Vacation, Part 3

Day 6

We were not in a big hurry to get up on Saturday morning—everything outside our tent was still wet.  Luckily, we had put up our dining canopy before the storm so our table was dry.  There were still clouds, but the air was much clearer—the winds had blown away the smoke.  I pulled out the eggs and bread to make French toast for breakfast.  We were planning to hike and needed some fuel.

We managed to leave our campsite around 10:00 a.m. and drove up Signal Mountain to the top.  Since the haze was gone, we figured it would be a good day for this.  We enjoyed a great view of Jackson Lake and Mount Moran.  Clouds still hung over the peaks, remnants of the previous day’s storm.

Next we drove to south Jenny Lake, found a parking spot, and walked over to the shuttle boat.  For $7 each we got a quick ride across the lake to the trailhead for Hidden Falls.  This has got to be the most popular trial in the park.  The shuttles go back and forth continuously.  There are traffic jams walking up the trail plus there are all ages, from infants in baby packs to elderly with canes.  The hike was about a half-mile up with lovely views of Cascade Creek along the trail.  Of course, everybody had their photo taken in front of the waterfall.  To be honest, we were a bit disappointed.  Hidden Falls is pretty, but nothing special—we have seen many falls like it in the past.  From the falls we hiked up about .4 miles to Inspiration Point.  This part of the trail was much steeper and rocky; I was glad to be wearing my boots.  I was amazed that there were teenagers trying to walk up the trail in flip flops!  At Inspiration Point we had a great view of Jenny Lake—and of course everybody was taking pictures of each other.

Although the lake was lovely, we were not able to see the peaks from where we were.  We had heard that Cascade Canyon is beautiful and fairly level so we decided to hike a bit further.  We probably hiked about a mile more.  There were certainly a lot less people at this point in the trail.  Finally we reached the place where the canyon opens up and we could see Teewinot Mountain and other nearby peaks—absolutely beautiful.  We determined that this was the place to turn around since we still needed to not only walk back down the trail, but also walk around the lake to the parking lot because we had decided not to take the shuttle back.  Now I had assumed that this would all be downhill or level.  Much to my dismay, the trail around the lake had its share of ups and downs.  At this point my not-yet-recovered body was saying “No!  No more ups!”  However, I trudged on.  It was way past lunch time and my body could tell.  I made it back to the Visitor Center and store totally exhausted.  I sat while Bob went in and bought us ice cream bars.  This gave me enough energy to make it back to the car.  We ate a late lunch at the String Lake picnic area, and then it was back to camp for some rest and a dutch oven dinner.

Day 7

We awoke on our last real day of vacation to clear, blue skies.  I knew it wouldn’t last so I took some photos.  We walked down to the Signal Mountain Marina later in the morning and rented a 2-person kayak for 1 hour—that 1 hour was plenty since we were supposed to stay in sight of the marina.  After some struggle to keep our craft going straight ahead, we realized that it tended to turn left which made us wonder if it was warped—it certainly made paddling challenging.  We had a great view of Mount Moran and the water was fairly still.  This was a fun little outing.

In the afternoon we drove over to Colter Bay.  We walked the little 1-mile loop from the Visitor Center.  The sky was getting quite smoky again so our view of the Tetons was obscured.  We hopped back into the car, and then stopped at the gift shop so I could purchase a souvenir T-shirt.  And we just had to buy ice cream cones.  After all, we were on vacation!  Next, we stopped at Cattlemen’s Crossing, a marshy area on the Snake River with an interesting history.  On our last night we enjoyed a campfire, s’mores, grazing deer, and a ranger program at the amphitheater.

Day 8

The sky was hazy and we could smell smoke when we arose.  This was the worst that we had seen so we were glad to be headed home.  After breakfast we packed up our gear and loaded it into the car.  Why is it that things never fit back into the car as well as they did when leaving home?  Instead of going back through Jackson, we went to Teton Village, over Teton Pass, and then into Idaho.  To our dismay, the smoke continued.  Rest stops provided breaks plus a lunch spot.  The smoke stayed with us the entire time.  We arrived home shortly after 7:00 p.m. to very happy dogs.  Our Grand Teton vacation was truly a great escape from everyday life for a while.

Vacation Adventure

As I write this, my husband and I are holed up in our tent listening to the wind, rain, and thunder.  Wet clothes hang from various loops in the tent.  Once the storm passes we’ll drive up to Colter Bay for hot showers and groceries.

