Jackson Peak
Just a small update.
Work was pretty easy this week, but we had one really hard day (I think it was.... Friday). We had a first aid/cpr class on thursday that took up most of the day and wednesday I got to work with Zach (we usually take it pretty easy). Friday I was working with Zach again and we must've hiked like 15 miles throughout the day. We went up and over this one mountain, did about 20 calls down to the hoback river (goshawk) and then skirted the edge of the river (which was probably class IV whitewater) before linking up with a trail that took us arrrrrrrrouuuuuuuuuund the mountain we previously climbed over and out to the road. We figured hiking further would be better than hiking up and over again and I would say we were probably right. Once we came out of the woods, we stumbled out (literally) into a rancher's horse field at the Broken Arrow Ranch. He was out in his fields with his truck and we talked to him and told him what we were doing and he was nice enough to give us a ride back to the cabin. Woot! That night we ended up making 10 potatoes worth of fries, split them up evenly and had them plus two 1/4 lb burgers each on top of that. Five potatoes and a half of pound of beef plus a few Snake River Lagers? I practically had to be rolled around lol.
Sunday I researched a few peaks in the Gros Ventres that could be climbed in a day without much driving and I ended up settling on Jackson Peak (10,741 feet). Not to be confused with the 13'er of the same name in the Winds (the one I had in here a few entries ago as a target), but still a great peak nonetheless. I hiked up a pretty short trail (about 3.5 miles) to a lake named Goodwin lake that I planned on swimming in (I even brought my swim stuff) but the lake was frozen over and everything from the lake to the peak was covered in a solid 4 feet of snow. I didn't have any ice tools or anything, so I was cautious going out and prepared to turn back if it got too risky but it ended up being ok. I went up to the lake and then up a few snow fields until I got to a pretty steep slope up to the ridgetop. The slope to the ridge was the toughest as it had to be around 30-40% incline and was still covered in snow. I had to kick step my entire way up the ridge (which means kicking steps out into the snow so you can go up). Basically for about 700-800 feet it was just kick, kick, kick, step, kick, kick, kick, step and so on. Long and tiring, but effective. I got to the ridge at about 10,500 feet, saw a couple snowboarders on the opposite ridge preparing to snowboard their way down (AWESOME) and then continued my way to the summit (great views of the Tetons). I wasn't up on the summit very long, only about 10 minutes and I decided to make my way back down. I was going to go down the backside of the mountain, which was a very gradual (but longer and out of the way) grade that gently made it's way down and around to the lake, but I decided to just go down the way I came up and heel-step (basically kickstepping backwards) and glissade my way down. Glissading is basically a controlled (hopefully) slide down the snowy face of a mountain. I took a few videos of me doing this (including one glissade of about 300 feet or so), but the libraries internet is a little too slow for me to upload them. I might check out an internet cafe later on to see how their's works out.
Anyways, I glissaded my way down to the lake where I ran into two other people preparing to climb Jackson peak as well. They ran out of time however and decided to turn around. Once they left I decided to swim in the lake anyways (even though it was frozen, there were small open spots around the banks) so I stripped down and put my suit on. It was about 80 degrees outside and I went swimming in a frozen lake. Weird. Anyways, the water, needless to say, was very very cold. Just above freezing. The first time I went in I got up to my waist and stood there, basically in shock, before running back out. It was the kind of cold where it instantly sucks the energy and warmth out of you. My legs felt like they were on fire when I got out and I thought that there was no way I could go completely under. They soon warmed up, however, and I realized I had to stop being a little baby and get it over with. I set my camera to a 10 second delay so I wouldn't delay and hurried up and went in and under. Crazy cold. I was in for a few seconds (like 20) and it was about time to come back out lol. I went and laid on top of a big, flat, warm rock and warmed up.
I started cooking lunch when I noticed that there were storm clouds building up to the west. The mountains out here (and the Rockies in general) are notorious for afternoon thunderstorms that build up over the peaks. I was getting a little nervous about it (the wind was building as well) as I was still at around 9,500 feet so I gulped down lunch as fast as I could, packed up and got out of there. I made it back to the car pretty quickly and drove out.
As for now I'm just gonna go out to Cache Creek here in a few to mountain bike around a little bit. I'm not going to do the loop I did last time (25 miles? Not today) but there are some other good trails there that aren't nearly as long and can still provide an afternoon's worth of delight. Then perhaps I'll stop and get another 6 pack of Snake River lager since I just ran out and don't wanna drink Yuengling (I've gotta save it for rainy days).
I work tomorrow and thursday and then I should have Friday off for the fourth before working again on Saturday. I also get paid again on Friday so as soon as I can figure out how to transfer funds to my bank, I'm pretty sure I'm finally gonna pick up my long coveted helmet cam. Sweet vids will soon follow (as soon as I figure out this internet uploading issue).
That's all for now, it's time to get Your Mom nice and dusty!
