Reflections on Home

We quit our jobs so we could hike. Now we’ve quit our hike as well. We are quite good at this quitting thing.

While there could be a quite long post here explaining the many reasons for us calling it quits on our hike early, I’ll try to keep it brief.

We were not as excited about the hike as we had hoped. This was partially because i was worried about my mom’s medical condition and partially just because the Wind Rivers are amazing and we knew the scenery was going to get duller for a week or so.

I was having a serious migraine headache, accompanied by uncontrollable shivering. We thought altitude so we went down faster than we needed to and thus got the trailhead a day earlier than our next re-supply. Jenn’s feat were blistered, swollen, and sore. We decided to hitch to town and check on mom and some jobs.

Mom is doing okay, but just okay. Fine for the moment would be a good way of saying it. However, a bit of news she gave solidified for us that we were far more excited about seeing family, old friends, and living in our home than we were about continuing a long hike in bad worsening weather conditions.

So as we awoke to snow this morning at Brooks Lake, we said goodbye to Yellowstone and the Tetons, and now we say our goodbyes to Pinedale and head back to Kentucky, and home.

The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is my favorite place on earth. We live within it, and that likely makes us a detriment to it as well. It is one of the largest intact ecosystems in the world. It contains two national parks, six designated wilderness areas, a wild and scenic river, multiple wilderness study areas, and includes part of one reservation. It is contained in three states (Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho), though the bulk is contained in our state, Wyoming. It is also home to many world records: the largest elk, bison, pronghorn, and mule dear herds in the world, as well as the greatest number of grizzly bears. It has the largest remaining glaciers in the Rockies, the highest peaks in Wyoming and Montana, and world record trout. It is the source of the biggest tributaries of the Columbia, Colorado, and Missouri rivers. Then there’s also the largest reserve of natural gas in the world.

We live in Pinedale, Wyoming, population 1400 according to our sign, but likely closer to 2000 at this point. In a town this small, you can tell the difference that 600 people makes. Pinedale is a boom town. Oil and Natural Gas leases on private and public lands in the Upper Green River valley give great wealth to the communities here. Jenn and I both had jobs here because of that boom. So while we were not oil and gas employees, we reaped the reward of taxation of those industries. We are the “new jobs” that were promised.

And yet there are issues with the pace of the extraction of oil and gas. There are air quality issues, effects on wildlife, fragmentation of land, political wrangling, and a fairly heated debate over how the people in this area want their town to be. Some don’t mind being a boom town. Some hate the idea of it, but love their property values. Others hate their property values, as taxes have increased as well. Many just want their wild Wyoming back. They are just surviving however they can, unwilling to leave a place that they love.

We are not locals. We could never be. And yet we do love this place. We want it to grow responsibly and slowly, at a pace it can sustain. The people of this town are as kind and generous as they are stubborn and wary. In my ten years of visiting and now living in Pinedale, I’ve really come to appreciate the way of life here, and it is with a great sense of loss that we leave.

Since moving here, we’ve often lamented that the mountains are so near and yet so far. With only a day or two off a week, it is challenging to get deep into the mountains. And by deep I mean both physically and spiritually. So as a consolation to our leaving the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, we depart on a hike through it. On foot for nearly a month. It will be a challenge and it will be a treat. We will cross many political boundaries that are only lines on a map. They may be managed differently – USFS, BLM, Wilderness, NPS – but they are all part of one whole. We want to cross these lines with an eye toward understanding the whole.

We begin both the hike and the journey of understanding on Wednesday.

The night before it rained and hailed and generally blasted us in our tent at 11,000 feet. Our tent had no floor, so hail bounced in and over us. We spent the better part of half an hour sweeping the marble sized hail stones from our pads, bags, and ground sheets. We laughed. We were not afraid. There is no use being afraid when there’s nothing more you can do anyway.

This is the Wind River Range. Not Patagonia or the Northern Rockies. Our 15 mile approach was over rugged trail to the desolate and beautiful Indian Basin, home of Rock, Snow, Wind, and Sky. The North Arete of Ellingwood had been on both of our tick lists for years now, and we finally figured out some dates, got the time off, and got on it. The morning brought wet rock and slippery lichen. Josh led a 5.10 pitch to a small stance. I pulled on gear to get through the crux as my fingers warmed painfully in the cold. The next 10 pitches were all 5.6 and of high quality. Pitches 5-10 were some of the best moderate climbing i’ve ever done. We couldn’t decide on a best pitch. And once we got past the snow with a slippery traverse and a last 5th class romp, we finished with a couple 4th class pitches to the summit.

We made it to the summit at 13,052 feet in 11 hours. It was windy and cold all day. Though it was the middle of summer, we climbed in our puffy jackets the entire time. Mountains continue to amaze me with their disregard of weather forecasts. We enjoyed the summit briefly before starting the crux of the climb, the descent down the serrated, gendarmed, 4th class western ridge. After negotiating the climb down the ridge using both sides, we were back in camp by dark, 16 hours after starting.

