We’ve done a lot since we last blogged. We went hiking with Andy near Eureka, Montana and then drove to the Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and climbed the Grand Teton. We also added some pictures to our Picasa photo album. If you don’t like to read, you can go straight there http://picasaweb.google.com/jowallac/NorthWestRoadTrip
A Day in the Life of a Fastpacker
Ashley’s friend Andy Skurka is in the middle of hiking “The Great Western Loop”. He started this April in the Grand Canyon, hiked the Pacific Crest Trail through California, Oregon, Washington, then linked up with the Pacific Northwest Trail from Washington toward Glacier National Park. He hopes to finish by hiking through Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, and back to Arizona.
He showed up in Eureka at about 9:30pm after hiking 38 miles that day in 90 degree heat. His first order of business was to eat as much as possible, which included 2 big pieces of pizza and 3&1/4 PINTS OF BEN & JERRY’S ICE CREAM. It is his self proclaimed “Half Gallon Challenge”. He was disappointed that he failed, and I was happy to eat his unfinished ice cream. But, he did wake up in the morning and buy another quart and finish it quickly. After his ice cream, he also ate 2 pints of yogurt, a huge omelette, hash browns, and a bagel while at the post office resupplying with new maps and food.
We had camped next to a fun group of 6, 40ish year old friends who met annually to bike ride a section of the Great Divide Trail. They seemed to have a great time and said that it was crutial for them to have good beer at the end of each day so they carried a collapsable cooler with them. We hope that we’re able to continue enjoying the outdoors with our friends like this group!
A Day in the Life of a Fastpacker
Ashley’s friend Andy Skurka is in the middle of hiking “The Great Western Loop”. He started this April in the Grand Canyon, hiked the Pacific Crest Trail through California, Oregon, Washington, then linked up with the Pacific Northwest Trail from Washington toward Glacier National Park. He hopes to finish by hiking through Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, and back to Arizona.
He showed up in Eureka at about 9:30pm after hiking 38 miles that day in 90 degree heat. His first order of business was to eat as much as possible, which included 2 big pieces of pizza and 3&1/4 PINTS OF BEN & JERRY’S ICE CREAM. It is his self proclaimed “Half Gallon Challenge”. He was disappointed that he failed, and I was happy to eat his unfinished ice cream. But, he did wake up in the morning and buy another quart and finish it quickly. After his ice cream, he also ate 2 pints of yogurt, a huge omelette, hash browns, and a bagel while at the post office resupplying with new maps and food.
We had camped next to a fun group of 6, 40ish year old friends who met annually to bike ride a section of the Great Divide Trail. They seemed to have a great time and said that it was crutial for them to have good beer at the end of each day so they carried a collapsable cooler with them. We hope that we’re able to continue enjoying the outdoors with our friends like this group!
We set off for our hike with Andy at about 10:45am. He felt rushed because he typically starts hiking around 6:30am. We hiked through town and then down a long road for about 6 miles before turning off onto a old logging road. The logging road was so overgrown that you could not tell where it went, so we got out the map & compass and bushwhacked uphill for about 2.5 miles until we finally hit a real road that led us to a real trail. We then hiked steadily uphill for another 5 miles when we finally made it to a nice stream. This is where we took our first break, after 13 miles of continuous hiking. We filled up our water bottles, took a few pictures and said goodbye to Andy. We had a good time talking with him and hearing about how he has hiked an average of 37 miles a day for the last 3½ months with only 1 rest day over the most rugged terrain in the U.S. It was also good for Ashley to smell someone much worse than Jonathan. His smell was unique, and we named it “FishBait”. After bushwhacking with him through the weeds we kind of smelled like FishBait as well.
We turned around at that creek 3:45, and made it our goal to make it to the famous milkshake shop before they closed at 7pm. We ran through all the sunny areas, bushwhacked through the woods, and ran down the road through 90+ heat into town to complete our marathon day just in time for the best huckleberry shake ever. It was a rough day for us, and we woke up sore everywhere the following morning. For Andy, that would have been a very easy day.
Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone is mostly known for it’s geysers and sulphur springs, but it’s also known for having a lot of wildlife. While driving to our campsite, we saw bison roaming everywhere. They were even walking down the road. We stopped at one pullout and watched a grizzly bear far off in the valley below. We borrowed people’s binoculars and watched him roll around in the sagebrush. A few minutes later, we stopped and watched a black bear cross the road right in front of the car in front of us. We also watched a coyote swim through a river. It was amazing the amount of wildlife that was roaming around. We camped 1 night in the park, went for a slow run in the morning (we were still recovering from the hike) and then drove to the Grand Teton National Park.
Grand Teton National Park
The Grand Teton’s are very inspiring to anybody that goes nearby. As we got closer, our aspirations went from going for a few short hikes and climbs to climbing the Grand Teton. We showed up on Saturday and went straight to the Ranger Station and got a permit to camp at the base of the Grand Teton on Sunday night.
Sunday
We packed our bags with camping gear and climbing gear and drove to the Trailhead. The elevation at the trailhead is 6,600’, more than 7,000’ below the summit of the Grand Teton (13,770’). We hiked 6 miles up to our base camp at the Moraine Campground at 10,500’. Ashley hiked so fast up some of the hills that it left Jonathan behind and hallucinating. We ate some food, set up camp, drank water straight from the melting glacier, and went to sleep (or tried to) at 8:30 pm.
