Bull Frog Toes - Adventures and Stories: The Teton Crest Trail - Wyoming - Part 1

NOTE: Click any picture to enlarge.

It had a been a couple of years since our last big hike - the Lost Coast Trail - so the gang decided we should do something about it before life gets in the way again. We recruited some new blood, Brian, to the team who was a former co-worker of Whitey and I and a fellow gearhead; Honda/Acura mechanic. I guess I can let that go being a British Car mechanic. Since Brian did not have a trail name like the rest of us, I gave him the name Sugar.

Brain is a Type 1 Diabetic so, PC be damned, I decided to call him Sugar in honor of what my Grandmother would often say, "Well you know that lady has the sugar." I later learned it was because that lady was diabetic. I thought it was fitting. It also shows that people with the disease can do anything the rest of us can and Brian certainly did not let it slow him down. Kudos to him.

Whitey, Sugar, Flyrod, and Jagman - July 2013

So now where do we go? So many cool places. Whitey invited us over for a planning session at his house with homemade Lasagna and beers. He then produced for us a huge stack of his coveted Backpacker magazines, rife with ideas and places. The excitement of looking at the glossy pictures of wondrous and wild places, reminded me of a similar time when I was a kid and a friend of mine produced a similarly sized stack of Playboys he acquired from somewhere ( I never learned who had lost their collection). The wonder and amazement then was similar to now.

Ideas such as Glacier National Park in Montana - awesome sights. Zion, spectacular and recommended by Whitey who had been there before. Or the Boundary Waters in MN - we could carry our gear in canoes rather than on our backs; that had some appeal. Mt Whitney in CA - the highest peak in the lower 48 at 14,505 feet was appealing - except due to overcrowding you had to haul out your own shit in special bags - "WAG Bags" (Waste Alleviation and Gelling). That moved Mt Whitney down the list.

What ultimately rose to the top after some debate was the Teton Crest Trail in the Grand Teton National Park. This was a 40 mile trail that traversed the wilderness behind the Teton Range and down the rugged canyons. Places pastey sticky tourists in their minivans would never see. There were some amazing pictures of sights along the trail plus pictures of the iconic Wyoming mountains known as the Grand Tetons. Loosely translated from French - means the Big Tits. So you see I have come full circle.

The Teton Range - running roughly North to South.

This range of mountains, 3 Tetons - South(12,514ft), Middle (12,804ft), and Grand (13,770ft) plus Mount Owen (12,928ft) is perhaps the most photographed range of mountains in the world; the cathedral grouping. They have such an incredible prominence as they rise from the valley floor that you can't help but stare at them when you get off the plane. Wells Fargo has a great commercial with one of their six-horse stagecoaches racing along beneath the range. So very real, and so very the wild west - yippee ki-yay mother #$%@&. We had to go.

Grand Teton - 13,770 ft.

In early February, as soon as the ranger station was open, Whitey secured our trip with a Grand Teton National Park Wilderness Permit. We planned to arrive in July - when the weather would be ideal and the snow over some of the passes would be clear. This permit is required if you are going to stay at the designated camp zones in the park.

Ticket to ride!!!

Tough looking bunch!!

As soon as we got off the plane, I could tell we were at some elevation. (6,451 feet). I immediately felt lightheaded and was happy we would acclimate for a couple of days - get our feet under us. We would go up from here another 4,500 feet on the trail. Yikes.

We were staying at a very nice cabin on the Snake River as we got use to the elevation. It was at a KOA campground and it had everything we needed to "rough it."