WOW!!
The
Narrows were fantastic!
I want to do it again, or Top Down, or Rappel in, ANYTHING! So beautiful and fun.
We went 6-7 miles total, including the 2 miles of paved trail at the beginning and end (1 mile each way). It took us 2.5 hours to go up, and about 1.5 to go back down - but I think we
could have done it much faster, even with all the playing we did. Not that I would have done it differently with this group, but I could see doing it with part of the group or my siblings and pushing it!
You see lists of "ESSENTIAL THINGS for hiking the Narrows" (Like
this) or you hear from people who say "You are going to HATE it if you don't have specialized water-hiking boots!" and I just laugh. That's a bunch of crap. Seriously. If you have the ability, (technical skills, trail experience, whatever) you can do it faster and safer than if you have an ESSENTIAL walking stick, fleece layers, and yes - if you wanted to you could even do it in Tevas or Chacos! I'm not saying you shouldn't be safe. Some of that list are good ideas (especially the camera in my opinion - SO beautiful!) I was over-prepared with the things I had, and having that made me less likely to jump into the deep waters or other stuff to avoid water damage to electronics and things.
"Know Thyself" the Ancient Greeks said, and do what you think you should! For an excellent article about how Mountaineering, Trail Running, Ultra-Marathons, Peak Bagging, etc are all merging together into one extreme ultra awesome sport because of SKILL and not Gear - check out Craig Lloyds thoughts on "
Running on the Edge" - Those young punks like Tony Krupicka and Kilian Jornet are doing things SAFER with less gear and SO much faster than traditional times of ascent of all sorts of crazy routes. Awesome.
Okay back to the Narrows!
On the way back we actually RAN the entire mile because we felt so good and wanted a bit of a workout and to dry off just a bit more. I was eating beef jerky while running and inhaled a bunch and was coughing peppery jerky coughs most of the way back too!
The Narrows is something I would love to do again, MANY times. It's not hard, but you could challenge yourself if you wanted to.
NOW for the pictures! I took 450 on my little Waterproof camera that has been used for mostly Mud Runs so far. I'm still collecting pictures from the family that hiked with us - so I might add more if they have some awesome ones!
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| River Crossing! |
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| Crazy Sandstone Holes! |
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| Sitting in the river! |
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| Yoga on the Rocks! |
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| Tiny Waterfalls! |
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| Sandy rocky shores! |
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| I'm a Monkey! |
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| Such an Awesome Place! |
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| The group! |
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| Need more Running in the Narrows! |
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| Great ankle and foot-placement training! |
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| Splashing! |
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| Muddy Socks! |
I really can't wait to do it again! I wonder when that will happen.
Less than 2 weeks until Tough Mudder. Then I have no planned events for the rest of the year! We might do the
Turkey Leg Thanksgiving 5k again...
Yikes. Guess I'll have to keep training for continual awesomeness instead of a specific event for a while.
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