The Teton range is jagged , and majestic, rising to 13770' in the distance.
The plan is to backpack 2 nights, so that's at least 2 dinners, 2 breakfasts, maybe 3 lunches, and some snacks that need to fit in your pack. Other than some long underwear and a shirt to sleep in, there's no need to bring more clothes than what you wear right now, aside from some extra layers for warmth.
We meet at the car not too long after the planned 7am departure, to load the car, but by the time we all have our stuff jammed in the trunk, and coolers and boxes of food sitting in the back seats, it's 7:30, and time to start the 460 mile drive to Jenny Lake trailhead in Grand Teton Nat Park to meet Karl and Mariann at 3pm.
Matt volunteers to drive the morning stretch, while Wendy (and maybe you) get an extra hour or 2 of sleep. Beck, Alice In Chains, and Zelda music surrounds your ears, as you doze across the Wyoming border, and head West with Long's Peak diminishing to the south.
Wendy drives the final 1/3rd of the trip, and we see many mountains, but not the Tetons until we cross the Continental Divide for the 3rd time today.
The Teton range is jagged , and majestic, rising to 13770' in the distance.
We arrive at the park entrance ~2:30pm, and decide to take the scenic drive along Jenny Lake. We figure Karl and Mariann will probably be a bit late, since they had a 900 mile drive from Seattle.
We're looking up Cascade Canyon, across Jenny Lake. Hopefully we'll be returning from our hike thru there.
We get to the Jenny Lake visitors center at 3:15, and I start scouting for Karl's car in the large parking lot. We all put on some sunscreen. It's gorgeous out. Sunny, but not too hot. Don't need sunburn as an extra discomfort when sleeping in the mountains.
In less then 10 minutes, I see Karl and Mariann, and it's time for some quick "hi"'s before getting serious about starting the adventure. We all take our packs out of the car, and begin fine tuning our supplies, and putting our items in plastic garbage bags, in case it rains.
It takes a long time to finalize our packs. Then we have to make room in Wendy's car (a white Chevy Classic) for all our backpacks, and selves. It will be very cramped driving to the trailhead to begin our hike, but it'll be a short drive.
Now all that's left is to get backpacking permits from the ranger station, and figure out exactly which route to take (Matt had a map, and lots of ideas). Oh shoot! Hopefully the ranger station is still open. It took a long time to pack, maybe we should have gone got the permits first!
Matt (cheerfully): "We're interested in getting some backpacking permits."
Mean Ranger (flatly): "Where are you going?"
Matt (proudly): "We'd like to head up Death Canyon, and connect to the Teton Crest trail, and finish with the Cascade Canyon trail."
Ranger (non-thrilled): "Do you have ice axes?"
Matt (surprised): "No."
Mean Ranger (with gusto, seeing our cheerfulness decline): "You're crazy to go up there without ice axes. There's dangerous slopes, and you'll slip and fall down into rocks."
Wendy, having never camped before, or hiked much, paces a bit nervously.
Karl (diplomaticly): "Are there ice axes to rent? We appreciate your advice."
Mean Ranger (dryly): "There's a store down the road. Do you know how to use them?"
Karl: "The two of us are technically trained (implying Mariann)."
Matt: "We've had some experience in snow."
Mean Ranger (mean and tired): "Well, guys will bring girls backpacking, and they slip and fall and end up with cracked skulls, or dead. You're crazy to go up there without an ice axe."
We all hear Wendy's stomach turning over, and her mind thinking, "What am I doing here."
Matt & Karl (little disapointed, but resolute): "Well, we can always turn back. Let's plan for the whole hike, and see how it goes."
Rangers tend to be SUPER cautious and their job is to prepare careless hikers. We didn't expect these conditions, but it can't be as severe as he made it to be. The mean ranger relents and accepts our decision, and issues us permits for various locations, and even says we can camp at alternate sites if we don't make it the whole way.
The permits are issued for a "Nat Traze". Close enough.
It's 5:20pm and we hit the trail! We'll hike 3 hours or so and look for a campsite before dark. Sunset is 9:06pm here.
Karl "freezes" for a photo, at the beginning of our hike.
We see several people early on, and someone tells us to look for a moose ahead. It is black, which surprises me.
The heavy pack doesn't feel too weighty, and we make good progress behind Karl's pace. The trail gradually rises the first mile, then goes downhill quite a while towards Phelps Lake.
views of Phelps Lake
We then enter the canyon opening and climb along side a cascading stream.
It's ~7:20, and the sun is slipping behind the canyon walls.
The trail has many switchbacks as we climb into the canyon valley.
Eventually, the trail flattens out, and we walk through a forest, with several stream crosses.
There are many waterfalls down the rocky walls of the canyon opening. This is prime snow melt (and waterfall, and stream) season.
Time to start finding a place to camp. There are signs about bears activity, and guidelines on how to hang bags of food in trees. This sounds tricky and time consuming, so we continue on, hoping to find the "group site" in this camping region that has a bear proof storage bin (the ranger did give us some helpful info).
Karl reaches a camp site, but it's not the group site, and asks if we should stop. Mariann thinks it's worth our time to go a little further, hoping to find the storage bin, and not spend a long time trying to hang bags. The rest of us agree. We decide to go on to one more campsite, and what luck! We find the group site still with a little sunlight left in the day.
The view of the canyon opening from our dinner spot, on a rock along the gushing stream at the group campsite.
Dinner time! We drop our packs, and start setting up the tents. Karl gets out his stove, and Matt tries setting up his borrowed stove, but he can't find the directions. He and Wendy manage to set it up, but have trouble lighting it. Too much gas leaks, and a portion of the rock is in an oil fire. Wendy dumps her water bottle on the fire, and we decide to just use Karl's stove to boil our dehydrated beef enchilada.
After dinner, we put all the food in the bear proof box. Matt downs some peanut butter to be sure he doesn't get hungry later. The tent is cozy and warm, despite the chill air outside. It'll get into the 30s tonight. Wendy seems to be enjoying her first night camping and sleeping in her new bag.
The bear proof box, full of our food. Surprisingly, we were the only people at this site. Pic taken the next morning.
Sleep tight. A big day of hiking in store tomorrow. So far no snow, and fairly smooth going. Suprisingly we saw no hikers the entire evening after the first couple miles. Tomorrow will have ~1500' of elevation to gain at the end of the canyon valley. We'll climb up the edge, and walk along the shelf. Hopefully the snow won't be too severe.
It's been beautiful so far, and this tent rules (EMS Moonshine)! Wendy snuggles into her new mummy sleeping bag like an experienced pro. The sound of rushing water in the nearby stream provides soothing white noise for your pleasant dreams. We can't believe that we're the only people around for miles in this lush canyon valley. Very peaceful here.
(As you can tell, I didn't take many pictures today, to try to conserve the battery for this trip. I'll more than make up for it in the next few days...)