Running/Hiking the Four Pass Loop in Aspen!

Running 28 miles in one day, through breath-taking wilderness, all above 9,000 feet, is very empowering. And fun! And probably one of our favorite trips of the year, other than Belize. 

Yes, this was much more fun than hiking around Lake Tahoe-knowing that we could sleep in a bed that night, and not have to pitch our tent, was very nice!

Hal and I planned this adventure to celebrate our seven year anniversary. Nothing says "I love you" like spending 11 hours running through mountains! 

This is an extremely popular backpacking loop, and seeing as we saw 30 backpackers on a weekday at the end of September, I would imagine this loop is like a human freeway in the summer. 

Just one more reason to run it!

We used this website for most of our information, and also brought this map with us. 

We broke the cardinal rule of 'always test out your gear before heading out for a trip' and bought these amazing packs a week before our run, having never tested them until the big day! Fortunately, they were awesome, and now we won't use anything else. I'm a size small and Hal is a medium, in case anyone wants to throw down $150 for an ultralight backpack!

Our shoes of choice were the Hoka Challengers, and again, Hal bought his pair the day before while we were walking around downtown Aspen. 

I don't ever recommend buying new gear the day before a big event, but in this case, I already had a pair of Challengers and loved them, and they fit Hal perfectly out of the box. 

We had our good friend Andy join us, and it's always a treat to have friends come on our crazy adventures with us!

We left town at 5:30am and were at the trailhead, ready to go, a few minutes after 6am. It was still dark out, so it was good that we had headlamps for the first hour.

I'll use the pictures to tell the rest of the story, but bottom line is that this was an all-time favorite run, and we would highly recommend it to anyone who's up to the challenge!

We ended up being out for 11 hours total, 28 miles, and 7,912 feet of elevation gain. We traversed four 12,500 ft. passes, and all of it was amazing. And Hal and I both felt good the whole day, which is rare. If you are an athlete, you know how special and fleeting those days are when you feel strong and powerful all day, and both Hal and I were having one of those days during this run, thank goodness for that!

Enjoy the pics and as always, thanks for reading!

6am start in the dark

Pausing to catch my breath and admire the Maroon Bells

1st pass done!

Heading toward the second pass...

Doesn't look like a real picture! Snowmass Lake.

Snowmass Lake again

2nd pass done!

Honey Stinger sponsor shot

Waterfall in between 2nd and 3rd passes 

Running toward the 3rd pass, and check out my awesome backpack!!!

3rd pass done!

4th pass done-whew!

Running the final miles...

Last break before the final push

Yay we're done!

Looking pretty good after 28 miles and 11 hours...!

Bye Aspen, thanks for the adventure!

  

Hiking the Tahoe Rim Trail-also known as the last backpack trip we ever do...for a while anyway!

It's been over three weeks now since we completed our 171 mile thru-hike of the Tahoe Rim Trail.

Since there is SO much information we could share, I'll just keep it simple and use pictures to tell our story...

Bottom line: Hiking that far, in 8 and 1/2 days, is a LONG way to hike. 

And mostly Hal and I got bored. 

It's the truth. 

There's not much to do every day except keep walking, make sure you know where your next water sources are, and keep yourself comfortable. So that leaves LOTS of time for talking, walking, listening, trying not to fall asleep while walking, and wishing you could be doing anything other than walking.

I'm not complaining, I just don't think we will be doing another long distance backpack anytime soon.

We averaged about 20 miles a day, which would have been okay except that I forgot to plan in a 'rest' day. So at day 6, we hiked 20 miles to Tahoe City, picked up our food drop from our good friend, and got a hotel that night. It was great to sleep in a king sized bed, shower, and clean up.

Since we slept in the following morning and only did 10 miles that afternoon, we were now 10 miles behind, with only two more days left. So, thus followed two 25-mile back-to-back days, at the end of our hike, with the most elevation gain of the trip-ugh.

We started at Spooner Summit, which is in Nevada, and we were worried that our Subaru might be towed while we were out hiking, but people said, "Don't worry, your car is on the Nevada side, not the California side."

They were right and when we finished up back at Spooner Summit, 8 and 1/2 LONG days later, our trusty Subaru was right where we left her.

A great resource was the  Tahoe Rim Trail organization website. We also relied solely on this map.

We had two resupplies, carried out for us by our generous and kind friends, 

Our favorite section was by far the eight mile stretch from Echo Lake to Aloha Lake. That section alone is worth traveling to CA for. 

The entire trail was VERY dry and dusty, so gauging your water sources appropriately is critical.

The weather was amazing, no clouds, no storms, beautiful blue skies every day. 

Which is also why there were SO many people on the trail. But the majority were very friendly, very knowledgeable of trail etiquette, and left no trash behind. 

The only trash we did find was an old rusted bike that was locked to a tree, and three battered tents-weird.

Here are the pics to tell the rest of the story:

Our start at Spooner Summit (see how clean and happy we are on the very first day?!)

 

Trail markers were decent throughout the route

 

Big tree!

 

Happy camping Hal (now he never wants to see that tiny tent again!)

 

Big meadow, a favorite...

 

Echo Lake-want to come back here!

 

Aloha Lake-also awesome!

 

Echo Lake again-spoiler alert, this will probably be on our xmas postcards this year!

 

Hal heard something big crash in the night, and this was what we found the next morning, less than 200 yards from our camp-yikes!

