This post has nothing at all to do with sailing (except missing it all week), so if you're only interested in sailing stories, skip this one. This one is about my trip to Jackson Hole, WY and visiting Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Parks... and it’s long!
Note: Pictures to be added soon...Last
Saturday, I flew into Jackson, WY via Denver from San Francisco and met my friend, Ron, who drove there from Sacramento. Ron and I met almost 20 years ago outside of Boston, where we both lived at the time, and we’ve been friends ever since. Interestingly enough, after several moves for both of us, we ended up living only two hours from each other on the other side of the country.
We were both pretty wiped out that first day—Ron from driving for 3+ days and me from getting up at 5am for my flight after three fairly sleepless but wonderful nights (another story for my close personal friends only!). We got some lunch in downtown Jackson at a Mexican place called
Merry Piglets (which was excellent!), bought groceries for our cabin in the Jackson Whole Grocer (an organic grocery story like Whole Foods—a wonderful surprise), and headed up to
Signal Mountain Lodge on Jackson Lake in
Grand Tetons National Park to check in to our "lakeside retreat".
The drive north into the park was incredible, but almost as soon as I arrived, it started to rain... and kept raining and snowing for days. The mountains were beautiful along the way (at least the lower half of them that we could see below the clouds) and promised us gorgeous vistas in future days... after the rain was done.
We checked in and immediately asked about renting kayaks and taking a float trip down the Snake River, but it turns out the lodge is only open for two more weeks before closing for the winter, and all of the boat concessions had already closed. We were bummed out, because one of the reasons we stayed there was so we could walk out our front door and get right out onto the lake. We actually can walk out our front door and be on the lake, but it will be mighty cold without a boat! That night we had dinner at the Deadman’s Bar, a restaurant at our lodge, and did lots of talking to catch up with each other’s lives.
Sunday, we got up early and, after a brief photo shoot at the top of Signal Mountain (bitter cold—20s—and very windy as well as rainy) and a quick stop to check out
Jackson Lake Lodge, the big, beautiful main lodge in the park, we headed up to
Yellowstone National Park, about 30 miles to the north. We figured if it was going to be cold and raining/snowing, we might as well see something from the car. And see we did... We saw some elk in a field off the side of the road, Old Faithful (the trusty old geyser that erupts at predictable intervals), and a bison up close and personal! We kept getting out of the car in the rain to take pictures of stuff, and we actually hiked around the other "little" geysers at the Old Faithful site for half a mile or so in the pouring rain.
It stopped raining for half an hour or so while we waited (along with about a thousand other tourists) for Old Faithful to erupt. It was a mob scene, but very civilized and fun. The people around us were friendly, and we all joked around while waiting for the eruption. It erupted for a full 4-5 minutes... very sexual!
After the eruption, we started up the road to see more of Yellowstone but decided that we couldn’t possibly see that park in a day (try a week or two), especially on such a rainy day— and now it was snowing—so we turned around and headed back to Grand Tetons. We tried to make last-minute dinner reservations at Jackson Lake Lodge, since we’d go right by it on our way back to the cabin, but we’d have had to wait a couple of hours for a table. So we ate at our lodge again—this time at Trapper’s Grill. I ventured far beyond my usual adventurousness and ate a bison burger... and it was great!
On
Monday, it rained again... big surprise. So we drove around the park a bit and looked at Jenny Lake and
Jenny Lake Lodge. We couldn’t figure out any reason they should charge $425-695/night, but whatever. We thought about eating at the restaurant there, but the average price for dinner was $169... per person!!! I actually put on my glasses to make sure I wasn’t reading that wrong. That was the price. Ron thought that included a bottle of wine, but I think it was just the food. Must have been some food...
After that, we went south toward town and visited the
National Museum of Wildlife Art, which was pretty interesting on a rainy day when we had nothing else to do. Ron fell asleep during the movie about the museum, so use your imagination.
