"Earth and the Great Weather"

"Earth and the great weather / Move me / And move my inward parts with joy."  --Uvavnuk (Inuit)

Training and packing for a dream of a backpacking trip in the Wind River Range of Wyoming occupied us for three weeks.  We hiked up Jumbo twice and around the North Jumbo Loop with new trekking poles twice (and got to watch a parasailer launch and fly from Mt. Jumbo right before our eyes). We also saw the weed-eating sheep on one training hike.

On the Jumbo North Loop

With our eyes on the NOAA forecast for the town of Pinedale, Elkhart Park (our trailhead), and the Titcomb Basin (our goal), we drove to Pinedale but retreated step by step as the weather and forecasts turned from showers to rain to thunderstorms to heavy downpours and snow, first deciding not to backpack in the Winds, then backing off to the Tetons to dayhike and backpack there if the forecast improved, and finally driving home--almost all of the time in rain or heavy rain and often surrounded by lightning.

On the Taggart Lake Trail

We took advantage of a few dryish hours by hiking to Taggart Lake in the Tetons.


 
Over the four days we were out, we did have fun and satisfactions talking with other wet people, camping, and discovering a good place to get coffee, cinnamon rolls, and The New York Times in Jackson.  We also found a route between Jackson and Missoula that takes about seven hours to drive (much faster than driving through Yellowstone), so maybe we'll get back to the Tetons soon and be able to take the camera out of its case (and ziploc bag) more than on this trip.

The Big Blackfoot Runs through It

Robin inflating the first of the stack of five boats

"Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing...half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats."

--Water Rat to Mole in The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame

Our book group had been planning for some months to camp at Russell Gates Fishing Access Site on the Big Blackfoot River and paddle the 12 miles from River Junction back to the campground.  A few weeks ago, Robin and Gary scouted the dirt-road maze out to River Junction and walked upriver from the Scotty Brown bridge to preview the rapid marked on maps.  Very helpful!  Brian's hip replacement and Joyce's splenectomy kept the whole group from making the floating and camping part of the trip, but Joyce, Kathy, and Brian brought food and spent an evening with us.  Also very helpful--and fun.  We're grateful to Catharine and Robin for having so many boats; to Gary and Robin for their scouting and leading the way; and to Joyce, Kathy, and Brian for driving out, cooking, and setting up dinner.  And what a campground--open ponderosa forest and sites with views and sounds of the river!

Eric, Robin, and Gary at our lunch and sunscreen stop

Paddling along the river, we saw cliff swallows, red-tailed hawks, osprey, and a whole bunch of folks fishing from rafts.  It seems likely that much of the attraction of this beautiful stretch of this river is the pull of fishing Norman Maclean's river.  The book sure was part of the frame for our experience floating:  "Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it."
 
And then there's the tao, the energy of live water.

Keeping the camera dry, we took very few pictures on the river, but we do have these from lunch and a leg-stretching and boat-draining stop.

Happy campground photos follow these few from the river.

Catharine showing Joyce the cabinets

Robin cooking

Eric breaking camp

Brian cooking

Kathy

Joyce

Brian

Eric and Gary at breakfast