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May 31, 2007
Notes From Afield
While at present I'm on the third day (Sigh.) of a 9-day stretch of 12-hour shifts (Gasp!) in which I try to wrangle the ever-moving-never-ending Yellowstone tourist season (Oy.), my days off work were nothing but lovely peacefulness and abundant outdoor activity (True 'dat.). Here are some notes from the field:
Note #1: Spring Has Sprung
It was Friday evening, and my sweetie, my dog, and I were on a leisurely later evening run. As we returned towards the trailhead, I stole glances at the high hillsides around us, which were bathed in red and orange light by the finally setting sun. Though they were all absolutely beautiful, one hillside caught my eye as it was brimful with thousands of some sort of vibrant yellow sunflower. There were flowers everywhere! Had I tried to tromp and trapse over the hillside, I would have needed to push flowers out of the way. We had to stop running for a minute or two to pay homage to the display.
Note #2: A Slight Impalement
It was Saturday afternoon and, again, my sweetie, my dog, and I were near the end of a run. We were running downhill at a moderate clip, through a sun-shaded forest, crossing back and forth over a small creek, on a rutted, rocky, and technical trail, in wild animal country. My sensory systems were on near-overload while trying to process an overabundance of incoming information. Because the trail was technical, I had to plant each foot deliberately. The forest canopy shaded most of the canyon, but the sun poked through here and there, and the mosaic of shadow and sun challenged my eyes. We were running through perfect bear and moose country, and I felt compelled to scan my surroundings for wild animals as we moved. It was challenging to keep up with it all!
At one point, there was a big stick poking out into the trail about 18 inches off the ground. I saw it, but it all happened so fast. My dog was running right in front of me, and who knows if she ever saw what hit her. Regardless, June ran straight into the stick with her chest, let out a terrifying yelp, and collapsed to the ground. I made some crazy move to jump over the now unmoving dog, just barely missing her. I returned to her and began looking her over. She layed there panting, letting me examine her. After a minute or two, my sweetie and I determined that there was no bleeding, no hole in her chest, and no other indication that she had run into a stick rather hard. In fact, as soon as we stopped touching her, she got up, shook off, and started running down the trail!
As a side note, when my dog was up and moving again, I then turned my attention to the pain I felt on my shin. While making that crazy move to avoid stepping on my dog, I managed to give myself a 3-inch cut and some abrasion rasberries on my shin. I think I looked really cool when we arrived back and the trailhead and I had a big cut with a bunch of dried blood mixed with trail dirt on my shin.
Note #3: Mountaintop Musings
Sunday was an absolutely beautiful day in the Big Hole Mountains. The Big Hole Mountains, located in eastern Idaho, are the slightly less impressive massif of high country located directly west of the more famous and taller Teton Mountains. Even though the Big Hole Mountains lie in the shadow of the Tetons, they are some decent mountains. The highest point in the range lies just over 3000 vertical feet above the range's base. By now, most of the snow has melted out of these mountains, making high(er) elevations quite accessible in the still early season.
My sweetie and I did and out-and-back to the top of Garns Mountain, one of the Big Hole Mountains' high points, which stands at just a few feet above 9000 feet elevation. I'm not quite sure where treeline is in these mountains, but it sure must be close to 9000 feet. Atop Garns Mountain, open meadows are only briefly punctuated by small stands of pine forest.
As we climbed the highest flanks of Garns, a tiny weather squall passed over us, bearing some gray clouds and a few rain drops. As we reached the summit, the sun had returned and we had an outstanding 360 degree view of the world. To be honest, I am too unfamiliar with the geography of this area to recognize everything that we could see. I recognized the ever-looming Teton Mountains to the east. To the west, the shiny buildings of the town of Idaho Falls stuck out from the otherwise more natural terrain. To the southwest, the Snake River snaked its way through the what appeared to be a luxuriously lush, green valley.
To our surprise and delight, the summit was covered with ladybugs! Literally, nearly every rock and patch of grass housed clumps of these cute red and black beetles! I have previously seen ladybugs congregate on mountain tops, and I have heard some explanations about why this occurs, but I don't quite understand this phenomenon. I have heard that during the late spring and early summer, ladybugs migrate to high(er) elevation areas to feed. I have also heard that cooler weather ilicits this "clumping" behavior, as the ladybugs hang out close together to conserve body heat until the weather improves. Despite not understanding what was happening, I felt lucky to glimpse all these beauties and I tried hard not to step on any of them!
Things became briefly nerve-wracking as we descended from the summit of Garns Mountain. We left the summit as soon as we saw another rapidly approaching squall line of dark gray clouds. We were probably about 200-300 vertical feet below the summit, in an open meadow, when the weather arrived with a bang. This squall was more serious than the first one, and we were quickly in the middle of a regular thunderstorm. I felt like the perfect lightning rod there in the middle of an open meadow, near the top of a mountain, holding a metal can of bear spray (which I always carry on these types of runs). You should have seen me sprint and jump and flail and fly downhill through that meadow! I began to feel somewhat more safe once we had descended another 500 or so vertical feet, but the crackling thunder around me kept the adrenaline pumping at full force. Part of the descent involved crossing an exposed ridgeline, so we waited out the weather for a bit, until it was safer to do so. Once we dropped into the long canyon that would eventually return us to the trailhead, I felt much better!
