I decided that even the rain was not going to stop me from getting out into the park. I drove back into the park and stopped by the new visitors center to check on the status of the trail that I was going to be doing the next day up and over the Paintbrush Divide. The ranger shared with me that there was a fair amount of snow on the pass but that the trail should be good the whole way up and down. I decided that my best option for hiking would be to head over and check out where my trail head was and to ensure that I knew my turns for my trail. I hiked up from String Lake toward Holly Lake and met a fair amount of people heading up to camp at the higher elevations. I turned back after about 4 miles because I did not want to regret it in the morning by being tired and sore.
I headed back to camp for a nap and an early dinner because I wanted to be up with camp broken the next morning by 6am so I could be on the trail by first light at 6:45am. I decided after I ate that I would head into Jackson Hole to wander around and people watch (tourist watching is one of my favorite past times when on vacation). I was fortunate enough to catch the moose cow and calf making their way back down to the river on my way out of the campground and took a few more pics (this time in better light).
On my way into Jackson I decided to stop and take in the beauty of Grand Teton National Park. The weather system that had plagued the area for the previous two days had finally moved on leaving the mountains to finally be seen. Enjoy!
Once I reached Jackson, I walked around for awhile and then settled on a beer at the Town Square Tavern (it was $3 happy hour so I couldn't pass that up). After a beer and some interesting conversation with the bartender I headed back to camp.
The next morning I awoke early as planned to find that the weather system that had plagued the Tetons for the past two days had finally lifted and the mountains were amazing. Unfortunately, I overslept so in order to be on the trail as planned I had to get going - no time for pictures. I got to the trail head, grabbed my pack and away I went. I ran into a couple also doing the loop that day but they were cruising at a much faster pace than I was so I figured I'd see them at Lake Solitude. The first 4 miles of the trail was smooth sailing, I was heading along at a 2 mile an hour pace and making good time. Then I hit the first set of switch backs to head up to Holly Lake and that's when the altitude started to hit me. Instead of cruising along at a fast pace, it was now much slower and more deliberate. As I was plodding along, I looked over to my right and was surprised by a huge bull moose about 20 feet off of the trail. He was laying down enjoying his peaceful morning and was not disturbed by my stopping for a couple of pictures.
After I passed the moose the trail continued to steepen and become more challenging. I slowed down even more and just kept telling myself "one foot in front of the other." I had finally reached to two main snow fields that the park rangers had given me the heads up about the day before and slowly hiked through them (I did not want to have an impromptu sledding moment while at the top of the pass). After the snow fields, I reached the shale rock fields that are at the top of the mountain - it is extremely slow going through these as you need to ensure that you have solid footing each time so that you don't slip and fall down the side of the mountain. So after about 4.5 hours of hiking I reached the summit and crossed over Paintbrush Divide. It was pretty cold up at the top so I stayed long enough to snap a couple of pictures and then started my way back down.
Throughout my hike up and over the pass I had met very few hikers but the ones I had met were friendly and enjoying their hike as much as I was. I had been listening to my audiobooks on my iPod to create noise so that if there were any bears in the area, they would know that I was on the trail and hopefully steer clear of the trail. This has become the new back country recommendation when hiking alone due to the fact that it sounds like multiple human voices talking. But as I started my descent down to Lake Solitude, I ran into a very grumpy old man who pretty much berated me for having my iPod on and said that I was ruining the hike for everyone because you could hear it for miles - which wasn't true. So because I felt bad, I turned off my audio book and figured that since the trail was a lot busier on the Cascade Canyon side that I wasn't in nearly as much danger of running into a bear that would be alarmed to find me on the trail.
After crossing another small snow field and the shale rock field on the descent, I finally reached Lake Solitude (the half way point for my hike) at 1pm - 6 hours from my start time. My original plan was to stop and eat at the lake but I did not know how long it was going to take me to descend the remaining 8 miles so I decided to keep moving and eat on the go. I stopped to shed my winter gear that I was wearing to cross the pass and to snap a couple more pictures. Pictures and words can't do justice the amazing views that I saw.
The trail heading down to Lake Jenny was packed with hikers coming up to Lake Solitude, so again like I stated before, I was not nearly as concerned about running into a bear on this side of the pass as I was on the other side, but alas I would be proved wrong. I was probably a mile away from Lake Solitude enjoying the high alpine forest when out of the trees approximately 15-20 feet in front of me a black bear bounded out of the trees onto the trail. It was a medium sized black bear but alas I did not get a picture of him. I debated as he climbed back up the other side of the trail if I should get my bear spray ready in case he came at me or take a picture. I went with the safe option. But below is a picture from the internet of what he looked like.
After my run in with the bear, I decided that no matter how many people were on the trail, I was going to hike with my iPod back on. I know that the bear knew that there were people on the trail but I wasn't going to risk not making enough noise. After my bear run in my adrenaline was pumping pretty heavy and I'm pretty sure the next 2 miles of the descent I did in less than an hour. I eventually reached the halfway point of the descent and made the turn for Jenny Lake (approximately 4 miles to go). At this point I had been on the trail for almost 7 hours and was getting very tired (my legs and my mind) but I kept plodding along. The trail continued to descend down into Cascade Canyon and unfortunately there was not much to see or take pictures of. I finally reached the point where my trail was supposed to break off and head back to String Lake (only 2.4 miles to go!) but was devastated to find out that the section of trail was closed for maintenance. This meant I was going to have to add an additional 3 miles on to my trip and head all the way down to Jenny Lake and along the edge. Though I knew that it was going to be fine, I was not mentally prepared for the additional mileage. It was slow going through the last five miles but I made it back to the car in due time. I reached the care at approximately 4:45pm, 9 hours and 45 minutes after I started. I checked my FitBit (I was using this for my mileage) and per the picture below had a total mileage for the day of 23.92 miles. Needless to say, I was happy to be back at the car and ready to head up to Montana to join the rest of my family in Big Sky.
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