Westward adventures – Colter Bay, Swan Lake, Herron Pond & Trapper Lake night #1

Tuesday morning I headed to get a backcountry permit for my next 3 nights ($25 per continuous trip) and ended up with a permit for Tuesday and Thursday night at Trapper Lake and Wednesday night at Leigh Lake. Originally I was going to try to stay at Hermitage Point on Tuesday night, but apparently it was closed because of a wolf den. The trail was open to Swan Lake and Heron Pond, so I decided to start my morning at the Colter Bay trail and just make a good 5 mile hike out of it. 

I really think that Colter Bay is an underrated part of the park. The trail is pretty flat and gives amazing views of the mountains over the water.


After the Colter Bay loop, I had a little trouble finding the start of the Swan Lake / Heron Pond loop, but eventually I made it onto the right loop. The trails were mostly single-track and there are a lot of unofficial paths that wander off, so sometimes it’s hard to tell which direction to go. I would definitely recommend taking a map on this hike. 


Both Swan Lake and Heron Pond seem like they’d be good places to view wildlife in the early morning or evening.


You can also get good views of the mountains along with lots of lily pads. 


I also saw another trail friend, though this one didn’t “scurry” off.

After completing the loop, I headed down to the Leigh Lake trailhead which would take me to my campsite at Trapper Lake for the night. I stopped to take a lot of pictures around Leigh Lake and was really excited that I would be able to spend some more time there the next day.


On my way to Trapper Lake, I could hear thunder in the distance and it started to get cloudy, so I kept moving as fast as I could so that I could get to camp before it started raining. Luckily, the weather held off all evening and while it got really windy and sprinkled a little bit, it never turned nasty.


As I was going to get water the first time, I thought I saw a baby bear on its hind legs in the grass, but then it turned and I saw a big fluffy tail, so I knew it wasn’t a bear. Shortly after that, I had a visitor to my campsite – another marmot, this one all black. He spent a lot of time hanging out at the campsite along with a few friends. I think the designated campsite must be pretty close to their home because they just hung out both nights I was there. He would run onto a rock, then flatten out and just look at me and watch what I was doing.


He also made the craziest noise! I don’t know if this was a mating call or a warning to the others that there was a human in the vicinity, but it was interesting, nonetheless.

It was a quiet night for me – the weather made for an early evening with no good sunset views. I was also very aware of how remote I was – the campsite was the only one at that lake with only two other campsites at Beartrap Lake about three-quarters of a mile away, so I was definitely alone in the woods. It was a peaceful night, without even the chirping of the marmots to keep me awake, and the next morning, the only wildlife I saw was a deer who had wandered near camp.

Next up: Jenny Lake loop and more changing plans…

Westward adventures – Death Canyon Hike

Monday morning, I got up, dealt with my wet tent and headed back to Jackson to continue hiking in the Tetons since Pinedale wasn’t going to work out. On my way down on Sunday, I passed through lots of little towns, sometimes with populations less than 100 people. I got to see cows on the road and migrating antelope making their way up towards Jackson.

Since it was still fairly early in the day and there had been so much moisture overnight, there were clouds hanging in the mountains as I made my way back through some of the small towns, including Bondurant (population: 93).



The Death Canyon trail that I had planned to hike (originally a 3-day trip) was still on my list for a day hike, so after stopping in Jackson to pick up some more hand warmers (for future reference, you may need to look behind the gun counter to find these at Kmart), I was on my way to the trailhead. The road to the trailhead was mostly one-lane, very bumpy at times and seemed to go on forever, but eventually I got to the trailhead, right around noon. The first big site was the Phelps Lake Overlook at 7200′. 



From Phelps Lake, the trail became more and more rocky and also more steep…



but you could see so high into the mountains – it was amazing! 



This is definitely the type of trail I was hoping for when I started planning my hikes out west. 



There were also lots of small waterfalls randomly coming out of the mountainsides. 



After hiking for awhile, the trail switchbacks up the mountain beside a huge stream with lots of rushing water.