Work was pretty easy this week, but we had one really hard day (I think it was.... Friday). We had a first aid/cpr class on thursday that took up most of the day and wednesday I got to work with Zach (we usually take it pretty easy). Friday I was working with Zach again and we must've hiked like 15 miles throughout the day. We went up and over this one mountain, did about 20 calls down to the hoback river (goshawk) and then skirted the edge of the river (which was probably class IV whitewater) before linking up with a trail that took us arrrrrrrrouuuuuuuuuund the mountain we previously climbed over and out to the road. We figured hiking further would be better than hiking up and over again and I would say we were probably right. Once we came out of the woods, we stumbled out (literally) into a rancher's horse field at the Broken Arrow Ranch. He was out in his fields with his truck and we talked to him and told him what we were doing and he was nice enough to give us a ride back to the cabin. Woot! That night we ended up making 10 potatoes worth of fries, split them up evenly and had them plus two 1/4 lb burgers each on top of that. Five potatoes and a half of pound of beef plus a few Snake River Lagers? I practically had to be rolled around lol.
Sunday I researched a few peaks in the Gros Ventres that could be climbed in a day without much driving and I ended up settling on Jackson Peak (10,741 feet). Not to be confused with the 13'er of the same name in the Winds (the one I had in here a few entries ago as a target), but still a great peak nonetheless. I hiked up a pretty short trail (about 3.5 miles) to a lake named Goodwin lake that I planned on swimming in (I even brought my swim stuff) but the lake was frozen over and everything from the lake to the peak was covered in a solid 4 feet of snow. I didn't have any ice tools or anything, so I was cautious going out and prepared to turn back if it got too risky but it ended up being ok. I went up to the lake and then up a few snow fields until I got to a pretty steep slope up to the ridgetop. The slope to the ridge was the toughest as it had to be around 30-40% incline and was still covered in snow. I had to kick step my entire way up the ridge (which means kicking steps out into the snow so you can go up). Basically for about 700-800 feet it was just kick, kick, kick, step, kick, kick, kick, step and so on. Long and tiring, but effective. I got to the ridge at about 10,500 feet, saw a couple snowboarders on the opposite ridge preparing to snowboard their way down (AWESOME) and then continued my way to the summit (great views of the Tetons). I wasn't up on the summit very long, only about 10 minutes and I decided to make my way back down. I was going to go down the backside of the mountain, which was a very gradual (but longer and out of the way) grade that gently made it's way down and around to the lake, but I decided to just go down the way I came up and heel-step (basically kickstepping backwards) and glissade my way down. Glissading is basically a controlled (hopefully) slide down the snowy face of a mountain. I took a few videos of me doing this (including one glissade of about 300 feet or so), but the libraries internet is a little too slow for me to upload them. I might check out an internet cafe later on to see how their's works out.
Anyways, I glissaded my way down to the lake where I ran into two other people preparing to climb Jackson peak as well. They ran out of time however and decided to turn around. Once they left I decided to swim in the lake anyways (even though it was frozen, there were small open spots around the banks) so I stripped down and put my suit on. It was about 80 degrees outside and I went swimming in a frozen lake. Weird. Anyways, the water, needless to say, was very very cold. Just above freezing. The first time I went in I got up to my waist and stood there, basically in shock, before running back out. It was the kind of cold where it instantly sucks the energy and warmth out of you. My legs felt like they were on fire when I got out and I thought that there was no way I could go completely under. They soon warmed up, however, and I realized I had to stop being a little baby and get it over with. I set my camera to a 10 second delay so I wouldn't delay and hurried up and went in and under. Crazy cold. I was in for a few seconds (like 20) and it was about time to come back out lol. I went and laid on top of a big, flat, warm rock and warmed up.
I started cooking lunch when I noticed that there were storm clouds building up to the west. The mountains out here (and the Rockies in general) are notorious for afternoon thunderstorms that build up over the peaks. I was getting a little nervous about it (the wind was building as well) as I was still at around 9,500 feet so I gulped down lunch as fast as I could, packed up and got out of there. I made it back to the car pretty quickly and drove out.
As for now I'm just gonna go out to Cache Creek here in a few to mountain bike around a little bit. I'm not going to do the loop I did last time (25 miles? Not today) but there are some other good trails there that aren't nearly as long and can still provide an afternoon's worth of delight. Then perhaps I'll stop and get another 6 pack of Snake River lager since I just ran out and don't wanna drink Yuengling (I've gotta save it for rainy days).
I work tomorrow and thursday and then I should have Friday off for the fourth before working again on Saturday. I also get paid again on Friday so as soon as I can figure out how to transfer funds to my bank, I'm pretty sure I'm finally gonna pick up my long coveted helmet cam. Sweet vids will soon follow (as soon as I figure out this internet uploading issue).
That's all for now, it's time to get Your Mom nice and dusty!