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Thursday, July 20, 2006

Kayaking in Teton National Park

As promised, here is the first batch of pics from Grand Teton National Park.

Although you wouldn't guess so, driving up the 89 from Jackson, there is a string of lakes that parallel the Snake right up against the mountains. We spent three different days on the water in Teton, and all three involved some kind of adventure.

String Lake is barely more than a wide spot in the river between Leigh Lake and Jenny Lake, but it is a very popular place for kayakers and canoers. Our first evening in the park we loaded the four of us into our three boats (it was awkward, at best), and dropped Tyson, our friend Teddy, and one of the kayaks on the far shore of the lake so the guys could fish the creek and Nicky and I could paddle. It was all good, tame fun until a sudden thunderstorm blew up from the back side of the mountains--then it was good adventurous fun as Nick and I paddled our asses off to get back to shore in the choppy water. Considering that the lake was no more that 10 feet deep, it probably wasn't really very dangerous, but the little bit of adrenaline made it really exciting.

By the time we got the boats back to the trailer, Tyson and Teddy had walked back, leaving the third kayak on the far shore. Tyson had to paddle across and tow it back. We realized then and there that we would need a fourth boat.

The next morning we started out on String Lake again, this time headed to the north shore and the short portage to Leigh Lake. Ditching the smallest, flattest kayak, we rented a tandem so that at least one person at a time could rest.

Everything went great all the way to the other side of Leigh Lake, a total paddling distance of over two miles. We pulled the boats up on the far shore and walked the half mile to Trapper Lake, where we were very nearly suffocated by the swarming flies. They would have been tolerable if we had caught any fish, but we didn't.

The picture-uploader is not happy with more than two photos, so I will continue the Saga of Leigh Lake, etc, a little bit later.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Aha. I see you have won a round in the Hair Wars. I was encouraging some longish locks (like my boyfriend, Rhett Miller's), but respecting Nicky's ambivalence. Oh, well.

More pics, please!!

In relocation news, I found lots of positions in various parts of Oregon. I did not find any teacher positions listed and wondered at that. I then asked for teacher positions "Anywhere" and still came up with none. Evidently there's some secret teacher specific network somewhere, because I refuse to believe that NO district in Oregon is hiring.

Jack and his mom, Sharon, want to join our adventure.