Date: 1/17/22
Training Day: 43
Miles: 1.7 (hiking)
Weather: High 40s

How It Felt: After being in the van for a few hours it felt good to stretch the legs.

Commentary: After an amazing weekend with friends we said our goodbyes and headed east. The original plan was to leave early and get to Zion early before it got crowded. Instead we slept in, enjoyed our coffee, showered, and then finally hit the road.

Folks always rave about Zion, so I was pretty excited. Perhaps it’s the famous, spectacular hikes in the park that are amazing because driving through it was just okay. Don’t get me wrong, it was beautiful, but not as jaw-dropping as driving through Glacier.

We wanted to do a hike in the park, even if it was just a short one, but everything was already so crowded we decided not to. Instead we hiked to the Toadstool Hoodoos. It was short and easy, and the hoodoos were neat to see.

Then we made our way towards the Wire Pass Trailhead where our hike to The Wave starts tomorrow. We planned to camp at the free Stateline Campground, but when we got to the trailhead there was nothing that said we couldn’t park overnight, so we parked the van and called it home.

Today I intended to go for a run, but it didn’t happen. I’m super bloated from a weekend of pigging out on delicious animal flesh, and I have this underlying fatigue that won’t go away. Maybe it’s because I jacked up my sleep schedule, maybe it’s because of my first official week of training, maybe it’s residual COVID fatigue, or a some combination of those. Regardless, I wanted to save my energy for our big hike tomorrow.

That’s the great thing about giving myself a while six months to trail for Beaverhead. I can cut myself some slack here and there without worrying about completely screwing up my training.

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