It Happened in Sun Valley

I still love Sun Valley in the Fall. We have been coming over for over 30 years. The leaves are just barely starting to turn. Dad and I were thinking when we went to the SV golf course for the first time and saw it cost $27 a piece, we wondered if we could ever aford to golf it. Monday we paid $135 a piece. It still is one of our favorite courses. They have a new club house it is east of the old one and they have added a nine hole course accross the street where the gun club was. It goes up the hill. Chuck and Sue Hunter and Bonnie and Mike Peterson had come over Sunday night and stayed at the lodge. The guys golfed together and the girls followed. We had dinner at Smokey Mountain Pizza and then Bonnie and Mike headed for home and Chuck and Sue stayed over at our condo.

This time of year is quiet. We take our bikes over and rode about 17 miles toward Hailey on Tuesday. I did pretty good always the last, but I didn't get off my bike going up any incline. Dad left on Wednesday and so I walked around town looking at all the shops and gasping at the prices of things. $50 for bubble bath. Nordstrom is looking better in prices. I saw small quilted cosmetic bags for $24. I could make them (I know I need to make the time). Maybe I could become a Vera Wang and have Tiffany market them for me. (Time again). I did wander into the Gold Mine (for those of you who don't remember its the thrift store). I did buy a Mary Higgins Clark and read it last night and today.

I brought over unfinished projects to work on as I knew Scott had to go back to IF on Wednesday and Thursday. I finished an apron, about finished Maeli's hanging quilt and cut material for Jason's quilt. I also went for an 8 mile bike ride and then this evening dad and I rode our bikes up to Sun Valley. They have a new outdoor amphitheater. They give free concerts in the summer. Go on line to see it. Tommorrow we are going to ride up to Stanley and do some hiking in the Sawtooths. I bought a book on easy hikes. Its been a while since we have been up that way. Saturday we may head to Twin Falls and go golfing as it is cheaper and then head home.

Table Rock

How many of you have hiked Table Rock? What are your memories? I hiked it for the fourth time in my life on August 27. The first time I hiked it with Mary Jones and two of her friends. We went up the face came down Huckleberry Canyon. Half an hour into the hike I started getting sick. I sat down and put my head between my knees and tried to clear my head. I started feeling better and decided to keep going. I finally figured it was the cigarette smoke from Mary's friend that was making me sick. How can you hike and smoke at the same time? Every time she would light up I would get way ahead of her. I out hiked her in the end.

The second time was with Scott and the kids. We went up the face and came down Huckleberry also. Geoff was only 3 years old and he walked all of it except half an hour on his dads shoulder. People would stop and were amazed and how well he was doing. It was on this hike that we knew we could take Geoff back packing.

The third time was with Geoff, Tiffany, Jed, Jorelle and myself. We went up the face and back down the Canyon. If you go the face up and down its 9 miles. If you go the canyon its 12 miles round trip. The excitement on this hike is Geoff had his dads fanny pack and of course it was too big for him, so he hung on his shoulder. Just as we got out of the trees on the ridge, we walk over to the edge to look into the canyon. The fanny pack slides off his shoulder and goes over the edge. Geoff wants to go down and get it as it is on a ledge. It had his jacket and half our lunch. I told Geoff that there is only about $30 worth of stuff and it wasn't worth the attempt to get it if he couldn't get back up. Knowing that Geoff is a climber now maybe he could climb down and see if he can find it. Ha Ha!

Ok this about my latest trip up to Table Rock. I met with 3 friends at the Teton church, Allison, Cammi, and Cindy. We started hiking about 8:20 am. Cammi said it was better to go up Huckleberry then the face. What I know now to cut an extra mile off, I would go up the face. As we started up we were moving at a fast pace and I thought oh no is this going to be like another Lower Palisades Lake hike with the college kids. I was thinking how am I going to do this at this pace and within in 10 minutes Allison had to stop as her heart was racing. Whew! Thanks Allison. She had to stop every 10 to 15 minutes. Her heart was on her left side and you could see it beating and put your hand on it. It was weird, she said she had scoliosis when she was a child and had surgergy and her rib cage never grew and so most of her organs are scrunched. There is nothing flat about this hike it is all up hill. Reminded me of the Inca Trail. Cindy said her husband who hikes all over the world said if you can hike Table Rock twice in a summer you can hike anything. Well before long Cindy and Cammi left Allison and I in the dust. The mountain goats got way ahead of us. As we started up the switch back my ankle was giving me some trouble so I stopped and wrapped it. Allison said she was grateful for me being in the front as I would take a few steps and then stop. I am slow going up but I get there. It was cool and windy and once on the ridge it got colder.



We should of stopped at the trees and ate but we got past the rock shale and met Cammi and Cindy coming down. We stopped and ate and they said it was cold on top and they would wait in the trees for us. Well I have been to the top several times and this was Allison's first time and it was up to her. It had taken us 5 1/2 hours to get to that point and I knew it would probably take us another hour. She said it was ok and we basically didn't want them to wait for us. So we headed down and this picture was taken on the way down. Before we knew it they were ahead of us again. It took us 3 1/2 hours to get down and they beat us down by half an hour. Allison didn't have any problems going down. It was all I could do to keep up with her long legs.

I was trying out my new camel pack and love it. Allison will probaly never hike it again. I was glad I did it and who knows when I will do it again. There was an older couple who said they had hiked the grand 30 years ago. I wanted to see it as Geoff had just climbed it the week before and it is the closest I will ever get to it.



Allison is on my bowling team and she is the director for our ski bus. I help her with decisions and raffle on the ski bus.