This close-to-home route makes a great intro to picnicking. Just remember to bring some friends along for the fun, and be sure to stop for a picnic and enjoy the views. Check out these routes, or create a multisport sufferfest of your own this summer. So I’ve decided to pull together some easier options, for myself and other aspiring picnickers. Reverse the path for another swim and a ride back into town.Īlthough it’s a great training run for the Grand Picnic, I’m not quite ready for that kind of mileage-especially the swim. It continues with a chilly swim across the reservoir (1 mile), and a hike up Blackmore (5 miles) or Hyalite Peak (7 miles). I reached out to David Gonzales, mastermind of the Grand Picnic, and he described a well-established picnic route in Bozeman: the “Hyalicknic.” This one starts in Bozeman with a bike ride to Hyalite Reservoir (20 miles). In preparation, I’ve been pondering the picnic opportunities in my own backyard. Still, the idea fascinated me, and I felt inspired to one day attempt the Grand Picnic myself. Which explains my aforementioned ego-slashing. This route chews up and spits out some of the most hardened mountain athletes in the Rockies, and it makes a standard triathlon seem like a 5k color run. The Grand Picnic goes like this: bike from Jackson to Jenny Lake (21 miles), swim across the lake (1.3 miles), summit the Grand Teton (10 miles, over 7,000 ft of elevation gain)-then turn around and climb back down, swim back across, and bike back to town. It’s similar to a triathlon, but intended for people who enjoy pushing their limits in beautiful settings. My newly-minted mountain ego was slashed, however, when one of them told me about the Grand Picnic.Ī picnic, in Jackson’s outdoor parlance, is a self-supported, multi-sport sufferfest that involves biking, swimming, hiking, and probably crying. After a successful jaunt up the Owen-Spalding route, I drove into Jackson to enjoy a few beers with some friends and revel in my accomplishment. A few years ago, I rolled out of my car at 2:30am to tackle the Grand Teton in one day.
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