Roaming Wyoming: Starting to Wrap up my JH Bucket List

Another quick reminder that JH stands for Jackson Hole...not junior high or Jake Hill *cough* Grace *cough* :). This morning Aunt Susie and I woke up at 7:00 to hike up Snow King because it is something that I have been wanting to do and dreading at the same time. I knew it would be hard but I knew I would regret not doing it...and I do my best to avoid regret...and running...and social interaction with people I don't know...and running...and eating chicken pot pie...and running...but that's totally beside the point. So we went on the hike and it was pretty awful going up to be honest. It never once leveled out, and the continuous incline made my legs feel like fire...and jelly...at the same time...like jalapeno jelly...which is a thing...I don't know why actually...it seems like a *insert poetic term that I can't remember right now*...(minus like 50 points for using ellipses way too many times in a sentence). The view from the top was definitely worth the pain it took to get there though. We could see the entire town of Jackson Hole which was pretty awesome, as well as the Tetons and surrounding mountain ranges and buttes. It was amazing. And very humbling too actually: To look out on such a vast landscape and realize the greatness and immensity of the earth and our littleness in the face of it. Our worries and cares are nothing, we live just for a little while and then we are forgotten by the world, discarded with the billions of others who have gone before us. So let's all just slow down. Life is meant to be lived. And it is short. So live it well.

After we got back from our hike, I just sat down for about two hours and when I would stand up, I found that my legs were more tired than I think they have ever been in my life. And they have stayed that way all day. I am not exaggerating at all when I say I literally crawled up the stairs to my room earlier. Aunt Susie had to do some work so she went to the office and I stayed home and cleaned the cabinets, washed dishes, and folded laundry (and there may have been some Netflix mixed in there at some point). Then we she got home we went to Jackson Lake Dam to fly fish (which I learned how to do yesterday). Aunt Susie told me I'm a natural (not to brag or anything...okay kinda to brag) but with the wind blowing hard and the fish not biting, the excursion didn't seem promising. After about an hour or so of casting and recasting I told Aunt Susie I would be ready to go after just one more cast. And what do you know? I caught a cutthroat trout on my last cast!! It was so exciting! It was pretty small but Aunt Susie got a picture that made it look bigger than it actually was :). We left the dam pretty dam happy (pun intended) and I commented that the only thing that could make the day better would be to see a bear (something that has been on my JH bucket list since the first year I came here in 2015). We headed out and we went by the boat dock at Signal Mountain to get another view of the Tetons in the setting sun. As we pulled out of the driveway we both freaked out because there, across the road from us, was a bear!!! An adorable black bear! (I'm sure they're not as adorable when they're hungry but there wasn't an immediate threat so it looked pretty darn cute to me. We snapped some pictures and were on our way home, as excited as pigs in a mud puddle ( I may have just laughed out loud at that one...).

Any way today was an extremely exciting and tiring day and it's about to hit midnight here and I'm kind of EXHAUSTED so it's time for me to get some zzzzzzs. I love writing about my adventures for y'all to read and I really hope you enjoy reading them.

Lots of Love!
ET