Hurricane (No #&%!$!) Pass, Teton Crest TR and Pic

“Wow, what an amazing trip, this one definitely can compete with Glacier for spectaculomongous scenery.

Pics Here:

http://community.webshots.com/album/443934306qZcocn”

“Saturday Aug. 20

Got a late start after a night on the town. Packed up and headed for Wyoming. Grass, grass, grass, sagebrush, sagebrush, desert, more sagebrush. Finally I arrive in the most beautiful place on Earth, Jackson Hole. Got in late and found a camping spot at Colter Bay. Too tired to set up the tent, so I just slept in the car.”

“Sunday Aug. 21

Got up pretty early and drove into town for breakfast. Then headed back to the park to the Colter Bay visitor center. I was first in line for the backcountry permit office and was able to get a permit for the campsites we had originally planned on. I then went for a long hike to Hermitage Point, a nice hike around the Jackson Lake area. Got a couple of campsites at Signal Mountain, started a fire and waited for Toejam, Aussie, and Bateuxdriver to arrive. The finally arrive quite late at night. We make our introductions and get some sleep.”

“Monday Aug. 22

We pack up in the morning and drop my truck off at the Leigh Lake TH. Then head for Bubba’s, a great place to have breakfast if you’re ever in Jackson. I have a huge scrambled conglomeration of eggs and bacon, along with, of course, Bubba’s super gigantic biscuits. Then we head for Teton Village where we get our tickets for the aerial tram. The tram ride is incredible, great views of Jackson Hole and the mountains. At the top we take pics, make last minute preparations, mingle among the tourons, and finally head off down the trail. We drop down off Rendezvous Mountain for awhile before climbing up a long ridge. Then we head down again. At some point we lose Toejam, or did we lose Bateuxdriver? I forget, it was a long trip with a lot to remember. Anyway we stop at a trail junction to rest and eventually the lost hiker shows up. From there we make our way up a big hill. I assumed that this was the big climb written of in the guidebook. But of course upon reaching the top of the hill we can see that we must now drop way down into another valley before climbing again to the lake. We arrive at the lake and meet a Canadian couple and their teenage son who are hiking the same route. They ask if we are the group from thebackpacker.com. We tell them we are (I guess we’re all famous around here). We then make our way to the other campsite, which is rather scenically perched on the edge of a cliff over the canyon, at the lake and squeeze our four tents onto the two tent pads right before the thunderstorms arrive. We hide from the rain under the trees in our campsite and chat for awhile. When the storms are over we cook clean up, tell stories etc….”

“Tuesday Aug. 23

Got up, ate breakfast and got to what would become our standard 9 am start on the trail. Hiked up to Fox Creek pass and then along the Death Canyon shelf. There was spectacular scenery everywhere. At the end of the shelf we took a long break, then headed up to Mt. Meek divide and down into the Basin Lakes. Aussie and I are well ahead of the others and search around for a campsite. Aussie finds a nice site and we wait for Toejam and Bateuxdriver to wander down the trail. But after a long while they haven’t shown up. Aussie wanders down the trail to see if they passed us somehow. Sure enough they were half a mile down the trail. Everyone gets together and we find an even nicer site to set up camp. Then Aussie and Toejam head off to wander around, Bateuxdriver takes a nap, and I hang out in camp and watch the afternoon thunderstorms roll in. Later on, while we all sit out cooking dinner, a small black bear wanders right through camp. The bear was completely nonchalant, just wandering through as if we weren’t there. The bear also has long blond highlights on its back, almost like it had been professionally bleached.”

