Southwest Ridge of Fossil Mtn
View to the South from the West Ridge of Fossil Mtn
Sometimes I just feel like doing something out of the ordinary to change things up a bit. Or maybe change things up alot. I don't know why or how it happens and I never seem to know exactly when, but today was one of those days.
After working yesterday morning at El Banco, I came home expecting to get some household chores done, then head out on a nice, easy, long run in the snow. It had been snowing off and on all morning and there was about three inches on the ground that fell mostly overnight, but things had warmed up to a balmy 45 degrees which makes comfortable running weather for me so I figured I would head out after maybe an hour. Well that never happened. As I was doing things around the house, my right knee felt a little sore, which I attributed most recently to my jaunt up Mud Lake Road the night before, but more appropriately attributed it to the ongoing tendonitis I developed over the summer in both knees as a result of all the running I have been doing this year. So...
...Long story short, I laid around the house all afternoon and evening save for a nice long walk around the hood with Mr. Bud. 
So, this morning I awoke feeling a stong pull to get outside and do something active. The more I thought about it, the more I thought about doing something different. Maybe I could ride my mtn bike to a trailhead and start my run from there. I hadn't been out on the bike for about a week and I also didn't want the knees to take a beating so I thought about a route that would maintain a navigable amount of snow for most of the way and would be good to ride too (meaning mostly dirt roads cause riding fat tires on pavement just ain't that fun.) Hmmmmm... Ah! I know! Darby Canyon! It was 10:30am. Daylight hours are getting shorter. Focus! Think about logistics! I'll start on the bike for probably an hour to an hour and a half, then switch to running/hiking attire, hike up Darby for as long as the route permits, then retrace my route back to the bike and bike home. Go light, go fast is the strategy. It'll be snowy, but snowshoes are too heavy and too bulky. I hoped for a level of snow that would be passable with trailshoes and gaiters. It'll be colder up high in the canyon. Pack a whisperlight shell, warm gloves, and a light ski hat. Ok, it's 11:08am and I'm off!
I began wearing Smartwool socks under my Sidi cycling shoes. Wool maintains it's insulating properties even when it's wet, which I was planning on. Likewise, I wore my Smartwool, long sleeved running shirt from the Grand Teton 50 miler back in September. I LOVE Smarwool! Ba-a-a-a-a-a-a-a! I would be on the bike for a while so I wore my cycling bibshorts and leg warmers and since the way there would be mostly uphill, I wore my Cloudveil softshell jacket so I could vent as necessary and not arrive at the trailhead soaked with sweat. A light pair of leather Troy Lee Designs cycling gloves, Bell helmet, and my fave Oakley Half Jacket XJL shades rounded things out.
I headed north on the dirt/gravel frontage road that parallels Hwy 33 between Victor and Driggs. 4 1/2 miles later, I turned east and crossed the highway onto 300 South which gradually climbs almost 300 ft over the three miles to the mouth of Darby Canyon which lies at roughly 6500 ft. From here, it's about 7 miles to the trailhead on a rougher dirt road that I hoped wasn't covered in a foot of snow. Perfect! It appeared to have been driven on the day before so within the tire tracks, the snow was firm and crunchy and allowed for great traction. The tracks most likely had frozen overnight and I wondered if the way down would be a slopy mess if it continued to warm up, but for now, I focused on staying in "them ruts" left by the vehicles the day before.
"Yeah Dan... See.. What he's gotta do is jus stay in them ruts and he'll be jus fine. Once he gets outta them ruts, he jus gonna lose traction an be slidin all over. He jus gotta stay in them ruts!"
I arrived at the trailhead after 1:20 of riding. Perfect. My toes were freeeeeeeezing! I was concerned that from here on my feet would be submurged in a yet to be determined depth of trillions of tiny icy particles. Brrrrrrrrrr. That just sounds cold. Well, whatever. Off I go. Out of my strong desire to get moving again, I opted to pull on the "shorts" portion of my zip-off pants keeping my cycling shorts and leg warmers on underneath. I wasn't really too keen on dropping trou right there and changing things around. I just wanted to get going! I figured I've been on many all day bike rides before, so wearing a chamios underneath for hours and hours wouldn't be anything new. Except that when you're wearing bike shorts while sitting on a bike, you never really notice the chamios. When you're off the bike, it does have a bit of a diaper feeling quality about it. After a while, I never even noticed it. I changed into my trusty 'ol Nikes, added the gaiters, ditched the helmet in favor of my mesh running ballcap, and I was up the trail after hiding my bike in the woods just up the trail. I didn't expect to see anyone else up here today and wasn't concerned about someone stealing the bike. If anyone did come up here, they would probably not investigate the tracks that lead off into the woods because usually the only thing you'll find at their end is a yellow hole in the snow. So I felt fine leaving 'Ol Red resting comfortably on it's side under the low boughs of a fir tree with Mr. Shoes and Mr. Helmet to keep it company while I'm gone.
The trail was beautiful! It was covered by a soft layer of maybe six inches of snow and easily discernable. I kept having to stop and take pictures because I was enthralled by the beauty of it all! As much as I may say I'm tired of the 10 months of snow we get around here, I really do find it enjoyable to get out in. And there were so many animal tracks on the trail! All of them were hooved, but it seemed to be maybe one moose and then a couple of deer. I noticed that the moose tracks were perfectly spaced inline with my stride. I walked steadily up the trail placing each step within the moose tracks. It was easy hiking and I was thankful for all the trail-using wildlife! It sure sped up my progress.
