Backpacking – Travel with Goneguru

Grand Tetons BackCountry Vacation on a Budget

In an earlier post we promised to tell you how to do a Grand Teton backpacking vacation on a budget even though Jackson Hole is one of the highest per capita income places in the USA. Here’s how you do it.

First, fly into Jackson, Wyoming airport. We used our credit card reward program miles to get there, so the cost was the redemption fee and giving up using the miles for another trip. Then, take a taxi to the Jenny Lake Ranger Station.

You have to go to the ranger station to get your backcountry permits, so while you are there get the permit and check into the backpackers campground. The campground for one night should run you about $8.00. The permit will cost you $35.00 regardless of how many nights you spend on the trail, so plan your trip to start with a walk up the Paintbrush from Jenny Lake. Your first night you’ll need a permit in the camping zones just east of Paintbrush Divide. This day hike should get you acclimated to the altitude because you’ll go over Paintbrush Divide at over 10000 feet into the North Fork of Cascade Canyon the next day, passing Lake Solitude.

Put the North Fork of Cascade Canyon on your permit for the second night and rest up to cross Hurricane Pass, also over 10,000 in elevation on the third day.

The third day will take you into the Alaska Basin where a short day will give you plenty of time to set up camp near Sunset Lake and enjoy the backcountry. No permit is needed to camp in the Alaska Basin as it is not in the Grand Teton National Park. Accordingly, you may have a number of campers around you instead of the solitude you get in the Park.

Leaving the Alaska Basin spend a day and a night on the Death Canyon Shelf or at Marion Lake, or if you don’t have time to relax on the trip, skip the night in the Basin and spend the third night on the Shelf.

Looking toward Mt. Meek from Death Canyon Shelf

From the Shelf, you’ll go down past Marion Lake and pick up the trail up Rendezvous Mountain to the top of the TRAM, also above 10,000 feet. The Tram will take you down to Teton Village and there is no charge for the ride down. They only check tickets on the way up. If you ride up, it will cost you $35.00.

In the Village you can find low-cost accommodations at the Hostel. You can shower, shave, sleep and get ready to catch a shuttle to the airport, perhaps for as low as $3.

So, there’s your itinerary for the budget trip. Remember that the permits are limited and in short supply so you might want to try to secure them online before you go. This trek should be made in August or early September, so try to get your permits at recreation.gov between the preceding January 1 and March 15. You will still have to pick the permit up at the Jenny Lake Ranger Station when you get to Jackson Hole.

What will the trip cost you? Your airfare or credit card miles, one way taxi fare, $8.00 to camp at Jenny Lake, $35.00 for the backcountry permit, your night at the Hostel, the cost of the shuttle to the Airport and whatever food you eat. For a trip of a lifetime, that is a bargain. Of course, you’ll have to come back on another trip to explore the rest of Jackson Hole.

Grand Teton Backpacking on the Granite Canyon Trail

When my spouse came home from a hike to Len Foote Inn gushing with excitement over the photographs a fellow backpacker had shared about the Grant Teton National Park, it took no encouragement to convince me to revisit one of the places I had seen as a teen. The next few posts will chronicle our backpacking trip and then I’ll tell you how to backpack the Grand Teton on a real budget. Lets begin at the Granite Canyon Trailhead.

In the backcountry we didn’t see a lot of people, but many of the backpackers and trail runners we encountered were starting at the top of the Tram in Teton Village. We thought we’d get better acclimated to the altitude, which varied during our trek from about 6500 to 10400 feet above sea level, by walking up the Granite Canyon Trail past Marion Lake to the Death Canyon Shelf. It was a great decision because the Granite Canyon Trail should not be missed when wild flowers are in bloom.

The trailhead is inside the Grand Teton National Park, about three miles north of Teton Village on the Wilson-Moose road. Because we didn’t want to pay to leave a rental car sitting at the trailhead and because we weren’t making a loop, we hired OLD WEST Transportation in Jackson to take us to the trailhead.

Initially, the trail starts off toward Granite Canyon by passing through a sagebrush meadow with a number of birch trees along the way, however Granite Canyon Trail has many personalities.

Before too long we cross a small bridge over Granite Creek which flows through the canyon. As you might expect, Granite Canyon Trail somewhat parallels the creek but doesn’t follow the bank of the creek. Once into Granite Canyon, you soon come to one of three camping zones designated by the Park Service. As with all the backcountry controlled by the National Park Service, you will need to get a permit for overnight camping. The first is the Lower Granite Canyon Zone and runs for about three and one half miles along the canyon. In this zone, the designated camping sites are numbered with small signs adjacent the trail and short side trails leading to the individual campsites and the one group campsite. The campsites are well spread out and there is no problem with neighbors being too close.

