Livin’ the Jackson Hole Life
Alright, so, I know I may sound like I am exaggerating, and I know you may not believe me, but the summer of 2020 was probably the best summer of my life (thus far). I didn’t really know what this corner of Wyoming was all about, but now I am definitely convinced that it’s one of the best places to be. In a nutshell, it is bikes, mountains, wildlife, and rivers galore. However, for me it started off in a bit of a rough patch.
So, the reason I had gotten to move to Jackson Hole was because I had been offered a job as a Plant Health Care Technician, which basically means I treat plants and trees for different diseases and pests, and I sprayed noxious weeds. Once I had a place to stay dialed in (or so I thought), I packed up all my stuff and headed up to Jackson. It was about a seven hour drive from Fort Collins, and Evan kindly drove up with me to help me move. The drive wasn’t too bad; I will never forget turning the corner a little bit after Pinedale into a huge forested valley approaching Bondurant. It felt like an immediate switch from flat Wyoming to Teton territory. From there on, I was chock-full of excitement. Evan had been to Jackson before, so he knew what to expect, but I didn’t know that it was going to be so breathtaking.
Sooner or later, we got to Jackson Hole, only to find out that my entire housing situation was a scam. It was definitely not a good day after that. I was upset because I had lost money on a deposit, and because I now had zero time to figure out a housing situation. I guess I am lucky that I tend to be quick on my feet, because we soon had a couple of places to call and look at. After two nights in Jackson, I had signed a lease, and I was cleared to move in the next day. Evan was then convinced to go back home and drive back to Jackson immediately to find a job as well. We were then renting our first apartment, and we drove to Idaho to get a cheap mattress to put on the floor. Evan went back to Fort Collins to go get moved in, and by the time he came back a day and a half later, I had sourced the furniture for this apartment including a couch, a table and chairs, and a rocking chair (which costed me a total of $30).
Howdy stranger… I’m on my way to buy a mattress in Idaho.
That Sunday, Evan and I ate our second meal together in our apartment, and we prepared for our first day at work. He quickly found work for an excavation company, and we headed out to the grocery store to get some things to make some lunches for the week. We also snuck in a day of exploring the national park and some of it’s lakes.
Evan and I both had a great first day. Evan got his PPE and figured out what crew he was going to be working on. I got my work shirts, and got the low-down of what I would be doing exactly. I also had the joy of cleaning out the entire shop with all of the other employees that day, though I had definitely not made any of that mess. Oh, well.
My next day was better; I was spraying noxious weeds on a beautiful property, and I even came across a herd of elk. That was just a small introduction to all of the wildlife I was going to see that summer. Luckily, I didn’t see the mountain lion that was allegedly on this client’s land.
Quesadillas for our first dinner.
Oh, hey there..
Beautiful greeeeen.
After settling in to our summer life, we went for a couple of bike rides on Teton pass. I soon realized my old Trek Remedy 8 was too small for me, which resulted in a new bike day for me. After getting on my new Juliana Maverick, I really understood how important the right gear was, but more importantly, I understood just how fun riding Teton Pass really was.
Her name is Pat, she’s beautiful.
Now, I had not mountain biked much in my life, so really, Teton Pass kicked my ass for a week or so. Fortunately, I picked it up quick, and I had an amazing time on that mountain all summer. We mostly rode Parallel, Jimmy’s Mom, Fuzzy Bunny, Powerline Jumps, and Lithium. I was absolutely spoiled with the trails and the dirt that I got to ride, and now I really don’t want to ride anywhere else!
About midway through June, Evan and I were visited by his roommates from Fort Collins, so we made our first trip to Yellowstone National Park. We saw the iconic Old Faithful, Grand Prismatic Spring, and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. We had a busy day walking a lot of boardwalks around different hot springs and geysers, we did a hike that overlooked Old Faithful, and we ate some turkey sandwiches.
Warm waters by Grand Prismatic.
Grand Canyon!
Although Yellowstone was beautiful, I do prefer Jackson Hole and Grand Teton. Soon, Evan got to go ride Lithium with his friend in some less than ideal conditions, though you wouldn’t be able to tell from his face.
A muddy trail ridden by a crazy biker.
