188 Mile Red Rock Adventure

In mid-June, my lovely sister-in-law Heidi got me excited about the Red Rock Relay - an incredibly scenic, 188 mile, 12 person running adventure in southern Utah. It sounded perfect -- just intimidating enough to ensure I'd really prepare and an excuse to hang out with cool people in one of my favorite parts of the world -- so I committed to do it. Luckily, 11 other fantastic family members and friends agreed to join Team Deadrock and run it with me, and more than any landscape we could have been in, the team is what made the weekend unforgettable:


Team Deadrock
top (L-R) Art, Vaikko, me, Justin, Hannah, Doug, Mikael
bottom (L-R) Tricia, Heidi, Shannon, Jennifer
(Jaron showed up later)

  

















First a little race background: each person ran 3 separate legs of between 3 and 8 miles, averaging 15 miles per person.  That means most of us got to run at least one leg in the heat of mid-day, surrounded by awe-inspiring red rock vistas:

My brother Vaikko Allen the Iron Man

Although that also meant we got to run in the middle of the night surrounded by ?

We gathered the team together on Friday at 9:05 am at Brian Head Ski Resort

then rode the chairlift up to about 11,000 feet (freezing our butts off):

to cheer on Tricia, my brave sister-in-law who kicked off the race for us. She just started running for the first time in her life a few months before the race and ran with taped up feet because of a bad case of plantar fasciitis -- definitely one of my heroes:





Along the way there were highs (like 10,000 feet high - not a lot of oxygen!), lows (cluttered, increasingly smelly vans, ludicrous hills that just appeared out of nowhere in the middle of your last leg),  and in-betweens (1 hour cat naps between legs, mediocre food and port-a-potties galore with no Charmin in sight). 

But mostly the highs stand out - an incredibly supportive team of tired but happy runners:



Mikael "After" Berner



Jen "HILL billy" Bingham

Shannon "Swish" Bousfield

Doug "Kung Foot" Sharp

Vaikko "Mercury" Allen

Art "IV" Morrill (he ran 4 legs!)

Heidi "Last Leg" Edwards

as well as Justin, Hannah and Jaron (wish I had pictures of you running!).  A bunch of awesome people cheering each other on, encouraging each other to finish strong, and recording our badges of honor (another stripe on the arm or leg) after each run:


Jennifer finishes her third leg of the race!
















Finally, 30 hours later, we all crossed the finish line amid screams, tears, and some pretty sweaty bodies:

finish line!!!!!!!!
















no more legs to run!



The best reward was the satisfaction of finishing something really hard together as a team:



We ROCK!!



After a post-race lunch of fish tacos and a good night's sleep, I can say this was one the great experiences of my life. I had a ball spending time with family and friends and proving to myself that I could do it. If you don't have plans yet for September 2011, and you're looking for something super cool, inspiring and mildly painful, this should absolutely be on your list.  I'll definitely be back!

*You can see more pictures of the runners and some of the places we ran through here (be sure to look for us scrambling to clean the paint, or 'team spirit', off the rental van, Doug running barefoot on 120 degree asphalt, miscellaneous wildlife and all the beautiful scenery!)





Yosemite or The High Sierra Swim Hole Challenge

We've found a new favorite National Park:

This occurs every time we visit another one, so the title may not last long, but I'm sure we'll go back for more of Yosemite in the future - especially if we get to go again with our favorite camping cousins the Bousfields!

To get to Yosemite from Provo, we drove 9 hours across the great western basin and range of Utah and Nevada, braving one of the loneliest (and most restroom free) stretches in America.  The kids loved playing the "how far until Dad has to touch the steering wheel" game as we shot straight through dozens of valleys like this one:

As we neared the park, it became clear that the trip would definitely be worth it, despite the near-constant chorus of "How much further?", "When will we get to the next bathroom?", and "Are you sure there isn't a bookstore on this road that sells Mockingjay?" we got to listen to along the way.

We entered the park from the east through Tioga Pass and immediately encountered a lucky man working Kevin's dream job:

We asked him if he'd mind trading and taking Kevin's job as a university professor - he responded "Not on your life."  Oh well...can't hurt to ask.

We camped in the beautiful Tuolomne Meadows area (we highly recommend it) at just under 9000 feet.  As soon as we got there the kids discovered the Tuolomne River near our campsite and were so excited they didn't even change clothes before jumping in:

They soon realized how cold mountain streams can be:

and how long it can take the sun to warm you back up at 9000 feet:

Still, they went back in all afternoon, especially after discovering a very cool natural water slide:

One of our goals for the trip was to encourage the kids to do more strenuous hiking (you know, like one of those families whose 8 year old kids carry all their own gear on 30 mile backcountry trips...), so the next day we picked a couple of appealing destinations, loaded the kids up:

and headed out.  The first stop was Dog Lake, a few miles away, with a nice little increase in elevation along the way: 

Keeping with their commitment to find the best swimming holes in the High Sierras, the kids waded right in despite icy water temperatures:

After visiting the lake, we headed up to Lembert Dome - one of many cool rock domes in the park, and our personal favorite:

The scramble to the very top was fun for the kids (it just kept going and going...):

And the views were spectacular:

Despite a sprained ankle, ravenous bellies and the urgent need for a bathroom on the way down, we made it back to camp happy and proud of our kids for their 7 mile trek.

The next day we drove 55 miles down into Yosemite Valley for our first views of El Capitan and Half Dome:

Continuing our quest for good cold swimming, we decided to make the short hike up to Lower Yosemite Falls and play in the lovely pool we heard we'd find there.  Except that it turns out that in August that pool doesn't exist and we got to scramble up a quarter mile of boulders:

to get to the gorgeous, freezing pool:

under what was left of Yosemite Falls this late in the season:

We had a great time swimming (or standing) around in the boulder-filled pool:

and for once, we weren't shivering when we got out because the air was so much warmer than the water.  We spent the rest of the day biking around in Yosemite Valley and picnicking with intrepid ravens.

Our final full day at Yosemite, we decided to try a slightly longer and more arduous hike: just under 11 miles round trip to see Cathedral Peak and Cathedral Lake. We started out strong:

and it was very cool to see Cathedral Peak up close:

but after hiking 3.5 miles and climbing a couple thousand feet, the kids decided to turn around while the Jolly Rancher supplies were still sufficient for the journey back to camp (plus we enticed them with enough $ to buy foot-high ice cream cones at the camp store after thinking about how nice it would be to keep going without hearing "are we there yet?" every 2 minutes). 

Kevin and I happily went on, taking in the stunning views of Cathedral Peak:

incredible meadows and glacier-polished rock:

and finally the lake itself where we reclined against the hot stone and just enjoyed life for a bit:

:

We had to leave the next day, but waking up to below-freezing temeratures and the threat of snow helped ease the sorrow of departure.  Sure enough, as we drove out of the park, it started to snow and we enjoyed watching the squalls in side canyons down Tioga Pass:

One final stop at the incredible Tufas of (salty) Mono Lake (where I unwittingly became part of the committee to preserve the lake - "Long Live Mono Lake!"):

and we were on our way back across the great basin and range to our temporary home.  Luckily for our hiking ambitions, we have a few great trips coming up (Glacier, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Redwood, Disneyland?) where we'll certainly work on toughening up our little pack mules... 

Next up?  Red Rock Relay!!  (see http://www.redrockrelay.com/) Want to join our team next year?