· Date: Friday June 28, 2019
· Where: Jackson, Wyoming to West Yellowstone, Montana
· Total Distance Covered: 131 miles
· Running Partner: Emily
Going to sleep early as well as rolling out my muscles the night before had helped me greatly. Today, I felt recovered from the past few days of high mileage and was disappointed to stop running once we finished our miles. We had less distance to run which allowed us to finish our miles shortly before noon and explore the area. Looking back on this day, it is one of my favorites throughout the entire summer. We were able to run alongside the Grand Teton National Park as well as explore Yellowstone National Park. Both parks had piqued my interest for years and I was beyond excited to finally experience what they had to offer.
Today I ran with Emily and had great conversations the whole way. She had just graduated from college and planned on attending vet school. We talked about caring for animals and people as well as how therapeutic running was. We were both excited to be running in this area too!
Since we were in the first van, we were able to experience what was in my opinion, the best part of the day. Most of our miles were on a bike trail that paralleled the road and the Grand Teton Mountain Range. This was the mountain range that I had looked at yesterday, praying we wouldn’t have to run over. Although I was thankful that our running wouldn’t take us to the tops of these mountains, I wished we had time to explore them. My brother Kevin, who is an avid mountaineer has always said that he wants to climb these mountains and now I can see why. Once someone got to the top of these almost fourteen thousand-foot peaks, they must be able to see for miles. I could only imagine the sense of accomplishment and peace up there. Someday, when I was better trained, equipped, and prepared, I would love to go back and run on the trails.
For now, though, we had hovered at 6,500 feet in elevation for the past ten days or so and I was tired. I couldn’t imagine more than doubling the elevation and what that would do to my bloody nose in the morning. We were finally getting somewhat used to the elevation though. I don’t think that just over a week is physiologically possible to experience a change in your body or adapt to the lower levels of oxygen. Psychologically though, running at this elevation did not seem as hard as it had in the days previously. We were running at paces that were much more difficult in Utah and Nevada. Granted we were not climbing today as much as we had in those states. But it felt amazing to feel better while running at relatively the same elevation where we had struggled a few days previously.
While running on the bike trail, we ran a few miles with Caroline and Regi as well. The entire time, the Grand Tetons were on our left with fields and woods to the right. We passed a few isolated houses that had probably some of the best views in the entire country. At one point, we looked to our left and saw the Jackson Hole Airport which is the only airport within a National Park. As we saw a small plane land, I imagined coming back here one day with my family. The thought excited me, and I couldn’t wait to tell everyone about it. The views were spectacular. The snow-capped mountains loomed and cast shadows over the entire area as prairie dogs scurried across the bike path. It was cold this morning, but we warmed up quickly. The path was a great change from the roads where we had to worry about traffic and passing cars. This made the run even more relaxing. I was disappointed when the path finally ended, and we had to run on the road again.
Running on the road had its own adventure as well though. Emily and I quickly realized that rather than worrying about cars maybe we should be worried about wildlife. She saw a moose foraging in the woods at one point that I for some reason missed. I am still disappointed I never saw this. As our miles came to an end, we were approaching a viewing area with multiple cars parked. For some reason, all the tourists were crossing the road and walking into the field across from the parking lot. As we got closer, what were brown specks in the field, grew into Bison. There were maybe forty of them foraging in the field and roaming about. We all thought it was incredible and couldn’t believe it. I remember the van stopping to take pictures for a long time as people tried to get a great camera shot of the animals. The whole team was out snapping pictures and I felt like we were in true tourist mode. I didn’t want to get too close to the Bison though because these were big. They were bigger than cars and almost as big as the van!
I turned around and went back to the parking lot which looked across another field and the Grand Teton Mountain Range. It was beautiful. Stopping to look and soak in the view gave me an even more impressive opinion of the mountains and nature itself. As we were looking, Jack and I spotted a couple of antelope running about the field and stopping to forage. We had seen antelope for the past few days now, but this was the first time I was seeing these animals when they weren’t running. The past few hours experiencing only a portion of the Grand Tetons National Park were truly incredible. I couldn’t wait to see what Yellowstone National Park had in store for us.
Our van finished our miles soon after this viewing area. We meandered our way to the host for the rest of the day since we were not allowed to get there until sometime around dinnertime. We had plenty of time to take advantage of it. We decided to explore what the second van had run while we were running our portion of the route. While visiting the Grand Teton Welcome Center, we followed the crowds and a section of the map a Ranger gave us. By accident, we stumbled upon a freezing cold lake. The lake was called Jackson Lake and we had no idea just how beautiful it would be. Rather than looking at the mountains from a distance, we were up close now with the lake seemingly just beneath it. It was beautiful and we were glad to have the time to stay awhile and enjoy the area with the other groups of families who were doing the same thing.
I don’t do cold. I really don’t do cold. My cold intolerance goes back to my treatments and the type of chemotherapy that I received. Typically, I would have avoided jumping into the lake, but thinking about how much fun I had at Lake Tahoe, I ran right in. Admittedly, it took a lot of encouragement, but I think Guyler, a few others, and I ended up running in together. That was the only way I would do it, even after watching everyone else run in. We fully submersed ourselves just to say we did and then we ran back out. Regi was the only one who swam in the water, and for a long time too! I still don’t know how she did this. My mind may be playing tricks on me, but it felt like instantly I was shivering, and my teeth were chattering.
