6 days off on the Teton Crest Trail with Dad

Mileage: 35.6 miles

I woke up, walked out of the campground and had breakfast at a diner a bit before 6am in Pinedale, before I started trying to hitch over to Jackson. I made a sign on a cardboard box in the diner which read: "Jackson. Won't kill you!" I found this elicited quite a few smiles and laughs from drivers, but it wasn't getting people to pick me up. In fact, it ended up being my longest wait for a hitch of the trip, taking two hours before I finally got one. 

The guy was real Wyoming rough-neck who drove a big red pickup and drilled water wells around the area. He was only going about halfway, but I figured that was good enough for me. We talked about all sorts of stuff, from Prongnhorn hunting to gay marriage (he was very against it). 

What I found interesting was he thought the world was going to shit just as much as any liberal I've ever met - it was just he thought so for the exact opposite reasons. Regardless of his beliefs, I could tell he was deep down a good guy. He'd spent awhile in Salt Lake, which he told me was the drug capital of the area. He and his wife had both been addicted to Meth until he finally got out and moved back up here to straighten his life out. I noticed as we were talking he drove right past where he said he was going and ended up taking me all the way to Jackson. He was a rough and maybe even a bigoted guy, but when I tried to give him gas money he wouldn't take it. Deep down, people are good and want to help others - I think you just have to allow them to help you - really just putting yourself in a situation where you need help. These days we all have our own cars, our own houses, and ways to support ourselves. I think in all this independence we lost something: the ability to help and be helped, which I think is an essential ingredient to any community.

Anyways, I thanked him and met up with my dad that night in Jackson. We had a wonderful dinner and great night at a historic Bed and Breakfast, the Huff House. The next day we mostly took care of logistics for trip, buying food and supplies, and then we headed out the day after, up the tram to Rendevous Mountain, saving us 4,000' of climbing, which was awesome. We did seven miles the first day past Marion Lake and past great wildflowers, ending on a ridge with awesome view of Grand Teton. 

It was so cool to see everything like new through my dad's eyes - everything from the endless fields of Lupine I saw everyday to the creatures like the Marmot and Pika which had almost become pedestrian. I was reminded of how lucky I was to be doing what I was and so thankful I could share this wildly beautiful place with my dad.

The next day, we hiked around ten miles over Death Canyon Shelf and into the Alaska Basin and then camped at Sunset lake. The views were incredible from the shelf and though there were a lot of people there it was still awesome. My dad loved the volcanic looking rocks and I think he might have even picked up a small one as a souvenir (don't tell anyone!) That night we played cards, which I'd made out of his drawing paper the night before, and entertained ourselves. 

We hiked over Hurricane Pass the next day and down the South Fork of Cascade Canyon. Again, we were treated to incredible views of all three Tetons and on the way down, with shimmering waterfalls the whole way down. Some were braided and thin, while others wide and full of power. Camped with another awesome view of Grand Teton, this time closer than the first time in a meadow just below Lake Solitude. Walked up there that night and swam, it was glorious.

On our last day we headed over Paintbrush Divide, a long climb but my dad conquered it like a champ. Even with his blisters on each foot and shoulder aches he never complained and I was so proud of him for that. It was incredibly engineered trail up and down the Divide, somehow clinging onto very steep cliffs. Looking up we wondered where the trail would go through the steep scree and boulder fields. Once we cleared the pass, there was a lot of rockfall below us, narrowly missing a lady. 

The sweeping views from the pass were awesome, looking down into deep, glacial valleys on all sides. On the way down we met a seven year-old and my dad said that's when he started taking me hiking and it made me almost tear up.

I was at the same time happy and sad that now I was the one pushing my dad, and I was the one who was basically leading the trip. It felt like I was officially a grown up and that my dad was getting older. I noticed for the first time that he's started to bald a little bit on top, which might partially explain his preponderance of hats. It made me feel like life isn't fair - the passage of time is too quick and as a child you can't appreciate your parents as you do as an adult. I felt like I wished me and my dad could be the same age and he could do everything I could do. But you can't rewind time. I felt so lucky to have the time I did with him, but I felt like I was grasping at every moment, afraid to let any slip away. 

We got out just before a big storm, foregoing our last night in the woods so we could get back to town and I could get everything ready for heading back on the trail. The second car that passed picked us up, which was surprising because it was a dad in a minivan with three kids, kind of the very last person you think will pick you up. What a guy, because a torrential downpour started about two minutes after we got in the car, the first rain in five days. One more break and we would have been soaked to the bone.

Got to our car, returned bear barrel and headed back to town. We showered off, ate glorious sushi and ice cream and then watched James Bond together - my dad always loved Bond and I knew it. We took turns calling out the lines before I fell asleep midway through.