I did come across some snow on the trail, and it was a lot easier to go across the first time (heading uphill) than heading back later in the day, but the snow was still hard packed and I had my hiking poles, so that made things a lot easier.

Eventually, the trail leveled out and got closer to the water. 



When I made it to the Patrol Cabin, I decided to keep going (mostly because I didn’t remember my map correctly and was thinking I could make it to the Death Canyon Shelf). I hiked for another couple of miles before realizing that I probably wasn’t going to make it to the shelf before I would need to head back to the trailhead. These miles were mostly in the woods and provided some relief from the sun that was beating down on the previously rocky trail. On my way back to the trailhead, I came across a moose who had found some good grass to eat beside the trail a hundred yards or so ahead of me. 

Luckily, I saw him and was able to snap a couple of pictures before he decided he wanted to come a little closer and continue eating grass along the trail. This is when I decided that I wasn’t going to be able to just take the trail around him (he was now standing on the trail), so I crossed the stream on a log and started to make my way down stream to get beyond him. 

As I did this, he found a new spot to eat grass and I had to re-cross the water to get back to the trail. I took off my shoes and the water came up to my knees and was really cold (snow runoff), but it wasn’t too far, maybe 8-10 feet, to get across and then when I got to the other side, I dried off my feet while keeping an eye on the moose who was continuing to eat, but keeping watch on what I was doing as well. After I got my shoes back on, I snapped another few pictures and headed on my way to leave the moose to his foraging. 

On my way back, I got to meet another trail friend – a marmot who I thought was going to come right up to me to greet me. He saw me coming down the trail, stopped and then when I stopped, he came up the rocks beside me and when I didn’t move, he just looked at me for a minute and then scampered off.

The hike back was mostly downhill until I got back to the Phelps Lake campground turnoff, so it was a much easier hike back. I was also able to see the sun start to go behind the mountains, creating fun shadows around the rocks, trees and water.


Going this direction also let me see more of Phelps Lake. 


It was probably around 6:30 or 7:00 when I finished hiking that night and since I didn’t have any other plans, I drove up to the Colter Bay campground to stay for the night. It ended up being a great place to camp because I could drive my car right to the campsite and get everything situated for the rest of the week. 

Next up: Colter Bay, Swan Lake, Heron Pond and my first night at Trapper Lake.

Westward adventures – Pinedale, WY & Green River Lake

Early Sunday morning I headed down to Pinedale, WY with the hopes of hiking to Titcomb Lakes, but in my research, I failed to realize that Pinedale is actually a couple thousand feet higher than Jackson which means that I only made it about a mile or so into the hike before hitting too much snow to continue. 

So, instead, I headed to Green River Lake campground that the guy at the visitor’s center recommended. He wasn’t kidding that it was really remote.



I lost cell phone reception about 3 miles onto the dirt road which went on for 20 miles until I finally reached the actual campground. I had passed so many great camp site options along the river that I decided not to stay in the official campground and instead find a spot along the river to spend the night. I ended up driving back about 11 miles until I found a spot along a bend in the river that looked like a good option and drove my car down beside the river. 


It was a perfect spot with lots of downed wood and a pre-built fire ring, so I was able to build a small fire while watching the sun set over the mountains. There was a short shower, but nothing more than just sprinkles, so I went ahead and made a fire while waiting for the sunset.

Needless to say, I was not disappointed with the sunset that evening – it was amazing! I went to bed pretty early that night (soon to be a theme of my trip) and I was woken up to the sound of something large splashing in the river. Of course, my first thought was a bear (because why wouldn’t a bear go swimming at night?!), but when I turned on my flashlight and shined it out my tent, I couldn’t see anything, but I did hear something fly away. I’m assuming it was probably geese that had some in to stay for the night and I interrupted their settling-in procedures. Luckily, after that, I didn’t have any other strange noises in the middle of the night!

