Category Archives: Hiking

2013 Roadtrip: Grand Teton NP

We made it to Wyoming and the Tetons by Tuesday afternoon (Day 4), and I was definitely not prepared for the gorgeous views.

The Tetons, which seem to pierce the sky, have no foothills blocking them.

The first ‘view’ at Oxbow Bend.

Heading into Jackson, we stopped to catch the sunset. After experiencing the town a bit, the next day we went for a long hike along Jenny and it’s neighboring lakes.

One of my favorite views was Cascade Canyon, which we hiked up into a bit in the afternoon.

We doubled back near Bear Paw lake, to cross over to the western side of Jenny lake.

Mt. Moran interested me almost more than the Grand, due to its sheer mass and many glaciers.

The Tetons proper.

We saw lots of wildlife, much more than you expect to see on an outing in the East.

Sadly, we had to continue onward, all to soon. We’ll be back though. The allure of the Tetons makes me want to stand on the top of them.

2013 Roadtrip: Glacier NP

Last major stop: Glacier. Unlike any place we’d been to yet, we arrived Friday the 13th and spent the first day sightseeing.

Glacier felt big, and begging you to explore the glacial basins and tall peaks.

We drove up Going-To-The-Sun road, and tried to take it easy with our laden-down Subaru.

The alpine meadows at the top of the pass were incredible.

Descending was just as cool, hugging the base of Garden Wall’s knife-edge peaks.

The next day we hiked around Avalanche Lake. We were hoping to do a longer hike but worried about the remaining drive, as we wanted to be in Spokane, WA that night.

Luckily it did not disappoint.

That was our last National Park, and last big travel day. With no mishaps, we wrapped our the trip.

8 Days on the Road

Well, I meant to write this before we left, and now its happened. Catherine and I officially departed MA this morning. Destination: Seattle. We were out there hiking in June and now are going to live there! We’ll be updating a separate blog, Washington St. To Washington during the trip. I’ll post the highlights here afterward.

Our route plan takes us through the Badlands, Tetons, Yellowstone, and Glacier national parks and more, with days for sight seeing along the way.

Edit: The road trip is over, and I’ve posted photos here.

Bagging the End of the AT

Just before the 4th, Rob, Sweeney and I were up with friends rafting near Baxter State Park. Though the camping weather was overly moist, the rafting was a blast. That night Rob and I set our sights on peak bagging Katahdin.

We were heading out around 8 when our friend Ben showed up and we all drove off into Baxter. The hike began under cloudy skies into dense fog up from Abol campground. We quickly rose above treeline where the trail followed a rock slide and led us up one of the steepest continual ascent we’ve encountered since Great Gulf.

Poor visibility at the summit

Ben and I get the age old shot…even through we didn’t thru-hike

We summitted the nearly 4000 vertical gain in two hours flat. On the way up we’d decided to loop the hike by descending via the AT to expedite our trip.

Rob above the Knife edge

Heading down the AT was definitely the right choice as we were awarded great views and stopped briefly to chat with an early season thru-hiker. I pulled my phone out to snap photos only a few times as we made our way down.

We made the 9 mile loop in 4.5 hours but were still 2.2 miles from our car, which put us back at the rafting lodge a little later than we’d anticipated. Rob jogged and we speed walked to the car, very satisfied to have finally hiked Katahdin.