Grand Teton range


Jenny Lake, from a Yellowstone and Grand Tetons hiker's page with pix

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John's Journal

Day Thirtysix

Mileage- 261

Route- John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway South to Grand Tetons

They have an espresso cart at the Old Faithful Inn lobby! "One double latte, please." Then I watched Old Faithful blow, again. Last night it wasn?t until 8:15 until it went off. With the setting sun, it was pretty cool. I was expecting more, though. It blows pretty high and the steam against the sky is wonderful. And all around it are other hot springs or geysers that have steam rising from them constantly.

After that, I packed up and headed south for the Grand Tetons. Of course, it started to rain as I got a little bit away. And I was so optimistic by not wearing the rain/cold weather gear. Oh well, gotta stop, put it on and keep on truckin'. By the time I got out in a bit in the Tetons, it dried up. At the Jenny Lake campground, the sun was out and I thought I might camp after all.

So, here I am. In my tent at 5pm listening to the patter of rain on my tent wondering how much rain it can take and where it will leak first. Oh yeah, there's also that pesky sound of thunder and some flashes of lightning. Actually, it is pretty cool, the main storm is not where I am and I think I see blue-ish skies coming in behind the storm. I was out walking around when it blew in and I could see some funky black clouds with lightning off in the distance. then, over the mountains (very cool, more on them in a second) came this rain. I could see the tops of the mountains just moments before.

Speaking of mountains, these are very cool! Better then the ones I saw in Yellowstone. These are all grouped together with snow on top and there's a beautiful lake (Jenny Lake, where I am staying) right next to it so the views are excellent! The trails that go up the mountain a bit are closed, but there is a short trail around the lake that I may try. I am also enjoying just hanging out, again.

The rain stopped!! I thought it might only be a short storm since it came in so quickly. Sure enough, I sat inside for awhile, fell asleep and woke up to better conditions. I don't think that is all the way over, though. There is some sun, but still gray clouds around.

Hey, I didn't tell you about dinner last night, did I? Well, I stopped and chatted with a fellow BMW motorcycler from Seattle who was staying at the Inn and had a dinner reservation for 8:30. So, he invited me and we had a great time. He is a controller for a Biotech company based in Chicago. We both have some things in common:

• BMW motorcycle
• Volkswagen Passat (same year!)
• both were going to be engineers, but decided it was too much work
• uhh, I guess that?s it

Anyway, it as nice to have dinner with a kindred spirit. He went to boarding school in India (his family is Indian, but lived or lives in Singapore) and has some interesting tales to tell. We split a good bottle of an organic cabernet sauvignon and I had an excellent chocolate mousse pie for dessert. So, there you have the dinner story.

Well, what a fun night! I had a great meal up the road a bit and then on the way back, 3 Elk darted across the road right in front of me. Scared the bejeezus out of me! No casualties, though, thank goodness. It was rainy and foggy but not that cold, really. The rain let up a bit when I got back and I was foolish to think I could still get a fire going. I had bought some wood at the campground store, so I thought it was not wet. I just couldn't get a good fire going. Bummed me out, actually, as I was looking forward to a nice fire.

So, after about an hour of trying, I finally gave up. Hey, you can't say I didn't try! I slept rather well, especially when the rain started in again. It was, once again, (remember my earlier journal entry?) B.T.S.W. (for those of you who just joined us, or can't remember, it means Big Time Sleeping Weather). I managed to stay dry, too. The only problem with camping in the rain is when you have to go to the bathroom and you are all snug and dry in the tent. Decisions, decisions...

I will be trying to head out tomorrow and make my way reasonably fast toward home via Nevada City to visit my nephew, Dylan, and his parents (my sister Clare and husband Phil).