Rest day in Jackson, WY

Posted on July 4, 2004 by Kevin

This being a day off, I slept to the relatively late hour of 7:30am, then took a much-needed shower. I ran into Aussie Matt on my way back to the tents, and he said that he was planning to walk over to Wilson for breakfast. I thought that seemed like a long walk; he said it should take about 15 minutes. I knew it would be longer, but I didn’t mind either way. It ended up taking us about an hour, but it felt good to get out and do something active, and we had a nice chat along the way.

The bagel shop in Wilson had picnic tables in the back that sat right next to a stream, so it was a beautiful spot to enjoy breakfast. There is also a bike shop next door; I tried on a jersey that I liked, but talked myself out of buying it to save some cash. Then I noticed this chopper-style bike sitting in the corner; it was made by Kona, and called the Bike Hot Rod. It had a long fork, disk brakes, and big swept-back handlebars, so I thought I might be able to handle it. I asked the shop guy if I could take it for a spin in the parking lot; he warned me that the long fork would make the handling very squirrelly. He was right; with one weak arm, I never could get myself moving on the thing, so I took it back inside. I hopped on a beach cruiser with coaster brakes just for fun, and toodled around the parking lot for a minutes. It felt good to be riding something. As we left the shop, we crossed the street so that Matt could pick up some fruit at the general store, then made the hour’s walk back to camp.

I noticed Kira and James getting ready to take one of the vans out to be washed and gassed, so I asked them to give me a lift to Teton Village, which is where the Jackson Hole ski resort is located. The Arial Tram is open in the summer, so I forked over the $18 for my ticket, and boarded for the 12-minute ride to the top of Rendezvous Mountain. It was very windy and only about 45 degrees at the summit, but the views were as incredible as expected. I hiked a bit around the short Summit Trail. I decided that the next time I am in this area, I will do the seven-mile hike to the summit, after which the tram ride down is free.

When I got off of the tram back at the village, I immediately heard someone calling my name. Robert, Bruce (from Georgia), Meg, Brian, and Gary from western New York were there at the café, so I joined them and helped them finish a couple of pitchers of some kind of lager. They headed back to camp on their bikes; I had about a half-hour wait for the bus, so I killed some time browsing the village shops.

Dinner was at Calico, an Italian place next door to the KOA. The lasagna was excellent.

Tour Talk was back at camp, and as soon as it was over, it started raining. This turned into a pretty steady thunderstorm that lasted about an hour, and for a time even turned into pea-sized hail. Most of us were huddled in our tents by about 9:45pm, just as the storm was ending, although it did rain on an off a bit more throughout the night. My North Face Talus 23 tent held up very well; I stayed completely dry inside, even though I didn’t use a ground cloth. My waterproof duffle bags did not do as well, however. For future camping nights, I’ll have to remember to bring them in the tent with me, even though that will limit my sleeping space.