Jackson, WY & Grand Teton NP

Thursday June 15, 2006

We went to bed last night around 11:00 pm. It was pretty cloudy, and the moon hadn’t come up yet, so it was really dark. Around Midnight the rain started for a bit, but I don’t think it lasted too long, and we were both surprised that the rainfly and tent held up and didn’t leak. Nevertheless we both had a horrible night’s sleep. It did get cold (I’m guessing it was below 40…there was some iciness on the picnic table when I woke up but there wasn’t any frost on the car, so who knows) but I actually was warm enough under my many layers. The problem, for me anyway, is comfort. When it’s that cold I’m all bundled up in my mummy bag, with the zipper all the way up. This is a real uncomfortable way to sleep as it’s practically impossible to move around without crushing an arm or twisting a neck. Needless to say I probably got about 3 hours sleep total. And this was with perfect conditions: no one around making noise, no road noise, and a nice running stream to add some white noise, which I prefer when sleeping. So if I can’t sleep while camping under those circumstances, I never will.

We were able to sleep a little bit better between 5:00 am and 7:00 am, and we took our time this morning getting organized. The tent and fly needed to be dried out, which the morning sun took care of in about an hour or so. We had breakfast, re-organized Rocky’s storage, and were off around 10:00 am. We headed north into Idaho for a bit, and then ducked into Wyoming. We got to Jackson, just south of Grand Teton, right around 1:30 pm and started looking for a room. Jackson is not a horrible National Park gateway town, but it has WAY too many people in it for its own good. We were able to snag a room at a Super 8 (for way too much, but it seems that Jackson thinks of itself as high-end cheese), and then drove into Grand Teton for a quick orientation. As I said yesterday, we have 3 days in a cabin booked, which should give us the much needed rest we want in order to do the hiking we want. (After that horrible night’s sleep, I don’t think I could even hike to the corner pub for a beer I’m so tired. Even 3 hours of driving in the car I could feel my eyelids get heavy.) The Grand Tetons were all covered in clouds, and we hit pockets of rain here and there. We did see some moose, elk and bison from the road, but hopefully 3 days of hiking will generate more results in that area (black bears, anyone?).

After dinner in town we headed back to the hotel for some blogging, resting, and hopefully a good night’s sleep. I’m not sure when the next internet connection will show up, so don’t be surprised if you don’t see an update for a while.