Fun Stress

 

There's so much to do and so little time!!!  So much that its stressing me out.  I'm only here in Jackson for another couple of days, yet so much of the town and the park remain unexplored...  On Saturday I drive to Yellowstone.  I'm going to be much more isolated there than I am here and I won't have a Starbucks to sit in and write blogs.  However, I will still find ways to post here whenever I can.

 

Last weekend I went hiking up a place called Avalanche Canyon in Grand Teton NP.  It was one of the most beautiful hikes I've ever done and so I posted a million pictures and bragged about it despite the fact that it was also the worst hike of my life.

 90% of the trail wasn't even a real, park designated trail.  It was what we rangers call a social trail.  That means it wasn't well marked and one can easily find themselves lost if not careful.  Well, apparently, we weren't careful enough.  We tried to follow the rock cairns by the side of the trail but there weren't nearly enough of them and all the fallen trees laid across the trail from the previous season's avalanches made it hard to relocate the dirt path we were trying to follow. 

Another thing that made the hike difficult was several boulder fields over which we had to scramble and in which there wasn't any hint of a trail.  So a lot of that involved guess work and keen observation skills both up and down the mountain. 

We hiked for about 8 hours round trip.  We went up to 9,000 feet elevation where the air is more rare than it already is here and the rocks were loose enough that one wrong step could send you slipping and sliding all the way back down the mountain side!

The part of the trail that we could see was also covered by brush and sticks and pokey things that tended to slap at my legs as I walked by so that when we were done I was bleeding and scratched.

All in all, I would say that's not something I plan to spend a lot of time doing in the near future.  Although it was extremely beautiful, and there were no other people on the trail the whole day, I think I'll plan to stick with the more well-traveled paths while I'm here.  I'd like the opportunity to finish my training in one piece and to explore other parts of the park and the world in the coming weeks/months.

 

Above is the waterfall we hiked to.  I forget the name of it again...   Something like Shoshobe Falls I think.  Anyway, it was a nice reward at the end of the hike and a nice place to sit and rest before beginning the hike back home.

Today I made it into Jackson again.  This town is really neat.  It's got an old western type feel with a modern twist.  There are a lot of green spaces and parks.  The main park has 4 giant arches each made out of collected antlers!  I had my picture taken in front of one just to play tourist.

For the rest of my afternoon I'm hoping to visit a thrift shop recommended by a friend here.  Apparently its got a lot of really nice clothes donated by rich people who bought them at full price, wore them once or not at all, and then donated them because they bought the next newest item and had no need for the "old" item.

I also need hiking boots and maybe a souvenir t-shirt.  We'll see what I can find.

Tomorrow the plan is to actually wake up early enough to hike Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point/Jenny Lake.  Its a hike I've been wanting to do since day 1.  Also one I need to do before I leave for Yellowstone!  Once I get to my new park home I'm sure there will be many more hikes to add to my list. 

OH! One more comment before I finish here... The night sky here is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! Its unlike anything I've ever seen before being from the East coast with all its light pollution.  Here, with no lights and a new moon, the stars are brilliant and brighter than I've ever known possible.  No picture with a man-made camera could ever do it justice.  The constellations jump out to me and the stars twinkle just like in the children's song.  I've seen shooting stars and what I believe to be the Milky Way, although I'm no expert for sure...  The long moments I've spent standing out staring up at the sky with my jaw dropped in wonder re-affirmed to me the presence and proof of God and the fact that I daily underestimate Him and His power.  Its nice to feel small sometimes.