A week ago today, my three friends and I had what may have been our best day of hiking ever. Speaking for all four of us, we hike A LOT. Nearly every weekend, you can find us on Mount Sanitas in Boulder, on top of one of the many Colorado high-peaks, or in the desert admiring sandstone formations. But this day of backpacking on August 6th, 2018, and our third day on the Teton Crest Trail, will live on in our memories for quite some time. It may go down in history as our best day ever on the trail.
It all started with an alarm at 5:45am. The four of us rolled over grudgingly in our tent, until we remembered that we didn't have to get out of bed quite yet. We unzipped the rain fly and tent door, and before us the incredible view that we fell asleep next to returned. The morning colors had just arrived, and we had the perfect view of the Grand and Middle Teton through our tent door. We remained in our sleeping bags for a while and eventually got up to make tea and watch the sun peak out between the two peaks.
Fast forward a few hours, we left our campsite atop Hurricane Pass and were making our way down into South Fork Cascade Canyon. The small stream we could hear thundering in the distance from camp grew into a waterfall. The forest was lush, green, and warming up to the morning light. A trail runner passed, and showed us photos of a bear that he had seen minutes before on the side of the trail, we had walked right by him and didn't notice. Our joints ached a bit from the downhill until we reached our next major junction. We turned north and began heading up North Fork Cascade Canyon.
The Northern side of Cascade Canyon was every bit as stunning as the South. The valley was perfectly u-shaped; it quickly became apparent that massive glaciers had spent quite some time in this area, sculpting the rock to frame the view of the Grand Teton perfectly in the background.
We passed many, many day hikers. This was obviously the busy section of the park, and after two days of near-solitude, none of us were ready to face the National Park crowds. We kept our heads down and blazed by them. We passed one group who pointed out a moose to us across the valley, minding his own business, but aware of the herds of tourists admiring him.
Eventually we made it to Lake Solitude. By this point, we had hiked about eight miles and the swarms of day hikers were starting to get on our nerves. The lake was beautiful, but we were determined to find a spot that had precisely what we were looking for— actual solitude. Feet tired and bodies tight, we hiked around the lake to its northern side and suddenly there were no people. We only saw them from across the lake, but they were no matter as the view of the Grand Teton easily distracted us.
We spent the next hour or so wading into the lake's icy waters, sunbathing on rocks, doing a bit of yoga, eating, drinking, popping blisters and mooning tourists across the lake. It was one of those times that simply felt too good to be true. Here we were, at one of the most popular lakes in Grand Teton National Park, lying in our underwear on a rock out in the sun, and the while having a view of these iconic peaks and walls of rock all to ourselves.
Looking up to the Northeast, we could see the remainder of our route for the day. Up and over Paintbrush Divide, and down to the Upper Paintbrush camping area was all we had left. Only four more miles. Two more miles of uphill left for the entire trip. We were on the home stretch of the Teton Crest Trail.
About an hour later, we had said goodbye to the lake and had fought our way up to the top of the Divide. The view of the Grand Teton faded away behind other peaks and Paintbrush Canyon opened up before us. It was beautiful-no doubt, and very different from what we had seen on the trail so far. We began our descent down the loose rock and crossed several snowfields before reaching a junction between Holly Lake and Upper Paintbrush camping zone. We turned towards Holly Lake to fill water for the night.
All four of us exhausted, all that was left was to find and make camp. We hiked on a bit, looking for campsites. And after what seemed to be two miles from Holly Lake, we realized that we had missed our camping zone entirely. Our map was dead wrong, the camping zone was back at the last junction. We still had the Lower Paintbrush camping zone to pass through, but our permit was for the Upper. We had hiked nearly fourteen miles at this point. To ethically camp in the park, we would have to hike back two miles, uphill. And that simply wasn't happening.
We made the decision to feed ourselves before thinking anymore about camping. Continuing down to Lower Paintbrush and looking for a spot to eat, the four of us spread out along the trail. I can't speak for my three friends, but I had had it. Every inch of my body hurt— feet, ankles, knees, hips, shoulders. I was starving and dehydrated and utterly exhausted. Camp had never seemed so far away. Mentally, I was done. I couldn't help but think of the worst— tonight, we were hiking all the way to the car. I did my absolute best to prepare myself for an additional six miles with a worn out body and a worn out mind.
A massive dinner and some ibuprofen certainly helped. We decided that we couldn't camp in the lower camping zone and potentially take someone else's campsite for ethical reasons. Six more miles didn't seem too far at this point and thus the decision was made to finish out the trail that night!
After our meal, we sat in a circle and laughed at our mistake and how we were about to have an "accidental twenty mile day" and finish the 40-mile Teton Crest Trail in three days instead of four. We joked about our obvious hunger and irritation that clouded our brains for the last two miles and how this would most definitely be our longest day of backpacking ever. And quite possibly our best.
It was nearly dark, so we didn't see much of the last six miles of the Teton Crest Trail. It went by surprisingly fast and we were all more than relieved once we spotted the car in the parking lot at String Lake. We changed into fresh underwear, clean clothes and drove off to camp, where we would fall asleep under the stars and wake up to sunrise over the Tetons once more.
So much had happened in one day, it was eery to remember where we had woke up that morning. We had seen and completed half of the Teton Crest Trail in one day. A day that (at least in my mind) will be remembered as one of the hardest and more incredible days ever spent in the wilderness.