Day 4: Grand Teton NP to Dillon, MT
Paintbrush Canyon and BYU Idaho
The plan for Day 4 was an ambitious 19 mile hike with an elevation change of 4,300 feet along the Paintbrush Canyon and Cascade Canyon Trails in Grand Teton National Park.
We got up early and started off on the trail. The first animal we ran into was a moose. We backed up and it took off — no problems there.
We made it about 4 miles in on the trail before things started to get challenging. Due to the altitude, large portions of the mountain are covered in snow for much of the year. The trail would run 100 feet then be under snow for 200 feet causing us to need to stop and determine where to go each time. The last 0.8 miles we hiked took over an hour and we finally got to a snow field that we determined was too large to cross without better gear like ice picks. So we called it quits and turned around.
Despite the challenges, the views were still amazing. On the way back down the mountain we talked to several other hikers who said the word was there was a bear spotted up ahead. At one point we saw some brush move below us on a hill and we quickly pulled the bear spray from our bag, but aside from that we never saw hardly any wildlife. The signs recommend making noise to alert bears of your presence, so Pit and Frieso sang German songs for a while.
Once we got back to the car we drove to Jackson, WY and sat at a McDonalds while figuring out the new plan. We had turned around and finished our planned hike several hours early, so we decided to get some driving done to make Day 5 a little easier.
Next we drove to Brigham Young University — Idaho in Rexburg where we met up with my friend Emily. She gave us a tour of the campus (which is a really nice place) and connected us with a friend who let us shower at their apartment (our last real shower was 4 days and about 20 miles of hiking ago).
We then headed towards Stoddard Creek Campground near Spencer, ID. Unfortunately every camping spot was full so we found the next nearest campground an hour to the north in Dillon, MT.
Around 11 p.m. we had finished setting up our campsite and fell asleep to the sound of sad country music wafting from a neighboring campsite.
On Sunday we drive to Seattle.
