There and back again

I have been trying to get my EMT license in either Idaho or Wyoming since the spring, when I heard I would be in the area for the summer.  I have my Pennsylvania license and national registry, so I figured it'd be easy to fill out some paperwork and get my license.

A few months later, I am in the middle of an Idaho license application, which is permanently stalled, and completing the few last steps for my Wyoming license.

I had to drive to Cheyenne to take a written test to get my license, despite being certified in another state, a member of the national registry of EMTs and having completed an EMT training course in the state of Wyoming.  Cheyenne is 8 hours away from where I live.

So I drove to the other side of the state on a two-day journey to take a 150-question multiple-choice test.  Which took me an hour to complete.

Luckily, I was able to get my fingerprints processed for a background check in the same trip, and now I’m one form away from being a Wyoming-licensed EMT.

Finally.

But it was a nice drive.  I toured the varying geography of Wyoming, from the Tetons to the Winds to the wide, rolling range.

And saw a nice sunset on the way.

Summiting Table Mountain

Up in Teton Canyon, on the way to the Grand Teton (as the crow flies), just over the state line in Wyoming, lies a Table Mountain.  Not as famous as its counterpart in South Africa, but still, a Table Mountain.  It's not as imposing, it's not as vast and it's not as picturesque, since it is dwarfed and dominated by the three Tetons not one mile distant.  But it still is a hefty climb, offering a 7-mile approach, 4,000 feet of elevation gain and an above-treeline summit of 11,105 feet above sea level.

I climbed it yesterday, after a group of us had started up one of its trails a couple weeks after we settled in.  Snow turned us back, although it wasn't a hardcore push to the summit.

I came back and started up the North Fork trail.

I attained the ridge, then scrambled up to the summit.

Up top, I spent a leisurely hour eating dinner, enjoying the views and reading a book.

I descended via the Face Trail, which was the most grueling descent I have ever attempted, with hugely steep grades plunging down 3,000 feet of elevation loss over a rocky, loose trail.

Two hours of leg-punishing descent deposited me in the parking lot, ready for a couple days of recovery, but glowing with the views and accomplishments of the day.

A good 8-hour trip.