 

Heading into civilization-Tahoe City

 

Food drop via moto-thanks Rob!

 

One of the rare views of Lake Tahoe from the Tahoe Rim Trail (I know, we thought we'd be hiking closer to the lake too!)

 

Dehydrated breakfast of champions!

 

This was called an 'unreliable' water source in our data book...

 

And finally back at Spooner Summit, 171 miles later!

 

Ewww, we need a bath!

Thanks for reading, we are more than happy to provide anyone who'd like to do this hike with much more detailed information. 

On that note, this would be a great loop to do for someone's first thru-hike-good scenery, not very isolated should something go wrong, and great weather.

But that doesn't mean that we ever need to hike it again-ha!

Sheila

Here it is, the van we have all been waiting for. 

Well, myself anyway. Kasey wasn't completely sold on the idea of a van but I can see her  excitement grow as she sees the transformation and shows it to our friends. 

Oh, I gave myself a haircut too...

Follow along as we scrap the old versions of campers for the even slimmer "Sheila"....

2016 Dodge Promaster 2500, 22 MPGs, gas powered, and fairly inexpensive, as far as nice vans go. Automatic six speed transmission with a very nice option package that enhances long distance driving. Bluetooth, back up camera, front wheel drive.  Very nice driving van with a cargo capacity of 4,400 lbs. Wow! 

These vans are five inches wider than a Sprinter which allows for east/ west sleeping, creating different layouts for smaller vans. This van is about a foot shorter than the Ford truck was and drives way better. 

This is my dream van. 

The inside of the cargo van before its transformation.

Notice the 14 inch square hole in the roof??
The silver stuff is a sound proofing material from Home Depot.
It is actually roof repair for metal, but does an outstanding job as a sound proof/deadening  material at about 1/4 of the cost of the real product, Dynamat.

More sound proofing with an additional layer of insulation.
This is made from cotton jeans all shredded up and has a foil type of backing.
I installed it foil side out hoping to discourage moisture from entering the cotton.
The exposed metal is wrapped with a marine/ automotive type carpet that will create a softer, warmer feel to Sheila. All of the material I have used is glued in place with 3M 90 adhesive spray. I have tested it on several locations and have heated it to 200 degrees F with a heat gun to ensure that it stays stuck. It has been rigorously tested and has surpassed my expectations.
The box is for the bed base and will house the 35 gallon fresh water tank.
We are keeping everything inside to provide an all-season rig. 

This shows the progress from the rear. The face to face dinette converts quickly into a queen bed.
I have used light weight aluminium bars to support the bed. They seem much stronger and supportive than I expected.  

Here is the bed in position for sleepy time.
The gray carpet will provide a place for four inch high density foam wrapped in upholstery.
I am trying to get Ma Rumrill to come down and whip those out. She is great at stuff like that.  

The other side box is slightly smaller to maintain a larger space in between to house the bicycles.
Notice the wall is done in a Birch ply. This is to break up the  lines and provide an easy clean wall surface.

Stay tuned for the build... enough solar and battery to run a microwave and stay "off the grid". Inverter, 12 volt fridge, shower with hot water, and a propane or diesel heat system to keep us comfy.
Please leave comments or ideas and thanks for reading!

Hiking the World's Longest Slot Canyon!

Check out our not-so-exciting-but-pretty video of hiking through Buckskin Gulch!

Allegedly, Buckskin Gulch is the world's longest continuous slot canyon. So of course we had to hike through it!

To get to Buckskin Gulch, you need to drive to Kanab, UT and then go east from there about 45 miles to the White House Trailhead. Drive in and leave a shuttle car (or a shuttle motorcycle!) and then go back toward Kanab and turn down another dirt road to Wire Pass Trailhead. This is where you will leave your vehicle and start your hike. There are a few shuttle operations as well, if you don't want to deal with the hassle of shuttling a vehicle. This website was very helpful, giving detailed information and directions.

We wore our hiking backpacks, complete with tent, sleeping bags, and stove because we wanted to prepare for our longer, 160 mile hike around Lake Tahoe this coming August. A fit person could fairly easily do the 21+ mile hike in one day. We took two days, but the second day we only hiked for an hour before we were back at the White House trailhead.

We hiked for about 11 hours, with plenty of sight-seeing stops, on the first day, covering roughly 18 miles. There is really no elevation gain or loss to speak of, making this the flattest hike I think we've ever done! Most of the trail is deep sand, or sand with rocks, so wear old hiking shoes or trail running shoes and plan on washing your socks two or three times to get all the sand out when you're done.

Don't let the website scare you-this is a very accessible slot canyon, not technical, and has no elevation gain or loss to speak of. Now, we were there last week, in the first part of June, and it was hot, but not overly so, and most of the water that makes the hike harder was evaporated. There were only two knee deep pools, and plenty of places to collect muddy water from. If it were raining, or there was a flash flood, then it would be an entirely different, dangerous situation.

Here are some pics from our journey:

At the start of the hike...

Narrow canyon walls

Cool petroglyphs!
(Hal doesn't believe they are real...!)

This guy wasn't afraid of us!

Tall walls

Taking a break; it was nice and cool in the shade of the canyon

Probably the best light and picture of the whole trip!

Great primitive campsite, where we cooked up some dehydrated dinner-yum yum!

Swiss cheese rocks! 

Our new tent! And it was so warm out we didn't need the fly

As always, thanks for reading and please let us know if you're interested in doing this hike-we can provide you with much more detailed intel!