[Day 81] Teton Wilderness

Oh, it was a day. I woke up around 6:30am in the hiker room at St. Thomas Episcopalian Church. First thing, I downed a couple of Shasta Colas from my 12 pack. There’s nothing like a spike of sugar and caffeine to start the day. I fiddled in the room for a bit — testing my camera, charging up devices, finishing off last nights rib dinner. The ribs were great. Unfortunately, my camera is not detected SD cards, so it’s headed home for later repair.

At 8am, the Yellowstone Backcountry Office opened, and I called in to book my campsites for the park. Designated campsites are reservable and a requirement for backpacking the park. It was a messy process of trying different campground codes with the officer to see what was available — not much was. I took what I could get, and the situation didn’t pan out too great. My first campsite is some 62 miles away from where I get back on trail, and I could only get a spot for tomorrow night. Well, I have to leave town immediately.

I wrapped up my uploading at the church and got myself across town to the post office. I grabbed my general delivery box of resupply and new shoes (thanks mom!) and shipped off my camera. Down the street, a couple other hikers were working the hitch and flagged down a ride. I jammed my feet into my new shoes, dumped my resupply into my backpack, trashed my cardboard and old shoes inside of the post office (felt a bit guilt about that), and ran to the pulled over car to bug a ride up Togwotee Pass. It was a heat of the moment exit from Dubois.

I needed to make mileage. My ride dropped off at the pass around 10:30am. Lacing up my new kicks and glueing on my gaiter velcro, I contemplated the day ahead with my late start. Realizing my arrival would be on a weekend to Old Faithful Village, I contacted my mom to help with redelivery and pick up of my Yellowstone resupply box. This permit locks my schedule (for the most part) through the remainder of Wyoming.

Trail was trail-less to start. I navigated woods with flowering and grassy foliage continuing the old CDT route of before Highway 26. I cussed out the world and the National Park Service.

I adore America’s national parks, but I am biased against the National Park Service. The NPS should become a sector of the DOT; it seems they spend most of their effort collecting tolls along the roadways. They screwed me over in Rocky Mountain National Park and now scheduled me to bust my ass through Yellowstone. How are all these campsites booked? The backcountry agent I spoke with ask me if I was okay with the “worst, [shittiest] swampiest campsite in the park.” There were “no other available spots.” What did he expect of my response? I took it. Otherwise, I’d have to hitch my way into an expensive tourist park town for a day or two (though I am considering stealth camping in Old Faithful Village).

I was moving well from the get go surprisingly. The old CDT merged with official, new trail north of Upper Brooks Lake. North of Highway 26, trail navigates Bridger-Teton National Forest and Teton Wilderness. Trail follows river valleys towards Yellowstone, hopping over mountains and plateaus between these valleys. There’s still a fair amount of climbing in these parts — about a mile or so of vertical a day. However, the landscape should flatten out once I am in the park. The blowdowns were horrid at times today, and there was about five miles through an old burn section. My pace dropped to a couple miles an hour for a while.

My grizzly paranoia has mellowed, or at least this portion of trail is less tense. The last 13 miles heading northbound to Highway 26 (of yesterday’s hiking) on the old CDT were spooky with grizzly — the blind turns were numerous, visibility in the trees was poor, young calves and large herds provide easy prey. After crossing the North Buffalo River and finding a large, fresh pile of bear scat, I decided to eat dinner along the river rather than at camp — no need to attract animals to my sleep spot.

After dinner, I powered on a couple miles to camp. Magically, I made my anticipated mileage for the day, which leaves me positioned well for arrival to my designated campsite in Yellowstone tomorrow.

Signing off,

Zeppelin / fReaK (ON a leash)