Table Mtn - Alaska Basin Loop

Summit of Table Mtn

After working on Saturday morning, I met Mike E. at the Teton Canyon trailhead to do a loop route up to Table Mtn, over to Alaska Basin, then down the South Teton Canyon trail. I figured it would take 4-5 hours. My goal was to get as much elevation in as possible as this would be my last big weekend before Leadville. Table Mtn sits just over 11000 ft and Alaska Basin is around 9,000 so I thought this would be a good loop to do and Mike was up for it too so off we went. I was a bit cautious of doing a hike of this magnitude the day before we were to run the Teton Crest Trail, but we went for it anyway all in the name of training. And Jen said she would start hiking a couple hours later in the reverse direction and meet us on our way down. Perfect.

Mike negotiating the ever shrinking snowfields still lingering at 10,000 ft. They probably won't even melt off completely this summer before it begins snowing again. That's Table Mtn in the background.

This poor fella had a rough winter. Or spring. Or something. At least he still has his dentures and a fury "shawl". Kind of.

Looking south down at Sunset Lake and beyond into Alaska Basin from Hurricane Pass along the Teton Crest Trail. We would be right back up here in less than 18 hours.

Alaska Basin

We started the route up Table Mtn at 2:30. I had parked 4 miles from the trailhead at the entrance to Teton Canyon Rd and began my run from there to get a few additional miles in and kill some time in the process while I waited for Mike to arrive. He was driving the 2 hours from Blackfoot, ID out on the prarie to come here and play in the mountains.

The short story is, we didn't get back to the trailhead until around 8:00. We were going to be setting out on a 40 miler running the length of the Teton Crest Trail at 6:00 the next morning. Here's our example on how to recover quickly and efficiently:

1. Bottle of water and a bottle of Hammer Nutrition Recoverite within the first half hour. Great great great stuff.

2. When I got into cell phone range on my way out of the canyon, I called ahead an order for two large pizzas so I could pick them up on my way home. Mike stopped at the grocery store for two large bags of crushed ice so we could each have a ten minute ice bath.

3. 11 oz bottle of EAS Myoplex Lite protein shake.

4. Stretching stretching stretching.

5. A brief session with the marathon stick muscle roller before going to bed.

All of that seemed to work wonderfully because the next morning we were both ready to run again and oh what a run it was.