Hannah's Trail Journal: Sunday, August 20th, 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.
Hello hello!
It has been a lovely (but extremely damp) day! This morning we packed up and did a ~12km trail hike in the rain before we hit the trailhead tomorrow. I’ve never done a “trial” hike before a trip like that but it makes sense for sure given everyone in our group comes from different outdoor backgrounds and we all just met in person on Saturday. More importantly, it just lets us enjoy the wilderness a bit more which I will never complain about. I am so happy to be up here, even the pouring rain just added a gentle tranquility to the lake, everything is so beautiful.
The hike today was deceptively easy because our packs were half full and there was very little elevation change, and it was absolutely stunning. We did a loop around a lake at the base of one of the mountains. We saw some river otters, and there were reports of bears from other hikers but we didn’t see any. We are quite a large group as hiking goes (12!!) so we probably make enough noise that the bears would rather not be near us. I have rather relaxed on my bear phobia over the last 24 hours; as long as you’re not being stupid, you should be fine (though I will definitely still be scared if I have to get out of my tent at night for any reason). I actually would like to see a bear now so that I can be less afraid if I encounter one on my own or with a smaller group in the future.
We popped into the visitors centre after our hike today to pick up our permits. I’ve been trying to learn some of the history of this area while I am here. Indigenous people lived here for thousands of years, and then the valley was settled by French fur traders in the 1800s. The Jackson Hole Valley was settled quite late in US history because it’s so inaccessible. It quickly became the yeehaw country town of the west though – a market grew for bringing tourists on an “authentic country adventure”, so in the early 1900s people started to open these vacation destinations called dude ranches where you would to pretend to be an explorer, which is hilarious and I would absolutely want to do that.
^ from the info display at the visitors centre
We’re back at the campground tonight just packing and organizing our gear before we head out tomorrow. We finally got our tents! Thank goodness! We’re leaving around 8 to drive to the trailhead. Since we are hiking point to point we also have to drop a car off at the end of our hike so we probably won’t set off properly till 10 or 11am. Our hike tomorrow begins with a tram car up to about 10,000’, and then a ~12km hike to camp. This is by far our easiest day, but we also have our heaviest packs, so we’ll see how it goes! We’re not really going for “ultralight” on this trip but after my previous backpacking experiences I personally have made great effort to pack as light as possible.
Very excited to set off tomorrow!