Next we went into town. I was on a quest to buy elk an antler, which seems to be the big thing here. There are tons of things made from antlers (chairs, candlesticks, beds, doorways, door handles... you name it), but I wanted just a plain antler... and it had to be real, not one of those silly tourist antlers made in China! (In case you’re worried, rest assured that no animals are harmed in the process of obtaining antlers. They shed them every year and grow new ones.) I also needed to buy a carry-on suitcase. I’d packed my bag so full that I didn’t know if it would get here in one piece... and since I bought a few things here, I definitely needed more space for the trip home.
Ron loves to shop... not! I got him to shop with me long enough to find the antler and suitcase, and then we had to get a drink! We went into the
Million Dollar Cowboy Bar and had cocktails while sitting on real saddles atop barstools. I didn’t realize that ladies sit side-saddle until I noticed the cute girl next to me looking so, uh, lady-like on her saddle. So I changed my position and was much more comfortable!
After that, we walked around town a while more and tried to call Dave to get him to look at us on the live webcam in the town square, but he hadn’t received the link I sent him that morning. Darn it! It was pretty funny to see people walking around on that corner talking on cell phones saying "Can you see me now? Can you see me now?"
Dinner that night was at the
Gun Barrel Steak and Game House. The steak and prime rib were excellent! Nothing like eating beef in beef country!
Tuesday, the skies started to clear, so we decided to get out and hike finally. We started with an easy 3-miler from Colter Bay (the northern end of Jackson Lake) to Heron Pond and Swan Lake. Both the pond and the lake were covered with lily pads. We got pretty befuddled about which way to go a couple of times, extending the hike to about 4.5 miles. It was a pretty walk but nothing to write home about.
Next, we headed south to Oxbow Bend. We’d seen spectacular pictures of fall foliage and reflections at that bend in the Snake River and wanted to do the short 1-mile hike that would give us those views. When we got there, we realized that the livestock bridge we were supposed to cross to start the hike was gone, so we couldn’t get across the river to the side with the pretty views. We hung around for a while with some other would-be hikers, shot a few pictures, and watched a couple of beautiful white birds surveying the river for their dinner. One caught a fish at one point but dropped it as he flew off.
That night we decided to eat at Jackson Lake Lodge, since we weren’t able to get in on Sunday. It was really fantastic food and we ended up with a really fantastic bill! I had Alaskan butterfish, and Ron had elk loin medallions. Think about it... What do you suppose elk loin medallions really are? :-) We saw a gorgeous sunset over the Tetons from our table and had an interesting conversation with our excellent waitress, who is in the process of getting two or three graduate degrees. So it was all worth it.
Wednesday brought us lovely weather. We decided to each do our own thing that day, since Ron wanted to climb Signal Mountain and I didn’t. I decided to go down and explore Jenny Lake. I just had to see what all the commotion was about down there... why it was so expensive... er, exclusive. (I still haven’t figured it out.) I hiked half way around Jenny Lake and part way up the trail to Inspiration Point and Cascade Falls, and then took the 10-minute shuttle boat back to my starting point for a mere $5. Later on, I spent some time looking through the pictures I’d shot so far, met up with Ron when he returned from his hike, and ate at the Dead Man’s Bar again... another bison burger for me and elk chili for Ron. We’ve been pretty adventurous with our food!
Thursday was the best weather of the week. The temperatures were well above 40° F... might have even reached 60° F in the sun at times, as long as there was no wind. It was quite a nice day for hiking. Ron actually drove up to the top of Signal Mountain before dawn (while I slept) and shot some awesome pictures of the Tetons at dawn.
Around mid-morning, a couple of hours after his return, I dropped Ron off at the southern point of Jenny Lake, where I’d been the day before, and he took the shuttle boat across and hiked up Cascade Falls, Inspiration Point, and went on to hike through Cascade Canyon. Ron wanted to do that hike after talking with a guy we met in the bar the night before who had done a 17-mile round-trip through Cascade Canyon and on to Lake Solitude. 17 miles was too far for either of us, but Ron really wanted to get into the mountains, so he went off to hike the canyon.
