We started out Monday morning at around 5:15 a.m. and booked it to Denver in one day. It was awesome to be on the road again together with the Green Dragon. We stayed with our standard Denver billet, Matt Rutstein, my good friend from high school. Matt has shown us amazing hospitality in years past when we've come through Denver, and this year was no different. We went out to eat at a local sports bar with him and his girlfriend Crissna before crashing from the 16 hour drive and early morning rise.
Denver's weather was perfect in the morning, which made it even harder to leave in the morning, but Grand Teton NP and Alaska were not getting any closer so we headed north. [Peter...did I punctuate that sentence correctly?]
Yet another NP sign to add to our life list bulletin board!
The Grand Teton range which was created from uplift, one continental plate heading up and one heading down. Grand Teton was named by French fur trappers, which basically translates to "huge boob."
Picture for the grandparents in front of Jenny Lake.
Look out point above Phelps Lake our backcountry destination. We had plans to hike up Paintbrush Canyon, but when we arrived at the permit office they looked out the massive windows framing the snow covered Tetons and said it wasn't possible unless we had snow shoes and ice axes. We decided to hike the trail that was mostly snow free.
The weather was a bit of surprise. Whenever the sun would disappear behind rain clouds the temperature would drop into the 40ºs and 50ºs. When the sun was out, it was comfortably in the 60ºs. In the morning, it even snowed on us while we were eating breakfast. At night, the temperature fell to near freezing in the 30ºs. This was a good warm up to Alaska, but we are still hoping it is getting warmer as summer progresses.
Cara's natural lounge chair at Phelps Lake
The view of Death Canyon from our favorite huge sitting rock.
Breakfast with David and Laura
When preparing our dinner the first night we ran into our first backcountry snag. The gas canister sold to us by a reassuring REI employee did not fit our stove. Because we were only a few miles from our car it wasn't an emergency and would have just resulted in a few less than average meals. Lesson learned, always check your gear before heading out.
Instead of eating our planned cous cous and chick peas meal cold, we asked to borrow the stove of the only other hikers also at the lake and thus met two awesome people, David and Laura from Bloomington, Indiana. Laura turned out to be an ultimate player that played at IU and knew Noah B, and David turned out to be awesome and newly married to Laura. We had a great evening hanging on the huge sitting rock as night descended. Congratulations to our new Hoosier friends and thanks again for the use of your stove!
Animals sighted:
1. Black bear (200 yards up the hill from our campsite at Phelps Lake. Very cuddly at a safe distance.)
2. Moose (splashing along the opposite shore of Phelps Lake)
3. Marmots
4. the Orange eyes of ??? on our way back to our tent at night after hanging with David and Laura.
-T
