Life is Oh So SWEET!

Today the Geekgrl and I woke up in Jackson Hole, WY. It has to be one of the most beautiful places on earth and I don’t think the cycling can be beat. There are miles and miles and miles of dedicated bike path running all over the place. There is one continuous bike path that I first notices starting like 30 miles south of town and it leads all the way to Jackson Hole and then keeps going probably all the way to the Grand Teton National Park. The shoulders all around the area and into the park are also generous and marked for cyclists. If only I would have known I would have planned an extra day into our trip but alas I did not so now I guess we’ll just have to come back some day…oh the hardships I face.

Instead of cycling all over the place at Jackson Hole we drove northward into the Grand Teton National Park and looked at the scenery and found ourselves a nice trail over by Jackson Lake and did a nice easy trail run. The trail was a well groomed single track through pine forest and then it skirted the lake for a while and we hit a turn around point at a secluded beach with a fantastic view of part of the lake and some of the Grand Teton range.

After that little jaunt we headed further north into Yellowstone National Park where we headed for the Old Faithful area and hiked around for about an hour until it was time for Old Faithful to go off. There are a lot of hot springs and other geothermal activity going on around there but Old Faithful is the main attraction firing some 90 feet into the air.

Next on the docket was a second trail run to Mystic Falls. I took a slightly different route than the Geekgrl that was a little further and involved more climbing and descent but it was still a short 3.6 miles and I took it easy and mixed running with power hiking and just enjoyed the scenery.

After Mystic Falls we headed further north to Mammoth Hot Springs and did about another 45 minutes of hiking, again, it was quite an experience. The day was absolutely gorgeous with clear blue skies and mild temperatures. We also ended up seeing several herds of buffalo, elk, antelope and even a few moose.

Because we were heading all the way to Bozeman today we were able to hook up with fellow Outlaws Debi and Hartly for dinner in Livingston, MT. It just happened that our separate travel plans had us crossing paths at that particular point as they were heading into Yellowstone and we were departing.

Oh, and to bookend this fantastic day I got a free latte at the coffee house where we had breakfast in Jackson Hole because all dads got a free coffee drink on account of it being Father’s Day and when we arrived at our hotel this evening I discovered that I was the “Guest of the Day” and I got a special parking space right beside the front door of the hotel.

There are many reasons they call me sweetness…I am a very fortunate man!