Day 6

Today was a good day. We got up at around 6 and got an early start. Eating breakfast tacos on the go. The drive to Jenny Lake in the Grand Tetons was only 56 mile, but for some reason it took us almost 2 hours to get there. There was all kinds of road construction and 2 different sections where we had to stop and wait for pilot cars.
We finally got there. The plan was to have us all walk the first 2 miles of the trail. At that point you can catch a shuttle boat back to the start point. Shari and Grant would catch the boat and Amy and I would continue on the hike. Well Grant wasn’t feeling too well today and was very irritable. He refused to walk and I ended up carrying him on my head along with my heavy pack for most of the 2 miles. Shari and Grant rode back on the boat and went to Jackson Hole for lunch and to hang out at the library while Amy and I hiked. We were going to continue on to Lake Solitude which is like 7 more miles each way. We continued on to the part of the hike called Cascade canyon. It is a Canyon in the mountains with a creek winding through it. Very stunning and peaceful.
We passed a moose cow and calf and then a bull moose. They were probably 30 yards off the trail. As we walked past the bull moose he looked up at me and charged up the hill a few steps. He seemed very apprehensive of me. I guess not to many people with dreds and such come up through there. I must look like a bear. We contined on. At the fork in the trail where it gets steeper to go to Lake Solitude, Amy was pretty gassed. She had carried Alex on her back the whole time. We decided to turn back around and get back at a decent time. Alex was able to nurse while riding in her baby carrier on the way down.
As we passed through this one area where there is high grass and boulders, I noticed some movement on the trail up ahead. A large male black bear crossed the trail and lumbered into the boulders. I yelled at Amy to stop and I startled her a bit. We watched the bear get a safe distance up the hill. At about that time a female jogger dressed in a skimpy pink outfit came up behind us. I told her to be careful that there was a bear right next to the trail ahead. She just kept on jogging. She couldn’t hear me because she had her ipod earphones in. Running through bear country, alone, with earphones in oblivious to her surroundings. Brilliant. We made it back down the hill and Shari picked us up at the visitor center. Our legs were on fire and we were exhausted. Alex wanted to play and she seems to be very taken with birds. They would land all around and she would squeal with delight.
We headed back to the campsite and again got stuck in horrible traffic. We all took our showers tonight and they felt great after such a long day. As we were coming back, a newcomer across the street with a large travel trailer had tried to wiggle it into a tiny spot and had gotten it stuck. We watched them try to wriggle the thing out for about an hour as we grilled hot dogs by the fire. They eventually had to cut some tree limbs to get it out. We them roasted some marshmallows and we will hit the sack. Tommorow we are off to Missoula.