After dropping off Ron, I went up to the northern point of Jenny Lake and did the String Lake Loop trail, which was absolutely gorgeous! It was a gradual uphill hike for the first half, putting me right in the middle of a huge field of aspen and cottonwood trees, all bright yellow. I got some good shots of the lake and mountains with the yellow trees in the foreground. I think String Lake is the prettiest lake of them all so far.
When I finished my hike, I had a couple of hours to kill before picking up Ron, so I went to the Jenny Lake Lodge with my computer and memory cards from my cameras and asked if I could sit in their
empty lounge area and use their internet. I was told in no uncertain terms that their internet is for guests only. I don’t know what I was thinking. I should have just walked in as if I owned the place and just sat down and done my thing. Oh well... Who wants to sit around with a bunch of snooty people anyway?
So I drove the 20 minutes back to Signal Lake Lodge, fiddled with my pictures, sent some email, and then drove the 20 minutes back to Jenny Lake to pick up Ron. He was wiped out! He’d done about 10 miles of hiking, some of it straight uphill... and he told me about a narrow rock ledge he had to cross. I wouldn’t have liked that at all.
We headed back to our cabin, chatted for a while, and then went to the Dead Man’s Bar for dinner... again. We’re regulars there now. We actually like quite a few things on the menu, not the least of which is their sweet potato fries. Mmmm...
Friday was a great day. We started out with breakfast in the cafe at Jackson Lake Lodge, which was excellent and not expensive! We sat at a counter and talked with the woman sitting next to us. It turned out her husband was about to give a talk at the energy conservation conference taking place in the hotel. Senators and congresspeople from all over the US were there, along with companies and organizations for and against (if you can believe that) energy conservation. We thought that would be pretty interesting, so we asked the organizers if we could stand in the back and listen, and they said yes!
The talk was about producing energy from oxy-coal and was, indeed, interesting. Throughout the whole talk, I kept thinking that this guy could really benefit by incorporating
Google Earth into his presentation. The wow factor of Google Earth really helps dry talks like this make more of an impact. After the talk, I went up to the wife of the man who gave the talk and gave her my business card and asked her to give it to her husband and let him know that I can help him get into a free program at Google Earth that could help him get his message across. Of course, I hope to get some consulting work out of it. Nothing wrong with doing a little biznez on the road.
After that, we headed over to the horse corral to start our first hike of the day... a short one out to Christian Pond. After about half a mile of walking through horse crap on a really skinny trail, we arrived at the top of a hill overlooking Christian Pond. There were supposed to be swans and lots of other waterfowl there, but there was nada. We hung out at the top of the hill for about 10 minutes, and I was ready to leave. I wanted to head back to the car and head south to our next hiking destination, Lower Slide Lake. Ron had heard from a fellow hiker there were lots of buffalo out there, and we hadn’t seen enough wildlife in our travels, so I was anxious to get down there and see what we could find. But Ron was enjoying nature, so I left him there and headed back to the corral, watched the horses for a while, tried calling Emily but didn’t get a strong enough signal, text messaged Dave, and just waited.
Ron came back soon enough, and we headed down to Kelly, a town on the eastern outskirts of Grand Tetons National Park. We went through one "town" on the way that had a house that was the center of town and maybe 5 other houses in the area. I think the population must have been under 20! We got to Kelly, which wasn’t much bigger, and continued on the road out to the slide.
Lower Slide Lake was named after the landslide that created it. In 1925, an entire section of the mountain above the river slid down the mountain and took tons (literally) of boulders with it. Eyewitnesses (those who lived through it) reported that the side of the mountain slid down into the river and continued up the side of the mountain on the other side! In a matter of minutes, the river was dammed by tons of boulders, and Lower Slide Lake was formed. It's still an awesome sight!
Many of the trees and shrubs came down with the boulders, and many of them lived but grew sideways. Instead of sections of similar plants growing together, they were "transplanted" wherever they landed. So now you see a large mix of plants and trees wherever you look. The forestry service did a great job of adding interpretive signs to identify the plants in the area.
The drive down into the valley was beautiful, but the drive back, with all of the bright yellow aspins and the Tetons in the background was truly awesome. That is a beautiful area that is largely untouched and untravelled.
