Yellowstone/Tetons, 2016

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Jay w
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Re: Yellowstone/Tetons, 2016

Post by Jay w »

Thanks Brindledog and Pete, although it seems Pete's post disappeared. I saw both but didn't have a chance to respond and yesterday, I didn't have internet access. So Brindle, the race is on.

I have a couple more days to go on the trip report, and maybe Monday night I'll have a chance to work on an update. Tomorrow, I have to pack up a bike and ship it to Emerald Is for an upcoming trip. (I made the bike out of all spare parts. A Frankenstein bike.)

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Re: Yellowstone/Tetons, 2016

Post by teapot57 »

I'm still listening! Just not a lot of time to post lately. I really enjoy your photography and am looking forward to hearing about the next part of your trip.
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Re: Yellowstone/Tetons, 2016

Post by Jay w »

Thanks Tea. I appreciate it.

August 2nd. Amphitheater Lake

I’ve been lazy in not getting in any workouts this trip. That’s typical for me when I’m on vacation. So I was planning a hike with a lot of vertical, and then top it off with intervals on the way up.

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Jackson Lake (on the way to the hike).

The parking lot was jam full at 8:30 am and I was floored. We drove past 200 yards of parked cars to the trailhead, doubled parked, I got out, readied by pack, and bid Julie goodbye. (ok, so it was probably 15 mins of readying the pack.) I passed a few people right out of the gate, and met a runner going the opposite direction carrying a water bottle. Impressive.

Ok, so what am I doing? The hike is 5 miles and has 3000 ft of vertical. The typical thing is to get into a “kind of hard” pace, which the no-go zone for endurance athletes. So my plan was to hike fast or hike slow (intervals). I had the whole workout recorded on my heart rate monitor, but the monitor lost the data and I’m a bit bewildered why. Oh well.

After hiking a while, I started “blasting” for 5-8 minutes and then walking slow. As you might expect, when I was hiking really fast, I was passing people, and when I was going slow, I wasn’t. I’m sure some people wondered, “What the hell.”

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Just before Amphitheater Lake is Surprise Lake.

I assume it’ll called Surprise Lake because it’s a surprise there’s a lake when you come across it. (I know I was.) There was ONE guy at the lake before me, which begs the question, where the hell was everyone else.

Amphitheater Lake

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The way down.

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I think I made it back to the car in four hours, and took longer to come down than go up. One the way down I asked a few people about the cars and I think they were from climbers and backpackers, not hikers. I guess this is a trail used for climbing Grand Teton.

I passed group after group on the way down, and some of these were large groups (on their way up). All this means there were not many photos during the hike. After the hike, we drove by Jenny Lake (wow, talk about cars).

Around camp

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We did kind of the same thing around the camp site. Eat, take some sunset pictures, and drink 6 or seven beers.

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I got out of bed a few hours after going to sleep and took some start pictures. It’s hard to get out of bed after 6 or 7 beers.

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Ok, just kidding about the beers. We actually pulled beers out of the cooler after getting home. Anyway, this was my first time trying star photos. I was surprised that 15 second exposures were creating star trails, but 10 seconds was ok.

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Re: Yellowstone/Tetons, 2016

Post by teapot57 »

Amazing photo of the stars!

Looks like you had a beautiful hike/workout. No need to be ashamed of drInking 6 or 7 beers. You were on vacation! :D
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Re: Yellowstone/Tetons, 2016

Post by Jay w »

Thanks Tea. Yeah, when I was in my late 20s, I got really drunk and the next morning I said, “I’m NEVER getting drunk again. No way……..and this time I mean it.” I’ve never been that drunk again. It’s just too painful.

So here’s a few photos from the phone.

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The bark I picked up in Forsyth (at the beginning of the trip).

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The evening comtemplation pit.

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The table

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It worked, but on the maiden voyage, I pulled fill cap clean out of the bladder.

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The Starship.

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Re: Yellowstone/Tetons, 2016

Post by PeteE »

I like the star picture.
I don't know anything about night shooting, but I may try some this winter.
The fire photo is nice too.
That's quite a camp site. Lots of room in the tent and under the tarp. Bear locker is handy.
I could stay there for weeks :)
Gotta do something about the shower facilities though.
I don't do showers in water under 120F! 8)

pete :wink:

Tell Julie "HI" !!
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Re: Yellowstone/Tetons, 2016

Post by Jay w »

Tea and Pete,

Thanks, but star photos are easy. Use a tripod, a lens wide open, and pick the shutter speed by trial and error. In my case, I have a manual focus (35mm 1.4) lens that focuses "past" infinity. (I need to fix that.) So I also used live view to focus and I think I shot at F2 or 2.8 (and 8 or 15 seconds). It helps if your lens doesn't have much coma. Oh, I think I had to crank up the ISO too. I just looked up the details and my memory is a bit off for this shot:

ISO 1600
Shutter 25s

I played with ISOs between 1600 and 6400 and shutter speeds between 6 and 25s. My f-stops were not recorded (due to the lens).

Some folks do some amazing night photos, and I stumbled on this site:

http://www.wheretowillie.com/resources/ ... ar-trails/

I've always like the (light the tent interior) night shot.

