A Spectacular Weekend in the Tetons

 

I've had a few weekends this past week... Although not the Saturday/Sunday kind.  I had one of my weekends on Wednesday and Thursday which was the best one by far!  Then I had a quasi day off on Saturday and Sunday although I technically worked both.  And now, I have Monday and Tuesday off!  Although this is weird as well because the weather forecast is for rain both days.  I was hoping to get out into Yellowstone to explore but that may have to wait a bit.

 

I work the night shift now.  That means its absolutely normal for me to be sitting up this late at night blogging, right?  Also totally normal for me to be sitting in the middle of a hotel lobby taking advantage of free wifi, right?  Wrong.  It's really weird.  And totally abnormal but I'm pretending that its okay because I have no other choice. 

 

 The picture up above is my newest purchase.  I went into Jackson on Wednesday and bought hiking shoes!  I had no idea what I was really looking for in a pair of hiking shoes but I tried on a lot of them and decided to take the advice of the helpful man at the store.  He heard what I told him about the kind of hiking I would be doing and the location of my hikes and suggested I try the pair he brought up from the secret shoe cache.  Even though I wasn't a fan of the color, he pointed out that comfort is most important and also that there hopefully wouldn't be many people out on the trail in the first place to see my shoes or care about the color of them. 

His advice turned out to be right and it allowed me to experience one of the best hikes I've had in a long time.  I had heard a lot of people recommend the trails around Jenny Lake.  I decided to hike up to Hidden Falls and Inspiration point.  However, that turned out to be much more of a feat than prior hikers in the area because a section of the trail was closed due to some type of landslide and the reconstruction of the trail.  So I had to make my way back down and all the way around to see Inspiration Point.  After a quick break for food and water and an absolutely gorgeous view, I decided I wasn't quite done hiking yet for the day.  

 

  I retraced my steps to the string lake trail and considered my options.  The decision was clear to me - leave the crowds of people behind and continue on to see some of the more beautiful lakes in the park.  I hiked around the west side of Jenny Lake and took the trail around to the east side of String Lake.  The water was so inviting!  Clear, blue, cold, and sparkling.  I had to take my shoes and socks off and wade in water.  It was cold but so refreshing!  I also couldn't have asked for a better view.

 

 I wanted so badly to continue on to Leigh Lake but I was running out of daylight and energy and decided to turn around before I regretted not doing so.  I knew I still had 3 more miles left to travel and I didn't want to short change that portion of trail.  Turns out that was a good decision.  I was hiking alone and the sign at the beginning of the 3 miles Jenny Lake stretch warned of bear attacks.  I decided to pull out my phone and play some loud music to scare away wildlife.  The first song that came on was Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off"... apparently the wildlife like that song as much as I do!  I rounded a corner in the trail and some elk were standing in the middle of the path grazing.  When they heard me, instead of running off like I had hoped, they simply looked at me with interest and curiosity!  I imagined they had never heard Taylor Swift before and were considering sticking around to hear the rest of the song!  Eventually they did run off but only after I yelled at them and made more noise.

 

I was absolutely exhausted after my hike but my soul was refreshed.  When I got home I calculated the length of the route that I traveled.  As it turns out, I went 11.1 miles!!  I was proud of myself.  And excited by the fact that my new shoes were so comfortable!  I didn't get any blisters and I had really good traction on the trail.  It was a good day.

 

 (below: String Lake trail looking back toward Inspiration Point)

 

 

 (below: river section connecting String Lake and Jenny Lake)

 

Keep reading, I had a lot more pictures than I did words in this blog.....

 

 

Tonight I researched restaurants in West Yellowstone.  My friend Bonnie recommended an Italian place called Serenity.  It looked good and was open late so I decided to check it out.  It was totally worth it!   I had feta, basil, and sun dried tomato crostini as an appetizer, butternut squash ravioli with brown butter, cinnamon, and walnut glaze, and salted caramel crème brulee for dessert. 

You'll have to check out the picture of my dessert below.  It didn't look like crème brulee to me but it tasted great so I didn't question it.  Maybe they made the dessert differently in some parts of Italy?  Or Montana? 

