Grand Teton National Park, Day 3 A Grizzly Encounter

The morning of the 5th of July was beautiful.  We both woke up pretty early having gotten to bed early the previous night.  Rolling out of the tent to see the stillness on Leigh Lake in the morning light was just breathtaking.  I was admiring the view as Aaron began preparing his fly rod.  We had taken all of the items in the bear box out to prepare some breakfast and then load up the canoe.  I made a couple of cups of coffee as Aaron fished.  

Soon after, we began to hear unusual noises in the woods that we had not heard before.  Typically a rustling in the woods would reveal a deer or a marmot, but whatever was making this noise was much larger.  It would be quiet, and then all of a sudden, a giant crash of snapping branches and twigs.  This noise appeared to be getting closer, moving through the woods, parallel to the shore. 

Aaron in true Hollywood horror movie fashion, turns to me and says “I’m going to go check that out” and wanders into the woods holding only his morning cup of coffee.  I focus my attention back to organizing and cleaning up the site to get us ready to go when we finished up fishing.  I hear Aaron begin clapping, and saying “No bear, get away bear.”  The above photo is not of our bear.  As you might imagine, I didn't race for the camera at the time I heard him say this.  

According to Aaron, the bear had just pounced on a marmot or a squirrel when he finally identified that it was in fact, a bear.  Wanting to avoid it, he had hoped the bear would not see him.  But at that very moment, the bear popped his head up and locked eyes with Aaron.  Aaron says he lowered his head and clearly had the intention of finding out if this was a beast that he could eat.  He would determine that by walking towards it, and seeing if it ran away.

I look up from what I am doing to Aaron who is about 50 yards from me on the beach.  Walking towards him, at a range of about 20 feet, is a gigantic grizzly bear.  My blood rushed to my stomach and my heart pounded.  Was I about to watch my husband be eaten by a grizzly?  It certainly appeared that this bear thought Aaron was prey.  He had, after all, just been out hunting in the woods.  Aaron continued making noise as the bear bowed its head and continue to stalk towards him.  I joined him in making a ton of racket, smashing a paddle against a tree and yelling.  The bear finally turned, having assessed that this was not going to be an easy kill, and slowly wandered up the hill and away from our campsite.  Aaron slowly walked back to me at the beach and took up the paddle in the event the bear decided to return.

I packed our entire site into the canoe in about 3 to 5 minutes.  It was the fastest pack up and get ouf of here we’ve ever done.  In fact, we didn’t actually relax until we were in the middle of Leigh Lake, and could take in what had just happened.  That bear had been hungry, and we were about to be its breakfast.  Thank god Aaron had not turned and ran, as I am certain the bear would have reacted differently and immediately assumed he could kill and eat him.  So, fighting back and yelling at a big bear will eventually work, you just have to keep at it apparently.  Lesson learned.

Suffice it to say, after that event and of course with the annoyance of the aforementioned water purifier breakdown, it was an easy choice to get to paddling back to civilization and the security of a more crowded campground.  We returned to Dornan’s to turn in our canoe and determined to have lunch overlooking the cathedral group and revel in our good fortune.

We wound up back at Gros Ventre for a third night of camping and told our story to anyone who would listen.  We met three people our age from Santa Barbara who had just finished the Teton Crest Trail and has spotted a couple of black bears on their trek.  When visiting our famed western mountain parks, it really can’t be stressed enough that you need to be prepared for anything and everything.  After Glacier last year, and now the Tetons, we are continually humbled by what can, and will, go wrong when you’re out in the middle of nowhere.

Grand Teton National Park, Day 2 July 4th, 2013

The plan for day 2 was to head for the backcountry.  Research prior to the trip suggested that going by canoe from the String Lake Trail head, up String Lake, and on to Leigh Lake was the way to go.  This required some logistics and considerable worry on my part, as we are not experienced canoe paddlers by any means, and what if we capsized with all of our stuff!  Suffice it to say, I didn’t sleep well the night prior, in anticipation of what would be a monumental couple of days.  After the first night at Leigh Lake, we had planned to canoe on up the lake and then backpack in to Bearpaw Lake.  This did not occur, for reasons I will explain shortly.

There were administrative affairs to attend to in the morning - such as waiting a half hour in a line to get our permits from the welcome center.  Then there was the wait at the local fly fishing shop, to obtain our fishing licenses, and then lastly there was waiting to get our canoe loaded up on the car.  I would advise anyone heading out into a national park on a holiday weekend as we did to get a very early start.  We were at the put in for String Lake by 9:30am, so we beat most of the traffic.  Exiting on the following day we saw long lines of cars at the entry gate.  Here's a map of where we were:

String Lake is easily one of the most beautiful mountain lakes in the world.  The backdrop of the Teton peaks and the crystal clear, shallow water with giant fish swimming around - it's a sight to behold.  The trip was relatively short, and soon we had reached the portage to Leigh Lake.  The canoe rental outfits will loan you a set of wheels to load up the canoe with so you can make an easier portage.  This was critical for us, as we had approximately 70-80 lbs of gear in that canoe for our two nights in the woods and could not have hoisted the canoe without assistance of additional people.  A couple of pics of String Lake and the portage to Leigh Lake:

Soon we were paddling out onto Leigh Lake, which was far more scary to me as the water was very deep, and a capsize here would really ruin our trip.  The lake was calm however, and we were able to easily find out campsite, Leigh Lake 13.  

