Toxaway Run is DONE

I spent the last two days flying to Idaho, running the Toxaway Loop, and flying home. Tom Thomas, Chris Holmen, David Francis, and Steve Hamilton and I were the only ones who went through with what 13 runners originally sighed up for. We flew out Thursday afternoon to Boise, and took a van to Sun Valley. As an aside we stopped in Haley ID to visit Tom's parents. Tom's dad is Perry Thomas, of Thomas & Mack fame. We got a tour of their world famous stables and got to see Britina, the World's champion and bronze medalist at Athens.

We spent the night at Tom's cabin. Friday morning we drove up to Pettit Lake and started the run. It was a 19 mile hike/run with a climb of over 4,000 feet in elevation. We passed Pettit Lake, Alice Lake, Twin Lake (or something like that), and Toxaway Lake. It was a great experience. I finished third of the five of us. We all went for a dip in Pettit Lake at the end of the run to cool down.

After the run we got stuck because the pass to get back to Sun Valley was closed. The geniuses with the Idaho park service started a "control burn" right by the freeway on a Friday evening. The "control burn" got out of control and the rangers ended up having to close the road. After waiting a few hours we learned the road was not going to open that night, so we made an end-run around the mountain and took the long way through Challis ID and around back to Sun City. It was a little over an hour trip to get from Sun Valley To Pettit, but the trip back through Challis was about two and a half hours. This morning we got up, grabbed breakfast and drove to Boise. We hung out at the farmer's market in Boise before hitting the airport and getting on our plane home. Everyone is already talking about what our next trip will be. I am sure it will be a wonderful experience.