OurSuiteTime: Hike and Health Issues

The first news of the day yesterday was that the Jeep was finished early and we walked to the dealership and picked it up at 10:30 AM. Before we went to get the Jeep we had decided that we would take a relatively short hike in the Tetons. There were a few things we needed to pick up before hiking - like a back pack, socks, water bottles and insect repellent before going on any hike. We had already purchased the other necessary items for hiking - poles, shoes, etc. - a couple years ago. One item we were going to buy was bear spray until we discovered that it cost $40 for a can of pepper spray that is good for one 10
second spray at a maximum distance of 35 feet. I don't think so. We'll take our chances.

There are so many hikes, of all lengths and degree of difficulty that it is hard to choose which one to start with. We chose to do a 2.5 mile trail around a part of Jenny Lake that ended at the Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point locations. The trail actually circles the whole lake, but you can hike the 2.5 mile portion from the visitor center to the Hidden Falls/Inspiration Point area - or you can take the shuttle boat that they have and costs $10 per person for a round trip to the dock where the falls is located.

It obviously was a beautiful area to spend some time hiking and the description of the hike was that it was not strenuous. That was enough for us. We arrived at the visitor center parking lot at 2:15 and followed the signs to the trailhead. We passed the boat dock at the beginning of the trail:

and then began the trek around the lake. The views were spectacular and the trail just followed the lake:

We took lots of pictures and it was difficult to decide which ones to include here. We also took some shots of the mountains as we had some open areas, like this one at an area that is called the Moose Ponds:

There were some areas where the trail became a little steep, and with the afternoon temperatures in the low 80's, caused us to stop frequently for a rest. We were over halfway there when I suddenly had an attack of heat exhaustion. I became dizzy and nauseous, and had to sit down. The mistake I made was that I wore a vest under the backpack and was perspiring more than normal. We ended up spending a lot of extra time until I became able to move on and Josie was concerned that I would need to have help to go any further. There was no choice - I had to manage to get to the location where we could take the boat back to shore and to the starting point. While sitting and wating to feel better, Josie caught this shot of a chipmonk that was waiting for a handout:

She also captured some of her favorite subject - flowers:

These were called Colorado Combine's and were just about everywhere, along with lots of other wildflowers.

As we were slowly walking along the trail, we ran into a couple that said there was a moose and her calf just ahead of us. They were right. A cow and her calf were walking on the trail toward us. The mother turned off just ahead of us and we got this shot of her:

and the calf was right behind her and was still on the path:

The calf jumped off into the brush as soon as it saw us and we didn't get a good shot of it running to catch up to mom.

We also passed a spot where this marmot (or other varmint) was running to hide under this rock:

It seemed like it was taking forever to reach the point where we could catch the boat back to shore. I was not feeling well at all and wasn't sure I could make it, but we continued on as there wasn't any choice. This shot is the approximate area where the boat dock is located near the Hidden Falls:

We arrived at a location where the sign pointed up hill to the falls, or to the right toward the boat dock. I sat down while Josie attempted to climb the final distance to capture photos of the falls. She returned to where I was sitting after about 15 minutes because the climb was too long and steep and there were other trails off the main one and she wasn't sure which one to take. Anyway, we started walking to the dock and took this shot of the rapids coming down from the falls:

It's a shame that we couldn't see the falls on this trip, but we'll be back.

Here is a shot of the boat that is used to shuttle people back and forth:

It's not a great shot, but is the best we could do by the time we reached the clearing. Anyway, I was very happy to get back to the starting point - at 5:45 PM. We found out that the last boat leaves at 6 PM to shuttle people back from the Falls. Whew! We made it by 15 minutes. There is no way I could have hiked back from there feeling the way I was.

Finally, we were back in Jackson Hole and, on the way home, took this shot of the stagecoach that runs all day, every day in town during the summer: