Emma Matilda Lake Trail

Happy Labor Day!

This week's trip was a walk around Emma Matilda Lake.  Emma Matilda Lake is shaped like a kidney bean.  The trail is about 9 miles long and takes you through woodlands, wetlands, and sagebrush.  It's not a walk along the lake shore similar to String Lake.  There weren't a lot of views, but those we got were great.   A couple of pictures here to show you what we saw.

Otherwise, we're fine and into our last two weeks here in the Jackson area.  Last day of work is September 8th, and we plan to leave September 9th if all goes well.  Plan is to make it to the Folks-on-Spokes (Gulf Shores) rally at Lanesboro, MN by September 14th.  It's a pretty success-oriented schedule, and we haven't had a lot of success achieving those type of schedules over the last two years.  We're going to give it a shot, though.

In other news, we trapped our 4th mouse this morning.  Peppermint spray appears to be working in the living areas, but we kept it out of the basement storage until we got this 4th mouse that we knew was visiting.  Now that we've caught that mouse, we've put peppermint spray in the storage areas.  We'll see how it works out.

So that's it for this week.  Enjoy the long weekend if you can.  Thanks for dropping by.  Until next week, David

Back to Colter Bay

Heron Pond

This week we spent a day walking from the hatchery down to Jackson - eating ice cream & BBQ while there, and then walking back to the hatchery.  Second outing was an easy walk to Swan Lake & Heron Pond near Colter Bay.  Otherwise, we either talked fish or Donna continued to sand, stain & varnish the bathroom vanity cabinet.  Traffic at the hatchery is beginning to slow.  Even traffic in Jackson is getting lighter.  Weather-wise, overnight temps are beginning to drop into the high 30s at night. 

And, for the first time since owning this trailer, we've managed to have mice decide they want to live in the trailer.  So far we've caught three over the last two weeks.  They're cute, but extremely destructive if left unchecked.  I don't recall any of us having a problem with mice last year, but then we also had a fox hang out around the hatchery's housing  area all summer.  Now it seems as if we all have mice.  Even Liz's cat - an older cat that never catches mice - caught a mouse.  We're keeping traps out and since yesterday, trying a peppermint/cinnamon scented spray to confuse the mice.  Don't know if the spray will work, but the trailer smells like Christmas.

That catches you up for this week.  We're fine.  Thanks for dropping by and checking up on us.  Until next week, David



 

String Lake, Leigh Lake, Bear Paw Lake, Trapper Lake

String Lake

Leigh Lake

This week's walks were along the String Lake Loop Trail on Monday.  Wednesday's walk was along the Leigh Lake Trail to Bear Paw & Trapper Lakes.  Sunday & Tuesday were set aside to allow Donna to sand, stain and varnish the kitchen table and start on the bathroom vanity.  We also squeezed in a conference call for next summer's volunteer position (potential position) this past week.  Otherwise, we talked fish.

Notice that I used the "walk" in the above paragraph.  The String Lake Loop Trail is a great outing.  It's about 4 miles long.  It has some elevation climb, but otherwise, it's just a nice walk around String Lake.  The walk up along Leigh Lake to Bear Paw & Trapper Lakes is just that - a walk.  There's not a lot of elevation gain.  It's just long.  9+ miles based on our Fitbits.  There's several back country campsites, and this trail is recommended for beginning back packers to get used to hiking and using back country campsites.  All the campsites we saw looked nice.  We recommend it!

So that brings you up to date on us.  We're fine.  Thanks for dropping by!  Until next week, David

Bear Paw Lake

Trapper Lake

Mt Moran

Emma Matilda Lake

We're beginning to strike out on some hikes that really aren't on the "bucket list".  After accomplishing Two Oceans Lake awhile back, Emma Matilda Lake is the next lake on the list for consideration.

A loop trail is the main hike around Emma Matilda Lake, but we decided to do a "walk-by" hiking from Jackson Lake Lodge to Christian Pond, then on to

Lookout Rock by Emma Matilda Lake, then on to the Oxbow Bend Overlook cutoff, and finally back around to Christian Pond and Jackson Lake Lodge.  Total distance is about 3.5 to 4.0 miles.  Most of it is on a horse trail (which appears to be a very popular horse ride from Jackson Lake Lodge.)  It's a very warm trail, not all that shaded, and not overly buggy when we visited this week.

We've also managed to visit Leek's Marina and have a bread sticks & pizza for the 4th time this year.  We still haven't located any beavers, and we're now considering taking a wildlife tour to see if we have better luck.

Otherwise, we're fine.  We're entering our last month here at the hatchery for this season.  The ground squirrels have just about finished their fattening season.  We're seeing fewer and fewer of these squirrels each day.  We still haven't seen the local weasel.  Haven't seen a fox at the hatchery this year, but our neighbor did see a coyote near one of the hatchery gates.

In local news, the East Gros Ventre Butte (the one you sometimes see behind the trailer in our hatchery pictures) experienced a lighting-strike wildfire just above the National Wildlife Museum on Sunday.  It quickly spread up hill leading to evacuations on the residences on top of the butte and preparations to evacuate the local hotels located along US 89 at the bottom of the butte.  Fortunately,

a water-logged thunderstorm followed a couple of hours later and put the fire out.  According to the local paper, 80 acres burned.  Looks weird seeing a burned out section of the butte above the National Wildlife Museum.  From the highway, it looks like only bare rock is left where saga brush once ruled.

Elk Jam below the Jackson Lake Lodge 

So that wraps up this week.  Thanks for dropping by and checking up on us.  Until next week, David

Teton Village Tram - Paint Brush Canyon

That's Snake River down there in the "hole"

Teton Village Tram

We finally got out to Teton Village, Sunday, and rode the tram up Rendezvous Mountain where we ate the $100 waffles at Corbet's Cabin (price includes all day tram rides.)  Took our time enjoying the views.  We eventually came back down for lunch & some shopping at Teton Village.  Monday turned out to be a rain day - very unusual for this part of Wyoming in July. 

On Tuesday we walked into Paint Brush Canyon via the String Lake Loop Trail.  Paint Brush Canyon is the next canyon north of Cascade Canyon.  Incline not quite as steep as Cascade Canyon.  It makes for a a good overnight trip if you work in some of the loop trails in the area.  The trail is mostly wooded with limited views until you get into the lower canyon camping area.  We walked almost to where the trail crosses the creek.  A freshly fallen tree blocked the trail just short of the creek crossing.  We'd been walking over two & a half hours, and the the tree made a good excuse to turn around. 

Leigh Lake (foreground) and Jackson Lake in the back

Other days we're back at the hatchery talking fish.  We've got about five weeks left to go.  Suppose to leave September 9th.  No other bucket lists items that I'm aware of.  We do have reservations to spend three nights in the Grant Village area of Yellowstone the first week of September.  As always, that's the plan.

Thanks for checking in on us.  We're fine.  Just finished a hatchery staff picnic dinner this evening at the pond.  Ate too much (and I had planned to eat too much, too!) 

Paint Brush Canyon on the other side of String Lake

That's it for us this week.  Until next week, David

Another String Lake view