Doctors, A Birthday Present, Wildlife In the Park, and getting the New Park Model Ready for Winter

We made plans with our friends for our yearly hike up to Taggert Lake. It’s a well-loved place and you have to get there early, or you may have to hike a long ways just to get to the trailhead. Unfortunately, the smoke from a nearby forest fire was so thick that we decided to postpone the hike until it cleared. The next day I went to a doctor and found out other tests were needed. After that tests I had to make an appointment to have surgery and so our hikes, for this year, are done. The surgery went fine and I was released but confined to the house.

As I sat at the dining room table Renita, and I noticed movement across the street in our neighbor’s flower garden. Her flowers were doing great, and it attracted a deer which stood there eating flower after flower. Cars were stopping and the deer ignored them. Finally, it had eaten its fill and moved on, (the deer may have cronic wasting disease). The deer come into our park when deer season starts and even elk, moose and bear have learned the park is a safe haven. While we haven’t seen the bear others have and it also leaves large scats, one of which was in our backyard.

We usually go to Grand Teton National Park for a birthday present. Instead, our friend Barbara called us to tell us that she had a consignment of larimar rough, so we bought it all. Larimar rough sells for a dollar a gram.

Nothing like buying yourself a birthday present, (when we saw, grirnd ,and polish we lose seventy per cent of the original rock), so a twenty gram piece will end up as a six gram finished cabochon, which by the way is now about a thirty karat stone).

Finally, our place is almost ready for winter! A local glass man replaced our two broken windows. Next our contractor skirted it and now we are waiting for a warped door to be replaced and an electrician to replace the wiring where a nail caused a short. It won’t be long before we leave on our migration. We have a person lined up to shovel our roof, when needed and another to winterize it, (two years ago we received twenty-one feet of snow, the houses here have to withstand a snow load of eighty pounds per square foot). Clear skies

Grand View Hike, To the Top, 2024

Each year we try to hike to the top of Grand View Point. The top of the peak, is on the east side of Grand Teton National Park, and is the best view of the Teton’s . Of course, its prime bear territory and so carrying bear spray is mandatory, (about half the people we meet do not carry any). We decided to make the attempt on our second trip this week to Jackson, Wyoming. This time we got there early so we could buy a luggage carrier for the Suburu. Hopefully we can now pack the car so that we will be able to see out the back window. The Thule carrier was on sale at REI, and they had one that fit our car. It was an easy install and before long we were on our way to the Grand View Parking Lot.

Passing a large buffalo, bison herd, we stopped for a few quick pics of the huge bulls.

Arriving at the parking lot, there were only a few horse trailers and a few small campers, so we parked, geared up, and took off up the trail, (top picture). We immediately noticed how dry the ground was, and that we kicked up dust with each step.

The trail started up and for us anyway got harder. We are both in our seventies and so each year we have to take it easy with quite a few rest stops along the way. We noticed a dearth of any flowers and saw that many of the trees showed sign of pine beetle disease.

Normally the trees can overcome the infestation, if there is sufficient rain, but this year has been abnormally dry, (pictured is one of many dead trees). We quickly reached the sign where the trail divided and now the hike became quite a bit steeper. Resting often, we reached a rock that marks the halfway point, and taking a picture of Renita, we continued up. Now I would like to mention that quite a few younger hikers passed us as we stopped, but its ok as the only race we have is against our inner voices. They seem to say you are too old for this, but we ignore them and exhort each other to continue.

Finally reaching the place where we could see several people eating lunch, we greeted them and took each others pictures. Sitting down I almost sat on my phone, but Renita reminded me about how much it cost when I broke the glass several years earlier.

We told the others that the true summit was only a short hike away and after finishing lunch we hiked there for the mandatory summit shot.

On the way back down, we stopped so Renita could take pictures of Two Ocean and Emma Matilda Lakes.

We had made the hike to the summit! Clear skies, and of course, if you go remember, “To the Top!” (thanks Steve G. for sharing your climbing motto).