We shortly begin our acclimation to the altitude and the weight of our backpacks. This was an unsupported trip, so we had everything we needed for five days on the trail on our backs. Our acclimation began as the trail began to rise and change.

The birches faded away and the trail side became more forested with evergreens. We were expecting to gain 2000 to 2500 feet in elevation on the way to our first campsite and we weren’t disappointed. The well used trail had improvements like the set of steps we encountered as the trail began to rise and change. Did I mention bears? Apparently, the bears are quite active, so when we got our permits from the Jenny Lake Ranger Station, we were required to carry bear canisters, in which all of our food had to be stored. It took some reconfiguring of the backpacks to get these inside with the food in them.

Bear Canister for food Storage — Bear Canister

I mention that because as we got further from the trailhead, we realized that the possibility of bears was quite real. In addition to keeping the food in the canisters, we each were dutifully equipped with our bear strength pepper spray and one of us wore a bell, which we allowed to jingle when we were passing though heavy growth. Of course, Granite Canyon trail didn’t stay the same so the bell didn’t always ring.

Just a little further down the trail, it veered away from the creek and took us through a boulder field. As always, we’re thankful for those who laid the trail out and cleared a path across these boulders to the next stretch of soil. That stretch of soil gave us our first real look at the wild flowers found along Granite Canyon trail.

Our circuit took us past some amazing sights including some that took your breath away, but nowhere along our hike did we find wildflowers as gorgeous as we saw in the first two days. The yellow ones you can see in the picture above were dominant early in the hike but as you’ll see in our post on the Wildflowers of the Grand Teton, the colors along the trail matched the rainbow.

The yellow flowers gave way, temporarily to thicker brush with light lavender blossoms and the vegetation changed back from meadow to forest. Of course we are going ever higher in elevation and beginning to breathe a little heavier. One of the great rules of hiking is to always remember to look behind you and when we did, we realized why our breathing was a little labored even though the rise seemed gentle.

After just a couple of hours, looking back down the canyon toward the trailhead brought an instant smile from the fact that we had already gained so much in elevation. There was a lot more elevation to come, but at this point the joy of being on the trail in a beautiful setting made us think we’d risen to the clouds.

Toward the end of the day, we reached a divide in the trail with the left fork leading to the South Granite Canyon Camping Zone and the right leading to the Upper Granite Camping Zone. We took the fork to the right as our permit was for the Upper Granite zone. This zone is not as long and the sites are not designated by signage, except for the group site and the horse site, but rather are recognized by the recommended repeated usage of an older site to avoid creating numerous open areas for camping. The sites are easily identified as they are relatively near the trail and have clearly defined side trails leading to them.

We didn’t venture into the South Granite Canyon Camping Zone, however the trail through there leads to a trail to the top of Rendezvous Mountain and the Tram before rejoining the Upper Granite trail for the ascent to Marion Lake.

At the end of the Upper Granite Canyon camping zone, the trail comes to the meadow pictured above. The meadow was filled with the yellow flowers such that it changed color in the morning. We stopped at the last campsite in the zone, which was about 75 yards from the end of the zone and adjacent the creek. What we didn’t know that the three campsites at Marion Lake, which is about a mile further into the back country, sit on this side of the lake and are elevated by about 1000 feet looking out over the meadow. The next morning, we met a party that had hiked from the Tram to Marion Lake to spend the night and was headed out down Granite Canyon Trail. They told us that they had been amused by watching us scurrying about in the meadow, setting up our camp and what not.

We were not phased by their comments and agreed that we had just been happy to reach the campsite after about seven and one half miles of backpacking uphill along the beautiful Granite Canyon Trail.

Our next section of the trail takes us past Marion Lake onto the Death Canyon Shelf.

Grand Teton Wildflowers

The images of the wildflowers in this post were taken during our backpacking vacation trek in the Grand Teton from Granite Canyon Trailhead to Jenny Lake. No more words, just images and captions.

This delicate bloom grows along the trail in the Grand Teton National Park

The trail runs through the wildflowers in Grand Teton NP

A trail runs through a sea of yellow in Granite Canyon

Cumberland Island – Why Is that Raccoon after my food?

We returned to Cumberland Island for another back country adventure and naturally took a little too much food with us. We could have eaten it all but we didn’t. We took our usual GRUBPACK back country food sack made of metal mesh with a heavy-duty hook and loop closure to put the food, pots, plates, and toiletries in to keep the raccoons and squirrels from destroying our tent or backpack. We strung the GRUBPACK sack between two limbs but over the course of a couple of days it moved a little too close to one of the trees.