It was surprisingly cold that night, probably due to the lack of anything to block the wind around my tent, so I put on all the layers I had brought and was still a little on the cold side. I knew that I had a hand warmer in my first aid kit in the car, but I really didn’t want to get out of my tent, so I stayed put and managed to get some good sleep.

The next morning when I woke up, my tent was soaked! I hadn’t thought about the fact that there was no tree coverage and I was right next to the water, so my tent had collected a ton of condensation overnight. Luckily, I was able to shake a lot of the water off and then hang it over the seats in my SUV to dry out before I headed to my next stop. I would definitely recommend having a plan for this if you’re going to be camping in the open or (as happened to me later in the trip) you get caught in a lot of rain which will also soak your tent.

Westward adventures – Wandering around Grand Teton National Park

After the half marathon on Saturday, I took a quick shower and decided to wander around the park a little bit to try to figure out my options for hiking later in the week. My first stop was a visitor’s center and after talking with several rangers about the trails I originally wanted to hike, they felt that the snow was still probably too deep / treacherous to go without an ice ax, so I quickly nixed that idea and figured I would do some day hikes instead and just camp closer to civilization.

After the visitor’s center, I stopped by the Taggart Lake trail and decided that would be a good short (4-ish miles) post-race hike. 


After the Phelps Lake overlook, the trail was much less crowded and I found myself alone a lot of the time.


The weather was looking a little dark, with lots of rain clouds in the distance, but luckily, the rain stayed far enough away from me that I was able to just finish the hike before it started. 

 

Next up was the Jenny Lake scenic loop, followed by dinner at Signal Mountain. It had cooled off quite a bit by then, but I still stayed out on the patio and ate dinner looking at Jackson Lake. 


On my way to dinner, I passed by the road that went up to the top of Signal Mountain, so I did a quick backtrack and headed up to the top for a sunset / rain cloud view of the mountains. It was an amazing view!


Since I was almost to the part where I could make a loop out of my trip, I kept going and came across the Jackson Lake dam which was really neat. 


After the dam, I headed back on the main road toward the Teton Village and stopped at several of the pull-out areas to get even more pictures of the mountains!


Next up, a quick detour from the Jackson area down to Pinedale.

Westward adventures – Heading to the Tetons

When leaving Antelope Island, I took the route through Idaho Falls, ID to get to Jackson, WY. The first thing that struck me leaving Utah was how wide open it was – you could see forever! The entire trip took around 5 hours, but I would highly recommend that route because you get to go up through the mountains to get into Jackson. It was a really cool introduction to the scenery that I was going to be hanging out in over the next week. 

My first stop was packet pick-up which was really easy to get to and had enough parking for everyone. The expo was pretty small, but I picked up a few things, including a couple of outdoor / Teton / Yellowstone themed shirts and bumper stickers for both races. The expo was held at the same place that the finish line would be the next day, so I got a sneak-preview of what the finish line would look like too.


As I was leaving the expo, I headed to the Hostel via a dirt road and as I did, I could hear thunder and started to see lightning and after not too long, it was sleeting! At this point, I was a little concerned about the weather because I was not prepared for a wintery mix! Luckily the storm didn’t last long and I was able to make it easily to the Hostel. At the Hostel, I met one of my two roommates, Franci, and she was actually running the half marathon too, so we got to chat a bit about our expectations, how early we were going to get up and how many layers we thought we would need for the morning. She was also able to give me the scoop on the Yellowstone Half Marathon that I was going to be running the following weekend because she had done it last year. She also recommended eating at the Mangy Moose for dinner, so I headed over there and grabbed a quick (but expensive!) chicken and rice pre-race meal.

Yes, that is Santa Claus’ sleigh being pulled by a moose

After dinner, I walked around the Teton Resort for awhile and just enjoyed the scenery while waiting to see if I could get a good sunset picture (not really), but it gave me the chance to walk along the great bike path that goes all around the park and the town of Jackson. 

Next up – the Grand Teton Half Marathon report! 

