Teton Dreams
In 1978 a group of aspiring outdoor leaders gathered in Driggs, Idaho to take part in a five-week experiment with legendary wilderness education pioneer Paul Petzoldt. Petzoldt had enticed these young men and women to join him in the first full summer of courses offered by the newly formed Wilderness Use Education Association (WUEA).
Among those attending were Gary Anderson an aspiring community college instructor in southern California, Jack Drury an aspiring community college instructor from the Adirondack Park in New York State, Scott Lewis a recent graduate of Springfield College, Jeff Olson a soon to be graduate student at Western Illinois University, Mitch Sakofs a PhD candidate at the University of Colorado and Mark Webber a farmer from Iowa. This past summer this group planned a 30th reunion back in Driggs. Due to last minute family issues Scott Lewis, now the Director of the Williams College Outing Club and Mark Webber were unable to make the trip.
So in early August Gary Anderson, Jeff Olson, Mitch Sakofs and I celebrated one of the first WEA courses at the Forest Service campground at the end of the Teton Canyon road not far from where we set up a tyrolean traverse 30 years earlier. (Click Here for Photo)
Gary, now a fifth grade teacher in Vista, CA, arrived early hauling a pop-up trailer. Mitch, Dean of the School of Education and Professional Studies at Central Connecticut State University and his son Kevin came in next and spent a couple of days exploring Yellowstone NP and Craters of the Moon. My wife Phyliss and I came in the night of August 6th and on the 7th the five of us took the Grand Targhee chairlift to the top of Fred’s Mountain. Phyliss took the chairlift down while the rest of us hiked the 8 miles back to camp exploring our old haunts.
Jeff, currently the Executive Director of Confidence Learning Center in Minnesota joined us the next day for a hike up towards Alaska Basin and the devil’s staircase. We saw three moose on the way and Jeff had an encounter with a bear. Evenings were spent around the campfire enjoying Phyliss’ cooking and catching up on our lives and reminiscing about our adventures 30 years earlier.
We put on lots of miles in the backcountry but also explored downtown Driggs. Driggs of course had changed more than the mountains. It has become quite the little tourist town and second home community. (With lots of mortgage defaults to go with it) We stopped by the old “Petzoldt” lodge which is now owned by a Thomas Sneed. (The old log cabin frame that was never finished is long gone.) Thomas is a fascinating guy. He is an avid outdoorsman (we saw Paul’s Teton Guidebook on the table) and professional musician. He played mandolin on the soundtracks to the movies, “Brother Where Art Thou” and “Cold Mountain”. He seemed genuinely pleased to hear our stories and to receive a CD of pictures we had of the lodge in 1978.
On our last day in Teton Canyon Jeff and Phyliss went to the Grand Targhee Bluegrass Festival while Gary and I hiked the 14 miles up to Table Top Mountain and back. We finally said our goodbyes to Gary and Phyliss, Jeff and I headed to Jackson while Gary headed home. We stayed two nights in a very nice cabin in downtown Jackson. Jeff left after the first night while Phyliss and I played tourist for a second night having a drink at the Cowboy Bar and dinner at Billy’s. Thoughts of what Jackson must have been like during the years that Paul Petzoldt made Jackson his home danced in our heads.
From there Phyliss and I headed up to Yellowstone NP to meet friends from Saranac Lake. We spent four days exploring Yellowstone (with many fond memories of a one-month long winter trip I took in Yellowstone in 1974) and then headed up to Montana where we spent 10 days retracing a portion of Lewis and Clark’s route on the Missouri River.
Little did those aspiring outdoor leaders know in 1978 that among them you would someday find; four WEA instructors with experience teaching courses from New York to Alaska and from Canada to Mexico, three former WEA Board Members, two community college instructors, one WEA President, a Director of Research and Education for Outward Bound National Headquarters, the Executive Director of one of the largest year-round outdoor education and recreation centers for persons of all ages with developmental disabilities, and a fifth grade school teacher. All of them with a passion for the outdoors and feeling lucky for the summer they got to spend with Paul Petzoldt.