Jackson Hole Underground

(Updated 6/27 with photos from the actual river trip, shot by passenger Paul Schnell)

I was back on the river yesterday, after a week’s layoff due to foul weather. The flow in Grand Teton National Park is surging, with the sudden arrival of sunshine finally triggering a melt-off in the high country.

Earlier I wrote about the experience of exploring the river in the park, and that’s the way spring has been: abundant wildlife, elk sightings nearly every trip, the uncertainty around each bend of not knowing just what you’ll encounter.

Last night, on the last of my three trips, I rowed into a small side channel. It’s quiet, and a good place to see wildlife up close, when animals happen to be there.

Within minutes I had spotted what looked like a large dirt clump on the side of the river. It was too large to be a beaver, but it wasn’t moving. We floated closer. A tourist asked me a question, and the brown shape slowly roused, turned around and looked at us with sad eyes.

“It’s a grizzly bear,” I said, and the tourists screamed.

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I have returned to river guiding on my first and favorite stretch of the Snake in Grand Teton National Park. There are many reasons for this, chief among them a desire to spend more time outside and less staring at a computer, while getting paid for it.

Late last week, a call came over the radio from two guides in front that I should hug a certain bank a few miles downstream of Deadman’s Bar. There was a carcass I might want to have a look at, the guides said.

So I rowed my boat, slowly rounding a curve. I stood on the oar frame to get a better look, and as ten expectant tourists arched their necks, we came in sight of … a dead wolf.

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Photographs by Andrew Wyatt © (roll cursor over images for captions)

What a fantastic, and quintessentially Jackson Hole, “rite of spring.”

The 33rd Pole Pedal Paddle will be remembered as the coldest in history. There were whiteouts on every leg, icicles hung from bicycles, and kayaks were blown upriver.

On a morning in which Jackson Hole crossed the 600-inch mark* for snowfall, we were blasted by yet another storm. Highways 22 and 390 were glazed with ice, and drifts covered the shoulders where competitors were supposed to ride.

PPP founder Harry Baxter, who started the event in 1975, called this year’s race “probably the toughest one ever.” Baxter, 78, usually watches the competition from the mountain, but this year he didn’t because “I wasn’t sure they were going to pull it off.”

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Last week I was privileged to take part in the “Legends of the Snake” a float trip, a benefit for the Snake River Fund.

The event brought together many of the pioneers of river running and fly fishing in Jackson Hole: Frank Ewing, Dick Barker, Charlie Sands, John Simms, Dave Hansen, Jack Dennis and Paul Bruun. A collection of great guides and storytellers, they are the Jedi Masters of the Snake.

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… and the creeks, the fish, the elk and the fresh air we breathe.

Today is the last day to submit comments on the Bridger-Teton National Forest plan.

The plan is being revised to guide use of the forest for the next 10 to 20 years. It’s possible (although not probable, with your input) that more than half of the 3.5 million acres could be opened to oil and gas drilling.

Comments can be e-mailed to: btnfplanrevision@fs.fed.us.

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