Westward adventures – Antelope Island, UT

After doing a quick stop-off at REI and Target for some last-minute items (bear spray, cooking fuel, Cheez-Its, Poptarts – all the good stuff!), I headed north of Salt Lake City to Antelope Island. I booked a campsite on the island so that I could take some time in Utah before heading up to Wyoming for a week’s worth of adventures. The guy working the front desk at my hotel in Salt Lake didn’t seem too impressed that I was heading up there, but it turned into a great experience! 

My first stop was the Lady Finger Point Trail which was just a short trail (about half a mile total) out to see the Great Salt Lake and all of the seagulls who were nesting in the area.

Next stop was the visitor’s center which had some tributes to the bison of the island.

The island had some very pretty flowers growing on it.

I also did a quick trip around Buffalo Point Trail (a little less than a mile). 


The big hike for the day was up to the top of Frary Peak Trail (about 6 miles total with 2,084 feet of elevation gain). Of course, I waited until the hottest part of the day to start this hike, but I took it slow and there was a ton to see.


After that hike, I took a driving trip around the rest of the island and you could see the skyline of Salt Lake City.

The other great part about being on a lake is that you can usually get some pretty good sunset views.



Friday morning I got up early and I was able to see a lot more bison roaming around the island. There were a few out Thursday afternoon, but they were much more active Friday morning, including crossing the road right in front of my car.



Even though I only stayed on Antelope Island for one night, I would definitely encourage you to take a trip out there if you have the option. I would highly recommend long sleeves and a head net for the bugs – the biting gnats had hatched by the time I got there, so they were quite annoying, but the head net worked really well.

Tourist time: Nashville

Last weekend wasn’t my first trip to Nashville, but it was my first trip downtown. Apparently the last two times I went, I didn’t make it too far out of the Opryland comfort zone of my work conference. Other than the race, I only really spent Thursday night downtown. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a huge hockey fan and one of my goals is to eventually make it to all of the arenas in the league. I’ve already checked off quite a few (including four in a tour de hockey in 2013), so when I realized that the Predators would be playing in Nashville the day before I was planning to drive up, I knew I wanted to try to get a ticket to the game! Unfortunately, the Predators locked down Ticketmaster sales so that you could only buy a ticket if you were in their viewing area, which includes the states that surround North Carolina, but not actually North Carolina because we have the Hurricanes for our hockey team. I called their box office and was very rudely told that I should find someone else to buy the ticket for me and when I explained that the only tickets available on Ticketmaster were for credit card entry only, the “customer service” rep said “well, I can’t sell you a ticket.” I called Ticketmaster and their customer service rep was much nicer about the situation, but unfortunately still couldn’t help me. I kept trying to buy a ticket online, but didn’t have any luck and then Wednesday night, all the tickets were all gone from Ticketmaster (apparently they opened up ticket sales 24 hours prior to the game and promptly sold out). So, instead, I headed to StubHub and got myself a ticket. 

Thursday morning I headed out early to get to Nashville in the late afternoon and after a quick stop off at the race expo, I headed back to the hotel for a quick nap before the game. Due to the TV schedule, the game didn’t start until 8:30pm local time, so I was able to get a good nap in before heading back downtown. While I was there in the afternoon, there were a lot of people wearing Blackhawks jerseys, but by the time I made it back down that night, the street had turned into a sea of yellow jerseys. 


It ended up being a great game, with Nashville taking the win and forcing a game 6 on Saturday night. In my previous trips to Nashville, I wandered around the Parthenon in Centennial Park.

The park includes Lake Watauga,


and a statue of John Thomas who was a businessman and President of the Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition in 1897.


Plus, there’s also the only surviving Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Locomotive #576,


and some designer fish as well.


Most of my time in Nashville has been spent at the Gaylord Opryland & Convention Center which is an amazing building, with two atriums inside. In the two weeks I was there for work conferences, I think I only wandered outside once or twice, but I never felt confined indoors within the massive building, which includes its own indoor boat tour through the atrium. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of the atrium, but it’s definitely a place I would recommend checking out if you’re up in that vicinity. 

What’s your favorite place to visit in Nashville?