Got out for a few days. Originally planned for 4 days, but Monday’s weather was nasty and Friday was supposed to get snow and 50 mph winds, so we cut out part of the route and did 3. We got snowed/sleeted on the first night and woke to a completely glazed over tent. Super fun to clean up before packing up.

The rest of the trip was mostly uneventful beside winds picking up as the trip went on. We saw plenty of wildlife. Moose, elk, owls, bats, pika, a salamander. Someone supposedly saw a wolf there recently. Below is a very fresh mtn goat kill we found up on the ridge line.

We didn’t see more than a few people the whole time, but that didn’t keep us from having to put out someone’s still very alive bed of coals at their campsite. They could’ve easily taken the 5 minutes to do it as they were less than 100 feet from water. Extremely annoying.

Good trip otherwise. The fall colors were really starting to pop.

Crap… I am getting thunderfrozensnowed out of my trip to the Winds I planned this weekend. Should have gone in August…

Oh well. Going to do a short trip to Alaska Basin in the Tetons to test the gear out in slightly less difficult conditions and much less I’ll-be-fucked-if-something-goes-wrong outcomes. Husband and I want to test out temperatures down to about 30 F and some rain/snow.

Welp, got rained/snowed out of the High Uintas just as I was about to go over North Pole Pass, the weather over Labor Day weekend was truly awful with 3+ days of cold rain, thunderstorms and the first snow of the season.

Did a single night trip in the Tetons on the Green Lake/Granite basin loop on Labor Day weekend with my husband+dog and my friend who is a casual backpacker. Got rained on like crazy on the second day, part of the same storm system that gave Miles grief.

I go about once a year with this friend, and I really don’t know if I will do it again. I’m basically an unpaid guide for her, and she doesn’t have the same stamina/conditioning as me and DrBohr. Worse, she doesn’t seem to understand how dangerous conditions can actually arise and how sometimes you have to hike fast, get uncomfortable, and get out back to safety. We estimated we would be out before noon on day 2 and would miss the worst rain, and I communicated these concerns and considerations… but we were so slow (and I built in more time!) that we got slammed with rain the last four miles, the trail turned to running streams and thick mud. Thunder was rumbling up high.

I was really mad for a day, and then I realized that I can’t blame her for who she is. But I do have to take responsibility as trip “leader” for safety (I do the initial trail planning and navigating on trail - husband is a partner in giving feedback and learning the planned route and executing the plan). I want us to go in, have a great time, and get out safely taking into account conditions. But I don’t have the ability to accurately plan a trip with her, especially when our margins of safety go down.