Embracing the Suck

More often than not, things don’t go according to plan. At first this was something that annoyed me. I’d do all the research and plan the days but until you’re out there on your adventure, you don’t actually know what will happen. It’s okay to scratch the itinerary and go with the flow. Embracing the suck is something I’ve learned to over the past year and I’d say I’ve gotten quite good at it.

This past weekend was a prime example of embracing the suck.

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I have fallen in love with Alpine Lakes ever since I moved to Utah. Coming from Alabama where the lakes are murky and dark and then seeing a crystal clear lake painted with blues and greens was absolutely mesmerizing, and with the snow piling up, I wanted to see a winter wonderland.

The Sawtooth Mountains have been on my bucket list of places to adventure to so I hopped on All Trails to find a backpacking route and found Sawtooth Lake; it was a 10 mile out and back trail that was rated moderate. Knowing it had been snowing, I went to the reviews and saw one from the week before saying the snow wasn’t bad to hike in so I texted my friend Allie and we made a plan to drive to Stanley, ID for the weekend.

I spent the next two days scouring the internet to prepare ourselves for the trip. The high for Saturday was 25° and the low was 7° so I wanted to make sure I brought enough layers to keep warm. I planned on bringing my two Aussies (who typically love the snow) as well so I borrowed a few winter sleeping bags from a friend and headed to REI to get them a sleeping pad of their own as well.

Last year when it snowed in Alabama - a rare and exciting thing - I bought the girls boots after seeing snowballs form in between their paw pads. I packed those in their bags as well as their jackets.

Saturday morning I woke up at 4:15, loaded the car and headed out to pick up Allie and head on our way! The drive was stunning. It may eventually wear on me, but seeing a on the mountains and covering the plains had me gasping around each bend. We had an almost 6 hour drive to get through, but the views made it worth it.

With 2 hours to go to our destination, we stopped off the side of the road at a lake. I can’t quite remember which one it is, but it’s a few miles east of Mount Borah. After parking, I got out and let the girls out. The temperature reading in the car read 10° but I think the excitement of it all had me feeling warm.

Eilah was bouncing all around the powdery snow meanwhile Amelia was staying by my side. We didn’t stay too long, only long enough to take pictures and have a good driving break. After a little while I noticed Amelia walking strangely so we headed back to the car. I hadn’t put booties on them at this point since I knew we would only be there for a few minutes.

When Amelia hopped in the car, snowballs were already forming to her paws, so I picked them off and noted that I should put the boots on before I would let them outside at our final destination.

A couple hours later and we were finally in Stanley, Idaho. If you’ve never been, its a cute little town. Most of the houses and lodges along the main road are log cabins and there are a few local businesses. We stopped at the Restaurant and helped ourselves to a nice big meal before we began the backpacking trip.

Finally around 3 PM we turned down the road that lead to the trail head. Initially it seemed like it had be snow plowed and my car was doing fine, then we hit the snow. There were tracks already made and there was about 2 miles to go before we reached our final destination. This was the first thing that threw a wrench in our plan.

About a tenth of a mile up the road, my car stops gaining traction. I can’t continue going forward and I look at Allie. I’ve never driven on snow before so I’m not confident at all that we can make it. We reverse back down and pull into the parking area where I proceed to get my car stuck. There’s about 10 inches of snow on the ground and my little old Kia Sportage is not moving. Allie, who's from Illinois hops in the driver's seat and spins her out of the snow leaving a trail of powder and mud.

This is when we decided we’d just camp in one of the nearby camping spots along the road. I get my boots on, as well as the girls’ and we hit the snow. Our first outing was just to go along the trail and find a designated spot. After exploring the area and seeing an almost frozen river crossing, we head back to the car and back into town one last time. Since we didn’t have a long walk from the car, we made the decision to find fire wood and build a fire once the son set.

Once we parked the car, we grabbed all of our gear and made our way to make home for the evening. I set up the tent while Allie made trips for the wood. While I was at it I set up the sleeping pads and brought Amelia into the tent. There were a few times during the day where I saw her noticeably cold so I took her boots in and got her comfy inside a 15 degree bag wrapped in my puffy and topped off with a 50 degree quilt. She was sleeping on my sleeping pad which has an r value of 4.2. Meanwhile Eilah stayed outside continuing to enjoy the snow.

Most of the evening I spent inside the tent keeping Amelia warm. After a while I decided to join the fire and attempt to dry my boots off. The night before I had gone to REI to buy weatherproof boots but as I was checking out the cashier noticed the pair were two different sizes and the store didn’t have another pair in the right size. I decided to wear my leather hiker boots since I’ve been in the snow with them before and seemed to hold up fine.

They were not fine, though my feet weren’t terribly cold, I could definitely tell they were wet. I took one boot off to try and dry it on the fire but as my foot rested on a log, I could feel my toes less and less. It wasn’t worth trying to dry my shoes any more so I went back to the tent for the night.

As we were preparing to sleep, everyone laid down and I got the dogs readjusted in their sleeping bags. Amelia was curled up in a tight little ball and I started dozing. Then she made some movement so I put my hand in the sleeping bag with her and her paws were notably cold. I felt Eilah’s to compare and her paws were warm to the touch. With the temps suppose to go down to 7° overnight and Amelia’s feet cold, I was worried about frostbite and called it off at 9 PM. Allie was such a trooper. She ran to pull up the car as close as she could meanwhile I carried Amelia to the car through shin deep snow. We kept the car on as well as the heater and went back to camp to pack everything up. We carried it all back to the car and began the long drive back home. We left at 6 AM Saturday morning, and I got home at 6:30 AM on Sunday.

Learning to become flexible and embrace the suck has made such a difference on how I view the overall experience. Yes, it sucked that we couldn’t do the full backpacking trip. Yes, it sucked that we had to turn around and drive through the night with only a 2 hour nap break. Yes, it was freezing and my lips were cracked the next day. However, with all that suck I still loved the trip as a whole. It was my first time in a real winter wonderland and I saw things I haven’t before. I saw an almost frozen river, the sawtooth mountains and fell in love with Stanley, ID. Eilah had the time of her life playing and rolling around in the snow and I loved watching her. With Amelia’s feet freezing, its a good thing we didn’t make it to the trail, otherwise I would have had to carry Amelia 5 miles back to the car.

This trip wasn’t all I had hoped for but I learned valuable lessons and still loved it all. Embrace the suck and make the most of what this life has given you!