by Harriet Greene
Harriet Greene, graduate of McGill University in physiotherapy, moved to the US in 1970; hiked the Long Trail in the Green Mountains of Vermont and Mount Washington in the White Mountains of New Hampshire; a trip West convinced her to move to the Rockies where she fell in love with the Grand Tetons and Wind River Range. She found a small log cabin in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and settled in for twenty years. As an avid hiker, backpacker, author, stone sculptor and marble stonecut printmaker, she feels most comfortable in the alpine with a backpack, lost in some deep remote canyon with her youngest daughter. She has published six books, her latest, “Crossing the Boundary: A Return to the Wilderness and Freedom.”
Back in the 70’s or was it the 80’s, my son & I flew in a small plane (an adventure in itself) from Wisconsin to Pine Bluff, WY, got a ride up to the trail head and started the climb up onto the wilderness. By the time we got to a spot to camp it was snowing (in August). Somewhere we had lost one of our gloves, and by the time we got the tent up our fingers were close to frostbite. But we slept the sleep of the exhausted, and tho our tent was covered with snow in the morning, the rest of our days were glorious. The ultimate memory was the cramps in our legs from the hike downhill.
I wrote a Wind River Range guidebook which is at https://www.amazon.com/WIND-RIVER-RANGE-Lizard-Adventures/dp/1930096003/ref=sr_1_10?dchild=1&keywords=Vesperman&qid=1626372462&s=books&sr=1-10
On the back cover is a photograph of Titcomb Lakes basin which looks similar to Harriet's photo. I hiked maybe 5 trails into the Wind River Range. One of them is featured in my "All-Time Favorite Hikes" near the bottom of http://padrak.com/vesperman.
Hi Gary Vesperman,
Thanks for your comment. Loved the Bears Ears trail to, I believe Valentine Lake, and Lizard Head climb, and the Popo Agie valley. Titcomb Lakes was a favorite and I and my daughter visited there often. Stunning. We even were able to approach it from Peak Lake and Knapsack Col because there was little snow that year. The photo is Wall Lake at the end of Cook Lakes, a nice hike to the Divide.
Harriet
That phrase really resonated. ‘all these pleasures reminded me that life was wonderful, that rest and relaxation were vital, and that simply keeping busy wasted our lives in accomplishing nothing of importance. Our reason for existence is all too often over-looked for a false sense of security promised by societal demands for accomplishment and the accumulation of things’. We are human beings not human doings! It’s ok to just be. Thank you for the reminder. Our American society can make us feel guilty for it.
A good read, Harriet, thanks. My five days in and around the Alpine Lakes area of the Winds in 2015 is still sharp in memory. It was July, but wet, cold, and austere. The potential for hypothermia was my only companion, though I managed to always keep it a few paces behind me. Magnificent, convoluted country, for sure. America's true backbone.
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