OH!  I visited another state!  I'm in Montana right now, not Wyoming.  Its pretty neat that I can drive 45 minutes and be in a totally different state.

I hope to find a place closer by my house with wifi so I don't have to poach it from places in town. 

My inspirational quote for the night is, "Life's short.  Eat Dinner for Breakfast."  ;)

I'll let you know how it works out for me...

Fun Stress

 

There's so much to do and so little time!!!  So much that its stressing me out.  I'm only here in Jackson for another couple of days, yet so much of the town and the park remain unexplored...  On Saturday I drive to Yellowstone.  I'm going to be much more isolated there than I am here and I won't have a Starbucks to sit in and write blogs.  However, I will still find ways to post here whenever I can.

 

Last weekend I went hiking up a place called Avalanche Canyon in Grand Teton NP.  It was one of the most beautiful hikes I've ever done and so I posted a million pictures and bragged about it despite the fact that it was also the worst hike of my life.

 90% of the trail wasn't even a real, park designated trail.  It was what we rangers call a social trail.  That means it wasn't well marked and one can easily find themselves lost if not careful.  Well, apparently, we weren't careful enough.  We tried to follow the rock cairns by the side of the trail but there weren't nearly enough of them and all the fallen trees laid across the trail from the previous season's avalanches made it hard to relocate the dirt path we were trying to follow. 

Another thing that made the hike difficult was several boulder fields over which we had to scramble and in which there wasn't any hint of a trail.  So a lot of that involved guess work and keen observation skills both up and down the mountain. 

We hiked for about 8 hours round trip.  We went up to 9,000 feet elevation where the air is more rare than it already is here and the rocks were loose enough that one wrong step could send you slipping and sliding all the way back down the mountain side!

The part of the trail that we could see was also covered by brush and sticks and pokey things that tended to slap at my legs as I walked by so that when we were done I was bleeding and scratched.

All in all, I would say that's not something I plan to spend a lot of time doing in the near future.  Although it was extremely beautiful, and there were no other people on the trail the whole day, I think I'll plan to stick with the more well-traveled paths while I'm here.  I'd like the opportunity to finish my training in one piece and to explore other parts of the park and the world in the coming weeks/months.

 

Above is the waterfall we hiked to.  I forget the name of it again...   Something like Shoshobe Falls I think.  Anyway, it was a nice reward at the end of the hike and a nice place to sit and rest before beginning the hike back home.

Today I made it into Jackson again.  This town is really neat.  It's got an old western type feel with a modern twist.  There are a lot of green spaces and parks.  The main park has 4 giant arches each made out of collected antlers!  I had my picture taken in front of one just to play tourist.

For the rest of my afternoon I'm hoping to visit a thrift shop recommended by a friend here.  Apparently its got a lot of really nice clothes donated by rich people who bought them at full price, wore them once or not at all, and then donated them because they bought the next newest item and had no need for the "old" item.

I also need hiking boots and maybe a souvenir t-shirt.  We'll see what I can find.

Tomorrow the plan is to actually wake up early enough to hike Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point/Jenny Lake.  Its a hike I've been wanting to do since day 1.  Also one I need to do before I leave for Yellowstone!  Once I get to my new park home I'm sure there will be many more hikes to add to my list. 

OH! One more comment before I finish here... The night sky here is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! Its unlike anything I've ever seen before being from the East coast with all its light pollution.  Here, with no lights and a new moon, the stars are brilliant and brighter than I've ever known possible.  No picture with a man-made camera could ever do it justice.  The constellations jump out to me and the stars twinkle just like in the children's song.  I've seen shooting stars and what I believe to be the Milky Way, although I'm no expert for sure...  The long moments I've spent standing out staring up at the sky with my jaw dropped in wonder re-affirmed to me the presence and proof of God and the fact that I daily underestimate Him and His power.  Its nice to feel small sometimes.

Grand Teton National Park Hike 1: Taggart Lake/Bradley Lake

 This evening I am enjoying sitting in Starbucks using their wifi, drinking hot chocolate, and staying out of the rain that has been falling all day.  This exact scenario has been playing in my mind since approximately 2.5 miles before my hike was finished this morning.  It was a great hike, don't get me wrong!  But I was cold and muddy by the end and had been walking in the rain for the past 2 hours.  While rejuvenating for the spirit and body, I was also ready for a hot shower when I finished. 

