Our plan for today was a hike into the mountains to Amphitheatre Lake. We rode 30km from Jackson Hole to the trail-head and started our hike. Tim G is an ex-Alpine club member and has conquered 100’s of peaks in the Alps so a 12km walk will be a snap. We bought a map at the trail-head and started the climb. One kilometre down the trail we asked each other for the map and neither of us had it so TimG hiked back to get it. After 3 kms of easy hiking we stopped for a food and photo break at Bradley Lake. We continued up until we hit the next trail junction. The climb turned into a steep uphill hairpin climb. We started up, but we set a time limit to turn around and after 2kms we had reached our time limit. We were both feeling great so we continued a bit farther. When a group of hikers coming downhill said we were at the best part of the climb, we made the decision to turn around without reaching our goal. Downhill is always easier than uphill – so they say. That wasn’t the case for us. My toes started to cramp, my feet hurt, my hips got stiff and, strangely, the trail back was longer than the trail out. At the bottom TimG was walking funny and I was walking funnier. We learned two things: cycling shoes are not the best for hiking and cycling muscles are not made for hiking. It was absolute bliss to get back on our bikes and the 30km ride back to Jackson was a doddle. Back in Jackson we celebrated our survival with a double scoop ice cream. (Cold is good for aching joints.) Tomorrow will be a slow day.
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| Bradley Lake from above |
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| Bradley Lake |
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