The Moose is Loose

After a rough first day of hiking, I woke up feeling refreshed after a good night's sleep.

And then I started to hike again. 

Buh-bye feeling of refreshment.

I was definitely feeling weak.  I'm still blaming the altitude for my inability to put one foot in front of the other faster than 2 miles per hour.  It's possible that I was just a big wimp, but as long as I have the altitude to blame, I'm going to use that excuse.


Don't I look just like Miss Merry Sunshine.

We slowly began our climb over the ridge I spied a moose on the night before.  Here's more fancy labeling for perspective on our route.



You can go ahead and play Where's Waldo and try to spy Andy in the above photo.



When we got to the top, we settled down for a rest at lovely Lake Marion.

Andy found some snow so obviously he had to throw a snowball.

And then, as we were relaxing, we suddenly became aware of another presence at the lake.

A much larger presence.

Meet baby moose. 

Now, I wasn't too intimidated by baby moose from the other side of the lake.  However, I knew that calves didn't usual wander about by themselves.

Well shit.  Hello Poppa Moose.  It appears your rack is the size of a small car.  I'm fairly certain you could murder me.  That's neat, I'm glad we're so close to each other.

We then realized the whole family had come out for a morning on the lake.

Poppa moose then took a leak in the lake and proceed to drink from the same spot.

Andy's laughter caused Poppa moose to look right at us.

And that's when my heart stopped and I felt like I was 1 inch tall.
We decided to quietly and discretely continue on our way.

Did I mention our way was heading right by the family of giant moose?

Thankfully, we were able to pass without getting gored by moose antlers.  We continued up and over the Fox Creek Pass taking in the views.

A look back on Marion Lake.

FYI: The bottom of that sign announces it's Bear Habitat.

Our lunch spot.

It was shortly after lunch that the altitude finally started to get to Andy.

Hello, nosebleed.



Andy built a snowman.

Finally we arrived at a camping spot on the Death Canyon Shelf.  Sounds all warm and homey right?  Sleeping on the edge of canyon named after dying? 



At least it was pretty.

However, as you will see, we came much too close to making the camping zone live up to its name later that evening.

Halloween Humor

Last night I was doing a little research for some Halloween costume ideas.

We have an annual Halloween party to attend and always try to come up with some grand idea.

Although I don't know if we'll be able to top the year Andy was Tigers closer Todd Jones and I was manager Jim Leyland.

Anyways, I was scrolling through the options for Funny Men's Costumes as Andy looked over my shoulder.

And then he started giggling.

And giggling.

And then he snorted something about "Happy Halloweenie."

Yup, you can probably guess the costume he found hilarious.

He then declared, "That costume is good for more than just Halloween.  You could just wear it whenever you wanna be awesome."

I vetoed the idea.

I guess that makes me a Hallowmeanie.

Off to a Rough Start

As I eluded to earlier, the actual hiking portion of our trip did not start out all butterflies and rainbows.

Before our trip even began, we knew we wanted to take some sunrise photos of the most photographed barn in America.

Since this was a 30 minute drive from our hotel, and the sun rose at 6:30, and I had to get one last shower before entering the wilderness, this meant we had an early wake-up call.

Let me remind you of all the beers I drank the night before and you may understand that when 4:30 am rolled around, I was a bit of an angry monster.

Somehow I managed to pull myself together and we were able to make it in time to take some photos.

After that, it was time to attempt to get a permit for our planned 5 day trip.  We got to the Ranger Station when it opened and were lucky enough to score a permit for our intended campsites.  With that, we visited Teton Village for one last taste of real food and set off into the woods.

Now, we wanted to hike the entire Teton Crest Trail, but various logistical concerns meant we had to cut out a small portion.  We ended up hiking the same amount of miles, just in a different manner.  On the below map, the Teton Crest Trail is pink and our route is blue:

I used one of my Mormon row photos to give you an even better idea of our trip:

So, the hike began with beautiful blue skies.



We had a fairly good incline on our first day as we made our way up to the trail.  Remember how we took no time to acclimate to the altitude?  That was stupid.  I found myself not being able to take full breaths, gettting winded quickly, and feeling just plain weak.  So we took lots of breaks.

And then the clouds began to roll in.

Now, weather in the Tetons is generally quite pleasant in the summer.  But due to the mountains, scattered showers pop up often.  Despite the building showers, onward we trudged.