 Almost immediately after I started walking the trail, I heard a noise that sounded like a waterfall close by.  This was a surprise because there wasn't one marked on the map and nobody had mentioned one to me when they were describing the hike before I went!  But sure enough, I walked around a corner and the trail went right over top of the river/mini waterfall I have pictured above.  I also found it to be a perfect photo op because right at the top, peaking above the river between the trees was the summit of a mountain! It was the first beautiful thing I saw in a series of beautiful scenes throughout the hike.

 The next really cool thing was seeing my first pine marten (martin?)!!  I'm not sure how to spell it but this super cute, ferret-like animal suddenly appeared on the trail in front of me.  When it saw me, it froze, unsure of what to do next and certainly frightened that it had been spotted.  After a moment, it squeaked and darted off into the plants.  The cutest part was that it then darted up the tree next to me until it was at about eye level and turned to look at me again!  This whole time it was squeaking and making pine marten type noises which I realized were communications with its friend around the corner.  After I took a picture, I decided to leave them alone and continue down the trail.   





My path took me around two separate lakes.  The first was Taggart Lake and the second was Bradley Lake.  As I came up the trail near Bradley Lake and took out my map to check my location, a man came out of the trees above me and said hello!  It startled me but he turned out to be friendly.  He began telling me (without me asking, by the way) all about mushrooms in the park and how he was hunting for a certain species that grows out here in the west that work very well in cooking.  I learned that all mushrooms with a sponge-like pattern underneath, NOT an accordion fold like in portabella mushrooms, are edible.  After he finished his mushroom lecture, he gave me some good suggestions for other trails to hike later.

 

There are so many trails located very close to my house!  I want to hike them all.  The small amount of time I have to hike them in, though, is a bit frustrating.  But I shall try my very best!  Today was a refreshing day in nature.  I don't miss Georgia one BIT!  Only the people that shared it with me.....

Route 66 deja vu?

 I don't know what you all have been doing with yourselves since the last time we talked but I drove from the east coast to the west (almost coast) for the second time this year!  Who would have guessed that my life would take me to so many different places in such a short time?  I certainly wasn't expecting a second 2,200 mile drive in 2015.  But hey, I'm not complaining.  I've got a pretty amazing life right now!

Because of the route I took west, I have a few new states to add to my list of those visited which I started a couple posts ago.  They are: Kentucky, Iowa, Nebraska, and Wyoming.  I've never been to any of them before and most of them I want to go back to for another visit one day.  Nebraska would be the only one I don't wish to re-visit.  I literally thanked God while driving through it that I was not born in that corn-filled windy state.  However, I did get a cool selfie with a bison out of it... so I guess its not all bad.

When I got to Wyoming it was much the same as Nebraska at first.  In fact, it was so empty it reminded me of the moon.  But as we kept driving, the landscape changed quite drastically to red rock cliffs, blue mesa-esque mountain sides (like what Danielle and I saw in the Petrified Forest NP), and crystalline rivers flowing by the side of the highway.  The red rock cliffs reminded me of Arizona along Route 66.  It was all I could do to stay on the road.  All I wanted to do was take pictures and stare out the window at the landscape!

 

 The absolute best part of the drive was arriving at Grand Teton National Park!  After such a long time on the road and spending 4 nights at different hotels, I was ready to be settled for a bit.  Getting out of the car for the first time was amazing.  The weather was cool, the air felt crisp, and the elevation made me dizzy for a while.  I'm still getting adjusted to it.  Bonnie (my traveling partner) and I had to stop and take pictures because we were so excited to finally be at our destination! 

 

The next best news was when I learned where I would be staying for the next three weeks.  I have a little cabin all to myself (not pictured here) at the foot of the Teton mountains!  The first few days were pretty smoky so the view wasn't great but since then it has gotten clearer.  The clearer the air, the closer the mountains appear.  I am already in love with this park and I'm having an amazing time working here.  I wake up every day excited to go to work and to see what adventures I will experience.  It has been quite a while since I've felt that way and I want to hold on to that feeling as long as possible.

