Today we were up and about really early due to still being on UK time. We had breakfast in The Mangy Moose, which was a lot nicer than it sounds and sits within a big Swiss-style lodge.
The whole of Teton Village is basically a Swiss-style skiing resort; complete with cable car and ski lifts up to the peaks. It must be an amazing sight in winter. There are shops selling skiing gear, bike hire shops and whitewater rafting companies, surrounded by countless hotels and restaurants; all in keeping with an apline lifestyle.
But today was hot and the skiing theme seemed a little incongruous. In fact, our lodge does not even have air-con; it has heaters and a wood burning stove instead! But with the large windows open onto the balcony the light breeze keeps us cool.
After breakfast we threw our walking boots into the trunk and headed out into the national park to look around – a long stretch of forest and scrub along the valley with the ever watchful Teton range looking on. Within 10 minutes we had a really nice surprise; a young black bear was feeding alongside the narrow track and a few people had begun to gather to take photos. A park ranger arrived, looking agitated; was he worried about us or the bear? We’ll never know. But the bear was happily munching away on some bushes seemingly unconcerned about our presence – we were within twenty-five feet of it.
It was only later, when we had stopped to walk a 6 mile trail to Taggart Lake, that we realised that if a bear was sitting just there at the side of the road, another bear could be sitting nearby along our trail – we had no way of knowing. The many signs we saw, warning of bears in the area didn’t help us to feel any better. The signs were telling us to avoid bear attack by not walking alone, ensuring that we make noise (to let the bears know we are coming – sounded like madness to me!) and never running away if we were confronted by one. That last one would be easier said than done in my opinion. Nevertheless, we clung to the knowledge that bears, apparently, like to keep themselves to themselves. Making noise was no problem, of course – I had Rachel with me! But to be absolutely sure we clapped our hands loudly every 5 minutes or so. We met other couples doing similar things: some had hiking poles, which they clicked together occasionally. Others actually wore bells on their back packs, which jingled as they walked. I couldn’t help thinking that, if I were a bear, I would come to find out what all the commotion was about! We decided that, tomorrow, we’ll buy some bear spray which bears hate having sprayed in their faces at close quarters. But I also had a secret backup plan: unbeknownst to Rachel I had slipped a few rounds of bread into her back pack smeared with Gales Honey. Mmm, bears love it and so would create an effective diversion should we have a close encounter, allowing me to get away pretty easily. As they say of marriage – ‘for better or for worse’ – well I can’t think of anything worse than that. So thanks Rach!
You’ll be glad to know that we didn’t see any bears, so I’ll never know if my plan would have worked, but we did see butterflies and catterpillers, which we could have seen in the back garden at home and not spent an absolute fortune on this holiday! But we live in hope – tomorrow’s another day. We did, however, see some lovely views and met some very nice people along the way. We had lunch in the Jackson Hole Lodge, which had a lovely retro diner and chatted to another couple about fishing and moose:
The whole trip was approx 70 miles and we stopped off at various points along the way to take in the views:
Tomorrow – cycling and rafting.
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