Tuesday, 8/6/96

Our first section of trail was a half day into Granite Canyon. Hanging the bear bag between two trees turned into a circus for us four engineers. We finally got it under control, looked the other way as Anders bathed, and went to bed.



Wednesday, 8/7/96

We woke up to a moose grazing about 20 yards away from our tents. After some other wildlife observing, we ate breakfast and headed further up the canyon towards Marion Lake. After gaining 1100ft, we arrived at Marion Lake for a two hour lunch/nap break.



After lunch, the trail leveled out somewhat as we crossed the Jedediah Smith Wilderness and headed towards Death Canyon Shelf, via Fox Creek Pass. This section showed us the most varied terrain, with green meadows, vivid wildflowers, barren rock, and even some snow. Our campsite (at 9600ft) on the Death Canyon shelf was undescribeable. From the edge of the shelf, we could look down over one thousand feet to the canyon bottom. After dinner, dooking, and discussing our trip with an IUPUI student (small world), all were sound asleep before the sun had set.



Thursday, 8/8/96

Anders ventured down into Death Canyon in the morning for a closer look (why?) at what he thought was a bear. It turned out to be a wild moose chase. Ha Ha. Anyway, we headed into the Alaska Basin, a beautiful piece of trail. We ate lunch at Sunset Lake, where we encountered a group of about 30 twelve year old girls, which promptly ruined our lunch -- very rude and disrespectful. Anyway, we headed up and over Hurricane Pass, into Cascade Canyon. From the Pass, the Schoolroom Glacier looked like some kind of man-made earthwork. After negotiating some fairly steep snow, we descended our way down into the canyon and set up camp. We scarfed down dinner, locked up our munchies in a bear box, and retreated to our tents to get away from the mosquitos.



Friday, 8/9/96

After a good night's sleep, we were on our way to the North Fork of Cascade Canyon. Just after entering the North Fork Canyon, we encountered our one and only bear sighting of the trip. One of the photos indicates how close you should not be to a bear.



We lunched at Lake Solitude, where Anders had his fourth consecutive day of bathing in snowmelt runoff. From the lake, the trail heading out of the canyon loomed over us as it lead to the Paintbrush Divide. One continous, steep switchback that would gain us 1500'. It was the most glorious stretch of trail, though, as the Grand was right in front of us the whole way. The descent into Paintbrush Canyon included crossing several snowfields that were quite impressive for August. We again found prime real estate for our last night in the backcountry.



Saturday, 8/10/96

Saturday morning we dashed out the last seven miles, anxious for a toilet and something other than oatmeal for food. We ended up doing 38 miles on the trip odometer, reaching 10,600' as our highest altitude. We would highly recommend the trip we did as a moderately challenging trail.