Day 72 (July 17, 2010)– Three-quarters of the way to Camp Muir

Since I had today off as well, I know it seems like I never work but I actually do on occasion. I usually work my hiking in around work schedule. Basically if I have free time, I am probably hiking.

So the goal for today was to hike to Camp Muir. Camp Muir is named after the naturalist John Muir. John Muir founded the Sierra Club and was a conservation supporter. John Muir visited Mount Rainer and my favorite story about him comes from this visit. His plan had been to just hike up a part way up the mountain, but in a letter to his wife he tells his wife pushing upwards and the next thing he know he is standing on the summit.

Camp Muir is a camp where climbers typically spend the night at before summiting the mountain. Camp Muir is about a 4.1 mile hike from Paradise. 4.1 miles seems like an easy enough hike, but it’s not. It is a grueling 4.1 mile hike with about 4,900 feet of elevation gain. Plus add in the sun beating up and down on you. Up on you, what am I talking about? SNOW! On the mountain you risk sunburn not just from the sun but its reflection off the snow so it is easy to burn your chin, underside of your arms, inside your shorts.

I knew from the beginning that this was going to be a grueling hike, but my hiking partner didn’t quite understand all this. It took us longer than I expected to make it to Panoramic Point, which is only 1.7 miles from the trailhead. The view was fantastic. It was a clear day so we could see(from right to left) Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Hood, and Mt. Adams. Mt. Hood is in the  middle-left and is very hard to see in the picture but it is there.

From Panoramic, we continued up the mountain. After about another hour of climbing we made Pebble Creek with is about half way there. We took a short break and then started working our way up the Muir Snowfield.

About half way up the snow field my hiking partner sits down and state “I refuse to go any further.” Needless to say I was disappointed but not surprised. She wasn’t in shape for climbing to Muir and was getting pretty sun burnt. So we turned around and headed back to Paradise.

As we were heading down, I decided that despite wearing shorts, I wanted to glissade down part of the snowfield. For those who don’t know glissading is a fancy name for sliding down on your but.

Day 15 - Mock Dinner and Snowshoeing

     Today was our last day of mock meals. I was working lunch and the big dinner with a lot of executive staff and other important people. I got up and walked outside to go to work and found there was six inches. I repeat SIX inches of new snow on the ground. I was under the impression the snow was melting away not adding new layers.


     Lunch went off without any major disasters. After lunch, I was eating with another hostess, Libby, and a waiter, Tim. Tim wanted to go snowshoeing before dinner shift. I agreed as long as we were not going too far. We decided to do the Nisqually Vista trail which is a 1.2 mile loop.

     Since the trail is buried under about 5 feet of snow on average, the park rangers had put up poles to mark the trail. Tim and I decided to do a little of exploring and went off the markers. We found the valley where the Nisqually Glacier was located. So we did significantly more than 1.2 miles, but it was still fun. I learned two things on this adventure: 1. I am still not adjusted to living at 5400 feet above sea level and 2. snowshoeing is much harder than it looks. I didn’t take any pictures on this trip because I didn’t want to risk a camera on my first snowshoeing trip in Mount Rainier.

     Dinner service consisted of seating 50 people. The two others hostess, Libby and Emma, and I seated all 50 people. Then we had nothing else to do for the rest of service. Libby and Emma disappeared (I later found them in the bar, probably goofing off). I pretty much kept busy busing tables or delivering food. I tried to always be doing something. Both the managers and Wes said something to me during the night about how good a job I was doing. My motto was always be doing something useful or be looking for something useful to do.

Day 6 – Ending Location - West Yellowstone

A. Starting Location – Jackson Hole, WY

B. Visit – Grand Teton National Park

C. Ending Location – West Yellowstone, MT
     Today started just like yesterday with a later then normal start. The only difference was that today was on purpose rather than an accident. First thing I did was pack up my bags and check out of my hotel. For there, I drove into Grand Teton for my final adventures there. 

