Four types of fun in the Tetons

As part of our introduction to the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem, the graduate students at Teton Science School spent a week hiking 35 miles of the Teton Crest Trail in Grand Teton National Park. We began our journey on an auspicious note in Death Canyon, hiked to Alaska Basin, up Hurricane Pass and into Paintbrush Canyon. Throughout the trip students were required to teach lesson out in the field. We learned about glaciers, Clark's Nutcracker, Pine Beetles, the history of climbing, Climate Change, Pikas, and Native American history. Along the trail, we stopped to study plants, trees, and the many animals we saw (moose, pikas, marmots, grouse, and foxes).

Although the hikes were challenging, our group established a rating system which ensured that we were having fun at all times. This system is based on four types of fun.

Type One Fun: You are enjoying the activity of the moment. I experienced type one fun for most of the trip expecially when hiking along the beautiful pine trails with the grand canyons rising on either side.

Type Two Fun: You are not too happy during the activity but know that you will be proud once you have finished. This was best exemplified for me during our second day hiking up to Alaska Basin. At 10,000 feet, the air is thin and breathing becomes difficult as you ascent 1,000 vertical feet. With a fifty pound pack it took some positive thinking to motivate myself to the top of the pass. However, once we had made it to the basin, with its large granite slabs of rock and pristine lake, I was quite happy with my effort.

Type Three Fun: Your fun is derived from someone else's misfortune. For example, the girls in my tent group decided that we would bring one four-person tent for five people (rather than two three-person tents) in order to lighten our load. As fortune would have it, not only were we quite "cozy" in our tent but the pole tended to malfunction at inopportune moments. One evening, at 3:00 in the morning, the tent collapsed on us. After some minutes of scrambling and confusion, we were able to re-establish order. The following morning when we told our story to the boys (who had a perfectly functional tent) they laughed at our plight. Hence, type three fun.

Type Four Fun: You are simply not having any fun at all. In fact, you are pretty miserable. I did not experience much type four fun on this backbacking trip but came close when a Gold-Banded squirrel pummeled us with sap infused pine cones as we tried to enter our tent.

Throughout our trip the landscape was magnificent and varied from forest riparian to stark mountain passes. We had beautiful weather with cold nights and sunny days. My group cooked together, joked together, and got to know each other a little better. For the most part, it was type one fun all around.