“Wednesday Aug. 24

Got up and psyched ourselves up for the big climb over Hurricane Pass. We made our way up and over to Sunset lake and then up the switchbacks to the pass. The climb wasn’t as difficult as I had thought it would be, but the wind was incredibly strong. We took a break in the shelter of some low rocks and took in the view which was stupendous. The three Teton peaks rise right above you at the pass. Everyone eventually made their way to Cascade Canyon. I left the pass last. As I got to the point where the trail heads down into the canyon the wind was incredibly powerful. There is a spot where a low rock wall, maybe 5 feet high, sits over the actual pass, the trail goes in a switchback down around that wall. Well the wind was so powerful when I got there that I had to brace myself in front of the wall, for fear that if I moved into the open I would be blown right into the canyon. I waited several moments and the wind kept increasing. Eventually I was literally pinned against the rock wall and couldn’t get up. After several minutes the wind died down slightly. I hurried to get around and down the pass. The trail down was quite narrow and the wind was still incredibly strong. So I had to brace myself every few steps to keep from being blown off. Eventually I made it down the pass and started hiking down cascade canyon. I caught up with the others and we hiked down the canyon enjoying the waterfalls and hiking in the forest once again. Aussie and I got ahead of the others and made it down to the trail intersection at the head of the canyon where quite a few tourons were hanging out. We then began hiking up the North Fork of the canyon to find a campsite. We checked out a few inferior campsites before coming upon one that had enough room for all of the tents. Then to our surprise we discovered that this particular campsite had a back porch, a large rock right behind one of the tenting areas. The view from the back porch was astounding. You could look straight out to the Grand Teton as it rose above the North Fork of Cascade Canyon. We set up camp, then cooked on the back porch and enjoyed the incredible view for hours.”

“More to come later, gotta run errands now.”

“your a hikin FOOL!”

“Tell about the ranger girl at Colter Bay.”

“Monday Aug. 22

It was me that got temporarily lost looking for the outhouse.”

“Thursday Aug. 25

We got our usual 9 am start and made our way up the canyon to Lake Solitude, a beautiful lake at the head of the North Fork Cascade Canyon surrounded by high walls and with a great view back to the cathedral group. Then we made the long slog up to paintbrush divide, a two thousand foot climb from our campsite. The trail was really nicely graded, this was probably the easiest big climb I've ever done. The wind was howling when we reached the top, although it was not nearly as strong as at Hurricane Pass. But it was cold out so we put on our wind gear and found a nice spot below the pass to hang out. Toejam and Bateuxdriver came along a little while after Aussie and I had gotten to the divide, but by then we were getting cold so we headed down. On the way down into Paintbrush canyon there was a snow slope that had to be crossed, but it wasn't too steep and the snow was plenty soft enough to get good traction. An older couple was below the snow slope heading up, they seemed a bit tentative about crossing but made it through ok. From there it was just a short ways down to Holly Lake. We found a nice campsite and set up. I explored the area around the lake while Toejam and Aussie tried to climb the ridge above and Bateuxdriver was hanging out on the lakeshore. That night I was woken up several times by the sound of rockfall.”

“Friday Aug. 26

A pretty uneventful hike, we made our way down, down, down Paintbrush Canyon to Leigh lake and then hiked along string lake to the trailhead. We had finished one half of our adventure.

Toejam and I drove back to Teton Village to get his car while Aussie and Bateuxdriver waited for us at the trailhead. We got some fast food in Jackson for lunch and then made our way to Pinedale. Once at the motel in Pinedale we cleaned ourselves and our gear and wandered around town. Then we had dinner outside at the Cafe on Pine, which is a truly fantastic restaruant, if you're ever in Pinedale you must eat there.

The adventure will be continued when I create a TR thread for the Wind Rivers trip.”

“The ranger girl at Colter Bay? You mean the one that I've been in love with for five years?

Same ranger has been working at the visitor center for five years, she looks a little like Sandra Bullock.”

“Pretty photo show, Bison.

The trail looks like a lot of lower leg workout walking on the scree / rock.”

“Thanks precision.

Actually the trail was pretty nice throughout, there were some rocky sections but none were really a problem.
last edited: 9/06/05 6:10:59 PM”

“Cool...”

“Beautiful photos! It looks so different from where Jerry and I day hiked last year, much more beautiful. I can see why you love Jackson Hole.

Any grizzly sign?”

“Thanks wannabp, no grizzly sign. From what I've heard they only wander into the far northern part of the park.”

“Wow, Bison Great trip and pix!!!”

“Do you still have your 'new' camera?”

“Wannabp - I've got a hand-me-down digital now, so for convenience sake I just take that I don't haul the SLR anymore although I might start taking that again if I ever get a digital scanner.”

“Great trip report and photos. Back at work today and I left my camera at home so another day's delay in downloading my photos. I hope the couple of the bear come out OK......”

“Film was hard for me. I'd spend a lot of money for developing, then not like the photos. Carrying the digital SLR is a hassle, but worth it. Canon is coming out with a new one that doesn't have a focal length multiplier, but it's very expensive.”