I'm Still Here.... Literally

Here's just a quick update to fill in a few gaps and get back in the blogging spirit.  It has been a really long time since the last post I wrote but that's a good thing because it means I haven't been bored.  Also, now that I'm writing again, it means I'm coming to the end of my time in Georgia.  Believe me, I couldn't be more ready!  Florida and Georgia have been very welcoming states.  However, I've come to the conclusion that they are largely inhospitable to human life during the summer months.  It is HOT down here which to me means its unsustainable and unhealthy.   

Despite the heat and humidity, one of my favorite experiences this summer was visiting Disney World over the 4th of July!  I met my friend at the All Star Music Resort and we spent the weekend at several of the theme parks re-discovering the magical world I haven't been to since High School! I had flashbacks while I was on some of the rides to when I was there with my marching band friends.  Good times :)

While we were there, we got to watch fireworks twice.  Once in front of Cinderella's castle at Magic Kingdom and once from the second floor deck of a Japanese restaurant in Epcot.  Bad weather almost cancelled both events but Disney pushed through and was able to have the show go on despite the challenges.  

In addition to Disney World, I have also taken time to visit the NPS National Historic Site right down the road from where I am living.  Fort Frederica is a small park but it is beautiful and has a lot of interesting history surrounding the area.  It's loosely connected to another fort in St. Augustine, FL that Bonnie and I tried to visit but were unable to because we got there right as it was closing for the day.     

 St. Augustine had been built up over and over in our minds by other people into a fantastic little town that simply MUST be visited if you're living anywhere near it!  Well, lets just say that it didn't quite live up to our expectations.  Maybe we didn't see the right parts.  Maybe it was because the weather was too hot.  For whatever reason, it just didn't float our boat.

Quite the opposite, however, is a place called Fernandina Beach.  So far I have visited twice.  Once for my birthday and once before that too.  The beach is the best one I think I've ever been to and the town is charming with lots of restaurants and shops to explore.  I know I will be going back there one more time before leaving Georgia and beginning my drive north and west into the winter season.

A couple weeks back, I learned where I'll be going for the next 11 weeks of training and for my next blog-able adventure.... In just 2 weeks Bonnie and I depart for Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Believe me.  It's worth every single one of those exclamation points, and probably more than that too.  I am dreaming already of long hikes in the woods and breathtaking scenery.  Of geysers and snow capped mountains.  Of elk and bears and wolves howling at night.  I've got visions of sugarplums dancing in my head....

The sunset to the left was one viewed from my front porch earlier this summer.  Now, its symbolizing the end of one phase of life and the hope of a new beginning coming soon.

Stay tuned because I have a full week of driving coming up!  It'll feel like I'm back out on Route 66 all over again heading west for the second time.

Sleepless in Savannah

 

This past weekend was a very busy one.  It might not have been quite "sleepless" but I definitely feel the lack of energy so far this week.  Anyway, it was totally worth it! I feel like this was my first real opportunity to get off campus and explore the surrounding areas in Georgia.  Friday night was awesome because some of my girl friends and I went to see Pitch Perfect 2.  It was just as funny as the first one and therefore totally worth the crazy movie ticket prices.

 

On Saturday I signed up for a FLETC sponsored kayaking trip down the Altamaha River which is the biggest river in the local area.  We kayaked 9 miles one way, stopping in the middle for lunch on a sand bar.  Mosquitos and sunburn were plentiful as well as rumors of alligators - although we never saw one of those.  Several of my classmates went on the trip and we had a ton of fun!  After lunch a strong head wind hit and it was quite a struggle to paddle up river to the bridge where we were to disembark.  Our "lazy, effortless" float down the river turned into quite the arm workout...                   (in the picture is me and my suitemate, Bonnie)

On Sunday, I got up early again and drove into Savannah, GA with a different group of my friends from class.  One of them used to be a History teacher so he agreed to do research and prepare a tour of the city for us!  We were so lucky to have him do that for us because it was free and very informative.  He recommended an amazing place to have breakfast before the tour and then we spent the rest of the day walking around the city and learning about its history. 