About 4 am in the morning, Mary shook me saying ” There’s something after the food!” The rattling of the pot and lid in the sack had awakened her. Shining her headlamp out the tent toward the food she started yelling “Hey! Go away!” Then muttered “raccoon.” I had gotten to the door and saw the little culprit tugging on the rope and trying to grab the bag. I got out of the tent with my headlamp and picked up a hiking pole to flail around with. At first he ignored me, but then crawled down the tree and retreated a few yards into the palmetto fronds where his yellow eyes gave proof that he wasn’t leaving.

After checking the integrity of the bag, I crawled back into the tent. Before I could settle in, the pot was rattling again. We decided he couldn’t get to the food and if the bag fell, it would still be tied to one of the trees so we just let him work at it. About an hour later the sound stopped. At sunrise the bag was still hanging, intact with all our food and gear no worse for wear.

Ponies, bikes, trails, and the Virginia Creeper

Along the Virginia – North Carolina border, near the little town of Damascus, a section of the Appalachian Trail runs out of town over the mountains and through Grayson Highlands State Park. Damascus itself is noteworthy as a resupply station for the Appalachian Trail through hikers. Grayson Highland is an amazing state park with great camping facilities set in a remote setting not too far from I-81. In between the two of them, you’ll find the Virgina Creeper, or maybe you’ll go to do the Creeper and explore Damascus or Grayson Highlands. Either way, give yourself a couple of days in the area to soak it all in.

You can start your hike on the Appalachian Trail approach trail inside Grayson Highland and head up to Mt. Rogers if you are a peak bagger. Mt. Rogers is the highest peak in Virginia and is only few miles away from the parking lot in Grayson Highlands. Expect to see the wild ponies along the way.

Wild Ponies — The wild ponies in Grayson Highlands State Park.

From the photo above, you might not guess it, but we were on the trail in August. The temperature was in the mid 60’s and there was a dense fog most of the day. A hurricane had moved up the east coast and although it wasn’t directly affecting our weather, we felt that it was. It also has something to do with the park being at about 4,000 feet above sea level. The horses are quite used to people and came right up to us as if to beg for a snack or to be petted. We gave them no snack but we did rub their backs and scratched their ears a bit. The hike was easy to moderate, however, since we were in the fog and uncertain about sundown we did not make it all the way to Mt. Rogers. Be sure to carry an accurate map and compass as the area between the parking lot is criss crossed with horse trails for riders and hiking trails with somewhat confusing markings. We did alright but we went out of our way on the return trip when we consulted with another group as to which way they had come. I can’t attest to the vistas because of our cloud cover, however, the area was largely a bald or meadow area, thus on a clear day you would have undoubtedly had a great view.

The campground at GHSP is a great car camper park with a variety of sites that can be reserved in advance to suit your camping needs including running water and electricity, or, you may elect a site that does not have electricity. It is a family friendly camping area, where one little boy ran up to us excitedly as we drove in, only to be disappointed when we told him there were no children with us. It is east of Damascus by about 30 miles and will take you the better part of an hour to get there. There is a camp store and bathhouses as shown in the link. You may want to consider checking out the Mount Rogers National Recreation area for some camping in a little less crowded area. The Beartree Recreation Area campground has primitive sites without hookups. Hurricane Campground has sites with tent pads and fire rings.

Along side the road between Damascus and the park, and in fact from Abington, Virginia adjacent Interstate 81 into Damascus and beyond for about 17 miles is the famous Virginia Creeper Trail. Total length of the trail is about 34 miles. We had decided that we would ride the Creeper’s eastern end, downhill from White Top to Damascus on our way home from camping and hiking, but we hadn’t brought bicycles with us. So we stopped along side the road at a rental shop and picked out a couple of mountain bikes to make the ride. An ordinary hybrid would do fine as the trail is well packed cinder that follows the old railroad track at a grade of less than about 7% all the way into Damascus. We budgeted two hours for the 17 miles since we consider our selves experienced cyclists on our road bikes and hybrids. What we didn’t count on was the peaceful beautiful scenery and the glimpse of the past you’ll encounter on this mellow ride.

Virginia Creeper Trestle — Beneath the Trestle

Because the trail was built for use by steam powered trains trestles were used to eliminate the ups and downs of the valleys and hollows. Stepping to the side of the trail, you will be pleased to see how well maintained the trestles are and will be amazed at the work and ingenuity that went into building the trail decades ago.

