Independence in Jackson [July 5]

My cell phone went off at 5 something A.M. and I jumped out of bed and across the room. It was Mark Litchfield asking where I was. My head suddenly cleared as I realized, to my horror, that I was already late for our ward camping and rafting trip to Jackson Hole. I had set my alarm the night before to 4 P.M. I got out of the house as quickly as possible, cranked up the music in my CD player, and rushed to meet up with the 20 people that were waiting for me. When I got there I started throwing things from my trunk onto the asphalt and then found a place to park my car.

I was squeezed into car with a handful of others—each of which came to make new friends in the ward and have some sort of exciting adventure. I tried to sleep in the car, but that didn’t really work as the five of us chatted and got to know each other. Caroline, Jason, Jeremy, and Dave each brought their unique strengths to the table and our conversations were always fun and lively. It took about four hours to get to Jackson. Four hours of twisting through fields and canyons—it was beautiful.

When we came into Jackson the first thing we did was grab food at Bubba’s. My pulled BBQ chicken sandwich was delicious. What was also memorable was the waitresses warning to our group when Caroline asked about the safety of rafting down the river. The Snake River was especially high that week—I think it had been reported at 17 CFS (which evidently is fast). Anyway, I felt like I was in a horror movie the way the waitress looked at us and said that someone had died last week and that we had better not go without a guide. Luckily we did have some people who were very experienced on the river and were just fine.

Imagine a large green valley below a stretch of purple, snowcapped mountains—that was the view from our camp in Curtis Canyon. Our tents were nestled between the large pine trees that are so common in that part of Wyoming. It really was picture perfect. It was a little chilly at night—but everyone admitted that they had a decent night’s sleep—for camping.

The rafts made three trips down the river—one on Friday and two on Saturday. The two that I participated in were both relaxing and exciting. The river, its steep sloped banks, and the nearby mountains were simply breathtaking. The most exciting rapids were dubbed Lunch Counter—no one in our group knew why although there was a lot of speculation. It all was quite the ride.

The grand finale of our trip was the fireworks show for Independence Day. It was unlike anything we had ever seen. The sky shimmered and sparkled like the stars themselves were making an up-close and personal appearance. Words fail me—it was awesome.
The whole trip was one I’ll never forget. I had a blast.