The wet clothes are the result of a short biking adventure this afternoon.  We parked at north Jenny Lake, and rode our bikes to the bike lane on the one-way (for cars) loop along the lake.  There are several turnouts with beautiful close-up views of the Tetons and the lake.  Of course, on bikes we could stop anywhere.  There seemed to be less smoke today but clouds were moving in.  We ended up at south Jenny Lake, only 3 miles away.  Once we parked and locked our bikes, we walked down to the lake.  We watched the shuttle boat take people back and forth across the lake.  People were paddling brightly colored canoes and kayaks.  Children played happily on the beach.  We ventured across a bridge and onto a point for a better view of the lake and peaks.  We inquired about boat rentals, and then, seeing the approaching storm, hurried to our bikes.  The light rain became heavier as we pedaled and I could hear thunder in the distance.  As we pushed up one steep hill, I could not keep up with Bob—my 4-week post-surgery body held me back and I was panting.  Bob pushed ahead.  The rain got heavier and turned to hail, stinging my arms.  I took a wrong turn into a parking lot, delaying my return to the car.  Bob grabbed my bike when I arrived and I jumped into our dry car.  I was soaked.

This has been an interesting day, one that began early.  We were up at 6:00 a.m. and walked down to the Signal Mountain Lodge just before 7:30 a.m. for our 10-mile raft trip down the Snake River.  We hopped into the van for the 20-minute ride to our launch site.  We were given safety instructions by our guide, Zack, the boat was launched, and 13 of us climbed in.  The group consisted of two family groups and us.  One was a young family with four kids, and the other was an extended family of older adults.  Interestingly, there were three geologists on this trip: our guide, my husband, and the young father.  We all had the opportunity to introduce ourselves during the float.

This was not a white water trip, but a rather leisurely float down the river.  The water was fairly shallow, and we even scraped bottom a few times, but the water was fast moving.  Zack was a talker and kept up a running commentary about the geology and wildlife of the area.  We had a fantastic view of the Tetons, although it was still smoky and the sky was cloudy.  The cooler weather today made for a more pleasant trip and perhaps brought out more wildlife.

Zack himself was amazed at what we were able to see today.  The first wildlife we spotted was a young bald eagle sitting on a snag.  In fact, we saw about seven more bald eagles on our float, a record for Zach this summer.  We also saw mergansers, both in the water and in the air.  And of course, there were Canada geese, but nobody was too excited about them since they are so common.  On one bank among thick vegetation we spotted a female moose eating.  I managed to snap a picture as she was leaving—she was a bit shy.  Next we saw two small deer grazing on the bank.  A bit further down the river we were amazed to watch an osprey dive into the water and come up with a fish.  And then, as if to show off his prize, the osprey flew almost directly above our boat.  Our guide pointed out the old Menors Ferry as we floated by and we had a chance to watch it cross the river—it has just started operating again.  All too soon we were at our take-out point.  I think all of us would have loved to go further.

 

Well, the rain has picked up again and Bob is napping, so I think I might be stuck in the tent a bit longer.  If the rain continues, we may be eating dinner at one of the restaurants down at the lodge.  Now that and a glass of wine might be the perfect ending to our day.

8/10/12

Escape

Day 1

It was 4 weeks post-surgery and I was itching to get out of town.  After all the medical testing, surgery, and recovery, I felt like I had missed half of summer.  We couldn’t afford anything fancy, so we knew this would be a camping trip.  But that was okay; we love to camp.  We decided to head for one of the most beautiful places in the west—Grand Teton National Park.

On Monday, we watered the garden, loaded up our clothes, food, bikes, and camping gear, and then we said goodbye to the dogs and were on our way.  And it wasn’t even noon yet!  For us to be on the road that early is nothing short of a miracle.  Lunch was at the Wendy’s in Mountain Home, about an hour from our house.

Driving along I-84 in southern Idaho is not the most exciting of trips.  Mile after mile it’s almost nothing but sagebrush.  The mountains in the distance were partially obscured by smoke, mostly from the Halstead Fire in central Idaho, plus some more local fires.  Periodically we stopped at a rest stop to stretch our legs.  We pulled into our motel in Jackson, Wyoming, around 8:00 p.m.  After checking in we drove to the center of town and began walking to find a place to eat.  The town was full of tourists, many with cameras, and it appeared that it was essential to have one’s picture taken in front of one of the four elkhorn arches at the square.  We didn’t.  We finally settled on a Tex-mex restaurant called The Merry Piglets—I really enjoyed my fish tacos.