Instead of a sandy beach, there were smooth rocks that were extremely warm and helped to stop me from shivering when I got out. While we lay there sunbathing, bonding, and taking in the views, we knew that this would be a moment we would look back on with happiness. Now, almost a year later, looking back at these pictures thinking of this day achieves exactly that. I think this is another moment that defines what our team seemed to embrace. The carefree attitude, once we had finished our miles to explore whatever we wanted, was something I loved. We had ventured to Jackson Lake thinking that we would look and continue driving, but two hours later we were still there. I remember the mumbling and groaning that took place, at least from me, when Caroline and Brenna said it was time to move on.
As I am writing these blogs, some of the pictures and information of the area help to conjure up memories and identify landmarks to explain. When I found Jackson Lake online and read more about Jackson Lake, it made me appreciate our experience even more. The water averages a temperature in the fifties since it has a surface elevation over 6,700 feet. It is also remnants of glacier movement from both the Tetons and the Yellowstone Plateau. We only saw a small portion of the lake since it spans over fifteen miles long. The western shore which we were on, had hardly any marks for civilization which explains the peacefulness of the area. No lodges, homes, or boats have access over here. It truly was an amazing area that I am so grateful we got to experience.
As the day continued, we entered Yellowstone National Park and Left the Grand Tetons. I would have loved to run on the roads here and venture off into the trails as well. However, this was not allowed, and we explored some areas of the park that were easily accessible. Between us and the mountains on the left were now forests instead of fields. There were large evergreens, undergrowth, and plenty of other wildlife. Antelopes, birds, and bison were everywhere.
But at one point, this disappeared, and the area became barren with the remnants of forest fires. Small undergrowth was growing up through the land and the partially burned skeletons of trees that were leftover. I’m not sure when these areas of the park burned, but it was amazing to see the new growth. It reminded me of a park near my house in Connecticut, Devil’s Hopyard, that burned while I was in high school. Now, when you hiked those trails, the forest seemed to have come back stronger. I knew that this is what would happen to this area of Yellowstone. It was the way of life. On a deeper level, as the 4K for Cancer continued, I hoped that this is what would happen with my perspective on cancer. I felt like I was the undergrowth struggling to grow again.
As we progressed further into the park and closer to the host, we stopped by the Snake River which had an amazing view. We were at a bend in the river which had slowly eroded the land over the years to reveal sandy and grassy shores. I could only imagine the fishing here had to be good.
As the day ended, we found ourselves in the center of the park with the rest of the team from van one. We walked over towards Old Faithful together and sat down on the boardwalk to watch the geyser go off. We were lucky to get a spot and watch the display since this was one of the most popular and iconic parts of Yellowstone. As we looked left and looked right at the crowd growing on the boardwalk, we felt engulfed. Less than a week ago, we were in the town of Austin, Nevada that hardly had two hundred people in their total population. Now, we were in a crowd that had to be the equivalent of at least six or seven, maybe even eight Austins. It was wild. For the second time today, I felt like a true tourist and I didn’t like it. I’m not going to lie that being in a crowd this large made me feel anxious.
Old Faithful erupts approximately twenty times per day as the steam from water mixing with the Parks volcanic activity creates pressure in the Earth’s crust. Between eruptions, steam billows from the geyser tube and continues to grow in intensity as the geyser gets closer to eruption. Right before a large eruption is about to occur, small spurts of hot, steaming water, rise and blow from the surface of the Earth, a few feet at a time. This went on for a few minutes and every time the spurts of water rose, the crowd went “oooh” and “aaah.” It was almost comical. Each spurt grew in length, size, and intensity until finally, the geyser erupted. What were small precursor eruptions of just a few feet in height, dramatically became one massive eruption that towered over one hundred feet above us. The wind blew and spread steamy water over us in a magnificent display that continued for almost a minute. It was wild to see and reminded me of how beautiful and mysterious the Earth is.
The host tonight was the West Yellowstone High school. At this point, we had crossed the Wyoming and Montana state line sometime in the park. We got cleaned up and then went to get burgers at a local restaurant, there was no community dinner tonight.
The lights couldn’t turn off in the gym, so we moved into the hallway where it was darker. When we did this one comment turned into another and soon Rob, Caroline, and I were talking about some pretty deep stuff. I didn’t sleep a lot tonight.
Overall, today was an incredible day having had the chance to experience both the Grand Teton National Park as well as Yellowstone National Park. Tomorrow was a rest day as well, with no service event. This meant that a group of us were getting up early to explore Yellowstone before the crowds. Today and tomorrow was a portion of the trip that I had been excited for since the moment I knew our route. These parks have always interested me, and I have always wanted to go to them. But having no community dinner or service event in addition to having a short day followed by a rest day, made me feel more like a tourist. I wasn’t unappreciative of what our team was able to experience, but this was one of the first times where I realized I wanted to make more of an impact in the cancer community than we were making.
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