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October 2, 2006
One Last Hurrah
This weekend was my last hurrah in the Teton Mountains for the "summer" season. However, I would be hard-pressed to call yesterday summer up there. While pleasant and fall-like at our starting elevation of about 7,000 feet, the summit we climbed to was downright cold, windy, and intermittently snowy. In fact, we crossed a few new, though still small, snowfields in the process of getting to the top.
We climbed Table Mountain, an 11,100 foot mountain due west of The Grand Teton (the crowning jewel of this mountain range). The summit of Table Mountain sits a good 800 or so feet above treeline in the Tetons in the Targhee National Forest. The summit is rocky and wind-blasted, but it provides perhaps the best view of the high Tetons that I've seen so far. The Grand Teton, which sits behind and to the left of my dog and I in the above photo, is nearly touchable, except for that 2,000 foot abyssal canyon between Table Mountain and it.
The lower flanks of this mountain were laced beautifully with trees and plants in their peak color change. Aspen trees flashed gorgeous shades of yellow in their isolated groves. Shrubs blazed red and orange in the undergrowth and open meadows between fir trees. It was almost as if some giant hand from the heavens reached down with an equally enormous paintbrush and painted rainbowy streaks up and down the mountainsides.
Higher on the mountain the landscape was dead, or nearly so, for the season. The tundra shrubs were brown and dormant, and the last of the dried-up annuals were still being swept away by a persistent wind. Snow patches and snowfields were beginning to collect upon the loose rock.
At the end of the afternoon, we had covered about 9 miles of trail with a 4,000 foot ascent and a 4,000 foot descent. 11,100 feet elevation is the highest that I have climbed this summer (Other peaks I've summited have been in the 10,000-10,900 foot elevation range.), and I was breathing close to normal at the summit. That is, I felt rather aclimatized to the elevation.
Then there is the case of my butt muscles. I wondered a bit about how they would fair on a steep descent (They suffered during the descents on my trail marathon.). This guy pleasantly got on my case about strengthening those muscles; since then, I've been diligently doing squats, lunges, and 2 other difficult-to-describe exercises targeted at both the larger and other accessory butt muscles. Additionally, I recently got lessons on downhill running from an ultrarunner who taught me how to rely more equally on the three largest muscle groups in the body, the quads, the hamstrings, and the glutes on descents of varying steepness. Resultingly, I practiced this new (to me) kind of downhill running on this outing. By the time we reached the trailhead, my quad muscles were feeling the most fatigued of any of my muscles. Today I feel fine, though, nothing is sore or tired.
And so, I believe this concludes my jaunts to high elevations for the year. With sadness, I will retreat to the lower-elevation trails and logging roads for running (and hiking). Those taller peaks will have about 7 months of peace and quiet without me trying to climb them.
Posted by Meghan at October 2, 2006 9:40 PM
Comments
omg, i hate where i live...
Posted by: Audrey at October 2, 2006 10:30 PM
You and your dog are both so cute. Great photo!
Posted by: Alison at October 3, 2006 9:28 AM
Awesome pic! I love that view. Hmm, thanks for the reminder to keep working out the glutes etc. I am curious if the tips you got from the ultrarunner can be described, or if they must be seen to be understood?
Posted by: anne at October 3, 2006 10:29 AM
What a great picture Meghan! I can't even believe where you live, although I'll admit I'm really glad it's not snowing in Pittsburgh yet. :) Your dog is so cute. Junebug right? :)
Posted by: Beth at October 4, 2006 8:12 AM