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA — trestle top

Don’t limit yourself to two hours on this trial. Take a couple days and take your time. You’ll find plenty to see, an ice cream store or two, sandwich shops and other “creature comforts” along the way. Best of all, find an older local to talk to. The lady that rented us the bikes we used had lived beside the Creeper all her life. She told us things to look for, like the place she went skinning dipping 65 years ago, that you would never look for on your own. Enjoy.

Something new in the Smoky Mountain NP for the Through Hikers near the Appalachian Trail

Our little group just finished another hike to Mount LeConte near Gatlinburg, Tennessee, USA. I’ll post all the details later, but I wanted to share a part of the trip with you in a condensed version. We were at the top of Mt. LeConte for two nights spending the entire day there on April 27. As usual the weather was changeable. We had hiked up in a thunderstorm on the 26th and had intermittent clouds and sunshine most of the 27th.

As you can see above the day started off with clouds. It was somewhat humid, but the temperature by afternoon was in the mid 50’s Fahrenheit. Our intention was to spend the day hiking around the top of Mount LeConte and taking it easy. We had come up Alum trail again which is a fairly strenuous trek, particularly in the rain of a thunderstorm. We wanted to go over the top of the mountain to Myrtle Point, which affords the best views of sunrise on Mount LeConte, to spend an hour or two in the afternoon resting on the rocky ledge looking out over the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. As we pushed along we soon saw an unmistakable image of why these mountains are called the Smokies.

Looking at the above picture, the view is along a ridge that runs south from Mount LeConte. The Boulevard trail follows this ridge from LeConte to the Appalachian Trail. The wind is from the west, or moving from right to left in the picture. As the wind rises up from rises up from the valley to the crest of the ridge there are no clouds to the west, but as soon as the wind crosses the ridge, clouds boil up from the east side like smoke from a volcano, creating a vision of smoke rising out of the ground. After a couple of hours it diminished, but it was an amazing sight while it lasted.

On Myrtle Point, even with the Smokies haze, the view is what you go to the mountains for. Although, you might see something similar from a car, there is nothing like getting to the top of a 6000 foot mountain on your own feet and taking your shoes off while resting in the sun and the clouds. Yes, sometimes you are in the clouds. Myrtle Point juts out into space and is a granite point surrounded by low growing Myrtle shrubs. It is accessible only by walking at least six and a half miles up and over Mount LeConte or by hiking over seven miles from Newfound Gap along the Appalachian and Boulevard trails. Thus, the view above is not a sight everyone will see with their own eyes. You should try though, because it is incredibly peaceful and restful, to sit there and look out at the mountains and the ever-changing sky.

Near the crest of Mount LeConte, along the Boulevard trail, there is an Appalachian Trail through hiker shelter that gives the through hikers a respite if they decide to take Boulevard to LeConte and then venture down into Gatlinburg. Since our last visit to LeConte about 6 months ago, the National Park Service installed a new composting toilet for the use of the through hikers. It seems to work well, but like every thing else I’ve been talking about. It’s up hill to get there. In fact, at the bottom of the Alum Cave trail the National Park Service erected this sign which has warnings to hikers to take precautions

DSCF1697 (768x1024) — National Park Service Trail Map and Warning

because of the footing. The sign states, in part: “This trail is steep and rocky. Wear sturdy boots with adequate ankle support.” Further, if you look closely, you will see that the sign also indicates that the summit is over five miles away, at over 6,500 feet and takes four of five hours of hiking to reach.

DSCF1708 (1024x768) — An easy part of the Alum Cave Trail

The part of the trail shown above is in the lower half of the trail. As I stated earlier, the new composting toilet at the through hikers shelter is near the summit of Mount LeConte and there is no way to get there, except on the trails. So, take a look at what the National Park Service installed for the through hikers to use.

They have their very own Americans with Disabilities Act approved toilet. I have carried a back pack up or down every trail leading to this toilet on all sides of Mount LeConte. I guarantee you that any person who required such a toilet as part of his/her normal life would not be able to roll their wheel chair to this toilet, even if you carried them to a spot within a quarter of a mile from the toilet. At Goneguru, we want everyone to have a quality life and to enjoy travel and the great outdoors. We support research for such disabling diseases as Multiple Sclerosis, but some things just don’t make sense. If you can explain to me the logic in why this toilet was configured to be ADA approved, please do so.

