Back in 2007 Jennive and I attempted to hike the 12 mile round trip Table (Rock) Mountain located in the Jedediah Smith Wilderness Area of the Grand Targhee National Forest. For those not familiar, this is a fairly challenging hike. Basically you spend all morning climbing up a mountain and all afternoon climbing back down. From what I've read the total elevation change is around 4,000 feet from the start to the top. It's really an all day event.
Well, the 2007 Jennive and Daniel didn't quite make it to the top. In fact, it was a little embarrassing how out of shape we let ourselves get. We didn't even make it 2 miles. That's what made this day-long challenge first on our 30 Before 30 list.
Fortunately for us the annual Hawkes Family Reunion was timed well for our new goal. A hike was organized to start at 8:00am June 29th at the trail head. Jennive and I determined we would do the hike. So we made arrangements. We took work off. We got the grandparents to watch our three kids. We packed our hiking bags and headed to Driggs, Idaho (had to make a 7:30am pit stop at Subway to pick up lunch for our hike...it's tradition!).
There are two ways to the top of Table Rock. The Huckleberry Trail, which is the only sane way to hike up the mountain; or the Face Trail, which was probably created by a bunch of kids hyped up on energy drinks. Our hike was planned for the Huckleberry Trail.
The day before our hike we heard the hot temperatures were causing high snow melt. The runoff made the creek that the trail follows and sometimes crosses dangerously high. We decided to go anyway. After all, there were 20 to 30 others planning to hike the trail that day anyway. We made our way to the trail head parking lot. Nobody was there...
After a few minutes Jimmy Hawkes (my cousin and the hike organizer) arrived along with his three month old puppy named Lobo. Then a few more minutes passed and Brandon Pace along with his three oldest kids arrived (ages 14, 12, and 9). We were ready. We were set. We were seven Hawkes' and one malamute husky.
The hike started out well. We started around 8:45am. We wore sweaters. It was a bit cold. Soon enough we were pealing off layers as we hiked one after another through the forest. The scenery was unbelievable. The air was clear and smelled like pine. Jennive and I were full of energy and ready to go!
As the morning continued we worked our way through the forest. There was plenty to talk about since we had been working so much the month before and hadn't spent much time together. We talked about the kids. We talked about work. We talked about our plans for the future. Just good old fashioned couple talk.
After a while, we made it to the first creek crossing. Only the creek was more like a river due to all of the spring runoff. We stopped. Waited. Jimmy had a rope, so we decided to take off our shoes, roll up our pants, and cross. Jimmy tied the rope to a willow tree. I crossed first. It was cold. Not like a glass of water with ice cold. More like a hypothermia to death in thirty seconds cold. I can honestly say I have never been colder in my entire life. It hurt, then it didn't.
Each of us crossed the creek one at a time. I held the rope on the other side so there was constant tension. My feet were just out of the water keeping me close enough in case someone slipped into the subfreezing rapids. The creek was deeper than it looked. It went up to my thigh, almost Jennive's waist. I wasn't sure how the 9 year old would cross. Jimmy ended up carrying him across on his back. Brandon brought the dog across. We even had a mother/son group use the rope while we were there.
Finally we were all on the other side. So I went back and untied the rope. I couldn't feel my feet, my ankles, or anything below my knees. It was a very strange numbness. It took me half an hour sitting in the sun just to thaw out enough to put my shoes and socks back on. In all, Jennive and I were at the first creek crossing for over an hour (notice I said "first").
We weren't back on the trail for more than half an hour before we hit the next crossing. It wasn't deep, but still we had to do the whole routine over again. This time everyone else was ahead of us. We were the last to cross. We were back on the trail after fifteen minutes.
We continued up the trail crossing the creek two more times (only there were logs to walk across so we didn't get wet). After another hour we found where all of the runoff was coming from...snow. Lots of snow. The trail was gone. It wasn't hard to figure out though. We were going up.
On our way up we ran into a group coming back down. A husband and a wife. They had been to the top and were headed down the Huckleberry Trail. They told us there was a significant amount of snow that had melted since they hiked up earlier that morning. That's when we decided there was no way we were going back down the same way we had come up. We'd be going down the Face.
The rest of the hike up was pretty uneventful. We stopped and at lunch around mid afternoon. Subway tastes pretty good at 11,000 feet. It was neat passing the tree line. Although I could feel myself breathing harder.
We finally made it to the top of Table Rock. All seven of us plus one very tired puppy. Once on top we snapped a few pictures, I checked my email (3G coverage...can you hear me now?), we sent a couple of texts, and then headed back down.
The trip down was awful. It was steep. There were loose rocks the entire way. It pretty much sucked. The only thing that would have made it worse is if we had run out of water...which we did. However, not everything was bad. We didn't have to walk though the snow. We didn't have to take off our shoes and freeze our feet in the creek. We just had to walk down a very very steep mountain.
When we finally made it to the bottom we drank some water, took off our shoes, and stood in the subfreezing creek again. This time to combat the swelling in our legs. It worked.
So after a long day of climbing (seven hours up) and then descending (three hours down) we were done. Our first 30 Before 30 goal met. That feels great!!!
By the way. Back in 2007 when we attempted the hike we didn't have any kids yet. This time Jennive did the entire hike after giving birth to our third child just three months ago. Jennive lead the way setting the pace for the majority of the hike. She's a rock star!
