Some More Stuff

 Kayaks are still at the river but they are ice locked out with about 40 feet of ice between shore and actual moving water.

We got a good snow this time and for the third year in a row over the holidays I escorted check outs up, and this time, down, Hurrah Pass. While going down I met guests checking in coming up and when I got back up to the top of Hurrah there was a crowd of people taking pictures.

The pass is what it is and in the snow it's even more interesting.

By afternoon it had mostly melted so it was a chance, maybe the last one to pump some water into the tanks on the Last Hurrah side of the property. The pond was frozen and I had to throw three big rocks in the same place to break the ice so I could put a pump in it. I had to take the hoses a part in a couple places and push ice out but overall probably less than an hour before I had water pumping again. There's a cold spell coming so the next ice might be too thick to break so I filled them to the top.

Three People

 Got to go hiking with guests out to Skinny People. Nice to be on the trails again and with good people.

Saturn has been chasing Jupiter across the sky the whole year and two nights ago caught it and last night ran over it. Everybody else is saying it caught it last night but that's not how I saw it. They are both so far west in the night sky they aren't up long after it gets dark. In another month or less they'll both be gone to my night sky. I will miss them.

Had a phone call set up with the bank last Friday to go over some details of the new loan. They called at the correct time but my phone never rang. Then at 8:30pm a message shows up on my phone, seven hours after they called. We reschedule for Wednesday 11am. I don't want to take any chances so I drive to town, do errands, then drive around to get the most bars I can get. They call and it's move back two hours. I'm stuck in town so I start buying supplies for months to come. When this holiday rush is over around the 5th of January I should have everything I need and not have to go to town again for maybe a month or so. We have our conversation and I head back. On a dirt road that is usually full of side by sides I see three people.

Going through McDonalds the guy in the truck in front of me pulls up to the pay window. A little mechanical arm comes out he reaches out with his left arm and touches the mechanical thing with his watch. They hand him a drink and a bag and he drives off. What the hell was that about?

As I'm driving back on the blacktop part of the road and I get two or three miles out of town there's a guy with a wheelbarrow full of grocery bags pushing his groceries to either The Land or Pritchett Canyon. About five miles. At Kane Creek there is a car parked with no one around. Jax and I drive up Hurrah and when we got about half way down the other side here comes a thin woman running up the pass. I said "Where'd you come from?" She points to the other side of Hurrah.

The Beach

Getting harder to find a way to get in the river as the ice in shallow water is moving further off shore. Jax is so fascinated by chunks of ice that float by.

Stuff

The roller coaster of snow, melt, nice day, snow, melt, nice day continues. 

I got the sign Michelle ran over turned around so it sort of point towards Jackson Hole now like it use to. Well not all of it.

Pumping water over at the pond and got dog, coyote, and cat tracks.

Lot of mule deer this year hiding by Hull's Place and in the tall grass.

Unfortunately it was the small female ringtail that liked to hide her hot dogs that got run over. I haven't seen her since. Her brother still comes every night and hangs oun

Good Hike

 These are my kind of snow storm. It's there in the morning and gone by noon. Jax and I left at 1:30 and got back about 4:30 and we got a lot of ground covered all the way out to the turn looking down at Pot Ash plant in Jackson Hole.

I found myself in roughly the same position as earlier this year when I hiked back from town and had limited time before dark. I was pretty sure I could find the short cut from Jackson Hole to Last Hurrah and cut an hour off my time. If not, I was going to be pretty embarrassed when I spent the night out there or had to make it back to the road and call for a ride.

Was going to be a little further than I thought but we should pick up a big horn trail soon and make it will before dark.

Jax is leading for me looking for a way down as the sun continues to slide down.

We pick up a familiar rock formation and find the big horn trail right after that arriving back at the lodge as the last rays of sun fade behind Pyramid Butte.

Giveth, Taketh Away, Giveth, Taketh Away,.......Giveth

 Mother Nature gave us another snow but a couple hours later the sun came out and took it away, then she gave us some more, the sun came out and.....

We headed down the creek bed to the place we put the kayaks in. Maybe not today.

Up the boat ramp with deer, coyote and fox tracks.

When we got back it's time to clean the lodge garage I haven't done since the Moab 240 was here.

Jax favorite spot is to sleep in the office on my desk on his pillow. When Linda was here we had a mouse in the office which Jax solved the issue a few days later. However I put a trap out for it but had to put it five or six feet up on a shelf. While I was cleaning pulling books and the like out I heard something sliding off a shelf so I caught it as it was falling and then it caught two my fingers.

I'm not sure, and I'm happy that way, but somehow Michelle's Jeep wound up in town and whoever sent a picture of where they left it so I gave her a ride in to get a pretty torn up Jeep. We got back just as we were getting ready to be the recipients of Giveth again.