     My first stop was the visitor gift shop, I need to get my National Park visit log stamped and pick up a patch for my collection. From there, I was considering going hiking on one of the shorter mostly snow free trails. But when I got to the trailhead it was starting to snow and with wind was gusting to about 20 or 30 miles per hour. Most of this trail was though dense forest, and for safely I decided it was best no to hike the trail. I did however take time out to build a mini snowman. I wanted to build a bigger one but the snow wouldn’t pack together.

     Right as I pulled out of the parking lot, I noticed a beaver lodge. I decided that since I had nothing better to do, I would hang around and watch. I spend over 30 minutes stilling there watching this lodge hoping one of the beavers would come out but alas they did not. For talking to one of the three people who stopped and asked what I was looking at, I found out that a Grizzly Bear had been seen eating from the carcass that I saw the wolves eating from.

     I drove up to the site and spend an hour sitting there watching the carcass, but nothing showed up. No Grizzly Bear, no Black Bear, and no wolves. I was sad, but I then spent the better part of the day hoping from turnoff to turnoff and scanning the woods for animals. Today was not for seeing animals; I didn’t see anything cool or interesting until my last turnoff before leaving.
     I was sitting in my car, scanning this field with my binoculars and didn’t see anything so back my car out of the space and notice 5 or 6 birds follow my car out. I had never seen any birds like these so I had to stop and take their picture. These birds had been clearly feed my humans because they came right up to meet. As I am taking their pictures, another car pulls into the parking lot, this is not just another car it is one of the park rangers. The ranger gets out of his vehicle with a angry look towards me. I am thinking, “crap he thinks I am feeding the birds”. Once he steps out of the vehicle the birds take off toward him hoping he will feed them since I am not. As they fly towards him, he realizes that I wasn’t feeding them; I was just taking advantage of the opportunity to photograph them. The ranger walks over to me and we chat for a little bit. Since I didn’t know what type of birds these where I ask him, and he tells me he has never seen them before so I get out my BORROWED bird book (Mom at least I am using it regularly and you now have an excuse to get a new one). I find out that these bird are called Yellow-Headed Blackbirds (though this name is very obvious I still had to look).

     After this, I headed out of the park and started the three hour drive to West Yellowstone. If you look at the map, it would appear that I took a very long route that is out of the way. I did, but I didn’t have a choice the roads out of the North end of Grand Teton as still closed from winter. This drive involved crossing the Teton Range. The highest point of the pass is 8,431 feet in elevation. It was kind of scary driving up the huge mountain, but the view from the top of the pass was worth it.

     The pictures do not do the pass justice. From there I made it safely to West Yellowstone, and am ready to enter Yellowstone National Park tomorrow.

P.S. Pictures are coming just bear with me.
P.S.S. Do NOT expect a blog post tomorrow. I am staying at Old Faithful Inn and will not have internet access.
P.S.S.S. I have add a page on things I have learned that I will update as I learn new things. Click Here

Day 5 – Grand Teton National Park

     Today was my first day in Grand Teton National Park. My day started later than I planned, due to my sleeping though my alarm. Thankfully, I didn’t sleeping though the whole day, I only slept until 9:00 a.m. I got the park and my first stop was the visitor center to see how the road conditions were. I asked one of the rangers about a good 6 to 8 hour hike that I could get to in my without four wheel drive and snow tires. He suggested the Jenny Lake Loop to Hidden Falls. He told me the roads that were open were snow free, so I would be good on that concern.
     I drove out to Jenny Lake and immediately encountered snow on the hiking path. I have never experienced hiking in snow and needless to say I was underprepared for the difficulties in hiking in snow and 7,000 feet. At certain points I was knee deep in snow.

     I made it about half way to Hidden Falls when I slipped on a snowy embankment and twisted my ankle. At that point I decided it was safest if I turned about and head back to my car. The close I got to the car the more my ankle hurt and it got the point I was just saying to myself “one more step and I am one step closer to being done.” At one of my rest stops, I heard this twig snap and looked up and there was an adult moose. The moose just looked at me like I was crazy and continued to eat his twigs.