Len Foote Hike Inn-An Inn in the Woods for Everyone

This article provides the answer for the family or couple or group of friends who want to spend some time in the great outdoors, but need different levels of comfort in the adventure. Some need a bed, some a toilet, some a shower, some a hot meal, some could do without any of these but need the companionship of someone who can’t. You can share the adventure without missing any of what you need. If you are willing to go for a walk in the woods with friends, or want to do it alone and get to a place where you won’t be alone, we have the answer for you. That is, unless you need a cell phone. You won’t find or need any of those here.

I’m one of those people who say I would love to hike the Appalachian Trail, but in truth know that I never will be willing to sleep outside for four or five months and carry a pack sixteen hundred miles along the eastern half of the United States. Nevertheless, I can enjoy the outdoors along the trail, hike parts of it, and still benefit greatly from the fact that the Trail exists. If you don’t know anything about the Appalachian Trail, anything about camping, or backpacking or even have any desire to learn these things, you can enjoy an easy to moderate hike up a well maintained trail near the start of the Appalachian Trail, spend the night in a green certified lodge in the mountains, and count yourself among those lucky enough to see nature at its best.

Find your way to Amicalola Falls State Park in the Chattahoochee National Forest in north Georgia, a few miles south of the official southern end of the Appalachian Trail (AT) on Springer Mountain. The trail to the Len Foote Hike Inn starts at the upper end of the upper most parking lot in the Amicalola Falls State Park and takes you gently up into the mountains. The approach trail to the AT starts at the same place but branches off. The trail to the Len Foote Hike Inn takes you five miles into the mountains to the Hike Inn and then rejoins the AT approach trail a mile above the lodge, thereby giving you an option to hike up one trail to the Len Foote Hike Inn and come back down on another trail.

Arriving at the Hike Inn, you’ll notice that the structure is on stilts and although it is quite large, it has a very small footprint and has a very slight impact on the natural space in which it is situated. The Inn will provide you with all you need for a peaceful retreat, but, you won’t find a television, radio, or cellphone on the premises. You might find that you rather like it that way in this place in the woods.

This eco-friendly or green philosophy permeates the Inn. The roof top supports twenty-four photovoltaic solar panels that provide a percentage of the electricity used there. Composting toilets in the bathhouse provide an odor free way to save hundreds of thousands of gallons of water. Rain barrels collect water used to water the garden and vermiculture beds use earthworms to turn the Inn’s kitchen scraps and office paper into fertilizer for the gardens. The Inn has a gold level LEED certification and a Backyard Wildlife Habitat certification from the National Wildlife Federation. If you arrive at the Inn before 5 PM, you can take the tour of the facilities and perhaps learn a few tricks you might want to apply at home.

Although you could go up and down in a day, you’ll want to stay. The sleeping area provides bunk beds in each room. You’ll find that hot showers, sinks, mirrors and towels are provided. Perhaps you will wake up and decide to spend an a hour in the sun room, which really should be called a rain room, because who would want to be inside in this locale when the sun was shining outside. However, if you do stay in the sunroom you will find it open and comfortable with a ceiling high enough to make you feel like you are outdoors. Or perhaps is will be some quiet time alone looking into the distance on the wrap around porch.

Better, yet make a couple of new friends and find the chairs overlooking the Georgia mountains and tell each other of your tales. You’ll use washable cups and glasses that you put your name on with a biodegradable tape, so sit in one of the great chairs and refill your cup for a few minutes of peace.

No matter what you do while you are there you will find that the time passes as quickly as the sun through the eye of the needle atop the mountain. Taking a cue from the ancients who used sundials for tracking time, this sun’s eye has three great boulders that line up with the sun’s location relative to the eye at the equinoxes and the longest and shortest day of the year.

Since the Inn is open year round, you may want to plan your hike to coincide with one of these. The sight you see may not be a serpent crawling down a pyramid as you would see at Chitzen Itza, but it is still symbolic of the balance between the sun, the earth, nature and man, so its a great icon for the Len Foote Inn. As we said in the beginning, this is a great place for each of you, regardless of what you think you might need when you spend a night in the woods.

Hiking into the land of the Grizzlies: Glacier National Park

In the summer of 1967, two young women were killed by separate grizzly bear attacks on the same night in Glacier National Park. When you hike or backpack the Highline Trail to Granite Park Chalet you will be visiting the site where one of the incidents took place. Prior to that time, watching the grizzlies forage through the trash and food scraps discarded by the Chalet into a nearby ravine was considered suitable amusement for the overnight guests at the Chalet. In fact the Chalet had even set up lights in the ravine so that the guests could see the bears better. The entire story of the night is told in the book The Night of the Grizzlies by Jack Olson.