Monday
We woke up and started hiking in the moonlight at 4:45am. The moon was so bright you almost didn’t need a headlamp. There was many other groups of climbers ahead of us.
5:15am We reach the Lower Saddle (11,500’), the sun starts to light the sky. The route gets steeper from here, but we still stay unroped and scramble up a gully.
6:30am We reach the Upper Saddle (12,800’). This is where Jonathan turned around 5 years ago because of a hail and lightning storm. We put our harness and climbing shoes on and rope up to climb the Owen-Spaulding route. This route is only 5.4 and most people climb it in 2 pitches and scramble unroped for the last 700’.
8:45am We reach the SUMMIT. At this elevation, each step takes your breath away. The view from the top is amazing. We can see the parking lot way down below. The summit is a 20’x20’ platform of small boulders. The weather is great as well, with not one cloud in the sky. It’s exciting to be on top, but also daunting to look way down at the parking lot and know that we are hiking there today. We started scrambling down the same way we came up. We did 2 rappels over the steep climbing sections.
11:45am We finally reach our base camp after scrambling and hiking downhill forever.
We eat some lunch, drink some water, and hide in the shade. We immediately start talking about celebrating with a burger & fries in town, which motivates us to pack up and start hiking. We eventually made it to the car at 3:30pm after 11 straight hours of hiking and climbing.
4:30pm Engulf 1 large pizza and then drive to a motel (our second of the trip). After not showering for more days than Ashley cares to think about, any private bath and bed would feel pretty classy. However, since we got the last available room which was the only one that hadn’t been remodeled so we got a 20% discount!!!
We turned around at that creek 3:45, and made it our goal to make it to the famous milkshake shop before they closed at 7pm. We ran through all the sunny areas, bushwhacked through the woods, and ran down the road through 90+ heat into town to complete our marathon day just in time for the best huckleberry shake ever. It was a rough day for us, and we woke up sore everywhere the following morning. For Andy, that would have been a very easy day.
Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone is mostly known for it’s geysers and sulphur springs, but it’s also known for having a lot of wildlife. While driving to our campsite, we saw bison roaming everywhere. They were even walking down the road. We stopped at one pullout and watched a grizzly bear far off in the valley below. We borrowed people’s binoculars and watched him roll around in the sagebrush. A few minutes later, we stopped and watched a black bear cross the road right in front of the car in front of us. We also watched a coyote swim through a river. It was amazing the amount of wildlife that was roaming around. We camped 1 night in the park, went for a slow run in the morning (we were still recovering from the hike) and then drove to the Grand Teton National Park.
Grand Teton National Park
The Grand Teton’s are very inspiring to anybody that goes nearby. As we got closer, our aspirations went from going for a few short hikes and climbs to climbing the Grand Teton. We showed up on Saturday and went straight to the Ranger Station and got a permit to camp at the base of the Grand Teton on Sunday night.
Sunday
We packed our bags with camping gear and climbing gear and drove to the Trailhead. The elevation at the trailhead is 6,600’, more than 7,000’ below the summit of the Grand Teton (13,770’). We hiked 6 miles up to our base camp at the Moraine Campground at 10,500’. Ashley hiked so fast up some of the hills that it left Jonathan behind and hallucinating. We ate some food, set up camp, drank water straight from the melting glacier, and went to sleep (or tried to) at 8:30 pm.
Monday
We woke up and started hiking in the moonlight at 4:45am. The moon was so bright you almost didn’t need a headlamp. There was many other groups of climbers ahead of us.
5:15am We reach the Lower Saddle (11,500’), the sun starts to light the sky. The route gets steeper from here, but we still stay unroped and scramble up a gully.
6:30am We reach the Upper Saddle (12,800’). This is where Jonathan turned around 5 years ago because of a hail and lightning storm. We put our harness and climbing shoes on and rope up to climb the Owen-Spaulding route. This route is only 5.4 and most people climb it in 2 pitches and scramble unroped for the last 700’.
8:45am We reach the SUMMIT. At this elevation, each step takes your breath away. The view from the top is amazing. We can see the parking lot way down below. The summit is a 20’x20’ platform of small boulders. The weather is great as well, with not one cloud in the sky. It’s exciting to be on top, but also daunting to look way down at the parking lot and know that we are hiking there today. We started scrambling down the same way we came up. We did 2 rappels over the steep climbing sections.
11:45am We finally reach our base camp after scrambling and hiking downhill forever.
We eat some lunch, drink some water, and hide in the shade. We immediately start talking about celebrating with a burger & fries in town, which motivates us to pack up and start hiking. We eventually made it to the car at 3:30pm after 11 straight hours of hiking and climbing.
4:30pm Engulf 1 large pizza and then drive to a motel (our second of the trip). After not showering for more days than Ashley cares to think about, any private bath and bed would feel pretty classy. However, since we got the last available room which was the only one that hadn’t been remodeled so we got a 20% discount!!!
2 comments:
Hey, Jonathan and Ashley! Dad and I are like 2 dear in your picture- shocked and awed! I bet that bed felt good. We miss you all.
I mean.... the 2 deer...
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