     From Jenny Lake, I drove further into the park. The next stop was a overlook on the other side of Jenny Lake. At this overlook, I met an older gentleman, who was looking for someone to go snowshoeing with. My ankle was feeling better so I went with him about a mile. 

     Yesterday, this gentleman had found three wolves feeding on a kill further into the park. I followed him out to this spot and we started watching. The first thing I noticed was a heard of elk near the spot he had seen the wolves. As I was watching the elk, they took off running and I noticed a gray wolf bounding behind them. The wolf didn’t catch an elk, but it was still cool to see. The wolves then spent over an hour feeding on the same kill as yesterday.

     After the wolves, I spent the next two hours exploring the park and just viewing the sights. I will try to post pictures soon. But I have to go through 442 pictures. 

Animal Count:

• Moose – 3
• Elk – to many to count over 100
• Otter – 2
• Wolf – 1 (A ranger confimed this was a wolf, it was wearing a radio collar)
• Muskrat – 1
• Coyote – 2 (I am not entirely sure they were not wolves but coyotes are more common)
• Bison – 15
• Many types of birds

Day 4 - Ending Location – Jackson Hole, WY

     Sorry about updating a day plus a little late, but I was exhausted yesterday and fell asleep sorting my 370 pictures.

A. Cheyenne, WY
B. Jackson Hole, WY
     Last night my mother told me about these interesting rock formations called Vedauwoo. I decide since I was about 3 hours ahead of schedule I could afford to stop and see the rock formations. There was only one problem; I couldn’t find directions on how to get there on the internet. My mom told me they could be seen from the interstate so I watched for the formations. I could see them just off interstate, but had no idea how to get to them until I saw the next exit was for Vedauwoo Road. I got off the interstate and discovered an amazing place.

     Vedauwoo is well known in the rock climbing community for its climbing, but I was impressed by the amazing rock formations. To see more of my pictures from this day please click here. Most of the rock formations are located on a dirt/gravel road. As most of you know, I live on a mile long gravel driveway, so the dirt/gravel road didn’t even faze me. Even with my new car. A couple of the locals I meet while on the dirt road were impressed I made it that far with my little car.

     After Vedauwoo, I got off the interstate and continued my journey on one of the US highway (I am not sure of the number). This was an amazing drive starting with the crossing of the Continental Divide - twice. From there, I drove though the most amazing rolling hills that slowly turned into mountains or large hills. One of my favorites was the Split Rock.

     Yesterday, I traveling though the Great Plains, I had thought about what it would be like to be a early settler and traveling cross country on the Oregon Trail. What I didn’t realize that I was at times following the path of the Oregon Trail. As it turns out, Split Rock was a well know landmark on the Oregon Trail.


     From Split Rock, the terrain continued to get more rugged and I started to see more of the local wildlife. The two big ones were wild horse descend from the original Spanish ponies and Pronghorns. Finally I entered the last leg of this stage of my cross-country trek. The only places that stood in my way were the Shoshone National Forest and Teton National Forest. As I started into Shoshone I started driving up the large mountain. The higher I got the more snow appeared on the side of the roads. Thankfully the roads were cleared. At some points there was about 5 feet of snow on the sides. About 40 miles from Jackson, the sun was shining and it started to snow. Yes, SNOW. It was gorgeous, nothing interesting happened in the Teton National Forest. After leaving both forest, I got my first view of the Tetons of this trip. In reality this is my first view because I don’t remember the last visit. I stopped to take some pictures but my timing was bad since I was on the east side of the mountain and the sun was setting behind where I was shooting.
     If you want to see my most of my pictures, please see my facebook page here.
Updated Cop Count:
Kentucky - 5
Indiana - 6
Illinois - 0
Missouri – 7
Iowa – 1
Nebraska – 3
Wyoming – 4