“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man”
Heraclitus
Taggart Lake is the quintessential tourist hike in Grand Teton National Park. The trailhead is off the inner park road pretty close to the park entrance, the trail is mostly flat, and it is spectacularly beautiful making this a can’t miss hike for any family who wants to explore the wilderness from beyond their car.
I wanted to start this “challenge” on Memorial Day, not because I think that I’ll need every inch of time to complete my goal, but because it seemed ceremonial to do the first hike on my arbitrability assigned day 1. Maybe I will need every second from now until Labor Day to get it done, but I really have no idea.
I left the parking lot around 7:15 under a foggy sky thick with heavy clouds. The Taggart Lake parking lot is almost always extremely crowded in the summer, but this early there were only a few cars. It is an easy 3.9 mile loop that basically just skirts the southeast corner of the lake. The creek that flows from Taggart was raging beneath the first bridge as I set out.
I was feeling surprisingly energetic, and the previously excruciating blister on my left heel was healing, and covered by about 74 band-aids. Feeling inspired and armed with my new-found motivation, I decided to jog a bit. I always like to use the word jog to describe my pace that’s slightly faster than walking; what I do would definitely not qualify as “running.” So I jog for approximately 30 seconds before trail began to gain elevation. I try to keep it up taking stone steps two at a time, but my lungs won’t allow it, so my first jog of the quest lasts about as long as a virgin on prom night. Even worse, a few people saw me begin to “run” and then return right back to walking. I proceeded uphill for about a half-mile, then the trail turned down toward the lake, allowing me to re-commit to jogging which I did most of the rest of the way. The trail was mostly snow-free, in good shape although a little muddy.
Reflecting on the stoic thought for the day as I hiked, I focused on who I was today doing this Taggart Lake loop. I’ve probably hiked Taggart Lake a couple dozen times, and I’ve hiked many trails in the park more than once, but like re-reading a book, every time is different. Even though the trail is essentially the same, everything else is new. The moodiness of the clouds today, the people with whom I shared the trail, the trail condition, the time are all different. More importantly, I’m different. Today, compared to all of the times before that I hiked this trail, I am a different person. I think that’s the important concept to keep in mind. Change is constant, and it is incumbent on me to get used to that. I can consider past experiences to shape my life and the way I view the world, but past experience only provides a framework, not the entire story. In the purest sense of the cliched idea, every day is a new day, and how I flow through each day is totally up to me, and while I cannot control what happens to me, I can control how I react to it.
Mileage – 3.9 miles
Time – 48 minutes
BGAS (Big game animals spotted) – 0
PS (people seen)– 11
Stump I thought was a moose – 1