Desperately Trying To Think About Something Besides Politics

The String Lake Bridge

That is Katherine on the String Lake Bridge standing beneath the Cathedral Group in Grand Teton National Park.  We have a professional photograph of this same scene (sans Katherine) framed and hanging above our kitchen table.  It is possible to spend two weeks at Jenny Lake Lodge hiking a new trail every day without ever getting in your car.  We've tried it often, but the lure of the art galleries in Jackson and the need to haul our kayak to certain distant put-ins have always put a crimp in our plan.

The String Lake Bridge is notable because it is only a quarter mile from our cabin door and marks the beginning of most of our favorite hikes in the park.  From the exact point where Katherine is standing  it is a twenty-one mile loop up Cascade Canyon, into the North Fork, on up to Lake Solitude, up and over Paintbrush Divide, down past Holly Lake and finally back to the bridge.  Luckily, that trail is more often than not snowed in when we visit, so we've only made that circuit four times.  Snow or not, we always make the eighteen miles up and back to Solitude.  Making it up to Solitude every year is how we assure ourselves that we are still young.  We know there will be a time when the staff at Jenny Lake Lodge will fervently ask us to reconsider the hike and then when we still take our eighty year old selves up that trail, the front desk will undoubtedly alert the park rangers to keep a lookout for our bodies crumpled somewhere along the trail.

Actually, that has already happened.  We started out at eight one morning for the Paintbrush loop.  When we got back at five that afternoon, the relief on the faces of the folks behind the desk was palpable.  It seems that just after we left, there were reports of a mother grizzly and cubs foraging along the trail on the way to Holly Lake.  The rangers closed the trail just minutes after we set out.  We made it back, tired but still in one piece.  We did hear some major growling on the way up, but we just attributed it to overactive imaginations.

You can also access the String Lake Loop, the Jenny Lake Loop, and the valley trail that goes from one end of the park to the other, all from that bridge.  It serves as a milestone on the return trip from any of those hikes.  The last mile of a hike is always the worst.  You're exhausted, you are out of water, and your feet are beginning to hurt.  It feels like the trail head is just around the next curve, but it never is.  But there is a moment when the trail crests above the river rushing to feed Jenny Lake and the bridge is just visible.  When that moment comes, I feel just like a trail horse must feel when he can smell the stable and I start walking faster, thinking about the drink I'm about to have while I recover on the porch of Bluebell.

One year Katherine and I hiked up and back to Solitude on our first day.  Two days later, we did the whole loop.  We were feeling so good about ourselves that we went back up to Solitude on our last day.  That was also the year we did Jackson Peak for the first time (If I'm  not mistaken Jackson Peak is the summit where Rocky jumps up and down just before he has his fight with Drago.).  We also did Heart Lake in Yellowstone, The Lewis Channel, Hermitage Point, Amphitheater Lake, and, oh yeah, the loop around Emma Matilda.  That's right at 150 miles.  That's why, in spite of the amazing food and wine at Jenny, we usually come back home weighing less than we did when we left.

But we're getting older.  I can tell by the look on my kids' faces when they watch me, or when they roll their eyes and repeat things that I don't catch the first time.  This year, I am happy to report, it looks like there will be too much snow on Paintbrush to do the loop without crampons and ice axes (no way).  Jackson Peak is too precipitous.  There are too many grizzlies at Heart Lake, and Lewis Channel is just too buggy.  Our 150 mile vacations are history.

We will do Solitude, but that last stretch up through the camping zone and into the lake will be a lot harder than it used to be.  We will both be huffing and puffing.  But after that we will settle for pleasant little loops around Phelps, Bradley/Taggert, Bear Paw, String Lake, and Jenny Lake.  That will be more like fifty miles in two weeks.  Not bad for old people, but nothing to brag about.

Mostly, we will spend a lot of time hanging out on our porch, driving into town for lunch at Bin 22, one of the best tapas places I know, and checking out the art at Rare Gallery.  As one gets older, one must make adjustments.