I kept looking around for the wild beasts that seemed to have been here so recently, but was surprised to not see anything. After 30 minutes, I finally heard a rustling and looked up to see a young deer about 30 yards to the left of the trail. It would be the only wildlife I would see all day.
The Darby Canyon trail climbs steadily to the southeast along the eastern wall of the canyon for about three miles, then crosses to the west side of the canyon eventually reaching Wind Cave a mile or mile and a half later at an elevation of about 8500 ft. The canyon continues to reach up towards the southeast and although there isn't a maintained trail, many routes can be followed upcanyon culminating at a saddle at the base of Fossil Mtn's southwest ridge. I decided this would be my heading.
(Wind Cave is the black dot in the cliffband just above and to the left of center)
It was turning out to be a perfect day! I was perfectly dressed. Not too warm, not too cool. The sun was playing peek-a-boo behind wispy white passing clouds and for some reason, I didn't seem to mind slogging my way through calf and sometimes knee deep snow breaking a winding, weaving trail through the endless white ocean. I was staying afloat better than I thought so I continued up and once I caught my first glimpse of Fossil Mtn, I immediately entertained the idea of a summit. How great would that be?! It's October 21st and I could be standing on another high Teton Peak! I brought myself back to reality and remembered that I was already pushing my luck making it as far as I had in trail shoes, gaiters, and relatively lightwieght clothing to be up this high, this late in the year.
First glimpse of Fossil Mtn
After 2 1/2 hours, I reached the saddle and was able to finally look south into Fox Creek Canyon and beyond. I could recognize landmarks along the Teton Crest Trail from when I ran it last summer. Looking downcanyon I could see the flats of Teton Valley beyond the mountains to the northwest. And where the **** did this frigid north wind come from?!?!?! Whoa! I gotta get some clothes on! I tore off my pack and fumbled around with quickly numbing fingers for my wind shell. That's a little better. Then the pantlegs to my zip offs. Grrrrrrrrr! Curse that tiny zipper! I couldn't get them fully zipped around the thighs and I gave up on them moving on to find my ski hat and finally the warm gloves. Whew. Ok, that's better. I think. Well, actually I'm still cold. Ok, gotta snap a few pics and move on. Can I actually make it to the summit? It's frigid up here on this ridge! And that ridge looks like it has a pretty steep pitch on it! Brrrrrrr-r-r-r-r!
Hoooo-dare... Heeeey-dare... This might not happen. The ridge was narrow and exhilarating and I was comfortable on it for the moment, but I could see up ahead that it took a sharp pitch vertically and things looked pretty iced over. I looked back to see my tracks rising like a staircase along the pointed ridge. Images of Mt. Everest's southwest ridge came to mind. Hee Hee. See how my fantasy world works? ; ) This was about a million times smaller than big daddy Evy. Well anyway, it was an amusing similarity to me at the time especially because my lungs weren't in danger of filling with fluid and drowning me.
After three hours of hiking, I decided to turn around. My Gore-Tex trail shoes were no match for this as things became icy and my toes quickly became uncomfortably cold. I looked down to see that the entire toe portions of my shoes were covered in ice. Time to call it. Time of death: 3:38pm.
Looking northwest down Darby Canyon. Teton Valley can be seen in the distance.
This looks like a good place to turn around
The way down was fast! An hour and ten minutes fast! Running downhill in snow has got to be one of my favorite trail moments. I love how cushioned it is and I love how you can take giant steps and not have to worry about foot placement. I can run downhill on a snowy trail much faster than I can on dirt. I began to get a bit warm by the bottom, but I was within ten minutes of the trailhead so I just removed my hat and gloves and unzipped the two jackets I still had on from up at the top and it was enough to get by.
At the bike, I swapped clothing again, scarfed down the trailmix (my only remaining food) took a sip of gatorade out of my bike mounted water bottle and set off back down the road out of the canyon. Sure enough, things had melted considerably and instead of packed crunchy snow, it was now two rivers of slushy mud flowing down each of the tire tracks with still half-frozen sections in the shaded areas. Apart from being incredibly cold as the icy muddy water splashed up on my feet, legs, butt, and on my face, it was also extremely treacherous. There were sections where I would unclip both feet out of my pedals before crossing over because I knew how quickly things can go wrong when riding over lumpy, rutted, half-melted ice. I made it down safely albeit with absolutely frozen toes. And things weren't getting any better. It was just past 5:00pm and the temperature felt like it had dropped to near freezing already. Combine with a fast 3 mile downhill back to the highway. Combine with a frozen front derailleur that was stuck in the middle ring making pedalling useless at the high downhill speed. Combine with already cold and wet feet and legs. Combine with a very thin layer of lycra over a very sensitive part of my anatomy. This was nearly unbearable. No. It WAS unbearable. I resorted to steering with one hand while resting the other on the nose of my saddle as a windblock. Oh, how I long to be in a warm home in a hot shower.
Dirty 'Ol Red
55 minutes after leaving the trailhead, I rolled up to my steps. The entire outing took 6 hours and 40 minutes, from 11:08am to 5:48pm. I snapped a picture of dirty 'Ol Red, then one of me, then bounded up the steps to release Mr. Bud so he could run over to the car wash with me so I could spray things off. And now... I am completely, utterly satisfied and content sitting here clean, warm, fed, and reliving the day's experience.
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