Montana hut — Granite Park Chalet from across the feeding ravine

We began our hike to Granite Park Chalet at the intersection of the Highline Trail and the Going to the Sun Road at Logan Pass. Although it was July, you will see snow in pictures and the road, which traverses Glacier National Park, had only opened in late June. Glacier sits astride the Continental Divide and the water from the winter snows flows east to the Gulf of Mexico, west to the Pacific Ocean, and north to the Hudson Bay. The Highline Trail hugs the sky just below the Contiental Divide. As you begin hiking you are on a narrow ledge of a trail across the Garden Wall and at times feel suspended between heaven and earth, but the trail is mainly level without significant changes in altitude, so the walk is exhilerating. You are hiking at about 8000 feet above sea level almost all the time.

Copy (2) of Copy of DSC00876 — Looking down on Going to the Sun Road from the Garden Wall

Mary, the Seer, takes all the great photographs in this blog and with her camera in her hand she knows no fear. Neither height, nor wind, nor wild animal can deter her from getting that shot. Along the Highline, we had all of the above. After hiking for a while, we came to a pass that was still covered with snow, but it had melted down to where the snow was only about a foot deep and had become well packed. We carefully picked our way across the snow circling around a projecting formation known as Haystack Butte. As we made our way between the high ground of the Continental Divide to our right and Haystack Butte, Mary whispered, “look!” Before I could say be careful, she had slid her backpack to the ground and had the lens cap off her camera, already walking across the packed snow toward the long slide down to the Going to the Sun road. And there, right in her viewfinder was the magnificent Bighorn Ram in the picture below.

The ram was, of course, too smart to really get himself into danger, so after a moment of teasing eternity, he turned and walked back toward the area where the snow had melted, never in a hurry and never showing any real concern for the hikers. Finally, he turned and posed for Mary to get the shot she wanted, and we moved on down the trail.

Granite Park Chalet is about 7 to 8 miles along the trail from Logan Pass and the picture below is probably close to half way there. It was along here that we encountered the first of many mountain goats. Each was a female with a kid. The kids, in each instance only a few weeks old, skipped over the steep slope as if it were a living room carpet. Of course, while the kid was playing at a distance Mary got up close and personal with the mama’s. As you can see, the mama has a face only a kid could love.

The Highline Trail is above the tree line here so the veiws are more than spectacular. They don’t call Montana the Big Sky Country for nothing. As you walk along you can’t keep your eyes on the trail because the vistas draw you into some quietly peaceful place. The sound of the cars churning up the road were gone long before we reached Haystack and here you are alone with who ever you are hiking with and God’s creation.

More than a mile from Granite Park Chalet we can see the building sitting on a ridge jutting out into the valley. As with most hikes, it seems tantalizingly close and infinitely far away after you’ve already walked nearly 7 miles in splendid unbelievable air. Amazingly, we had beautiful blue sky as well as the sure threat of rain, which came and went in a matter of minutes dropping the temperature at least 20 degrees. A sign that, at this elevation, change is constant, rapid and certain. As we walked across the yard to the Chalet, we passed an offset room to the back of the building. In the 1920’s when the Chalet offered full service to its guests, this room had held the meat and other provisions. Notice the spikes on the shutters. Where people are, bears follow.

As I understand it, Granite Park Chalet and Sperry Chalet as well as the Great Lodges at Glacier National Park were built by the Railroads in their heyday between 1912 and 1920 to attract tourists who would take the train to Great Lodges and then travel to the Chalets on horseback. At that time, meals were prepared for the guests and a larder was stocked for their pleasure. Now, there is a kitchen which is available for you to use to cook what you carry and bunk beds in common rooms for you to sleep in. The cooks and other servants have been gone for decades. The view is as beautiful as ever.

Although the two bears responsible for the deaths in 1967 were euthanized, there are still plenty of grizzly and brown bear in Glacier. We saw a couple of grizzly through a telescope mounted on the porch at the chalet. We happened to be looking back along the Highline and saw the bears down in a meadow below it. On a hike further west, which I’ll tell you about in the next Glacier post, we saw where the grizzlies had churned the ground looking for food. As you might have expected, no one feeds the bears at Granite Park Chalet, and when you cross the ravine where the feedings once took place, it is impossible to not look over your shoulder.

I’ll be adding posts about Glacier from time to time, but I can’t tell you all you want to know. If you are interested in the trip we took contact Glacier Guides and Montana Raft Company. Another resource you might find helpful is http://www.bigskyfishing.com/ .

