Hannah's Trail Journal: Saturday August 19th, 2023
Welcome to a special series on our blog! In these guest posts, we’re excited to share the unique perspectives and experiences of Hannah Kyrkos, a member of our 2023 Adventure Team. Hannah’s first-person narratives offer a personal and intimate glimpse into her journey and adventures. These posts reflect Hannah’s own voice and experiences as a part of the Connected in Motion community. We hope you enjoy this fresh and inspiring addition to the CIM blog.
I woke up at 4am today to head to the airport, so I’m quite tired. This morning, I flew into Jackson, Wyoming, and from there, we drove about 30 minutes to the campground where we’re staying for the weekend to pack and acclimatize. We’re at around 6700 feet above sea level, which has caused everyone’s blood sugars to be quite erratic.
Our campground is surrounded by an electrified fence to keep the bears out. Unfortunately, it backs onto a large river, which is completely open, so there’s a flaw in our bear protection plan – I’m 99.9% sure bears can swim.
Fun fact of the day: Jackson, Wyoming is apparently one of the most affluent regions in the United States. This is because there is no state income tax, and so celebrities move here and buy ranches and make it unaffordable for everyone else. This makes me sad because it is the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen and I wish I could live here. There are mountains everywhere and a lot of warnings for bears (grizzlys too, the dangerous bears). Above is a desk inside the airport for bear spray rental! I would really like to not see a bear, but I would REALLY like to see a moose. It also would be cool to see Harrison Ford.
The trek we’re about to do is called the Teton Crest Trail, and is a point to point trail northbound through the Teton mountain range. Some things we expect to see on the trail: porcupines that will eat your gear, marmots that will eat your gear, wildflowers, mountain goats, moose (potentially). Our max elevation will be 10,700 feet, so there is a lot of climbing ahead of us – it’s hard to express in words what this climb is gonna feel like, but trust me, it’s gonna be a trek.
This afternoon we packed most of our food (pictured to the right). There is a storm starting to roll through so there’s been some thunder, but things should hopefully clear out in the next day or two. Tomorrow we are doing a day hike around Phelp’s Lake, where there has been a LOT of bear activity so that is great. We’re trying to hit the trailhead for 8am tomorrow so I definitely want to get to bed soon.
We were responsible for most of our gear for this trip, but Connected In Motion was bringing us their tents from Canada to use. Unfortunately during travel our tents missed their connection and are currently in Atlanta. Hopefully they made it on to the next flight and can get out to us! I suppose I will let you know if we have somewhere to sleep tomorrow.
Second fun fact of the day: apparently Wyoming is part of “the Wild West”, despite the fact we are in the middle (?) of the US. I absolutely love this. I would like to be a cowboy.
Okay, that’s probably all for today.
