I'm not sure what I feel anymore. I'm excited, nervous, confident, disorganized, optimistic, and confused all at once. I feel great overall, I guess it's just crazy that Walk the Parks is becoming real!
I'm going to get in a car tomorrow at 7am and head to Old Faithful, Yellowstone, with the intention of a 3 year trip! How lucky I truly am!
Beautiful day today! Met up with Shana to get some business cards I had made, then an 8 hour drive to Jackson. I listened to some music, thought some thoughts, and was really content overall. Some of the drive was quite close to the trail. The Wind River range looked magnificent!
In Jackson I parked (and they had free parking, I'm certainly not in Aspen anymore!) and walked around a bit, trying to be a tourist. Failed miserably, of course. I don't want to buy anything, I know where I'm going and when, and I wasn't hungry. I attempted to visit some gear shops and talk to some employees about my route through the Tetons. Unsurprisingly, no one had a clue. I didn't talk about my whole trip to them. I'm just getting used to this. Should I be shoving Walk The Parks down everyone's throat? It'll be interesting to find the balance.
I did talk to a Forest Service ranger at the Visitor's center. She was very friendly but had no idea about my Teton route but was very intrigued. I also met a Northbound CDT hiker, Huff, who started his journey at the Mexican border, also trying to attempt a route through Grand Teton. He had nothing planned and ended up doing a 60 mile road walk to Jackson. I enjoyed his adventurous spirit. We chatted for a while. He told me that it's a good thing I'm going to start hiking since I have so much energy. I told him he just didn't know me well, haha!
Next I hung out in Jackson Town Square, a quintessential Jackson, WY landmark with arches at each of the squares 4 corners made entirely from antlers. I chatted up a fantastic couple, Tim and Diane Welma from Whitehall, MT. They were visiting for a few days and were quite fascinated by my trip. Tim was extremely adventurous himself, exploring tons in Montana, Canada, and the boundary waters of Northern Minnesota. We chatted for probably an hour, took some photos together and they were even kind enough to donate $20 to the trip, and I didn't ask or anything. Pretty cool! Thank you so much, great to meet you!
Next I met up with my friend, Chris, who's allowing me to sleep in a spare room in his place in Jackson. He's also purchasing my final possession of value: my car! His girlfriend Jitka, needed a car and kind fit the bill. We even took it to the car was and put some wrapping paper and a bow on it for when she got home, pretty fun. Enjoy! I'm going to miss that car! Chris and I are some tasty Mexican food and caught up. He showed me a couple of places around town and we drove to the border of Grand Teton National Park! Those mountains are inspiring and intimidating! Next we hung out chatting in Chris' house and now it's 1:30am, I just finished repacking my pack again and I'm writing this! I'm not sure how much cell phone coverage I'll have coming up, but we shall see! I'll update when I can. Here we go!!!!!!!!!!!!