That’s when our war with the mosquitos and horse flies really got going.  This was not a mere annoyance, these suckers were out for blood and nothing was going to stop them.  Except DEET.  After I got tired of swatting, I finally bit the bullet and went for a dip in the frigid water.  It was very refreshing and I wasn’t alone in that thinking.  All across the lake, kayaks, canoes, and paddle boards carried sun burned adventurers on that gorgeous afternoon.  

We had our first close run in with wildlife that afternoon, though it would not be the last.  As Aaron napped in the hammock, a giant mule deer wandered up a couple of feet away to check it out and nibble on some bushes around the campsite.  We named her Dierdre, and she came and went multiple times throughout the evening.  Sweet little thing, here is some footage:

Having prepared dinner, I went to filter some fresh water with our new water purifier for later that evening.  In doing so at home, I had no issue.  However after filling one nalgene completely to the top, the purifier pump broke.  This would be trouble for us the following day, not having a clean source of water to drink.  The alternative would have been boiling a bunch of water before we went to bed, and then allowing it to cool over night.  I suppose had other events not transpired, we may have pushed on to Bearpaw the following day as planned despite the issue with the water filter, but other issues arose that gave us pause in continuing our journey.

Now would be a good time to tell you that these campsites have huge metal bear boxes permanently fixed in the area and the rangers stress the importance of always having your food locked up in the beer box when you are not consuming it because they will smell it and come after it if you don’t.  We followed these rules closely and went to bed that night after a brief thunderstorm feeling somewhat safe (or as safe as you can ever really feel when you’re in the backcountry and no one is within 2 or 3 miles of where you are).

Grand Teton National Park, Day 1

Tetons, Day 1 July 3, 2013

The flight into Jackson Hole was nothing short of amazing.  Cruising low over the iced peaks and looking down into the bluest ice crevasses below took my breath away and brought tears to my eyes.  Not long after, the first site of the Tetons came into view, and as if to please just us, the pilot took a second turn around the airport and we took it all in.  As you de-board down the stairs of the plane, Elk antlers in the shape of an arch adorn the entry to an immaculate airport.  The drive from the airport to downtown Jackson is brief, but breath taking, and you are quickly reminded of how completely small and insignificant we all are in the shadow of such grand mountains.  

Locals complained of the heat as we collected supplies for our three days of camping.

We rolled into Gros Ventre campground and got one of the remaining 2 tent camping spots in the whole place.  Not long after setting up camp, we had the pleasure of meeting our camp neighbors Marshall and Karen, who had ridden up by motorcycle from Phoenix.  Marshall, who retired from the construction business years ago, tipped us off to a drive not far from our campsite where we might spot some buffalo.  Aaron and I, having never laid eyes on a real live buffalo, wasted no time loading up the car to head out on our sunset buffalo drive.  We were not disappointed.  The site of the wild beasts grazing in the fields, with the back drop of the Tetons and the sun just beginning to set was almost too much to take in all at once.  Here are a few pictures and videos:

We have become smitten with this land, and the thought that every American owes it to himself and herself to see this and experience this, in any way possible.  It is truly a testimony to Teddy Roosevelt for ensuring that this type of land would always be a public treasure, owned by every American and not just the rich.  And this is just day 1...

Preparing for Grand Teton 6/2/13

It's the eve of our Teton trip and I'm giddier than a school girl at a middle school dance.  We have all of our supplies meticulously organized on our dining room table and are just finishing stocking up before we pack it all up this evening.  A couple of things I'm really glad we've accumulated for these types of trips include the Osprey pack air porter, Sawyer water filter (though Aaron wants to buy a pump instead, says its too slow), and my 15 degree sleeping bag.  The air porter bag was an accidental gear purchase that turned out to be a great mishap.  We bought it last year for our trip out to Glacier thinking they were rain covers, but when we opened them up at home, we commented how handy it would be to be able to fly our packs out already packed up.  That works, so long as you don't exceed the 50 lbs required by the airline.

We have some new gear for this trip - in particular a set of three new dry bags as we will be going at it via canoe.  Our itinerary is as follows:

Fly in Wednesday afternoon, camp in/around Gros Ventre camp ground.
Thursday morning, pick up rented canoe, paddles, life vests, etc and drive to the String Lake trailhead where we will pack up the canoes and set out
By Thursday afternoon we will have portaged over to Leigh Lake and to our campsite #13 for Thursday night
Friday morning we will pack up the canoes again and head to the north end of Leigh lake, where we will stash our canoe and hike on foot to Bear Paw Lake for a 2nd night of backcountry camping.
Saturday we canoe back to String Lake and crash at The Alpine House for a luxurious end to our trip.