It's a rookie mistake I still make. Dan and I had a lovely time camping in our secluded campsite. We had camped near people the other two nights but we were completely alone at this campsite. We were able to dry all our clothes and sleeping bags out and we had a great nights sleep on our air mattress. Did I mention in another post that we made a conscious, calculated decision about that air mattress? We weighed it multiple times, practiced sleeping on it verses our thermarest pads and in the end decided that the extra 8 pounds would be worth it.
Those 8 pounds made all the difference and I would totally make the same decision again.
We got up early and soaked in the views. I started feeling like I REALLY wanted to shower. Every time I caught a wiff of myself I almost barfed. I hiked down the very steep embankment to the river and filled up my pot and Nalgene and then went back to camp and heated the water.
I don't know exactly why being in the backcountry unleashes my true colors and desires, but I stripped down and was having a jolly old time bathing and doing a lot of Tarzan calls, shimmy-ing, and dancing. Dan didn't really want to participate in the action, but he assured me he would still claim me as his wife.
At any rate, we enjoyed our last breakfast of oatmeal and packed up. We babied our blistered feet for the last time and headed out. About 10 minutes down the trail we ran into another family and they told us they had just seen a bear cut across the switchbacks.
We didn't get a picture of the bear but we saw him cut the switchbacks again and bound onto a large rock field. It was awesome! This was Dan's first bear sighting. We were making ok time, but Dan's knee started acting up so we had to pace ourselves. I gave him my knee brace that had saved my knee the whole trip and that helped.
We stopped for a few breaks here and there but honestly the trail seemed to go on FOREVER. It was the hottest day yet and we really should have stopped to purify some more water but we kept thinking, "we're almost there!"
The thing about the Jenny Lake area is that it's a zoo. I used to bring guests from the ranch to Jenny Lake so I was expecting a crowd, but I was not expecting the hoards of people we encountered!!! It took us about an hour to go half a mile because of all the people. We were so grumpy, hot, and dehydrated.
I had to put on my bossy pants and tell Dan he was not taking another step until he pounded some gatorade and ibuprofen and eat a snack. He is really good about monitoring me and watching for signs of overheating and I had to do the same for him on the last day. We had definitely had enough of carrying packs in the heat and we were so tired of the crowds of people, we just wanted to get home!!
After what seemed like forever, we reached the Jenny Lake boat dock. Jenny Lake is so amazing. If there hadn't been children and other people around I would have jumped in with all my clothes on to go for a swim. We were so hot that I soaked our camp towels in the water and we used them to help us cool off.
For some reason no one wanted to sit near us on the boat. Perhaps it was our stench? We loved the ride across the lake on the boat and were greeted by our awesome friends Sven and Brenna. Sven was my original Teton explorer partner back in the early 2000's. We went to high school together and worked in Jackson together for many summers. He and his wife Brenna were working in Jackson again and were kind enough to pick us up.
When we got back to Teton Village we realized we had a flat tire!! Some little voice told me to bring my warranty for my tires when we were leaving Utah and I'm so glad I listened to that voice. Every tire shop in Jackson was closed so with the help of Sven, we changed the tire to the donut and decided to say a lot of prayers and go through the Hoback to get back to Idaho Falls.
We did make one little stop on our way home to Sidewinders. It has become a tradition for us to stop at Sidewinders and get one of their ginormous cheese and pepperoni stuffed pretzels. You would have thought we hadn't eaten in days by the way we devoured those pretzels. They were so good.
We took our time driving through the Snake River Canyon. We made a stop at the Rest Area by the Snake River and all the water had been shut off for some reason so it was like our worst nightmares in real life- the nightmares when you can't find a toilet to use because they're all filled to the top or dirty, or 8 feet tall... it was disgusting!!!!
We got out of there as quick as we could and drove fast to Idaho Falls. We were greeted by my mom and dad who had made us steak, shrimp, and zucchini for dinner. It was amazing! My dad popped us popcorn with his popcorn machine and after showering and eating dinner we watched the closing ceremonies of the olympics. It was the best way to end our trip.
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