JH Underground – news, sports and music blog from Jackson Hole, Wyoming news, sports and music blog from Jackson Hole, Wyoming

I’m on the road again, this time fleeing snow for the desert. After a few days of mountain biking around St. George, Utah, I’m headed to Indio, Calif., and Phish‘s Festival 8 for Halloween.

Tens of thousands of hippie gypsies are expected to converge on Indio, site of the Coachella music fest, for the weekend’s musical trick-or-treating.

For Phish Heads, this is the ultimate: eight sets over three days by a reunited and revitalized Phish. The festival grounds have been transformed into a playground with lighted palms and art installations. There is a farmers’ market on site, and Sierra Nevada has brewed a special beer for the weekend: Foam.

I feel like I’m headed to Woodstock, only much better equipped.

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Posted under Music

Tags: phish, rock, travel

For 33 years it has stood as a monument to human folly: the ruins of an earthen dam that failed on first filling.

The collapse of the Teton Dam on June 5, 1976, released a massive flood down the Teton River that killed 11 people and drowned 13,000 livestock in eastern Idaho. The raging waters swept away most of the town of Sugar City; in Rexburg, an estimated 80 percent of the homes and businesses were destroyed.

The account of that day is riveting and reads like a transcript of the New Orleans levees deluged by Hurricane Katrina.

Maddeningly, Idaho irrigators and elected officials haven’t learned from the tragedy. Engineers are considering rebuilding the dam — in a canyon of porous volcanic rock — at a cost of possibly $1 billion. The study is a parting gift from the disgraced, toe-tapping Idaho Senator Larry Craig.

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Posted under Environment, Politics, Republican Party

Tags: fishing, idaho, river running, snake river, teton valley

You may have noticed the new RSS feed on the top left corner of this page.

The-J-List has been revived from slumber, given a tune-up and slowly getting up to speed. The site is a clean, easy-to-read compendium of event listings.

“the-j-list.com was born out of our craving for a single, consolidated source to stay in touch with what was going on in the arts and entertainment world in Jackson,” the site explains.

Now it’s even easier to list your Halloween bashes, gallery openings, literary lectures and other happenings when you’re looking to draw a crowd beyond your Facebook friends. And it’s free.

The site was created by Web gurus Jeremy Hopple, Clay Preheim and Clint Troxel back in 2006. They recently enhanced the application to give users greater freedom in listing events. (Use Textism for additional flourish.)

“The only way this is going to work is if the community contributes,” says Hopple. He adds that The-J-List was written with open-source code, meaning programmers are welcome to contribute to the application.

Posted under Art, Entertainment

Tags: clay preheim, clint troxel, hipsters, j-list, Media

Now that a motion sensor has netted a Spaniard the Wildlife Photographer of the Year award for an image of a leaping wolf, along comes another wildlife trap that gives an intimate look into the secret life of an elk.

This video has been making the rounds via Facebook and e-mail; no one seems to know exactly where it originated or by whom.

For hunters, finding a watering hole like this is a boon. (Now we know why.) Although the video may make you want to set frolicking Bambi free, here’s a little inspiration as the weather turns nasty and sends elk on the move.

Posted under Environment, Sports

Tags: elk, hunting, wildlife

Word comes from Friends of Pathways that the Cache Creek trailhead and road will be closed for three days beginning Monday for badly needed maintenance.

The closure affects the road only; the popular recreation area still can be accessed via the Sidewalk and Hagen trails.

A Bridger-Teton National Forest trail crew will improve the drainage and grade the road as far as the Bar-T-5 Chuckwagon camp, a stretch that tends to be muddy long after trails are dry — and rutted from horse-drawn wagon tours. Culverts will be installed next spring.

Given the wet, snowy forecast for early next week, Cache won’t be that conducive to mountain biking and dog walking, anyway. Hunting perhaps. The trailhead will reopen Thursday, Oct. 29.

Posted under Environment, Sports

Tags: cache creek, mountain biking, national forest

The year that everybody died has claimed another one, this time a titan of Jackson Hole: Cliff Hansen.

Hansen, the former Wyoming governor and U.S. senator, died Tuesday at his family’s home in Spring Gulch. He was 97 years old.

There were few things politically that Cliff and I agreed on, but he was always cheerful when contacted by a reporter. The last time we spoke was in December 2005, when I was writing a story about a particularly bitter cold spell:

Hansen said the deep freeze reminded him of the old days in Jackson Hole, when he used to feed cattle outside at 40-something below. “I have many ways to remember Jackson Hole, and this is certainly not one of the most pleasant,” he said.

In his later years the statesman was well known for his change of heart on Grand Teton National Park. Once an armed, mounted opponent of expanding the park, he came to see its preservation as “the best thing that could have happened to this valley.”

My favorite saying attributed to him relates to the influx of newcomers to Jackson Hole: “The last person who could have said, ‘Close the door behind me,’ was Chief Washakie.”

I’ve always been struck by that. If anyone could have claimed this valley as his own, it was Cliff Hansen. But he had the grace to share this place with those whose ideas and lifestyle were very different from his own. A true icon of Wyoming.

Posted under Deaths, Politics, Republican Party, Wyoming

Tags: grand teton national park