Table Mountain Hike

While we were in Rexburg, before the family reunion festivities began Scott and I went on a hike in the Tetons.   We decided to do this hike back in April when we were planning our trip out to Idaho.  My parents had a newspaper article about an older couple who had worked up to the hike and had done it in their "old age." My parents had this on their fridge as kind of a motivation and maybe a someday we will try that type of thing.  We told them we wanted to do it and that they were welcome to come with us, but they were afraid that they would slow us down but encouraged us to do it and that they would watch our kids.  So Scott and I practiced walking at an incline on the treadmill at our gym, and continued to do other kinds of exercise so our legs and heart would be in shape.

We woke up at 5 AM, drove for about 45 minutes to the base of our hike.  Watching the sunrise on our drive and seeing the Tetons get closer and closer was so exciting

                              

                                                
                                             

                                               


                                       

       

 

  

 The first part of the hike was forested with a gradual incline,

 Then we went through some meadows

                           

 and we saw this little guy, a moose laying in the grass
                             
There were a couple creeks to cross, I'm so glad I borrowed my dad's hiking stick, it caught me from falling a couple times.

The sun starting to peak over the mountains

 Then it started getting more steep

 When we hiked to the top we could finally see table mountain in view. It is that flat rock area in the middle of the picture. We saw the end in sight, we just had to go along the ridge to the right of the picture to get to the end.  You could start to see the tip of the Grand Teton peaking out at this point.

 Before reaching table mountain we had to go over this rock field and a lot of the rocks were shifty and tipping, this was the only time one of us fell, and it was me!  But I was able to catch myself on my hands before going down on any other part of my body, so I was fine.

 The last part was the hardest, right below the rock, it was so steep and just dirt making it easy to slip.  The elevation at this point was also starting to get to us, and we had to stop every couple steps to catch our breath.  We went from 7,000 feet at the beginning of the hike to 11,000 feet at the top.

 Then when we did get to the top it was one of those, "I can hear angels sing, "AHHHHH" moments!  We felt like we were so close we could touch the Grand Tetons!  It was so breathtaking and beautiful!

                                   



         We did it!  The 7 miles up took us 4 1/2 hours.   We sat down, had our lunch and took it all in, these panorama's don't do it justice!

                                      

                                       

We were able to do the 7 miles down  in 2 1/2 hours with only 2 breaks.  When we had about 2 miles left my legs started to feel like jello, but I was afraid that if I stopped I wouldn't be able to start again, so we pushed through.  I got a poison ivy rash on my arm as a trophy for completing the hike! It must have been one of those times I had to pee in the bushes!  oops! After 3 weeks it is almost gone, but I will always remember to look before I brush up against any foliage again!  

This was such a thrilling experience, even better that I could do it with my best friend, (and he didn't have to tell me to hurry up once!)