Dude City

Us...the gruesome foursome, galloping through the water on our trusty steeds

Howdy from Jackson, Wyoming! We are just finishing up our week as dudes at Triangle X Ranch. Tomorrow is our all day ride up the mountain to 9,000 feet. It has been a wild week of adventure and fun with our friends Jimmy and Helen Robertson and Corky Robertson, (Jimmy and Helen's sister-in-law)...who happens to be a great story teller. "That's naaaaace."

Sculpture outside of the Wildlife Museum of Art

Jackson is lovely. It is something like a Western boutique. The town consists of 8,600 people and a whole lot of wonderful stores. You can shop till your credit card drops. There is a wildlife art museum (wonderful) which I visited yesterday while recovering from altitude sickness and exhaustion from five hours on a horse on Monday and an 8 mile hike to over 8,000 feet on Tuesday (none of which I regret). Wednesday was my day off to explore the museum and nap a lot. Today I rode on the afternoon ride on my mare (assigned to me all week) Thunder. She is cute, a palomino, small with a sweet face. And our hair matches! She is sure footed and patient, loves to run in the water and gallop down the trails. John is riding Traveler (like Robert E. Lee's Saddlebred mount) and he is a cool horse who loves his work. John has him racking already! Jimmy is riding Kale, a big guy with huge feet who loves to soak everyone in the water and who the wranglers always warn when we are going to do something that might allow a horse to be...a cheater. "He might duck out," or "He might try to dash out of the river," or "He might take the short cut back to the barn," but Jimmy has his number. No Kale antics on his watch. Helen is riding Windy, a black and white paint mare that she wants to buy and take back to Kentucky with her. Windy is her favorite horse ever since she has been coming to Triangle X...which has been a lot. Helen has been our fearless leader having been a guest of the Ranch several times in the last two years and she knows the area, including the hiking trails very well.

John and Karen on our horses (get a load of the hats!)

I'm hooked on hiking. I had no idea how much fun that was going to be until we did it. Helen didn't exactly tell us the whole truth about the hike because if she did we probably wouldn't have done it. She knew that. In her wisdom she mentioned that we would be hiking to Inspiration Point above Jenny Lake and when pressed mentioned that it was only about two and a half miles up there. Then she told us that if we felt up to it we would take Horse Trail back. We didn't ask much about Horse Trail. Inspiration Point is at 7,300 feet. The idea of the altitude keep our minds off of Horse Trail. It took us about 2 hours to hike up there (the Ranch is about 6,800 feet). We hiked around the Lake and then started the ascent to the Point. At one point I realized that my fear of heights was going to be tested. It was in the last three switch backs where we were on a very narrow and rocky trail that had a steep drop off on the right side. I practiced some serious self-discipline and kept my eyes on my feet until we reached the top.

Helen told us that we could not go on this hike unless we had walking sticks. That seemed a little strange to me and John protested, "Sticks? Why do we need walking sticks?" Helen just said, "You will need the sticks. Buy them." So we did as we were told and by the time we were half way through the day we were in love with our sticks. We wanted to kiss our sticks. Our sticks possibly saved our butts. We managed to make it to Inspiration Point without incident and enjoyed some of the most gorgeous scenery you can imagine (I'll post photos in the web album). Then we started our descent. We made our way down the trail to the point where Horse Trail takes off to our right. At that point Corky (smart) who had been skeptical about the entire outing decided to continue her descent to the ferry that would take her across Jenny Lake and cut three miles off of the return trip. Would we go with her? Nope. We were challenged. We had to live up to the challenge. So John commandeered a park ranger to escort Corky to the ferry and we began another ascent.

View of Jenny Lake from Inspiration Point

Helen told me that I may learn to hate her before we finished walking Horse Trail. I was warned. I didn't hate her when it was over but at the point where we had done a half mile of uphill hiking (fell in love with my walking stick right there) and were nearly to 8,000 feet I was getting close to it...not really. Helen is the sweetest person I think I've ever met. And I loved the hike no matter how much my thighs screamed and my lungs heaved. We all followed her like soldiers up that hill until we were well over 8,000 feet and looking at a view that was almost overwhelming.

