Bull Frog Toes - Adventures and Stories: The Teton Crest Trail - Wyoming - Part 9 - Day 3

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NOTE: Click any picture to enlarge.

The night was uneventful until about 3:00 AM. One of the rituals prior to turning in is to move the bear canisters, not Whitey's bear pot (he lives alone with that hot mess), to a location about 100 feet away. This is to prevent the bears from coming near the tents since all the food and smelly items are in the bear canisters.

As mentioned, Sugar, is a Type 1 diabetic. So throughout the hike Sugar would monitor his condition eat snacks and/or drink special solutions to keep his sugar levels in check. Prior to the hike we were all given a medic course on what to do if he suddenly crashed. He could easily die out here if we did not get the insulin or sugar into his system. That night at Death Canyon, when we were all asleep, Sugar had a bit of an emergency that required him to get some "sugar" into his system. Since all his stuff was in the bear canister, he had to climb out of his nice tent, find the canister in the dark, open it, and get some food. There was something out there he said that ran off when he approached the canister. Sounded like a hoofed creature - the Goatman!!! Scary stuff. Glad he made enough noise so we all could keep track of him. All was well by morning.

The next morning was perfect again - never a cloud in the sky. It was chilly but it warmed up fast. I was hoping for some magic sunrise pics but the heavens kept the painters at home that day. Still a wondrous sight to see.

Sunrise over Death Canyon

We had our coffee and breakfast and the usual kit breakdown. There was no humidity or dew so we could pack our tents without any condensation issues - always a plus when camping. The rest of the creatures that lived on the shelf were also up and moving about keeping an eye on us. I suspect they habitually scour the campsites after the humans leave looking for anything of use. Since we follow the "Leave No Trace" mantra, they were out of luck.

Whistle Pig (Marmot). They send out a loud shrill to alert their buddies.

Death Canyon coming to life

Looking back - our camp was behind the huge "building-size" boulder to the right - look for apes above!!

Today's hike was going to take us out of the Teton National Park again. The next area was called the Alaska Basin - part of the U.S.F.S. managed areas. It was a series of small lakes, streams and fun topography to poke around. I found it unique and interesting, quite different than what we had seen so far. Being outside the park, you can camp anywhere in this area. Some hikers will hike the TCT and stop in either the Jedediah Wilderness or the Alaska Basin since they do not need the N.P.S. Wilderness Pass; we had our pass so all was well. I noted everything seemed to lean west toward Idaho in this section.

We would head over Hurricane Pass (10,372 ft) after lunch - so it would be a hard day. Again, not much distance (though our longest day so far) but tough climbing at this elevation. I would love to do this hike fully acclimated some day.

Camp for the night would be at the awesome South Fork Cascade. This site is located under the watchful Teton sentinels that rise above - behind the cathedral grouping. And the cascade name - that was the glorious sound of the cascading waterfalls of melting snow from the above - incredible. We read a lot about this area and were happy we could get a camp site.