Teton Backpacking

My other recent backpacking trip was to the Tetons with Laura over Labor Day weekend.  We hit the road Friday afternoon and made it to the Tetons a little after midnight.  We slept in the back of the Sequoia (I love that SUV, it doubles as a camper) in the parking lot for a local climbing crag.  At dawn we awoke to a spectacular sunrise that turned the Tetons shades of orange and pink.  Since it was Labor Day weekend, there were people lining up at the ranger station for walk-in backcountry permits.  Laura and I cooked breakfast in line (GNAR points??)  and after obtaining our permit and bear canister we hit the Paintbrush Canyon trail.  Low-hanging clouds were around for most of the morning,  but the weather held for our 7 mile hike in to Holly Lake.

After setting up camp at the lake some darker clouds rolled through and it began to rain.  We got in the tent and took a much needed nap.  A few hours later, the skies began to clear and we headed over to the lake for a swim.  I love swimming when I go backpacking.  It doesn't matter how cold the water is, I almost always go for a quick dip.  I always feel so refreshed afterwards and I sleep better.  Shortly after our swim more dark clouds began to build to the West.  Supposedly there had been a lot of bear activity around Holly Lake, so we hustled to cook dinner away from our camp before the next round of thunderstorms.  Unfortunately, as we finished cooking it started hailing hard and thundering and lightning.  We decided to eat in the vestibule of our tent which is terrible bear awareness, but it sure seemed better than eating out in the elements.  We did store all the food and garbage well away from our tent afterwards.  The thunderstorms hung around all evening and into the night, which I figured would keep the Bears hunkered down instead of bothering us in the tent.

We both slept long and hard, awaking to crystal blue skies in the morning.  Originally, we planed to be up and out of camp early, as we had a 13 mile hike out over a mountain pass.  However, we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast while our tent dried.  The hike up to the Paintbrush divide was quite beautiful, but crisp and windy.  From the divide, it was about 10 miles out, but it was all downhill through Cascade Canyon.  On the way out we stopped at lake solitude for a snack.  The highlights of the hike out were seeing 2 moose and the stunning views!  After a long day, we finally made it back to the car.  Since Laura is training for a marathon, she thought it was a good idea to cap off our day with a run, as she "needs mileage."  I was crazy enough to join her in a jog around String lake, turning our 13 mile day into nearly 18 miles. 

Saturday evening, we poked around Jackson.  It's a quaint little town, but it is also very touristy.  We grabbed dinner and beers at the local brewery which was great, especially after a long day.  That evening we camped at a campground and the next morning we went to my favorite little bagel shop in Wilson.  After breakfast, we hit the road for Yellowstone.  Laura had never been and it seemed like a great place to go since we didn't feel like hiking much, however, it added quite a bit of driving to our day.  We hit all the hotspots, the mud pots, Old Faithful, the colorful pools, The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, and the buffalo herds.  After we had our fill of Yellowstone we headed home to Boulder.  Overall it was a great trip.

Backpacking in the Elks

I did a decent amount of backpacking this summer (at least for me).  In the last month, I went on 2 trips, both were fantastic.  So much of the time I am hellbent on climbing something, and as a result I often have a hard time getting excited to go "just backpacking."  This summer I found a lot of freedom and relaxation in backpacking and I had a blast getting out there.  It felt really good to shed the weight of the rack, rope, and harness; to go light and fast through the mountains; to stay in my sleeping bag a little longer; and to enjoy more "quality time" with my wife and friends.    

The first trip was to the Elk Mountains with my 2 high school buddies James and Phil.  I had loosely planned an extremely ambitious 30 mile loop, hoping to bag the 14ers Capitol Peak and Snowmass Mountain.  The first day was an adventure through some open range cattle country.  We also had some minor route-finding issues (our planned loop was not very popular nor well traveled).  After humbly asking some real-life cowboys for directions we made some great progress and eventually found a spectacular campsite near treeline, atop a bluff overlooking the East Snowmass Creek valley. 

The next morning we were on the trail reasonably early with a Capitol Peak summit bid.  We cashed our packs just below 13,000ft to get ready for the knife-edge ridge leading to Capitol's incredible summit.  The legendary knife-edge ridge did not disappoint.  The exposure was breathtaking and the 4th class climbing was enjoyable, on solid rock.  After our summit bid, we descended to our next campsite at Capitol Lake for a relaxing afternoon of fishing and swimming.  At the lake James ran into his U of O college buddy, Jackson and his friend Forrest (they planned on summiting Capitol the next day).  We decided to share our campsite with them and had a great evening sharing food and whiskey with old friends and new friends. 

Capitol had proven to be a pretty tiring and technical peak, so James, Phil, and I decided to nix Snowmass and head out a bit early.  We had a gorgeous hike through the White River National Forest that put us back to the car by early afternoon.  We finished off our trip with a swing through a place where the "beer flows like wine and where beautiful women instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano."  We also stopped in Leadville for a beer before finally car camping at Echo Lake in preparation to summit the more mellow 14er Mt. Evans the next morning.   

Route-finding in Cattle Country

Phil on part of the knife-edge ridge

Summit of Capitol

James throwing some casts

Phil below Capitol Peak

 

Mountain Goats on Evans