August 6 - August 12, 2012

Monday, August 6:  
Today I needed to make up for lost gardening time, so I spent my morning getting caught up.  In the afternoon, I had a meeting to attend.  I wanted to find something close to the meeting location (near Cheney), so I settled on Turnbull Wildlife Refuge.  As it turns out, there isn't a lot of hiking at Turnbull.  The longest trail was closed for repairs, but we hiked Headwaters Pond Trail (and saw a family of swans!), then the Blackhorse Lake trail, then part of the 30 Acre Lake/Beaver Pond trail.  Then it was time to go to the meeting...so tonight was only 3 miles total.

Tuesday, August 7:  
Today I did a 6 mile trail run at Mount Spokane on trails 100 and 130, followed by a hike on Upper 140 and around the CCC cabin. 

Wednesday, August 8:
Iller Creek run!  I ran to the top while the girls did their run elsewhere, and then I met them on the trail (where I had to do an extra out-and-back to catch one of the girls who ran the wrong way) before returning to the trailhead (plus another out-and-back when I dropped my pepper spray and didn't realize it for 1/4 mile!).  6 miles/running.

Thursday, August 9: 
Today was a busy day--I did four different routes!

I started with a mile route along trail 130 and the heritage area--I was putting up signs to remind people that the heritage area is a walk-only zone.  Unfortunately, lots of people have been ignoring the bike-ban in the heritage area; lately, some people have been using the CCC-era rock landscaping as jump routes.  Frustrating.  We'll see how effective the signs are; if this keeps up, mountain bikes are apt to be banned from the west side of the park.

After that I needed to hike down to the trash pile on the backside of the mountain to check my GPS coordinates.  This one is an illegal winter camp--people have cut lots of trees and left piles of garbage.  Awesome.  'Cause until you're caught in the act, it's okay to totally disregard all park rules, several laws, and throw reason to the wind, right?  At any rate, I added a 1/2 mile on the hike in & out on Northwest Passage (it was longer down to the trash, but I only counted the trail).  Later that afternoon I did the trip again, this time with a group.  I hauled out a pack of trash both times; it was perhaps fifty pounds total for me, and around 300 pounds total for the group (and I've been down once before with another person and we probably hauled out close to 100 pounds that time).  We're not even done with it yet; there is a lot of trash down there.  And that's why I'm sometimes a misanthrope.

In between my trash-hauling hikes, I did a nice trail run in the Nordic area for a total of seven miles.  The huckleberries were ripe, so I was forced to take a few snack breaks.  My total mileage for the day was nine miles.

Friday, August 10:     
I left today for my backpack trip--we planned to meet at Gypsy Meadows in the afternoon to carcamp, and then start early Saturday morning.  Of course, I needed to get some mileage in today, too!  I fully intended to go to Pend O'reille county park for a trailrun, but I missed the turn-off.  It's a long way north before there's a way to turn around and go back, so I decided to continue north and try the Bead Lake trail instead.  I've only ever done this trail in the winter, so I was really interested in seeing what it is like in the summer.  I'm not sure if I would have done the whole thing if I'd known the mileage beforehand; the trailhead sign doesn't mention mileage.  I also don't know if I would have done the whole thing if my watch wasn't broken--I had no idea how long it took me until I was back in the car at the end and saw my car's clock (about two hours had passed!).  Only once I got home did I find a website that established the mileage from where I parked to the end of the spur trail and back as 13.24 miles.  Just a little more than a half-marathon!  I actually felt pretty good until the last for or five miles, and even then it was mainly that I was super thirsty and it had gotten hot outside (I rarely run with a water bottle).  The only bad part was that a bee/wasp flew into my face at about the two mile mark, and it stung me on my lip!  It might have been okay if it had stung me in the middle of my lip, but it stung on the side--so I ended up with a funny fat lip that I could actually see out of the corner of my eye if I looked down.  I must have looked really funny to the mountain bikers and hikers I passed!  Most of the swelling went down by the time I finished the run, and fortunately, I never suffer adverse effects from bee stings--fat lip aside.

I was really tired after the run, but I wasn't done yet.  I continued my drive north, and I did the side trip up to Crawford State Park and Gardner Cave.  I haven't done this trip since I was a little kid; the cave was great, and I did the side hike up to the Canadian border swath, too.

And I still wasn't done!  I'm determined to get to a waterfall hike or two, but they are hard to find in Eastern Washington.  For my last hike of the day, I did Elk Creek Falls.  I even managed to get some really good pictures of it!  Of course, they are still on my camera; I'll try to post one later if I have time. 

Trip totals: 13.24 at Bead Lake + 1.5 at Crawford State Park + 2.1 at Elk Creek Falls = 16.84 mile for the day!

Saturday, August 11:
Backpack trip!  We started at Gypsy Meadows and hiked up the Thunder Creek Trail to intersect the Shedroof Divide.  We did the side trip up the spur trail to the site of the old Thunder Creek Lookout for our lunch break, and then continued out the divide to intersect the Salmo Divide Trail.  We took that down to the parking lot for the Salmo Loop, and then dropped down into the basin to camp at the nice site just before the river crossing.  There we so many cars in the Salmo Loop parking lot!  However, we only saw two day-hikers for the entire day.  Daily mileage = 21.3.

Sunday, August 12: 
Today we completed the Salmo Loop, headed back up the giant climb by Shedroof Mountain (maybe I was just really, really tired, but that thing was tough) and then exited the Shedroof Divide via the Shedroof Cutoff Trail.  That part was 19.3 miles, but then I added a mile more by stopping at Sweet Creek Falls to hike the interpretive trails on my way home.  The waterfall is awesome, even in August (I really need to go see what it looks like in the spring!), and the trail signs are hilarious--they make it seem like it must be the most rugged, dangerous mostly paved trail around!

Hike-a-Thon Mileage through week 2: 144.5 miles

Running: 31 miles
Hiking: 50.2 miles

Total mileage for the week:  81.2 miles