Soon after our previous visitors, some of Evan’s friends came to visit us; little did I know I was being introduced to some of my best friends now. They visited us on the weekend of the 4th of July. The day we picked them up from the Snake River, they had floated 30 miles in their incredibly terrible raft. I had greeted them with Oreo McFlurries, which I guess made a great first impression.
We drove them back to go pick up their car, and we all met at our apartment for dinner. We had a good night, and they slept in our living room on an air mattress. The next day, we woke up and got ready to shuttle Teton Pass (my favorite activity). We rode Fuzzy Bunny first, and because Evan now had Grant (who can jump like Evan can) they hit a ton of jumps and drops. It was honestly pretty insane how big some of the jumps were that they were doing. Riding that day just felt more exciting because we were riding with friends.
That night, we had some barbecue in our apartment, and then rode our bikes to Snow King to go watch the fireworks. We had a great time, and we even climbed the ski lift (shhh).
The next morning, we packed up the raft, and threw it in my car. Evan, Grant, Justin, Andrew, and I drove into Grand Teton National Park to raft the Snake River. We first got our permit, and we put in just east of Buffalo Fork Bridge. Pumping up the raft was essential, on more than one occasion. We brought the pump with us, along with a cooler and our life vests. The water was very cold, but floating the river was super fun. We got stuck in an eddy for around seven minutes, and our raft was not holding air very well. About halfway through our float, we had to pull off and re-pump up our raft. But, it was all okay because we had a cooler full of snacks, right? Wrong, unfortunately we had left the three visitors with the job of filling the cooler, but all that was in it was a 2-liter bottle of Coke, and a half full jar of salsa. Eventually, we got it full of air again, but Evan had to push us down river because it was too shallow and the water was basically still.
Honestly, unorthodox trips such as these are my favorite.
Sadly, they eventually had to go back home. Our summer continued with more work, biking, and visitors.
I got better at biking, so I naturally tried to do some things that led to some bad crashes. One of them in particular screwed me up pretty bad for a couple days. I smacked my face on a rock, and I cut myself up on most of my body parts. My mom wasn’t very happy with my face getting cut open, so I had to go buy a full face helmet. A week later, I finally got on my bike again, this time at Jackson’s Friday Night Bikes. I was really driven to learn how to do some jumps, but really it just led to me sending myself into the side of a berm.
I put my new full face to the test, as there are now a bunch of tiny dents from where I smacked my head. This time, I hurt my arm pretty bad; I couldn’t bend it or lift it for a couple days. Honestly though, both wrecks were worth it, though I really need to learn how to wreck softer.
Oh, and I bought a new truck.
Say hello to Dorothy, and some battle scars.
In a couple weeks, a whole gaggle of our friends came to visit, and we had quite a time riding together. We rode Lithium, and I cooked a whole bunch of green chile chicken enchiladas.
Getting ready for the descent.
Next, we got to hang out with my parents and my youngest brother, who I had not seen in a long time. We made another trip to Yellowstone, and we saw pretty much the whole park. We even did a day of rafting in Montana.
Waterfall hunting with my family!
Eating some raspberries I picked in Yellowstone!
Pretty soon, it was coming to be the middle of August, and we were going to have to move out soon to go back to school. I finished my job a couple of days before Evan, so I packed up all of our stuff. Our buddy Cam brought his brother and his friend through Jackson on his way back to Fort Collins for school, so I got to hang out with them for a day or two as well.
We rode our bikes, and hiked about 15 miles in Grand Teton National Park. Biking was great, but we got to see a few moose on our hike. It was a great way to spend my last week in the valley. We took a ferry across Jenny Lake to get to the trailhead, and we hiked all the way to Lake Solitude. It was a fairly easy hike, and we got to have lunch sitting by the water.
What better place to eat lunch?
I snapped this pretty awesome photo of Cam.
Check out those peaks.
This summer was definitely my favorite summer that I have ever had (so far). I am so grateful to have a guy like Evan to experience beautiful places with, and it was definitely fun to live with my best friend. I will definitely be returning to Jackson one day, hopefully for a much longer time. Hopefully, we will have a lot more summers like this one, maybe even better (who knows).
But, the summer was not over yet, and Evan and I definitely planned to take advantage of our location and the couple of weeks we had left. Check out my next post if you’re interested on seeing our big road trip through the Northwest!
Later, y’all.