Hiking the White Mountains: Hut to Hut

Hiking the Southern Presidential Range of the White Mountains along the Appalachian Trail is a test for an outdoor adventurer of any level. The mountains are beautiful, but the layer of soil over the granite building blocks of the mountains is extremely thin and you will find yourself walking on, over and around areas of exposed rock throughout the hike. That should not dissuade you from the hike, however, since in our group were people in their early twenties and mid-seventies. Each handled the rigors of the hike and finished with smiles. We met at the AMC Highlands Center at Crawford Notch in northern New Hampshire and followed a well marked trail that crossed the road and lead us up the mountain to the AT. There are stretches along this hiking trail where you will believe it was designed for goats.

Note that the Highland Center is at 1900 feet above sea level. In a few hours or so you’ll reach the AT and from there on you follow the ridges and flanks of the mountains. It was on this hike that we learned the meaning of the term “peak bagging.” During our first night on the trail, at a hut named Mitzpah Spring Hut, one of the AMC hut workers gave a seminar on the subject. At first I thought he was saying Peat Bagging, then he explained that peak bagging entailed reaching the summit of a named mountain rising at least 4000 feet above sea level (asl). Mitzpah Spring Hut sits at 3800 feet asl on the south flank of Mt. Pierce. To get to Mitzpah Spring, we scrambled up the access trail to the summit of Mt. Webster where we picked up the AT and headed north, summitting Mt. Jackson before getting there. So we had “bagged” our first peak on this hike before we even knew what the term meant. The “hut” sleeps 60 in coed bunkrooms that accomodate up to 8 people. You must eat what you put on your plate because everything used at the hut must be carried in and everything left must be carried out. After the hike from Crawford Notch, you will have no trouble cleaning your plate.

The next morning, we hustled up Mt. Pierce, bagging our second peak and set off up the AT toward our goal for the evening. The summit of Mt. Washington which is one of the the highest peaks east of the Mississppi River and the site of the highest recorded winds on any continent on earth, clocking in at over 200mph. To get there we followed the AT and loop trails to summit Mt. Franklin, Mt. Monroe and Mt. Eisenhower before we reached the Lake of the Clouds Hut in the saddle between Mt. Eisenhower and Mt. Washington.

After checking in at the hut, which sits at 5050 feet asl, we dropped our backpacks and headed up Mt. Washington. We reached the peak late in the afternoon and rather than backtrack down the trail we headed down the far side of Mt. Washington and back around the flank of the mountain to Lakes of the Clouds Hut. Our plates were dutifully cleaned and we were elated to sit at the dining hall tables and look at a beautiful New Hampshire sunset.

I’ll post more pictures of the terrain in the next post on hiking the Southern Presidential Range.

Secluded Beach – Cumberland Island

Although Cumberland Island is a National Seashore, there is no bridge to get there, and we all like it that way. This treasure is the southernmost barrier island off the coast of Georgia (USA) at the mouth of the St. Mary’s River. Although inhabited for thousands of years, since the 1970’s most of the island has been under the control of the National Park Service which limits the number of visitors to the island to about 300 per day. The island is 17 miles long and 3 miles wide, so there is plenty of room to separate yourself from the crowd. Technically, there are some private landowners remaining on the island who are heir’s of the Carnegie’s and other long gone islanders, whose history is chronicled in the book Strong Women, Wild Horses, among others. I’ll only touch some of the island history to help you understand the place before you make your visit.

Other than the few private landowners and the Park Service employees, there are no vehicles allowed on the island, thus, for those of us who like hiking in serene silence away from the world, this is one of the places where most of the time you’ll be satisfied with what you hear. One shell packed road runs the length of the island and the eastern side of the island beaches on the Atlantic Ocean, so the beach is immense and virtually deserted.

The picture above is of the beach three miles from the ranger station. You can get there by walking or renting a bicycle and cycling along the road. Otherwise, you won’t see it. There are no developments on the beach and access across the dunes to the beach is restricted to a dozen or so well marked lanes. So, how do you really get to this reclaimed beauty? Read on.

If you have a private vessel capable of navigating the intercoastal waterway, you can get to Cumberland Island by yourself, but most of us rely on the ferry which is authorized by the NPS to carry visitors from the dock at St. Mary’s, Georgia to Seacamp dock on Cumberland Island. The ferry runs twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon and takes about 45 minutes to get to make the trip. Pay attention to your return trip departure time because, although they count heads on the way to the island, they have no way of knowing how many are supposed to be on the boat on the way to the mainland, therefore, they don’t try to account for your return. There are also no provisions available on the island, so take your own water and food or buy some on the ferry. If you are making a day trip and want to rent a bicycle, you have to do it on the ferry. If you are staying overnight and want to buy firewood, the only place you can do that is on the ferry.

