After
attempting sleep, but only managing to do it in half hour intervals, we crawled
out of our tent and got ready for our adventurous hike. Feeling ambitious, we
planned to attempt an 18 mile hike, despite the elevation changes. After
cheating the first 2 miles and taking a boat across the lake, we began our 14
mile journey to Lake Solitude. For those of you that don’t know, this is bear
country. It is no longer our territory. We are not in Kansas anymore. Luckily,
we had our handy dandy bear spray just in case. Within the first mile, we all
wanted to die. Why would you make the hardest part of the entire trail in the
very first mile…..and in the last? That is one way to turn people away, but not
us! Only those brave enough to attempt the treacherous trek through the rocky
terrain and snow deserve to see the majesty of Lake Solitude.
And we
were some of the few! One challenge we came upon while hiking was the lack of
trail markings. Unlike the northeast, the Grand Tetons rely solely upon signs
that looked like tree bark with size 12 font (Times New Roman) placed so
infrequently we had to rely on others around us to figure out where the trail
was. That’s okay though, we made some friends and enjoyed the scenery together.
As we got closer to Lake Solitude, we walked/slipped across snow in shorts and
a t-shirt which was a very bizarre feeling, to say the least. However, while
making our way through the snow and ice, we were surrounded by some of the most
beautiful scenery any of us had ever seen. At one point, we pretended to be the
Von Trapp family because the views reminded us of a cross between The Sound of
Music and Lord of the Rings. Unfortunately, once we got to Lake Solitude, we
were no longer comfortable in shorts and a t-shirt. We all brought sweatshirts,
but when it’s only 45 degrees and you’re covered in sweat, that just doesn’t
cut it. We ate our lunch, took some pictures and headed back down the mountain.
As
always, down is much easier than up cardiovascularly, but NOT muscularly. Our legs
were feelin the burn, but no worries, we kept going. Towards the end, we
started to ease up on our pace, that is, until we came across some droppings.
Now these are not your everyday droppings mind you. We had previously seen a
sign on the trail that said “No horses past this point,” so we ruled out horse
dropping. Welp, that left us with bear, moose or elk. Whatever it was, we did
not want to stick around and find out. Our slow pace picked up dramatically, as
well as the volume of our voices. They say as long as you’re talking the bears
will hear you coming and leave you alone. Needless to say, we talked the entire
way down the rest of the mountain….and by we, I mean Sam and Britt. Linds was
too focused on not being eaten by a bear. 5 hours, 49 minutes and 48 seconds
later, we completed our 13.48 mile hike.
Still caught up on the idea
that we could have encountered bears, we showed the ranger a picture of the
droppings. While initially hesitant on whether they were bear or horse
droppings, he confirmed for us that they were in fact horse droppings. This
made us feel a little better, that is, until he said we probably passed
numerous bears along our way without even knowing it. At that point though, all
we cared about was getting dinner…..and Britt a shower, because putting it nicely, she smelt like dead fish.
Until Next Time,
Auf Wiedersehen
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