We were the first names in the summit register for 2010. The Wind Rivers, with all their remoteness, create routes like this. If this route was in Colorado, or if there was a 5 mile approach instead of 16, Ellingwood would see daily assents in the summer and ski descents in the winter, there would be a detailed route description, pitch by pitch info and photos on the internet, and less a sense of the wild freedom we discovered there.

The climb was all I had hoped: not too easy nor too hard, a long day on rock in the mountains, lots of exposure, a great partner, required a solid commitment, and was a fun adventure.

In the end there was just us, a general idea of where to go, and a direction: up until you can go no further. I like that.

August 13: Jenn’s last work day
August 15: Jason’s last day
August 15 - 17: Tidy up loose-ends in Pinedale, store most of our stuff with friends or give it away!
August 18th: Start Hiking at Sweetwater Trailhead or Big Sandy Trailhead
Hike through the Wind Rivers, following as close to the mountains as we can, but mostly staying on the west side.
August 27th: Hike over Union Pass and toward Togwotee pass and the Abasarokas
September 1st: Arrive at Brooks Lake Lodge - Heading into the Teton Wilderness
September 6th: Enter Yellowstone National Park at the Thorofare.
September 6 - 13: Hike from the south end of the park to the North, camping at Mammoth on the 13.
September 13-15: Hike into Gardiner, MT after nearly 300 miles total.

Yellowstone and the Teton Wilderness has grizzly bears. Lots of em. We have read that a party of 3 or more has never suffered a fatal grizzly bear attack. So, if you’re looking for a vacation, may we recommend hiking in Yellowstone in September!

We are stocking up on gear for the trip, including a new camera. I sold off my “big” digital camera and lenses and bought a more compact but high quality digital camera. It’s a Panasonic GF1. I’ll post some pictures/video from it as soon as it arrives. We’ve also bought new backpacks, and cozy sleeping pads. We have our maps, our bear spray, and are doing some menu planning.

We are inching closer.

While we haven’t been stuck in Folsom, we definitely have felt a bit trapped inside the first half of June. Once again we’ve had a rainy and cool month and that has kept us from getting out as much as we’d like. Still, there have been adventures.

I played a show with John at a remote camp in the Gros Ventre. We rode a UTV through swolen streams, rutted roads, and lots of mud to play music for some corporate types. The camp is right up against the mountains, and there are some cabins that date back to the late 1800s there. One was recently broken into by a grizzly, and the door has been repaired but still has claw marks where the bear got in. There is an old gold slough and the guests stay in cozy tepees. We played until midnight, then got to drive out the same crazy route in the dark. Some of the craziest off-roading i’ve ever experienced, and a lot of fun playing music.

Been doing more rock climbing development, but i’ve had to take it easy since i pulled a tendon in my ring finger. I’ve been trying to mostly crack climb, and Josh and I have been working a route that is probably 5.11c or so.

The weather has made a marked improvement in the last couple days and we’re loving it. First of all, it stays daylight until nearly 10pm, which is incredible. Secondly, there have been blue skies and lots of sunshine. Today we go see friends get married and I’m so glad they’ll get good weather. Better still is that the mosquitoes aren’t out in force yet. However, this just means they’ll come on later and stick around longer. So it’s a mixed blessing. We’ve slept in the van, enjoyed good morning coffee, a cold ale-8 cooled in the creek while we climbed, and our fourth wedding anniversary.

Yep, four easy and amazing years that we don’t regret a moment of. We are anxious to start our next adventure. We think we know what that is, and maybe even where we might go. But four years ago we would have never seen ourselves living the life we are now. So who knows what will be. I’m sure it will be just as great looking back in four more.

The Science Rockets have been renamed the Tie Hacks, feeling that a more Wyoming appropriate name was needed and given a new drummer, bassist, and the addition of another singer/songwriter in Michelle Humber.

Tie Hacks were loggers in the forest around here who cut trees and then shaped them into railroad ties before they were shipped down the green river to help build the Union Pacific Railroad.

This past Saturday we played at the Grand Targhee Battle of the Bands. We were the headliner and though we did not win the competition, we sure did have a great deal of fun and got some great exposure. The venue for the gig was “the Spud” drive in theater between Victor and Driggs Idaho. Awesome little venue and a great crowd of about 400 folks dancing and having a great time to all the good music. We followed the gig with a trip into Victor to see Aaron Davis (a fellow Kentucky native) play music at the Timberline.

Now I have music booked for every weekend the rest of the month. This should be a fun time as this includes some campfire style duos with John, a wedding date for good folks, and a gig in the park for the Fine Arts Council. Should be fun, but i’m hoping to not be so busy musically in July. We’ll see.