We got back to Signal Mountain Lodge in the late afternoon, each played with our photographs and other stuff, and eventually went to dinner at Peaks, the "nice" restaurant at our lodge. I had delicious trout, and Ron had buffalo medallions. (Guess he likes those butt cheeks. :-) )
After dinner, I started packing and realized that the antler I’d bought didn’t fit in my biggest suitcase. It never occurred to me to check until I was packing. Arrrggggg.... So I called United to ask if I could bring it on the plane as carry-on. I got someone in India, who had no idea what antlers or elk are. I spelled it for him and told him to look it up. After "consulting with his associates", he told me I would have to package and check in the antler as baggage. It was 11pm, and I had no way to do any packaging, so I reluctantly opted to have Ron take the antler home with him, since he was driving. I resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn’t be able to give this cool gift to Dave when he picked me up at the airport. Bummer...
On
Saturday morning, we got up bright and early... uh, dark and early (5:45am) and headed to the airport. On the way, Ron encouraged me to take the antler in and ask a security person if there was any way I could bring it with me. He pointed out that lots of people must bring them back from Jackson, since they’re such a prominent thing in the area. He said he’d wait for me outside, and if they refuse, I could always bring it back out to the car, so I decided to take his advice and give it a try. I asked a TSA supervisor, and she said yes! She called the supervisor at the security checkpoint and let her know I’d be coming through. Cool beans.
Just then, Ron showed up with my bags, and we both went to the check-in kiosk to check in my bags. At that point, I was in good shape, I thought, so Ron took off to start his 1300-mile drive home. Checking my bags went fairly smoothly, and then I got in the LOOOONNNNNGGGGG security line. This tiny little airport had three large, jam-packed flights all leaving at 7:40am and only one security line. By now it was 7:20, and I heard the announcement that my flight was boarding.
I got through the line at 7:35 and thought I was going to make it, but they pulled aside my antler (which was now loosely wrapped in my filthy jeans and then in a large paper shopping bag) and called the supervisor over. Fortunately, she was the one who had gotten the call about the antler, so she was ready. I told her my flight would be leaving in 5 minutes and asked if I could just take it like that. She said "Oh no, we need to wrap this better" and went off to help another customer! I kept reminding her that my flight was leaving in 3 minutes, but she just told me I needed to calm down. Hm. Eventually, she rewrapped my jeans around the antler and taped them together with certified TSA security tape and then wrapped the paper bag around that and taped that. I’m sure no one could get that antler out now, and certainly no one could be hurt with it. Sure, uh-ha. Amazing.
At 7:45 (5 minutes after my flight’s scheduled departure), I raced to the gate and made it onto the plane! I stored the wrapped and taped antler in the overhead bin, and finally sat down and took a deep breath. I was headed home...
But things got confused, and we ended up with two crews in two separate boats. I was in Fran's boat that's docked in Alameda—a 30' Hunter that was a great boat—along with Fran, Sandi, Dave, Michael, and Fran's friend Russell. Russell has at least a million years of experience sailing all over the world and knows everything there is to know about the bay, the Blue Angels, and just about anything else you might want to ask!
on time at 10:30am and tooled around the bay for a couple of hours, trying to meet up with the SF boat our friends were on at Blossom Rock. After much ado, we did find them, but they didn't seem to want to sail in formation with us. So we went out the Golden Gate and back, up toward Angel Island, and finally settled in near Alcatraz to watch the show... along with thousands of other boats!
the show, there was a mass exodus like leaving a concert at Shoreline! And Russell decided that was the perfect moment for us the fly the shoot! Oh my... Without giving us novices any instruction beforehand, he just took the spinnaker up on deck and starting rigging it and shouting instructions at us... and not the clearest instructions, I might add. Sandi and I had no experience flying a spinnaker, but we did our best and got it raised. Dave was ably driving the boat, even though he had no experience with it either. Once the shoot was up, we were flying on a beam reach, hitting 8+ knots consistently with bursts of up to 10 knots. 
It was a great ride!
