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

Presidents’ Day weekend has brought crowds, sunshine and a host of festivities to Jackson Hole. After a couple of spectacular days on the slopes, a snow squall is sprinkling dust on crust, making today ideal for kicking back at the track.

The Shrine Club’s Cutter Races at Melody Ranch are one of the biggest parties of the winter. Day two of the 42nd annual running of the chariots is about to get underway. Gates open to tailgaters at 11 a.m., and the horses run at 12:30.

David Stubbs made this video from the races in 2011, when the Shriners raised nearly $50,000 for the children’s hospital in Salt Lake City.

For a complete list of WinterFest activities, click here.

Posted under Entertainment, Holidays, Sports

Tags: cowboys, cutter races, david stubbs

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead might as well have declared today a state holiday, after nearly every resident rushed out to purchase and consume ample quantities of his brother’s Wyoming Whiskey over the weekend.

The long-awaited first release of the homegrown bourbon became a marketing sensation unlike anything the state has ever seen. Not only were hundreds of Wyoming retailers shut out, but stores, too, were raided shortly after opening.

Jackson Whole Grocer opened at 7 a.m. Saturday and sold all 150 bottles in stock within 25 minutes. Yes, people lined up to buy whiskey at 7 a.m. The store had to cancel a planned tasting because there was none left to taste.

At the distillery in Kirby, a line of roughly three times the town’s population of 92 stretched from the party tent as people waited to buy a bottle, in a scene one onlooker described as reminiscent of Prohibition.

The question lingering like cottonmouth and a dull headache, though, is whether the whiskey lived up to the hype. The Casper Star-Tribune consulted a liquor expert, who described it as “one of the best bourbons I’ve ever tasted.”

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Posted under Business, Humor, Wyoming

Tags: cowboys, matt mead, parties

What if you traveled 1,000 miles to stage a gruesome abortion protest and no one could see it?

Props to the ranchers and moving truck owners for heading downtown on business this morning.

(Via Jackson Hole United)

Posted under Politics, Religion, Wyoming

Tags: cops, cowboys, sex

While everyone was at Teton Village on Saturday, grooving to the hip-hop of G. Love, blues guitarist John Mayer apparently made a guest appearance at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar.

According to bar staff, Mayer joined Nathan Dean and The Damn Band and traded a few licks. “It was incredible, and John was one of the nicest people we have met at the Cowboy Bar,” the bar posted on its Facebook page.

What Mayer was doing in Jackson Hole is unclear. He recently canceled his spring tour, including a gig at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, because of a recurring throat ailment. He does not sing in the clip above.

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Posted under Music

Tags: blues, cowboys

Two weeks after a federal wildlife manager said he planned to kill them, wolves are still roaming the south end of Jackson Hole near residential areas and ranches.

Mike Jimenez, wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said there are just two wolves — one white and one black, possibly a mating pair. The predators remain comfortable on the periphery of the Indian Trails, Indian Springs and Cottonwood Park neighborhoods and even south Wilson, near Fall Creek Road, he said.

Because the wolves often are in these areas, Jimenez has been unable to fly in a helicopter and shoot them with darts.

“It’s just not a place we can do anything,” he said. There have been no reports of wolves harassing pets, people or livestock since an Indian Trails homeowner posted a video Feb. 23 of wolves crossing his backyard, Jimenez said.

Jimenez has been tracking the wolves from the ground and by airplane. The animals have ranged from the southern end of the valley, near the South Park elk feedground, across Highway 22 to the north and as far west as Wilson. Their behavior is consistent with wolves establishing a home territory, he said.

“We know where they are, but they’re in small pockets at the far end of a field, or in someone’s backyard, and that’s not an appropriate spot” to capture and euthanize them, he said.

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Posted under Environment, Politics, Wyoming Legislature

Tags: conservation, cowboys, development, wildlife, wolves