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

It’s been all over the news, and Friends of Pathways action alerts, but worth mentioning here: Path advocates are calling on citizens to sign this petition asking Grand Teton National Park to move the planned pathway along north Highway 89 farther from the road.

The park has staked out a design that puts the path “dangerously close” to the highway, says Tim Young, FoP director. That’s as little as 15 feet in places.

Park staffers counter that the buffer is sufficient, and keeping the path closer to the road will cause less of an impact to wildlife habitat.

That’s a valid concern, but seems to be contradicted by the layout of the pathway to Jenny Lake, where arguably the habitat is better and the speed limit is lower. That path, a huge hit with tourists, is farther from the road than the planned design for Highway 89.

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Posted under Environment, Sports

Tags: cycling, grand teton national park

The new album from Michael Franti and Spearhead, The Sound of Sunshine, finally was released last week. We had gotten a preview at Targhee Fest in July, and two songs, including the summery title track, were released as singles.

This clip features the egg-cellent “Shake It” from Targhee. Click here to buy the album from Franti’s Web site or here to download via iTunes.

At last, another outstanding season of raft guiding on the Snake River has ended. After a few days of maintenance, I look forward to getting back to this blog and shaking things up around here.

Until then, shake it like the leaves on the quaking aspen trees.

Posted under Music, Ski Resorts

Tags: festivals, michael franti, targhee

The race is long over, but there’s still time to participate in Old Bill’s Fun Run. The Community Foundation is accepting donations until 5 p.m. Friday.

For the newbies who don’t understand how this works, Old Bill’s provides matching funds for donations to local nonprofits. That means a $50 contribution for, say, community radio programming, affordable housing or Snake River stewardship winds up being about $70 or $75 once a group of philanthropists kicks in its share.

Last year the Fun Run raised nearly $7 million from 2,461 donors. The matching percentage from the philanthropists — Mr. and Mrs. “Old Bill” and friends — was 53 percent.

Who cares if you missed the event? The satisfaction of giving lasts long after the pain of running recedes. Click here to donate online.

Posted under Economy, Sports

Tags: nonprofits

Lifting our spirits in this blustery, cold week has been smoking-hot music from down South and, perhaps, hell.

First, J.J. Grey and Mofro closed out the Concerts on the Commons series at Teton Village on Sunday with a rollicking show of blues and swampland soul. The seven-piece band from Jacksonville, Fla., rolled behind a horn section of trumpet and tenor sax. Frontman Grey strutted across the stage, singing in his rich, earthy drawl of black-eyed peas and piping-hot cornbread.

“Can you smell those orange blossoms?” he sang on one of the band’s popular numbers, the title track from its last album. A crowd of nearly 1,000 people danced in the village courtyard and sprawled across the creek banks and base of the ski slopes. “Wonderful representation,” Grey described the audience.

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Posted under Music, Ski Resorts

Tags: funk, galactic, jackson hole mountain resort, knotty pine, teton village

Images of the Tetons have become so ubiquitous in pop culture that I was hardly surprised when, during the seventh-inning stretch at last Sunday’s Mets game, as a Jewish rap group sang “God Bless America,” a snow-capped Mount Moran appeared on the scoreboard above centerfield.

I was in New York last week visiting family, which helps explain the silence here of late. A couple of relatives had been ailing, making the woes from the end of rafting season — cracked skin on hands and feet, sore back, a cold — seem trifling. Happy to report we are doing much better, on all accounts.

Summertime in the Big Apple is more relaxed, and especially when the humidity isn’t oppressive, a fun time to visit. I went to the beach and took in a Mets game, and they actually won, a rarity in recent weeks.

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Posted under Sports

Tags: baseball, new york, travel