Teton crest trail paintbrush divide june6/16/2023 Here’s the map of the hike and where we camped. Our four day backpacking trip had us beginning at the Death Canyon trailhead, hiking up and along the Death Canyon Shelf, into Alaska Basin, then up Hurricane Pass, down and up the South and North Forks of Cascade Canyon, up Paintbrush Divide and back down Paintbrush Canyon to our car at the Leigh Lake trailhead. We had a full day ahead of us as tomorrow commenced our backpacking trip. We’d already been there, plus it had begun to rain and we were burning daylight. We drove back by way of Norris to Madison to the Geyser Basin. These were all areas Daniel hadn’t seen before as he’d only been to Yellowstone in the winter when the roads to these spots are closed. We checked out the West Thumb Geyser Basin, the bison in the Hayden Valley and walked down and up those stairs on Uncle Tom’s Trail to view the lower waterfall and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. No bear, but there was a massive pile of semi-digested berries that had been recently deposited by one. That is, until we were at the end of the hike, about half a mile from the picnic area where our car was parked. Other backpackers must be doing a decent job following these various methods because we saw no sign of bear anywhere. One of the rangers had advised against hanging the packs in the canyons, because salt-loving porcupines, I learned, can climb trees and chew up your pack. In the Alaska basin, we hung the packs up a tree, 100 yards from the tent. In the canyons, we kept our packs (without smellables) in our tent. We made noise, carried bear pepper spray, bear canisters, ate and stored smellables 100-200 yards away from camp. We dutifully followed the best practices for camping and hiking in bear country. Because fear required energy we didn’t have. As it turned out, we were both so tired at the end of each day, we slept soundly. I thought I would have trouble sleeping at night, worrying about the bears. And I didn’t want us to become a footnote in a future edition of that book. Still, I was nervous because random things happen, randomly, with bears. I’ve even read Herraro’s book, considered the definitive tome on Bear Attacks. I’m fairly well informed about bears and safety in bear country. But I’d never slept in a tent in grizzly bear territory prior to this trip. I’ve done a good deal of hiking in bear country. Although I think Daniel was a bit disappointed about that.Ībout the bears. Neither did we cross paths with any bears, which was just fine with me. We never needed our rain shells or cold weather gear. In fact, the weather was so perfect that one could be deluded into thinking it is always so. Why was this a desired goal? Well, it’s some of the finest, most scenic alpine hiking in the United States, and it was an opportunity to enjoy the setting with Daniel. My son, Daniel and I went backpacking for four days along the Teton Crest Trail in Grand Teton National Park. In August 2014, one of my longtime dreams became a reality.
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