Once you are on the island, the choices and the distance between choices make the decisions for you. We wanted to backpack to Stafford Beach and camp at the campsites there. Another group that ferried over with us had young children and were headed to the campsites at Seacamp. A young couple on the ferry were backpacking a couple of miles beyond Stafford Beach and camping at an even more remote backcountry campsite. As you

seacamp boardwalk over dunes — Boardwalk over the dunes to the beach at Seacamp.

guess, each option had its advantages and drawbacks. Seacamp is the closest to the dock and ranger station and about 1/2 mile along a sandy trail across the island. A number of campsites are arranged for substantial privacy and the campsite has running water, showers, toilet facilities and a group area. The boardwalk shown above leads from Seacamp over to the beach. You will have miles of beach in either direction, but you will be sharing it with the largest concentration of people on the island. Stafford beach is 3 and 1/2 miles from the dock along the parallel trail which is well-marked.

Parallel trail — Parallel Trail to Stafford Beach

The trail more or less parallels the road, but is a far more enjoyable and easier hike. The trail cuts through the palmetto fronds beneath the live oaks and you soon lose sight of the road or where you came from. Watch your step because wild horses and wild hogs share the trails with you and leave their souvenirs along the way. As plentiful as the dung was, we never saw the hogs, although the population is such that the NPS has had to institute hunts to thin the herd. The twisted shapes of the live oak trees, the leaves filtering the sun and the limited distance visibility give the landscape along the trail a mystical and unreal quality. You would not be in the least surprised to see any creature from folklore stick his head around a tree and look at you . In all likelihood, you will see the wild horses on the island. They run free on the island at the command of Ms. Lucy Carnegie, grand dame and matriarch of the island’s Carnegie clan, as set forth in her will decades ago. At the time of the American Revolution, the live oaks were harvested for use in the sailing vessels of the day because of their great strength and resiliency. Barrier island oak was used in the USS Constitution and can be seen today if you visit the ship in Boston.

When you arrive at Stafford Beach camp, you can select from one of less than 20 campsites equipped with a fire ring. There is a common bathhouse with a cold water shower and toilets, however, any water from the area including the bath house has to be treated by boiling, filtering or chemicals before it can be consumed. Don’ t even brush your teeth with untreated water. Your campsite can range from extremely private to rather private depending on the proximity to the bathhouse. A trail runs across the dunes to the beach pictured at the top of the post. Although the rangers sometimes drive over to check on things, the only other people you will see on this beach are the ones who have hiked three plus miles to get there. They are there for the same reason you are: and that is nobody’s business.

Cumberland campsite — Stafford Beach campsite

We chose a campsite away from the bath house and away from the beach. As you can see it was great. We used the overhanging trees to suspend our supplies so the raccoons, squirrels and hogs couldn’t get into it. Note that firewood is scarce and you may want to bring a lightweight cutting implement to reduce what you may find to fit into the fire-ring. The campsites north of Stafford Beach are primitive. There are no bathouses and no potable water. These campsites are also not near the beach and at least one is on the intercoastal waterway side of the island. We haven’t made it to one of those yet, but the young couple we met came back smiling.

If you want to see the island and its history in a short amount of time, then you should take the tour. Fifteen passenger vans leave from the ranger station at the dock twice a day to take you on the tour. We walked the three and 1/2 miles back to the ranger station one morning to take the tour, only to learn that you have to by the tickets for the tour on the mainland before you get to the island. Be prepared. We walked the 7 & 1/2 half miles to Plum Orchard mansion, one of the many Carnegie mansions on the island and then the 4 miles back to Stafford Beach. It was worth the walk. A volunteer working in conjunction with the Park Service was at the mansion and gave us a great talk as he showed us around. A half mile or so south of the ranger station is the museum, housed in the Carnegie ice house and beyond that are the ruins of the main Carnegie complex, where Ms. Lucy held sway and before her the earlier claimants on this amazing island. Ms. Lucy’s Dungeness burned in the middle of the twentieth century but you can still sense its grandeur from the ruins.

dungeness ruins — Dungeness Ruins on Cumberland Island

At the north end of the island is the church where John F. Kennedy, Jr. got married, in between is the Greyfield Inn run by the Carnegie heirs, cemeteries, wild horses and maybe a few ghosts. Most of all it is a place to get away from it all. I’ll have more to say in a later post.