Tablerock hike

I have been meaning to blog about this a long time ago but life happens. Ever since I have been married to Mike, I have wanted to do this hike. The huge tablerock hike in Teton canyon. I always heard about how hard and treacherous it is but how absolutely amazing the views are. For awhile I wasn't in shape or I was pregnant. Probably the biggest thing was finding the time to actually do it. But we did it on a whim on our family vacation.

There are two ways up. The hard way which is about 4 miles of intense uphill most of the way. Or the long way which is about 7 miles. It is uphill but more gradual with switchbacks. We decided to go the hard way up and the long way back.

We woke up at 6 AM and there were some threatening rain clouds. In my mind I was doing the hike because I might not be able to do it for another year or so. We got ready and ate breakfast and headed up the canyon in hopes that it would clear up and lucky for us it surely did.

At this point I had done Insanity for 3 weeks and I was in pretty good shape and I took off like a bullet. I was with Mike, his brother Andy and Andy's wife Chrissy. They weren't doing so great. Insanity workouts are killer from the beginning to the end. You jump right into the warmups and kill it for about 40 minutes straight so my body was accustomed to this.

I think the elevation change had some factor on our pace too. Andy and Chrissy live in Portland which is almost sea level. In Logan it is about 4500 feet elevation. At the trailhead it was about 7000 feet elevation. And it climbs intensely. If I remember correctly we climbed about 2000 feet within the first mile.

Maybe I had unrealistic expectations because I didn't know what shape everyone was in. I was hoping we could go for a good record time. I was thinking 2.5 hours up and 3 hours back. Boy was I way off.

Chrissy got sick on the way up and she thew up multiple times. I think she had altitude sickness and she probably was out of shape. So we took a lot of breaks. Mike and I didn't get to the top until 1 PM. I am not sure what time Andy and Chrissy made it. I think they were about 45-60 minutes behind us. So basically we averaged 1 mile an hour. Mike and I hiked to Inspiration point which takes us to a ledge that goes straight done and slopes up to the Grand Teton. It was amazing.

Mike and I headed back and we met up with Andy and Chrissy and we didn't get to the trailhead until 7 pm. On a side note I was so looking forward to eating my sandwich at the top of the mountain. When we got to the top, Mike opened his pack and no sandwiches. They were left in the car. Needless to say I was pissed. I got over it but I was really hungry and I had worked really hard and no reward.

In a nutshell it was a freaking awesome hike. The views were amazing, the weather was perfect and the flowers were awesome. I love hiking with Mike. On the downside I was ultra grumpy at the end because I had been on my feet for 10 hours with not enough food. I would definitely do the hike again but next time I am going for my best time and not just completion. This hike was a huge accomplishment.