Teton Valley Days: Table Mountain

After seeing how Thursday turned out, we decided to plan to hike on Friday, despite the iffy forecast. We packed everything on Thursday night and got up early on Friday morning (8/9/14), after Brady and Connor had slept out in the wall tent. We went up the face and planned to go down the Huckleberry trail (longer, less steep), but the clouds on top were a little ominous, so we opted for the faster hike back down the face. It was steep, but not as difficult going down as I'd remembered. That Huckleberry trail is beautiful, but it is never-ending. Every time I've done it, we are ready for it to be over, with about 2 miles left! The decision to go down the face was right, as the thunder and rain started in earnest when we got to our cars in the parking lot (after the kids got to wade in the creek, of course!). It took us about 3.5 hours up, 1/2 hour on top, then 3 hours down. Not lightning fast, but not too slow. We ran into Brady's teacher from 4th grade (Mrs. Kunz) and her two kids (ages 15 and 12). That was fun. The other cool moment was just before we summited, we met a woman on her way down. She was 79 years old and does this hike every year. This year she was joining her nephew and his boy scout troop (they were still on top and she wanted to start down early). She told us that last year, at 78, she did it alone (!!!) and completed the round trip in 6 hours. That inspired all of us. She vowed to be at least that fit next year at 80. I have no words.