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Re: Yellowstone/Tetons, 2016

Post by Jay w »

August 3rd, Hidden Falls

I figured Julie could handle this one since there is not much vertical. We arrived at Jenny Lake early enough that parking was no problem. The whole place is under construction, torn to hell, so it was hard to remember the trailhead location. It also seems like there was much more parking than last time, but who knows. And then again, once at Hidden Falls, there was also construction, and it was hard to remember the falls location, too. I guess it’s been a while since I’ve been here.

Based on the amount of stone present (which must have been helicoptered in), the falls area seems to be on a multi-year construction project. They’re building pathways and stairs for the hordes of mostly out of shape people that take the boat across the lake and then hike a half mile or so to the falls. Skipping the boat adds a couple miles each way, and they’re not the most exciting miles. When you’re hiking the trail, it’s hard to watch the boat drop of load after load of people that will hit the trail ahead of you.

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At “the falls,” Julie hung out down low and I headed for the “swamps” I remembered further up the trail. One the way, I found Hidden Falls (trail closed) but never found the “swamps.” I stopped a fast moving guy and asked, “Do you know this trail?” I explained what I was looking for and he asked when I visited last and if it was in the spring. “Yeah, June.” “Well, this area floods in the spring.” I didn’t recognize it because it was so overgrown.

Not much had tripped my trigger photography wise, so there was a lot of walking and not much shooting. On the way back, someone excitedly said there was a moose on short spur off the main trail. When I got down to the water, there was one guy non-stop talking in full voice asking, “Is that the moose?” and kids making noise as kids will do. So much for a moose.

On the way back to camp, we checked out the view from Signal Mountain. It’s quite a drive up there, and not much more than a simple vista once you’re there.

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Next was a stop at the dam. Nothing of interest here, unless you like conservation officers checking fishing permits, so move along people.

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On the way to the campground, we saw three people on motorcycles. The female was on a crotch rocket that looked a little big for her, a guy was on a Harley, and I don’t remember what the final guy was riding.

At camp, it was time for dinner, time to pack and burn some wood, and then bed. So one more day on vacation, pour me a beer.

August 4th, Leavin’ this town

We actually got an early start, probably 6 am or so, and it was chilly. The early start meant again that no one was at the entrance gate and there were no waiting lines. Our next goal was coffee, and when I asked for decaf at two different gas stations, both said somewhat condescendingly, “We don’t have decaf.” Well la de frickin’ dah.

The last stop in Yellowstone was at Sylvan Lake for a few pictures.

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Then we were in “driving home” mode. We stopped at a McDonalds to search for hotel rooms, spent way too much time poking around on the internet to make a reservation near Watertown, SD. The three motorcyclists we spotted yesterday we also here and that crotch rocket was a fairly small bike. That means the rider must also be small.

After a few hours of driving, I started adding it up and making it to Watertown sounded a bit optimistic. We had spent too much time poking around at the McDonalds and the drive through the Bighorns was interesting, but slow. Lunch was in Sheridan, and guess who was at the gas station filling up their bikes. It was clear now that these three were heading to Sturgis.

Half way across South Dakota, Julie kept telling me to kick ‘er down. I kept saying that the cops would be out since it’s Sturgis weekend, and 45 min later I was pulled over for speeding on the reservation. “You folks from Minnesota sure do like to speed.” Fortunately, I got off with a warning.

We rolled into our motel room at 10 pm or so, or well after dark. In the end, we found out that it would have been cheaper to book directly rather than go through Orbitz. In fact, Orbitz didn’t even charge us the price quoted online or and in the confirmation email. It was rather comical straightening that out, with both the hotel clerk and me looking at each other and on phone simultaneously talking to Orbitz.

So that’s about it for this trip. Sorry it ended with lots of words rather than lots of pictures.

Jay
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Re: Yellowstone/Tetons, 2016

Post by mattB »

Great Trip Report Jay!
Love the pics!!
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Re: Yellowstone/Tetons, 2016

Post by teapot57 »

Thanks for the trip report-- I enjoyed it. Do you and Julie have plans for next summer yet?

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Re: Yellowstone/Tetons, 2016

Post by Jay w »

MattB and dpratt, thanks much.

Teapot, no plans for next summer. Maybe a spring climb of Ipasha, solo.

Just checking if a couple folks are reading. :D

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Re: Yellowstone/Tetons, 2016

Post by PeteE »

Jay w wrote:
Just checking if a couple folks are reading. :D

Jay
As if!!..... we all read your reports Jay! 8)
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Re: Yellowstone/Tetons, 2016

Post by isleroyaleguy »

Great stuff Jay!
What an awesome adventure! Stunning photos, very entertaining report. Thanks for sharing. We love Wyoming and Montana so much. You really captured the feel of it. Very cool!
Thanks for bonus pics of Beartooth Pass....crazy!
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Re: Yellowstone/Tetons, 2016

Post by Jay w »

Thanks guys. It was a fun trip but a "safe' trip from the 'I've been here before" standpoint. Nothing wrong with that I guess. This week I'm trying to log some big miles on the bike trying to get in shape for ski season. We'll se how that goes.

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Re: Yellowstone/Tetons, 2016

Post by liketohike »

Nice report Jay! Sorry I haven't been keeping up here very well...Kyle and I are thinking about a trip to Yellowstone in late June this year, never been there.
I wish your pics were available, but enjoyed the narrative! :)
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