July 13 – 14

I slept without my rainfly and enjoyed spectacular stars throughout last night on this fantastic backpacking trip through the Tetons with my nieces.  This morning I peeked behind my tent well before sunrise hit our camp.  A random peak was lit to the hilt with the first rays of sun.  I awoke the girls immediately to see it.

We were casual breaking down camp and didn’t begin Day 2 of our epic trek until 10:30 am.  I timed it late on purpose so the sun would be shining over the Tetons rather than rising behind.  We also needed to restore some energy with water and a good breakfast.

It wasn’t long into our hike that things became steeper than yesterday afternoon and a bit sketchy with snow.  The thing about crossing snow fields is that it may look easy but its ice and you can easy to slip on it and slide down hundreds of feet.  The end result can mean a broken body.  We crossed one massive snow covering and I was much more relaxed when we had that behind us.

When at high elevation, snow often collects a pink color to it.  I’m told its some sort of algae.  Funny thing is it tastes like watermelon.  I’ve been eating SMALL bites of it for more than 30 years and after I had a helping, Montana gave it a try.  She liked it so much I had to cut her off!

We summited Hurricane Pass early afternoon.  I was proud of the girls.  I promise you even without any pack this hike will break most people.  If you look really close you can see them waving in the bottom.  Right to left is: Grand Teton, Middle Teton and South Teton.

I set my self-timer and got this pic of us.  The tall mountain is the Grand.  I casted off the top of it back in my climbing days.

It was all downhill after summiting Hurricane Pass but that’s not to say it was easy.  For me, going down with a heavy pack is hard on the legs and knees.  Here’s look from the distance of the Alaska Basin where we camped last night.

Once again our camp was spectacular.  There was a ton of snow in Alaska Basin so we had to hike around to find a flat dry spot to pitch the tents.  We found it and it was a good one.  Montana and I went for short hike without a pack and Sammy painted.  We have another artist in the family.

It was another amazing star filled night.  Me and the girls stayed up late talking and they had me at my best telling stories of my world travels.  I can only hope that this trip and my stories help lead them to exciting lives full of exploring near and far from home.  Today we left camp at 8 am sharp and knocked of 7.8 miles in four hours.  That’s fast but I was dangling a 1/2lb burger and fries from the The Royal Wolf in Driggs as the carrot!

I can barely walk tonight but I pulled off what some thought was impossible.  I got two teenage ladies up and over the Tetons and they loved it.  I’m super stoked.  Tomorrow its sunrise on the Teton River then start packing for a two day float on the Nunya River.  The nieces have never been on a float trip!

Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing