Grand Teton Day6 no.3

Now time to descend from the top of Paintbrush Divide. 

At the visitor center before backpacking, park rangers wrote "ICE AXE Required!" on the dashboard for paintbrush divide. We asked rangers and they said it was needed. I didn't want to turn around due to snow patches and didn't want to be sorry. Always it is better safe than sorry. So I bought a nice ice axe and carried all the way.

Near Paintbrush Divide

What I saw was in the left picture. 

Are you KIDDING?

I carried an ice axe 4 days for this....?!, which easily can be even avoid by walking on dirt?

It is nothing! 

This time Mr.N was right. Park rangers always warn people it is dangerous and then actually it is not. 

Well. It was a nice opportunity to get an ice axe. I bought a really (yes REALLY) light ice axe, so actually it was not bad to carry it. It is an Italian brand. Italian outdoor brand are very good, especially for mountaineering-related stuff. There must be very good alpinists there. 

Since I carried my ice axe all the way, I did use it even though it was not necessary. I even thought about I slip intentionally and use an ice axe to stop slipping for practice, but I noticed there was not enough snow for such exercise. 

It was better than the opposite surprising....safely passed the Divide and now we headed for our campsite, Outlier. Yes, the campsite name is Outlier. I was thinking about the name is just for us. In fact Outlier campsite is only one site, and reservation only. 

Holly Lake

To go to Outlier campsite, there are two routes. We took a route to go through Holly Lake. I wanted to go to Holly lake, because Ms.L said it was gorgeous. Ms.L came to Grand Teton a day before we came and secured a campsite. It was very nice of her. Then she did a day hike to Holly Lake. Actually Holly is Ms.L's identical twin sister's name. I admire Holly as a talented artist. 

In the evening Holly Lake was sitting there very quietly and peacefully. The color is emerald green. It was transparent and shining at the same time. It was a round-shaped lake just like made by expanding the emerald green stone on the ring. 

This pretty lake fits with Ms.H's image. Artistic and pure. I was glad I took this route. 

According to National Geographic map, Outlier campsite is supposed to be 1.5 mile from Holly Lake. 

sign for Outlier campsite

Descended and descended a lot, but there was no hint for Outlier campsite. Finally 2.5 miles of walking from Holly lake we found the campsite. The last (mentally) additional 1 mile was really tough. It was like I was told to run 1 more mile after I finished the full marathon. If you are a runner, how hard it was, because already the last mile of marathon was tough. Not only this time but I had found many wrong things on National Geographic maps. I extremely wish there were Tom Harrison maps for everywhere as I wrote before here. 

deer

At the campsite, a cute visitor was there. She seem to live near the campsite. She licked my pee.....she must be craving for salt. Mr.N said that it is common for deer to lick human's urine in Glacier National Park in Montana. 

After dinner it started raining, I was very tired so went to tent and slept.