 

I enjoy eating at restaurants off campus over the weekend.  It helps keep my palate sane.  The food here is terrible so eating out is important whenever the opportunity presents itself.  I had something totally different for breakfast in Savannah - a sweet omelet.  It was like an apple pie folded up inside egg.  There were sliced apples in a cinnamon sugar sauce with cheddar cheese mixed in.  Surprisingly yummmm!   

 



 

Above is a picture of one of the town squares.  This one is where they filmed Forrest Gump.  The famous bench has been taken down to reduce traffic congestion but this is also a good example of all the green space sprinkled throughout the city. 

 

Above is a picture inside Savannah's main graveyard.  The head stones stapled to the far back wall are there because the city planners couldn't figure out what graves they belonged to.  After the Yellow Fever epidemic this cemetery became a mass burial site.  There are many more bodies buried in the cemetery than there are grave stones.  Another reason for the confusion is that the Union soldiers who camped out in the grave yard at one point and defaced many of the stones.

  The tile/mosaic pattern below shows "A View of Savannah in the Year 1734".  It's hard to tell but the city is laid out in a very methodical, square, organized pattern.  City planners come from all over to study its layout because there is so little traffic congestion and tons of green space.

Also on the tour were several historical buildings including the Savannah College of Art and Design and a gorgeous cathedral named after a saint who's name is escaping me at the moment...

I'm so glad I got a chance to visit these new places and to have fun with my new friends.  It's crazy to think that I've already been down here for 1 month!  Time is flying by and I'm going to miss these crazy people when August rolls around.  Fortunately, one key lesson I learned from my first academy is to enjoy every moment and to savor the good with the bad because once its gone you can't get it back.  And although this situation is different because all of us here already have permanent jobs, I still never know when I'll see or talk to these people again.  Anyway, moral of the story is, live every moment as if its your last, savor each day, and don't take anyone or anything for granted.

The Deep South

It has already been over a week since last time I wrote and so much has happened to me that I can hardly believe it! The daunting drive from Massachusetts to Georgia wasn't nearly as bad as I thought.  (I'm constantly learning that the things we worry most about are the things over which we should stop worrying entirely.)  I broke it into 3 days: Salem to Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania to North Carolina, and finally, North Carolina to Georgia.  I got lucky with my drive to North Carolina because I drove that segment on a Saturday.  Despite this fact, I ran into some "dense" spots traffic-wise around the city areas.  Besides that I was mostly alone with my thoughts and a lot of good music.  I am especially pleased to be in Christian radio territory again after my long stint in the godless state of Massachusetts where such a thing could not be found.  

In North Carolina I joined up with a friend and we caravaned the rest of the way to Georgia.  Along the way we stopped at "South of the Border" in South Carolina which was essentially a big tourist trap.  We took some pictures and promised to come back later to buy fireworks, but that was about enough.  

Tonight, some friends and I went out to dinner and to explore the local area.  Above is a picture of a lighthouse and one side of a fort at St. Simons Island in Georgia.  There's a National Park nearby related to this site's history that I'll have to go back and visit soon.  Everything was closed this evening so we couldn't go inside.

Above are some palm trees.  They are everywhere down here!  I don't see them in MA even though we are by the ocean because it isn't warm enough. Also, I haven't been to too many tropical places yet in my world travels so palm trees are still unique and very cool to me.  They make me feel like I'm on vacation.  The other really cool thing about the trees down here is that they are all draped with Spanish Moss.  It gives them a swampy, creepy feel.  Yet also a dramatic, regal kind of elegance.  The contrast between these two kinds of trees provides frequent visual interest.

This is the St. Simons Pier at sunset.  I got a chance to walk down it and what makes it unique is that on either side there are people lined up along the edges fishing.  You have to be brave and always ready to duck and cover your head because you never know when someone is going to real in a fish or cast a line into the water.  I think I almost got hooked a few times!  My first adventure out into southeastern Georgia was fun.  I'm looking forward to what the rest of the weekend holds!