Day 47 7/12/12-7/14/12: Dubois to Jackson

We spent 3 days in Jackson! Three Days! Imagine the luxury.

I rode into this resort town with Jasper and Rambo. The day started off cold and the was some big climbing to do. We stopped just once to catch our breath, then forged on ahead. It was another day of absolutely gorgeous scenery. I recalled what my mother #2 had said so many times before the trip began, “Be careful coming down the Rockies, there are no guard rails!”. Well, there are some guard rails, just not a lot. Plenty of places to go over the edge. We needed to get ferried across a construction zone, but the workers just threw our bikes in a pick-up truck, we hopped in, and off we went. I heard a story from another cyclist about a tourer who refused to be ferried across, saying he wanted to bike every single mile across America. He apparently ended up taking a nap until the crews were done for the day, then going across himself.

As we rounded a bend in the road on the descent, the Grand Teton Mountains opened up before us. It was a spectacular sight that only got better as we got closer. We ended up stopping at an overlook for almost 3 hours (we were the lead group) in order to take a big group photo in front of the mountains, the same place that Team Portland 2011 had gotten theirs. It was worth the wait though, as the photos look great.

Jackson definitely feels like a touristy town but it is nice. We had a relaxing brunch on our first day off, then it was off to the Tetons to go hiking. It was a popular destinaton and there were lots of other hikers out. We came upon some friendly squirrels who were clearly no stranger to humans, as they crawled all over us to try and get food. One even tried to take a crumb out of Chey’s mouth.

Our large group naturally got split up along the way. At one point, Dale, Jasper, and Sohum began climbing up a rock face, and I didn’t
see them until the end of the day in the parking lot. Apparently, they had basically climbed halfway up the mountain, blazing their own trail.

We beat the rain that was threatening the park and returned to town for ice cream and a delicious vegetarian dinner (in that order) at the Lotus Cafe, which I highly recommend.

Rest day 2, Sophie, Brad, and I did some bouldering in the park on the free public rock walls, which were awesome. We finally held our second Powwow that night, allowing people to voice their love and frustration with the 4K so far. A fine and restful two days.