.  She is yelling too.  So I chime in and explain to him the terrible trail and getting lost and trying to find our way to Watchman.  They are both looking at me strangely too.  Later Michele told me that I was speaking jibberish too. (I wonder what that man thought of us?)  Finally he asks, "Are you lost?"  Michele cheerfully yells, "Nope not anymore, as long as this goes to watchman."  Talking slowly he replied, "Eventually."  So we smile and wave and head off.  Another climb ahead.  After a bit I stop to catch my breath and give us each one sip of the rationed water.  I look down and notice in the distance the man has stopped and is watching us with his binoculars.  He must have thought we had both lost our minds!

As we trudged along I did begin to worry.  This trail was going on forever, our water was almost gone, it was getting hot, we were exhausted and I thought...will we die here?

Just when it seemed like we might actually be in danger I spotted two trail heads at the top of YET ANOTHER HILL!  YES!  I really pushed up that hill, wanting to see, were we on the right trail?  If it was the #4 motorcycle trail....I actually think I may have cried.

EUREKA!  It was where we were supposed to be!  We had two choices, 3 bears or Watchman.  The original plan had been to do Watchman back and out which would have been anoth 3-4 miles.  Or we could take 3 bears which would be another 1 or so.  What would you have done?

THAT'S RIGHT! 3 BEARS IT IS!!

At this point our knees and ankles were destroyed.  Nearly every step hurt.  But we pushed and we ran...just to be done.  The trail came out onto Rocky Canyon.  I have never been so happy to see that wretched road in my life!  We made it with less than an ounce of water to spare!  And waiting for us in the car........................

Frozen Slushy Bottles of Sprite...aaah

And so, that is the adventure on trails for us this week.  Much more than we bargained for.

After getting home and eating and rehydrating we both found that we had lost about 4 pounds.  Yikes! But we did learn some very important things.  First, when mapping out trail runs, look at the elevation gains and loses!  And secondly and every more important.......

  If you are gonna be crazy, 

don't be crazy alone!