By the time we made it to the parking lot and to the fork in the trail it was nearing dark so we headed up towards Alaska Basin for about five minutes and found a quaint little area to hike. It was just barely big enough for some gear, a tent, and I fire and was surrounded by a creek on one side.
We chowed down on freeze dried chicken teriyake rice which is actually pretty good and had hot chocolate and oatmeal for breakfast. Needing to be back for Jame's wedding reception in Blackfoot, we decided to ditch our original plans and just head up Devil's Staircase.
All was going well until I got tired and decided to take a shortcut. Charly was ahead of me and instead of taking an extra switchback I started climbing up the ridge about fifteen feet. Besides that constant underlying fear of getting attacked by a rattlesnake, all was good. Then I got to the top. All that was left was loose dirt and pebbles with nothing to grab onto and no way of going back down. I yelled out to Charly a couple of times and he came back only to say he couldn't pull me up because it was too loose for him as well. He ended up balancing me as I took the first step, which I then slipped and grabbed his hand hoping I wouldn't pull him down. With the next step I made it and I don't think Charly was very stoked on the whole idea, seeing as how I only cut out about twenty feet of hiking distance. Hey, I thought it was more, ok.
On our way down from Devil's Staircase we came upon some hikers asking us if this was the trail to Table Rock. Poor fellas. They were three and a half miles into the wrong trail, way out from Table Rock.
We hiked back to our car, grabbed chinese food at Broulims, and went home and took hot showers. A short backcountry camping trip but like I told Charly, in perfect weather like it was, I believe I could honestly live out there.
Yes, I know. My bright red sumo wrestler Burton leggings go perfectley with yellow reflector hiking shoes. I was not counting on it being as chilly as it was, despite the fact that I was very warm in my sleeping bag I should have brought real pants.
Maycee was a good pup for a while, but in the end she squirmed her way into Charly's sleeping bag to sleep and keep warm. The second the morning light hit our tent though she was clawing at it to get out.
View from a third of the way up to Devil's Staircase. There have been a lot of fires recently hence the smoke.
Here are the latest road biking stats:
August 22
Where to: The hill up to the temple, right at the temple, and onto pole line
Dist: 11.25
Av Speed: 14.2
Max: 22.3
Time: 0:46:28
August 27
Where to: The hill up to the temple, right at the temple, and onto pole line
Dist: 10.48
Av Speed: 12.5
Max: 26.7
Time: 0:50:16
I went mountain biking on the 28 with Stephen, Jenna, Jeremy, Jeremy's friend Beaner, Joe, and Joe's friend Alli. We did Wolverine and biked up for a little while from the bottom while waiting for the shuttle.
August 29
I went on a thirty five minute ride that was just 7.25 about doing temple hill and Poleline. I can't seem to find where I wrote down my times so I'll have to update this later. That same day though Charly came home and wanted to go on a bike ride so I got up and did it again. Here are my times for the second ride of the day:
Where to: The hill up to the temple, right at the temple, and onto pole line only cutting through through the small housing development to the left.
Dist: 8.8
Av Speed: 13.1
Max: 28.6
Time: 0:40:17
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