The Great Adventure

Dave had for some days been trying to persuade me  to pitch my tent without the fly-sheet, thereby enjoy an unrestricted view of the starlit night sky. As without my glasses I would have been hard pressed to see beyond the end of my nose never mind outside the tent I was not convinced. However in an effort to reduce my problems with overnight condensation I thought it a good idea to sleep with the outer fly doors open, so for the first time I slept semi exposed to the vagaries of nature.

Playing with fire - Dave's tent without the flyAt 1 am I awoke very hot and clammy  - again it had clouded over and the outside temperature consequently risen. I seemed to be experiencing problems in regulating the temperature within my bag, but later discovered that Dave had since the start of our trek been using his bag merely as a quilt, which suggested that the nights were warmer than expected and I was being over cautious (and overheated). 

It all became interesting at 6 am, when the inevitable happened and I awoke to the sound of rain hitting the outer fly.  Swiftly exiting my sleeping bag I shot out of my tent to peg out and close both outer fly doors to find Dave, even more exposed to the rain, rapidly fitting his outer fly. I'm sure it would have looked comical to an outside observer watching us both running around flapping. Naturally as soon as we were both water tight the rain promptly stopped.

When I finally arose at 7.20 am the sky was still heavily overcast and threatening rain. This was a major concern as today we planned a day hike to the top of one of the "crown jewels" of Grand Teton National Park - Hurricane Pass. By this stage of the trek I had a healthy respect for various place names as I appreciated they were so named for a good reason e.g Dead Horse Pass - very vicious steep climb which was not kind to horses. Consequently I thought Hurricane  Pass would not be a good place to be should the weather turn inclement. On the same premise it did beg the question whether we would make it out of Death Canyon alive later in the trek.

Having "pinched" their regular pitch the previous day our nearby family camping neighbours had their revenge this morning as the breeze brought the smell of cooking bacon wafting down from their camp some 300 yards away. Food was becoming an obsession and this was sheer torture. 

A different type of trekking

With a careful eye to the threatening sky at 9.30 am we left camp heading down the basin to locate the trail leading towards Hurricane Pass. Despite the threatening weather the day was a joy as relieved of my heavy burden my back pack seemed as light as a feather and I floated along the paths.

Just prior to exiting the basin we spotted eight horses (but only seven riders) ahead of us ascending what appeared to be a cliff face which formed the start of the climb out of the basin to Hurricane Pass. Despite our lightened loads the horses ascended much faster than us and were soon lost to sight.

Modernist Art - our sentry guarding the trail

Thankfully the cloud started to break and with the first rays of sunlight the scene was transformed from one of overriding grey to one of colour, the many wild flowers bathed in the sunlight about us. We continued our ascent, the gradient easing and as we unexpectedly came upon Sunset Lake we noticed that a hiker, obviously of artistic bent, had created a modernist type figure of man composed entirely of balanced rocks,  guarding the hill like a sentry. I duly recorded it for posterity as I am sure it will not survive the winter storms.

Onwards and upwards we headed past the lake and as we climbed we had our first glimpse of "The Grand" and associated Cathedral Group of surrounding summits peaking over the top of the ridge. Just when we thought the path to the summit would head via an ominous cliff face we saw off to our left two heavily laden hikers skipping like mountain goats along a previously unnoticed path down a rock face. Oh to be twenty again!

We need not have worried as the higher we climbed the easier the path became. Nearing the summit we climbed onto a wide open path which reminded me more of a walk in the park, than a near 11,000 ft pass.

Our first glimpse of The Grand but where's the path?Coming towards us, jangling and snorting, now on their way back from the summit of the pass were the horses and riders we saw earlier leaving the Alaska Basin. The riders stopped for a chat and we learnt they had ridden up from the trail head at Teton South some 3 hours previously and after  stopping further down the trail for lunch, were planning to return there. With the exception of a French guest, they were all local and kitted out just like the cowboys in the films of my youth wearing jeans, leather protectors, heeled boots and Stetsons. Certainly an easier way of hill climbing than the one I had chosen. And the mystery of the lost rider- had they lost a rider? Apparently not, they had decided to bring the spare horse with them rather then leave it kicking its heels in the stable.

We left them to descend and shortly thereafter for the first time crossed the boundary into Grand Teton National Park and reached the summit of Hurricane Pass. Was it worth the effort? Most unequivocally yes. Unfortunately the photographs I have taken do not do justice to the majestic vista that was before me. With the possible exception of Table Mountain off to our left, there is no better place to view the Cathedral Group from the west of the range than here.