 The Teton Crest trail also has "camping zones" where tent pads are visible and to be used within a given area.  However, our first camping zone had no layout of the sites, so we were walking blindly ahead hoping to stumble upon tent pads.  We also wanted to get to the end of the zone to lessen our trip for the next day, so we kept passing up tent pads hoping for one closer to the end of the zone.  Around 7 miles in, with my weary body screaming at me, and the rain starting to sprinkle, and the uncertainness of our sleeping site looming, the situation started to get the better of me.  But just when I was about to have a breakdown, the skies began to clear and a tent site magically appeared beside the river.

So we set up camp, I calmed the hell down, and Andy napped on a log. 

As we ate dinner that evening, I scanned the mountain ridge next to us and was able to spot a moose in the distance.  I was only slightly unnerved by this, because he seemed to be far away.  I kept my eye on him throughout the evening and went to bed feeling fairly secure in my surroundings.

Little did I know I would be getting much, much closer to that moose the next day.

ROAR!

Let's keep this short and sweet.

Baseball playoffs start today.

Go Tigers.

Jackson Bar Crawl

After we landed in Jackson Hole, we picked up our car rental for the week.

Car Rental Lady: Since you signed up for this online with a discount for what is available, it looks like we have a van for you. Will that be okay or would you like to upgrade to a car at an additional cost?

Us: HECK NO!

Yes, we had a van for our trip and it was amazing.

After we parked our sweet ride, we proceeded to see the town.



And by "town" I mean "beer."

Snake River Brewing provided a myriad of delicious beer. The best beer we had on our trip, actually. Then we went to the famous Million Dollar Cowboy Bar for a beer, where they have saddles instead of seats at the bar.



Skirts and saddles don't really mix.



Then we walked by Jackson Square, which contains four entrance ways made of antelope antlers.



And we subsequently noted there was a free concert featuring a Grateful Dead cover band. Since we enjoy jam bands and watching hippies dance, we bought some beer and relaxed for a bit.



Then we ventured to a Thai restaurant and brewery. This was the first brewery I've ever been to that doubled as a Thai restaurant - the beer was okay and the food was delicious. Since we decided we wanted to get up early the next morning to get our hiking permit and take some sunrise photos, we called it a night after dinner.

Although we originally planned on entering the trail on Sunday, we had decided to try to start the hike on Saturday. Because it only takes 16 hours to acclimate to the altitude change.

You may understand that this was stupid of us, but after drinking our way through Jackson Hole, we obviously weren't thinking very clearly.

Getting Preppy

Before we set off to the Grand Tetons, we had to tackle the worst part of hiking.

The prep.

The packing.

The boring stuff.

Andy attempted to find room in our packs for all our junk and subsequently made a mess of our spare bedroom.



Oh, and to answer your question, yes, I am available for home decorating. Orange curtains, green comforter, mirror on the floor, and classy beer on the nightstand is all the rage in home decor these days.

I made sure he brought the two most important items, a.k.a., what I slept clutching like a teddy bear during our trip.



Meanwhile, I tended to the food packing.



That's the food we carried on our backs and ate for 8 days. Lots of oatmeal, granola bars, trail mix and Mountain House dinners.

Unfortunately, when the packing was said and done, we didn't have room for these two:





You can see that Gordie at least pretended to help us pack by being in the same room.

Toby did allow me to test out our new gorillapod in that picture. As you can see, his eyes say he's somewhat concerned about the camera but his body is too lazy to move or do anything about it.

We finished our packing, hopped on the airplane the next morning and arrived in Jackson Hole eager to explore the town and the mountains. As you'll see, we may have been a little too eager actually, and forgot that we flew to an area 8,000 feet higher than the one we live in.

Belgian Beer Fest

After being surprised and then searching for freeedom, we buckled down for Boston's main event.

Belgian Beer Fest



Now, let me start by saying, that Belgian beers are my favorite type of beer.

It would not be an exageration to say that I love them and I want to marry them.

And then let me finish by saying, this Beer Fest was all you can drink.

No tokens.

Just a glass.

And a million Belgian beers ready to be sampled responsibly poured down my gullet as fast as I could.

And I was surrounded by some of my favorite people.





In short, I think this was as close as I've ever been to Heaven on Earth.

I enjoyed the beer and the company for the full 3 hours of the event. It was the perfect endcap to an amazing weekend and I certainly won't be forgetting my 30th birthday any time soon.

Well, maybe a few of the memories after drinking all of that beer were kind of forgotten or fuzzy.

But aside from that, it was a weekend to be remembered.