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

With Widespread Panic preparing to return to the Tetons for three shows at Grand Targhee, I spoke with guitarist Jimmy Herring last week from Taos, N.M., where the band had an off day. A North Carolina native who has played with the Allman Brothers, Aquarium Rescue Unit and The Dead, Herring joined Widespread Panic in 2006, following the death of original guitarist Michael Houser and an interim stint by George McConnell. The grizzled axe man, who favors a Stratocaster, has been widely hailed by fans for injecting new life into the Athens, Ga., band, celebrating its 25th anniversary on this tour.

We spoke a bit about our backgrounds. (I first saw him play with Col. Bruce Hampton and ARU back around 1991 or ’92.) He was gracious and thoughtful, speaking in a warm Southern drawl. After small talk about Southern heat vs. the chilly breeze of the West, we jumped right into the Targhee shows.

JS: Are you familiar with the venue, Grand Targhee?

JH: I’ve heard about it, but I don’t know if I’ve played there before.

JS: It’s a tiny ski resort that sits at 8,000 feet in the Tetons. All of the Widespread Panic shows in the Jackson Hole area over the years have been down in the valleys. This time the band will be playing up in the mountains. There probably will be some snow on the ground.

JH: Unbelievable. Will it be cold?

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Posted under Music, Religion, Ski Resorts

Tags: targhee, widespread panic

* Updated 6/30 with new details at bottom

One-time riverboat pilot Mark Twain wrote in Life on the Mississippi, “Your true pilot cares nothing about anything on earth but the river.”

Perhaps that helps explain why, in the midst of consecutive 12-hour days of working on the Snake, I found myself back on the river last weekend for a pair of whitewater runs. The allure of the peak flow is tough to resist, especially given the year’s record snow. Although Lunch Counter rapid tends to diminish once flows exceed 20,000 cubic feet per second, Cottonwood grows larger, and the eddies and boils are more powerful, swirling and surging until the canyon becomes a frothy, fizzy cauldron of chocolate-colored ice water.

Joining the lineup of big rapids this year is the mudslide-enhanced wave train near the bottom of S Turns, about 2 miles into the trip. I was a little skeptical of reports of a “new” rapid at the site, given that First Cut Bank, immediately below, always produced some waves. But on reaching the slide, we were greeted by a horizon line across the river, above which the spray of waves danced and licked.

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Posted under Environment, Sports

Tags: landslides, national forest, river running, snake river

It just wouldn’t be Fourth of July in the Tetons without washed-up TV host and deranged lunatic Glenn Beck.

The fired Faux News showman is returning to Huntsman Springs on Saturday to fulfill his duty to god and country: selling high-end real estate on a golf course.

Huntsman took out a full-page ad in the Daily to announce the “patriotic” festivities, one of two full-page ads placed by the developer this week following several profiles of the family in the News&Guide.

For a second straight year, Beck will be babbling while Widespread Panic plays a concert on the west slope of the Tetons. By several accounts, last year’s sermon was a dud. Now that the conspiracy theorist has been canned by his network, Saturday’s theatrics largely ought to be greeted with a shrug.

Posted under Economy, Entertainment, Holidays, Politics, Religion

Tags: idaho, Media, paranoia, teton valley, widespread panic

Runoff on the Snake River, drawn out by cold weather and diminished by dam control, may or may not have peaked this weekend.

But in Yellowstone National Park, rivers are running wild. This is the confluence of Soda Butte Creek and the Lamar River, in the park’s northeast corner.

Photographer Greg Winston has more images on his blog. The road, which runs from Tower Junction to the northeast entrance, has been closed since Friday.

The Snake River above Alpine hit nearly 25,000 cubic feet per second Saturday. If not for the dam, the flow of the river would have exceeded 36,000 cfs, with inflow to Jackson Lake at more than 13,000 cfs.

Posted under Environment

Tags: river running, yellowstone

In November 1992, a group of Middlebury College students showed up to a Widespread Panic concert in the school gymnasium in Vermont, bearing a home tape deck to record the show. They were denied plugging into the band’s soundboard, but at a party afterward guitarist and singer John Bell promised one of the students he would send him a tape.

The student was Geordie Gillett.

A few months later, the tape hadn’t arrived, when Gillett and friends were at another Panic show in New Haven, Conn. He again met the singer, who to Gillett’s great surprise produced the cassette, replete with hand-written song list. Bell had lost the address, he explained.

That story is indicative of the bond between the band and its fans, and one Gillett, now 41 and owner of Grand Targhee, relishes in telling as Widespread prepares to play three concerts at his Alta, Wyo., resort next week.

With the band pulling out all the stops on its 25th anniversary tour, as many as 5,000 Spread Heads are set to converge on Targhee, where multiple supporting acts, late-night shows and a spectacular setting at 8,000 feet in the Tetons will make for a festival atmosphere.

One of the most old-school Spread Heads in attendance will be Gillett, who still retains the cherished Middlebury tape.

“This is my summer vacation,” he says. “It’s going to be a crazy three days.”

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Posted under Business, Music, Ski Resorts

Tags: targhee, widespread panic

Tomorrow is the solstice, which marks the first day of summer — or, if you really want to depress yourself, the beginning of a long slide back toward winter.

Up on Beartooth Pass, it appears winter may last all summer long. This photo was shot Thursday on the Wyoming side of the pass, which rises to 10,947 feet. Connecting Cooke City and Red Lodge, Mont., the pass is a popular spring/ summer skiing destination once U.S. Highway 212 is cleared.

The highway opened June 10, about two weeks later than usual because of the massive snowpack. It has been closed periodically since then due to storms.

If Woody’s forecast holds, the solstice may usher in some sunshine to Wyoming’s eternal winter wonderland. Skiers, good luck climbing those banks.

(Photo by Matt Johnston, via Q2 News)

Posted under Environment, Sports, Weather, Wyoming

Tags: backcountry, montana, powder, skiing, snowboarding