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My best friend here in Utah, Heather, decided to train for her first Ultra Marathon - The Antelope Island 50k which takes place March 21, 2015. While I went home for Christmas vacation, her training went into full gear, running the course trail at the island. She somehow convinced me to run it too! I've never run more than a full marathon, and this is 33 miles! Eh... it's just almost 7 more miles right? But more importantly, I wanted to support her through her journey, so I agreed (and besides... I owed her from convincing her to jump into a freezing cold lake with me at the Polar Plunge)!
This past Saturday, January 31st, we headed up to Antelope Island for a 20 mile run. This was my first time at Antelope Island (which is ironic since I used to live in Layton, and never took advantage of exploring when I lived there), and until then, had only seen it from a distance and through pictures from friends. Upon entrance at the park, I stopped to snap a picture of this sign...
(and for future reference, I'll be referring to bison as "buffalo," and yes I know they're bison and not buffalo)
Brian, Janet, Robin, Heather, and I met up at 8am to go varying distances. Heather and I had planned to go 20. We dressed for some warmer weather, but when we got there, it was so windy and cold!
Brian, Janet, and Robin headed out while Heather and I made a few more adjustments before heading out. As always, we ended up on the wrong trail and got somewhat lost. We went around to where we thought was Elephant Head, but found out from a fellow runner that we were on the opposite side of the island from Elephant Head! We did find the shack, with yet another a breath taking view!
As we headed down towards the other side of the island (where we were supposed to be), Heather asks me if I see "the buffalo?" What buffalo (I can't see details from afar... I'm near-sighted)? And then I saw it running. It was charging towards the runner who just gave us directions! I was so scared! We stayed were we were, on top of the mountain to keep out of harm's way. We tried to decide what to do, since we needed to go down that same trail. We saw it start to climb the hill. We slowly crept around the corner to see where the buffalo was, and next thing you know, it was on the hill about 50 yards off from where we were. It turned its head in our direction and started the beginning of its charge in our direction. I can't remember exactly what happened, as I was too scared to think, but apparently my eyes were as big as those Beanie Boo toys, and that in one fluid movement, I turned and sprinted down the hill while her feet remained glued to the ground in terror for another couple of seconds. Her flight response finally kicked in as soon as she realized I was gone and down the hill! Thank goodness for another runner who happened to be right behind us when the bull started charging! He helped us check to see if the buffalo was gone! The buffalo was gone, so went ahead with the rest of his training after he made sure we were okay. There was so much anxiety, I felt like I was going to have an asthma attack! I couldn't breathe was we were trying to get away! We ran into another runner, once we got back on the trail, who said there was a herd of 5 where she ran that were grumpy and chasing runners too! All she wanted to do was get back to her car!
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| We Escaped the Grumpy Bison |
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| We Escaped the Grumpy Bison |
As much as I wanted to call it a day at that point, we went out and did what we had set out to do - and that was to finish our 20 miles! So off we went. There were some pretty tough uphills, which made the legs burn!
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| Elephant Head Summit |
The picture just above was part of the valley and the switch back area we had yet to cover. So back down we went. While we were at the summit, we saw the area in which the buffalo were hanging out that the lady was just telling us about. We went down the valley and hit the switch backs. They were NO JOKE (especially after expending all that energy, and the adrenaline rush)! Once we hit the flat area of the trail, we were so scared as we knew we were approaching the herd of buffalo. We were so nervous we started the hysterical nervous laughter that almost made us pee in our pants! A biker passed us and said they weren't too much further, and that they were right along the trail. We joked with some ladies who caught up to us, and Heather said, "You go ahead of us... there are buffalo up ahead." One of the ladies got a little offended and asked us why we would ask that. [Ummmmm... because there are?] Another couple caught up to all of us, and we ended up sticking together. We saw the herd not too far away, at this point.
When we approached, we all made our way up on the hill and into the rocks. Heather and I stuck together. There was one buffalo on the left, a foot from the trail. As I looked up to the top of the hill, I saw another, and I started to freak out! Heather and I stuck together and tried to make it to the rocks. We both were so scared, tears started to well up in our eyes. We made it to the rocks, but it was equally as frightful, as the rocks weren't firmly rooted in the dirt. They were loose and could slide at any moment.
Once we made it past there, we felt like we were in the clear. So we decided to take the shorter route back to the car, instead of the way we were supposed to run (which is back the way where we encountered our angry buffalo). We ran into a ranch hand who told us of the stories he experienced with angry buffalo and stampedes. On the way down that trail we saw 2 more herds! It felt like they would look up at us and give us the evil eye! I kept looking over my shoulder to make sure they didn't decide to charge.
Our legs were heavy and in pain, we were parched, and we, like the lady earlier this morning, just wanted to be done and back at the car. On what we thought was the last stretch, I froze... one more lone buffalo!!!!! Heather didn't realize what I froze for (she's far sighted - we're so opposite) and then she saw it too! Back up above the trail and into the rocks we went! We were so scared, that the snap of a twig scared us (we thought the buffalo would freak out and come charging)! And we couldn't see the car... we thought we were lost yet again! We weren't even sure if this would lead us back to the trail! But we were grateful to have found our way, and Heather saw my 4Runner in the distance. Now to make sure we made it there without any more buffalo!
We finally made it back and couldn't have been more happy to be back at the car and to sit! This hasn't really happened to anyone else in our running group, but of course it happens to us (and she's been there quite a few times already)! Heather stopped to talk to a guy who had just finished too, and he said he got chased as well. He tried to give us a better idea of our mileage, since Heather's Garmin died, and we probably ended up running somewhere between 25 and 30 miles! Yikes!
And then on the way back to the gate, we couldn't see sight of the trail... and wondered... "Did today actually happen? Are we alive? Are we dreaming?" It was so surreal! Once we headed out of the park, we saw the bison statue, which you saw at the beginning of my post. We re-enacted our responses. We couldn't stop laughing... because that ACTUALLY happened to US!
Later, everyone kept telling us what signs to look for when a buffalo is ready to charge. But to be honest, when you're heart is racing and you can't think, you don't have time to see if their tails are up... especially when they're already in the "charge" motion and mood. All you have time to think of us "Get me the heck out of here!"
I'm grateful we're alive to tell the story, and that we got out of there unscathed! And there's nobody I'd rather go through "getting chased by a buffalo" with than Heather!
Warning: Don't be like this guy, and provoke the buffalo! Or you might end up dead!