Note #4: Almost The Snow Queen
On Tuesday, I ran in and near the Snow King Ski Resort, which is located in the heart of Jackson, WY. It was an absolutely cool but clear gorgeous mid-morning when I arrived at the base of the mountain, as evidenced by the abundance of locals and tourists recreating. The trail from the base of the ski resort to the top of the highest chairlift is about 2.3 miles long with about 1600 vertical feet elevation gain. The trail switchbacks up at a tough grade the whole way, but the surface is wide and well-worn.
A hill climb race is held on this trail every year. I don't know what the men's and women's records are, but I know my sweetie's fastest time is somewhere around 22 minutes for this route. It took me just under 32 minutes to make the climb, so I guess that doesn't quite make me the Snow Queen. I have two excuses for my time: 1) I was tired from the weekend's endeavorings; and 2) I stopped twice along the way and didn't click off my watch (I stopped once to fend off an uncontrolled dog until the owner could catch it. I stopped a second time because I encountered 2 men hiking with a dog that was carrying a water bottle in its mouth. I found this adorable and fascinating, so I had to have a look!). In all seriousness, this was a great climb. When I reached the top, there was a man there who congratulated me and told me he watched me climb up while he was riding the chairlift. That was nice of him!
From the top of the chairlift, I went up a bit more to the actual mountain summit because, well, I just had to. Next, I ran for about 6 miles on some of the coolest, smoothest, well-graded, perfect trails I have ever run on. Plus, the mountain scenery and the fields full of wildflowers were astounding. If I lived in Jackson, I would be one spoiled girl with these trails! The trails descended and played around the back of Snow King Mountain. Surprisingly, I didn't see a single human footprint on the trail; all the prints were that of mountain bike tires (Also, I only saw bikers back there, no other pedestrians.). I could have played around back there all day, but, sadly, I had to go home and go to work!
Note #5: The End
Life is just too damn good.
Posted by Meghan at May 31, 2007 12:19 PM
Comments
Wow, Life Is Good! It sounds like a wonderful time away from it all...keep it in your mind during this long stretch of work. Come back and read your post to remind you of how great it was.
Posted by: backofpack at May 31, 2007 6:41 PM
Meghan said: third day (Sigh.) of a 9-day stretch of 12-hour shifts (Gasp!)
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YIKES!! some long days True dat'--haha OK well maybe not the True dat' that u meant --LOLOL
Life is Good & BIG Positive ENERGY being sent ur way for the rest of the 9 day stretch:-)
Posted by: Bob G at June 1, 2007 10:51 AM
What adventures! Very greatly inspiring to leave it all behind and just venture...yeah, wishful thinking:) Hang in there on your shifts, these days like you describe are always back soon!
Posted by: olga at June 1, 2007 3:01 PM
Sounds like a great time. Living a dream, for sure.
Posted by: JeffO at June 1, 2007 4:45 PM
Ouch! The 3 inch cut on your shin sounds pretty painful. June's reaction to her slight impalement reminds me of a time a few years ago when Bonnie ran into my hiking pole. She screamed like she was mortally wounded, and I also thought she had been impaled, but I could not find any evidence of contact. : )
Posted by: cathy at June 1, 2007 9:08 PM
oh, COOL! On my map, the top of Garns Mountain is just a little bit east of Blacktail Pass and Castle Lake, as seen in these pictures:
http://www.timpany.com/weblog/2005/10/valley-of-thousand-springs.html
We will have to put this all together one day.
And I love the description of the Friday evening flowers at sunset. Ahhhhh.....
And the Snow King trails sound fantastic! Great idea! I am inspired, need to go try that out one of these days :)
Fun updates! Hopefully the sun and fun and flowers and ladybugs are enough to hold you over thru the nine days... egh...
Thought of you as we zipped thru the park last weekend, though we were on the grand loop and I was thinking you are up on the northern end of the park. the crowds weren't as bad as I thought they were going to be for a holiday weekend but I am sure they are keeping you hopping!
Posted by: anne at June 1, 2007 10:13 PM
With the exception of your work schedule this all sounds wonderful. Gots to pay the bills though! I remember camping years ago and two dogs were running full speed playing with each other. The lead dog went flying down a trail and nailed a log similar to the one your dog hit from your description. Same thing happened. The dog let out a big series of yelps and just laid there. The owner expected the worse but after a while the dog got up and seemed no worse for wear. Dogs are tough like trail runners!
Enjoy your time with the tourists!
Posted by: Eric at June 1, 2007 10:42 PM