May 21-27, 2012

My first run of the week was just a neighborhood run, but it was one of those awesome rainy spring days of torrential downpours followed closely by intense sunshine.  I was grading papers after work, but as soon as I saw that it started to rain I headed out of the building.  I missed the best part of it--as I left my classroom it was raining so hard that it was difficult to see the park across the street, but by the time I was out the door it had already slowed to merely an average downpour.  That was still a lot of fun, of course, and it was such a nice warm day!  I just did the usual three-mile Saltese Loop, but the usually boring neighborhood run seemed transformed by the weather.

I didn't make it out again until Thursday afternoon.  I have been craving some Mount Spokane time for a while now!  I decided to go to the mountain after work to go for a trail run (Trail 100-Smith Gap-Kit Carson Road Loop; I found a bunch more morels!) and check in on the chalet.  The run was great, but the chalet had some issues--one of the big living room windows had been knocked in somehow.  I'm still not sure how it could have happened.  At any rate, I didn't have the necessary materials to deal with it right then, so I was forced to return on Friday for another trail run and then an attempted short-term fix (short-term because I don't know how to fix windows, and because the drive way is still covered with so much snow!). 

Friday I ran lower 110 to the cedar grove, then became scared of the very strong wind and turned back early (after finding a few more morels!).  After that I put up my temporary fix of plastic, duct tape, and random pieces of wood (which I have since learned later all feel down--fortunately, another club member is better at temporary fixes & has nailed some plywood over it).  Then I had to go home and pack--it was Backpack School Graduation Weekend! 

We left Friday night to drive down to Riggins, Idaho for our backpack trip along the Rapid River.  We got to the trailhead at midnight and quickly set up tents & spent the night in the parking lot.
On Saturday we got up early and enjoyed a pancake breakfast with huckleberry sauce before doing the final pack-up.  The rest of the group started to arrive, and we were on the trail within 20 minutes of our planned start time—that’s pretty good considering there were 23 of us!

It was an easy hike in of approximately 6 miles.  There was a lot of poison ivy along the trail, and I was just positive I touched it a couple of times, but fortunately, no horrible rash developed.  We were in camp before noon!  I got the tent up and then sat and snacked and graded some essays while the rest of the group arrived.  After everyone was in, I decided to cross the stream to another trail that led up to a cool old abandoned cabin.  I took plenty of wildflower pictures, plus cabin pictures when I got up to it.  It looked like an abandoned homestead; there were old farm implements all over the former meadow that was slowly being reclaimed by the forest.  I also found two elk sheds in the meadow!  I think that the cabin and beyond hike added about 2 miles to my day.  Then several of us did an extra afternoon hike before dinner on another fork of the trail—I think that added about 4 more miles (for a 12 mile day).

I thought that I’d sleep well after so much hiking, but instead I had weird nightmares.  It started to rain, but I dreamt a thunderstorm into it.  It was such a realistic dream that I thought that there really had been thunder until I asked several other people about it Sunday morning.  Not real.  Weird.  I also dreamt that there was a rattlesnake in my tent vestibule.  I was pretty sure that one was not real since what was initially one rattlesnake rattling behind my tent turned into a bunch of rattlesnakes coming out of holes in the ground due to the rain, and then taking shelter in the pack cover of my backpack in the vestibule of my tent.  It was such a vivid dream that I was extra careful opening up my pack Sunday morning.  Thank goodness, it was all nightmare; I have too vivid an imagination!

Sunday was mainly rainy.  We hiked as a group up to two nearby cabins, and then a few of us continued up the trail to see if we could find morels.  We didn’t have any luck with the morels, but it was a very pretty hike.  It rained most of the time, and just before we turned around it actually started to snow!  Ken said he thought it was about an 8 mile day.

Weekly mileage: running = 11 miles; backpacking = 20 miles