July 7

I woke up at 4am and couldn’t get back to sleep for a little while, so my first news of the morning was my dad texting me about the hiker who got killed by a grizzly in Yellowstone on the 5^th. I read the news later, and it was just a really unfortunate accident—the man and his wife accidentally surprised a grizzly sow with her cubs. I can’t imagine a more dangerous wildlife situation. They tried to back away but she charged the man and killed him, then “threw” the lady, but she played dead and the bear moved off. Such a tragedy…there hasn’t been a bear-caused death in the park since the ‘80s. I was glad to read that they were not planning on doing anything to the bear—from the DNA/fur, they knew she hadn’t ever caused trouble before and after all, she was just defending her cubs.

But the absolute craziest thing is that I was on parts of the same trail the day before. It’s pretty close to the South Rim…I didn’t see anything but a lone bison, but there were bear warnings on all of the trailhead boards. I just can’t even imagine. I definitely don’t feel like a wussy for carrying bear spray and using a bear bell now.

I got up for good around 800 and went to McDonald’s for breakfast. Ugh…I’d forgotten how greasy it was, but I needed to pick up something quick to get to the trailhead. I decided to hike Lake Goodwin/Jackson Peak, which is supposed to be a local easy-moderate favorite. I drove 13 miles out into the National Elk Refuge, but never saw any elk—only elk poop. The road made any put-in/take-out road that I ever shuttled from look smooth. It seemed to take forever to get to the trailhead.

When I got there, only one car was in the pull-in. Awesome. Another quiet, peaceful hike. Then I started climbing up through a field of wildflowers. I climbed and climbed…and the scenery changed to forest but still I climbed. Easy-moderate my ass. The whole 3 mile ascent, was just that—uphill, and not a gentle grade. I got in a rhythm and kept going, mostly because I wanted to see the Lake, but knowing that the grade would only get more intense, I more or less knew I wasn’t going the extra- 1000ft-gain-in-1-mile Jackson Peak. There were some gorgeous overlooks, and the sound of rushing water down the side of the mountain, though I never saw the river.

As I was nearing the lake, all of a sudden there was snow on the ground. First, small piles that I hiked over. Then longer stretches…thankfully whoever was in the one car at the bottom had already climbed and I just stayed in their footsteps. Finally, I came across a snow field that stretched as far as I could see up the mountain, and it was at least knee-deep. Trust me, I know. I tried to stay in the person’s tracks, but then I fell through and as I was catching myself with my arms, I stuck my left hand right into some sort of cactus-like thistley plant. So I spend the next 30 minutes picking spines out of my palm. First aid tweezers for the win! I got most of them out—the rest are deep. Finally I got up to reassess and started to get nauseous and dizzy (I think I overworked myself on the climb), so I uncovered some clean snow and ate that for a while until I felt better. I felt all “always prepared”. See, I think I could survive a zombie apocalypse!

I decided to call it a day and headed back down to the bottom. Not a bad 6 mile hike, and it was a gorgeous day. I drove back into Jackson to grab a huge iced tea, then, after spending a little more time with the tweezers, got on the road to Cody. The shortest route was back up through the Tetons and Yellowstone—soon after I went through the Yellowstone gate, I saw a mass of people and cars, which generally means an animal sighting. It was a moose! I didn’t stop, but I got to watch him for a few seconds as I waiting for the traffic to clear.

Leaving Yellowstone by the east entrance was awesome. You descend through some HUGE mountain passes, along winding roads. Exciting, but a little scary—you know I have the heights thingJ. I kept on the lookout for bears, since the signs kept warning, but I never saw any. After you get out of the mountains, you hit red rock country. It reminded me of Arizona and the Grand Canyon. Also, the Shoshone River is by your side the whole 50 miles into Cody. It’s amazing how it goes from a rushing snowmelt river to a wide lake at the dam. And as I was driving past the reservoir, it started to rain—and I saw a double rainbow. It was pretty cool—the trip has definitely been double-rainbow great so far.

I just drove through Cody quickly so I could settle down for the evening—and eat—but tomorrow, I’m planning to do an 830 tour to see the wild mustangs on Wyoming’s preserve. Then I think I’ll do some horseback riding of my own before going to see the “Nite Rodeo”.