Tetons II

After Jason, Tom and Slama left, it was just me. I made plans to meet up with another friend, Dave Ring. Once again we spent some good time at the parking spot just outside of Jackson getting ready for another ascent of the Grand.
This trip up the Grand was a little bit more exciting. For starters I had rubbed my heels raw from the last ascent up the Grand and now was trying to baby my feet so they didn't get any worse (Of course they're going to get worse, just keep reading). And we had some troubles with Dave.
I think we first went wrong when we decided to do a car-to-car. This is when we leave the car at about 2:00 am and climb all the way up and back down in a day. I know, it does sound like a good idea. A couple days after Dave got there, we started up for the Grand at 2:00 am. We leave the car and have our headlamps on and actually manage to spot a couple eyes in the distance. I thought the worst, but hoped for the best. We kept walking while keeping an eye on the eyes, and luckily they never moved. Further up the trail we see two more sets of eyes, and past that even further we see three more sets of eyes! Wouldn't you know it... we later found out that they were all bears! Luckily black bears, so they all stayed put, but nonetheless, it was a little scary.
As we kept on hiking we reached the lower saddle by about 7:00 am. We had breakfast and continued on to the Exum ridge. Dave was starting to talk less by this point but we were both in good spirits. When we made it to the base of the Exum ridge Dave was talking less than before and my heels were full on infected. They hurt bad enough that I was scared to even look at them. I was starting to get a little worried about Dave, but he's a trooper, so I put those aside and focused on the climb. But as we continued up Dave was getting full on altitude sickness. He was getting a little confused about the route, was staring past me when I talked to him, and was essentially not talking by the time we were just a few pitches below the summit. Well, long story short, we made it to the summit and back down to the car by 5:00 pm. Just in time for dinner and a beer before bed!
After being that tired and basically worked, we decided to stay at the climbers ranch in the park. We popped open a couple beers and about two beers later, we were hammered! I am a lightweight to begin with, but I have never been that drunk from two beers before in my life!
The next day we recovered and I dealt with my heels. My right one was pussing and my left one was just bleeding. I needed these to get well quick because I had an adventure race in Colorado a little over a week away. As we laid under trees and read we decided road biking in Yellowstone was in order.
After healing we left the Tetons and pointed north to Yellowstone. We had another wonderful night in the back of the suby's and awoke to another bluebird day!
We gathered our things and started the ritual of donning the spandex! Most of you must be jealous right now. And let me tell you it's justified. Spandex is awesome. We ended up doing about 60 miles that day. I couldn't believe Dave could do that after having altitude sickness just two days earlier. It's insane! A bad-ass... if you will. That night was our last for the Teton trip and we spent it in Cody, Wyoming. It was a beautiful drive and a beautiful trip.
My few remaining days before the next trip to Colorado would be spent with my family in Rapid City. My heels healed... kind of... well good enough for doing that adventure race the next week.