The Tie Hacks on stage at The Spud

Been really active toward the end of May. I tried hiking to Glimpse lake and ran into snow about 5 miles in at around 9500 feet. Saw bear tracks in the snow. There were 3 sets, one large and 2 small. This gave me pause and I made sure to make plenty of noise the rest of the day.

We’ve been developing a new climbing area in Pinedale that we’re calling the Ranch. It’s quite nice, with a lot of potential, but requiring a lot of work cleaning and brushing. We’ve put up 10 routes already, with at least that many more to come this summer, and maybe 50-60 routes possible in total. Very cool little domes of granite overlooking some summer homes and a lake.

New living arangements are going well.  Free rent for the summer more than makes up for any hardship of living with other folks.

Speaking of which. Our house in Kentucky is paid for. We paid the last of our little loan. It is surreal to think that we bought and paid off a home in less than a year.  Now we need to save money for home improvements this fall.

So now i’ll take a rest day from climbing. My fingers are sore and the backs of my hands are scabbed. I will enjoy the rain, knowing that it will bring Balsamroot and aspen leaves quickly, and it will give this high desert a much needed drink.

We moved out of our duplex and are now living in a house with two aquatic center summer interns. We’ll be here for 3 months. Everyone knows we are planning to leave, even though we tell them it’s not set in stone. We love it here, even with the issues the place faces. Even with the backwards bumper stickers that say “welcome to wyoming… now go home” and “my wyoming has an east infection”. No matter, we feel at home here.

We’ve been fishing and hiking and climbing. We took a trip to southern Utah and visited Zion and friends down there. I went off to a conference in Boulder Colorado and Jenn has started her summer season with the BLM. We are one payment away from owning our home in Kentucky. All this to say we’ve been busy and i’ve neglected this blog in order to post 2 sentance updates on facebook. I hope to change that. Stories are meant to be told in more than a tweet or status update.

So as spring looms in wyoming, I hope this blog comes out of it’s winter hibernation and gets much busier with more tales of adventure.

Above the canyon there is nothing but rock. Evan and I scrambled up at sunset to catch the last light of day. The way up was an intricate puzzle. The path of least resistance. Now the landscape itself is puzzling. Domes of erosion and upheaval. Stacked layers of sand turned stone reveal layers and twists and time. There is no vegetation in sight. We are aliens here.

We are camped in the famous Coyote Gulch in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. We have hiked through stands of willow, tamarisk, and cottonwood, the flowing water creating a riparian area in the recess that is the canyon, cut deep by Coyote Creek. The now quiet ankle deep flow of the creek belies the power of water in this place. The huge walls and undercuts, the narrow meanders and arches, they all speak volumes on the nature of time, water, and the power of floods. You can almost imagine the history of this creek while standing in it.

But not up on the rim, where there is nothing but sky and rock. And now, here at sunset, sky and rock converge into the same color, and the canyon becomes a ribbon of black ink in a sea of rust. The landscape is impossible, especially since we have not climbed all the way to height of land. Were we to climb further, we would be able to look south to Fifty Mile Mountain, north and west to Boulder Mountain and the Aquarius Plateau, north and east to the Henry Mountains, covered in feet of snow and likely now glowing in the last light of day.

I am content to imagine the views while I ponder this stark otherworldly place we now stand. It is easy to imagine the land as cooked here, and not only for it’s color and it’s barrenness. It is not flat, but appears blistered, broken, cracked. It is beautiful and incomprehensible. My mind is scraped as bare as the stone around me. I look around. Evan is staring down into the canyon, listening to the echos of voices, the rest of our group below. They are filling their water bottles from the spring and stretching their legs after a dinner of too many noodles. We laugh, call down to them, and come out of the trance.

We scramble carefully back down the ridge by Jacob Hamblin arch, fill our water bottles, and head back to camp. Soon I will crawl into my sleeping bag and watch the stars spin overhead. I will sleep well.

We’re cleaning up the apartment for a move thought it is some time away. I played a show at Wind River Brewing and have another next week in Big Piney. Then the Science Rockets have a two night stand at the Wort in Jackson. Jenn is going on a week long trip to San Diego with the girls, and I’ll be heading to Escalante for a meet-up with some friends from Oklahoma.

Then it’s work, a hopeful Easter trip, or maybe climbing, or winter camping and skiing. There’s jenn’s birthday, then a massive yard-sale, some late season skiing, house sitting for friends, and starting the process of wrapping up life in Pinedale. At least that’s the current plan. All subject to change without notice. Or with notice, seeing as I will probably post about it on this blog and the facebook machine.

It’s thawing out in Pinedale. Snow is melting, the rivers are opening up, and being outside doesn’t automatically put you in survival mode. That’s a good thing. We’re ready for spring. It’ll be here in a couple months.