Day 2

We were up fairly early the next morning.  Breakfast was muffins and coffee, and then we hit the road and arrived at Grand Teton National Park around 9 a.m.  Our goal was to find a campsite at Jenny Lake but we were already too late—the campground was full.  So we headed to the Signal Mountain area and drove through the campground.  We were assured there would be campsites available so we drove around again.  And again.  And again and again.  Finally, we found a large campsite at the highest point in the campground.  Unlike most of the other sites, ours had a view of the Tetons plus a bit of a view of Jackson Lake.  How lucky is that?  We proceeded to unpack and set up camp.  Although we had planned to go do something, we ended up staying in the campground.  We relaxed and read.  We located the bathrooms, water, and amphitheater.  The bathrooms, with flush toilets, were down a steep hill via a little trail—this ended up being a major source of exercise for us.  We took a short walk down to the convenience store and bought ice cream bars.  Bob put up the hammocks and we took naps.  Dinner was leftover salads out of our icebox.  After a small campfire and s’mores, we walked over to the amphitheater for a ranger-led program about earthquakes and the geology of the park.  It was a good day.

Day 3

Wednesday was the day for bike riding.  I was excited to do this because I bought a new comfort bike 2 days before we left home.  We parked at South Jenny Lake (along with hundreds of other people).  After talking with a helpful ranger in the Visitor Center there, we located the multi-use path and headed out.  The path is paved, smooth, and mostly level.  Although the air was rather smoky due to wildfires, the path runs between the main road and the Tetons, providing great vistas.  My spirits soared as I pedaled along this magnificent mountain range which rises 10,000 feet straight up from the valley floor.  We stopped a few times to read the tourist information signs and to take photos.  We biked approximately 7.3 miles to the Visitor Center at Moose.  After locking up our bikes, we spent some time viewing the exhibits inside the center.

Rested, we mounted our bikes for the return trip.  We could have gone on to Jackson via the trail but we had no desire to leave the park.  The first part of this return included a very steep section which allowed me to test the lowest gears on my bike.  When we reached the top we were rewarded with a beautiful view of the Tetons.  In fact, I think the ride back afforded us a better view of the mountains.  Our bike outing was the best part of our day.

Day 4

Thursday was a good day to stretch our legs a bit.  We put on shorts and laced up our hiking boots, and drove to Two Ocean Lake.  The lake is not far from our campsite, but the trip did require driving on dirt roads—most of the main roads are paved.  We decided to take a short walk on the trail that runs along the west side of the lake.  The vegetation was lush with some lovely wildflowers and berries; obviously there were many more flowers earlier in the summer.  As we walked, we periodically clapped our hands so any bears in the area would hear us coming and not be surprised.  This is bear country.  You don’t want to surprise a bear, especially one with a cub.  The view of the lake was limited through the trees so after a while we turned around and headed back to the parking area.  We pulled out our food and sat down at a picnic table for a late lunch.  While we ate, a group from Rhodes Scholars—grandparents, parents, and kids—returned from a canoe outing on the lake.  We chatted with a few of the grandmas for a bit.

After lunch we hiked up another trail towards Emma Matilda Lake. This trail was much more open, with vast expanses of grass and green-gray sagebrush interspersed with a variety of evergreens.  Once we reached the crest of the hill we could see the lake in the distance, but the trail actually bypasses the lake.  The Tetons rose in the distance, but sadly, due to the smoke they were barely visible.  When the trail began to turn downhill and away from the lake, we decided to turn around and hike back to the car.  Next we returned to our campsite for a little reading and relaxation—it was another satisfying day.

8/9/12

32 Years

As I gaze at our photo, I am struck by how young we were.  Thirty-two years ago we were newlyweds looking forward to our life together, but not really knowing what to expect.  Life was an adventure.  Three years later, Bob was transferred to Idaho, a place we had visited but didn’t know much about.  We had no family or friends in Idaho.  I had to leave my family behind in California.  Bob already knew a few coworkers but that was it; I got to know some of their spouses.  We found a church and that became our family.  I took classes, I volunteered, and I applied for jobs.  Approximately 11 months after moving to Idaho, I became a VISTA volunteer for what would become the Idaho Foodbank.  Shortly after that I found out that I was pregnant with our first child.

Parenthood changes a marriage like nothing else.  I believe it brought us closer together, although we’ve certainly had our share of disagreements.  We raised two daughters, now adults, and faced many joys and challenges along the way.  Together we sacrificed to give our daughters opportunities.  First there was dance lessons beginning at age 3—the dancing continued all the way through high school dance team.  There were countless hours spent sitting in auditoriums or on bleachers, doing fundraisers, building props, driving them to classes and rehearsals.  Then there was the money for costumes, lessons and competitions.  Through the years we experienced illnesses, surgeries, and psychiatrists.  We took every opportunity to take them to shows in town and go camping in the mountains—what great memories we have!  Our vacations to various locations were adventures to see and learn new things.

Our lives changed when our girls left for college.  Our house was suddenly quieter and we had a lot less money.  This is still the case.  We have returned to having no family here so our family is still our church family.  Our lives are simpler now and we have time to pursue our own interests.  I have come to appreciate how much my husband and I have in common—we enjoy many of the same things.  And life is still an adventure.