The view from the top of Hurricane PassAs we stood admiring the view we were joined by a young lightly attired gent, who we discovered had run all the way from the trail head at South Teton (approximately 11 miles) and was waiting for the rest of his friends to join him before returning back down the trail. Very obligingly he took a picture of the three of us on the summit and it even featured his hat sitting on the sign.

By this time it was late morning and as one of the two premier passes in the park (the other being Paintbrush Divide) the flow of traffic had increased significantly with a constant flow of day hikers passing us in both directions.

Dave had concerns as to the weather and so somewhat reluctantly, with a final view of the vista, we started to retrace our step and head back down towards Sunset Lake and the Alaska Basin. Because of the number of people on the trail, instead of stopping for a chat with each group I met, I reverted to a rather more formal English "good morning" and carried on past. It they were surprised to hear my English accent nobody showed it.

Slightly further down the trail Dave had a surprise of his own as coming up the trail towards us was a group of his old work colleagues from the Targhee Ski Resort out on a day hike. They were delighted to see him and on asking him what he was currently doing were surprised to discover that he was actually working i.e. guiding us!

Friendships renewed we left them to summit and carried on our decent passing our friendly riders and horses from before having their lunch off the trail and headed back to Sunset Lake where we intended to have our lunch.

Sunset Lake

Arriving at the lake we discovered that all the suitable lakeside picnic spots were already occupied, so we retired to the other side of the trail to watch the fun and consume our lunch of cheese, salami with bread and mustard.

It was interesting to watch the body language of the various hikers as they headed past. Some heavily laden seemed lost in their load their eyes only focused on the next ridge. Others oblivious to the scenery deep in conversation. We noticed a youngish couple, heavily laden walking some distance apart. It seemed apparent from their body language that relations were not good. This was confirmed as they stopped for a break by the lake, discarding their loads they sat some distance apart not talking. We were much relieved after some delay to note that negotiations had commenced and a settlement reached. I can't imagine its much fun to be told you are sleeping in the spare room whilst out outdoors. 

Their lunch break finished we waited for our horse trekking friends to pass by before resuming our decent back towards the Alaska Basin. As we re-commenced walking , as if on cue, there was rain in the air, but fortunately as we descended lower it cleared. My thoughts turned to the many heavily laden hikers we had seen heading towards Hurricane Pass and wished them well. It was very wild exposed country to be caught in should a storm develop later.

It had been an enjoyable leisurely walk of about 8 miles and as we  completed our final descent back into the Alaska Basin, with it being a Saturday and the weekend, we debated how many other campers would have arrived in the basin in our absence and whether we might expect to have some new neighbours. Surprisingly all was quiet and we arrived back at our campsite untroubled by other hikers.

Later that evening at about 8.30 pm, having settled down to watch the sun set in a brooding nights sky, we saw a couple of heavily laden hikers who having spotted our tents headed towards us. As they got closer we saw that it was a man with a girl in her teens.

They stopped for a chat and explained that they were part of a large teenaged group and that he Steve, who was one of the instructors in the group, had earlier in the day "hiked" Angela, who had problems with the fit of her boots, down to the trailhead and thence hitched out to source a new set of boots (sound familiar!). Now with her new boots and her feet suitably bandaged they were attempting to locate the group, so far without success. To add to their fun the group had their only stove so they could not boil water - open fires are not permitted in the basin area. We could not help with the location of the group but we could provide the stove, so we settled down to chat as we boiled water for their dinner. 

We learnt that Steve aged 32 was from Chicago and that Angela aged 16 (almost 17 she insisted) from Minnesota. Having previous personal experience of how painful blisters can be both Dave and  I were both very much impressed by her maturity. She seemed very much at home in the environment and we were later to learn was an accomplished player of the viola playing in an orchestra of some repute.

Angela in turn seemed fascinated to see a real English person and having been introduced by Christine as being from Liverpool "the home of the Beatles", wanted to know whether I had seen them play (erh no - I was only aged 6 when they broke up) and did I drink tea? (yes - many cups a day).

Sunset Alaska Basin

We invited them to share our campsite, but their tea eaten, Steve preferred to head back down and camp near the entrance to the basin so he could keep watch in case the missing group arrived early the following morning. We were very sorry to see them go as we had much enjoyed their company. 

Our guests departed, we watched a spectacular sunset before we hit the sack, for tomorrow we had an early start. We were on the move again and were planning to head out of the basin, on the opposite side to Hurricane Pass, up the Sheep Steps and thence over Mount Meek Pass (9830 ft) into the Teton National Park and along Death Canyon Shelf to Fox Creek Pass.

So ended another glorious day out in the back country.     

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