We had stopped to eat our lunch and carefully repackaged all of the leftovers in case we encountered any bears. As it was we decided to forgo any cosmetics that had fragrance (that left out my deodorant...eeeekkkk!) to keep from attracting bears. They say up here "A fed bear is a dead bear" and we didn't want to contribute to any dead bears...nor did we want to end up being bear snacks. Helen had a bear bell on her back pack so after lunch she pulled the magnet off of it and the bell rang as we trooped up the trail. At one point we stepped over some scat (bear poop). Jimmy asked what kind of poop it was and Helen informed us that it was bear poop. Now Jimmy was with us all day long and had barely said three words. Like us he was too winded to talk! He examined the excrement on the trail thoughtfully and said calmly, "Keep up with the bell please," as we moved on. We all died laughing, nearly passing out from lack of oxygen! The bell worked, warning the bears and other animals that there were crazy humans on the trail and we managed to avoid any critter encounters.

So yesterday I woke up and could hardly drag myself out of bed. I have been in better shape in my life and undertook five hours of riding on Monday (was really fun while I was doing it!) and an eight mile hike (yes, it ended up being eight total miles) and a ten mile float down the Snake River about an hour after we got back from hiking. I was due to participate in the "Lunch Ride" on horseback that would leave from the Ranch at 10:00 and return at around 3:30 with a cookout on the trail. The only ride I was taking was back to the cabin for a nap, a ride into town for a few groceries and a trip to the art museum and back to the cabin for another nap. It did mend me and I was able to pick up and enjoy my day today immensely! Thunder and I trotted and galloped our way through a two and a half hour ride this afternoon and we all ended up eating (too much) pizza at a cool hang out called Dornan's in Moose Junction, about ten miles from the ranch.

Update on THE BUG. It traveled from Yellowstone Park where I deposited it out the window of the car, to our porch at Triangle X. It was determined to get into my shoe as I sat relaxing on the porch. It is stalking me...

There he is trying to get into my shoe. Sneaky little booger!

Friday

We are back from the all day ride. Initially I decided to forgo the all day ride due to the fact that I haven't ridden much in the last few years. Back in the olden days of my life I used to help gather cattle on occasion and I have vivid memories of sore, tired muscles from being on a horse all day. And I was in good shape back then! First they scheduled the all day ride for Tuesday. Then it changed to Thursday. On Thursday morning it was moved to Friday. All of that was good because on Thursday we went to the river and had a great afternoon ride galloping in the water and enjoying a great time with our guide Randy. I realized that my day off on Wednesday had given me a new lease on riding and that I was up to the all day ride on Friday. Thank goodness because it was so great. My little half-mountain-goat mare Thunder just tackled the entire day with gusto. We ended up riding along a mountain ridge for miles on the second half of our ride and the views were spectacular. Jimmy, Helen, John and I had a wonderful time and experienced a day that we will all remember for the rest of our lives. And I am sore and tired but I don't care. It was great!

John right behind me and Jimmy right behind him. There were 14 of us.

Tomorrow I am going to pick up our dogs at the kennel in the morning so I had to say goodbye to Thunder tonight. They gave us apples in our lunches so I saved mine and gave it to her before they loaded her in the trailer for the trip back to the ranch. She is quite a little trail horse. Just as we were finishing up our long day we had to go down a steep hill that was full of river rock, round stones, in a deep sandy surface. She stepped into the deep sand and it gave way. She went to her knees but fought her way right back to her feet. The British woman following behind me said, "That was quite spectacular really!" I laughed and patted the mare and away we went again, with Thunder unfazed. Tonight Thunder is turned out with her friends in a huge field munching grass and enjoying a beautiful cool evening of rest. Maybe she will get a well deserved day off tomorrow.

I'll get the web album together for the next post. I hope your weekend is going well. We will be on our way to Oregon on Sunday. First stop is Mountain Home, Idaho just south of Boise. I'll be writing more about our adventures at the Triangle X in my next installment.

Beautiful Tetons from our front porch on Friday evening