Day 31, Thursday, August 17, 2012, Wisdom to Jackson, MT

Day 31, Thursday, August 17, 2012, Wisdom to Jackson, MT

I read until 11 the night before and Mike was up around 7:30 or so making a big racket fixing hot water for Starbucks instant coffee, and once I realized what he was doing I was outta bed. We trailed the other room down to The Crossings by about 15 minutes where we all had a breakfast and a long discussion about where we were going to stay next, how far we should travel, how we were going to break up the distances, what kind of facilities we might stay at, motel or tent. Concurrent with the discussion was me on my iPad looking things up and/or iPhones doing the same. The Crossings had the only decent wifi signal in Wisdom. No one in our group had phone service, not AT&T or Verizon. The upshot was confirmation of a motel in Dillon, our next stop, and several phone numbers to call when we finally got service.

We weren't in a hurry to leave Wisdom. We only had 18 miles to travel to arrive at Jackson. It turned out to be 18 relatively flat miles as we didn't even crack 500 feet in elevation gain.

A look toward the west and you cannot see the Bitteroot Mountains because of smoke

 

Looking east at the Pioneers(?)

Geno riding south toward Jackson.

 

Looking north back at the rest of the gang who have left Wisdom. These four pictures demonstrate how much smoke is in The Big Hole Valley.

 

Osprey nest with two fledgings. Parents have just vacated the nest. I heard their screeching while I took the above pictures, but didn't focus on the sound until I turned to take the last picture, just above.

One of the parents in flight.

In Jackson we had lunch at the Jackson Hot Springs Lodge, soaked in the hot springs pool. The pool was about body temperature when I got in, and when a pool maintenance person came around he began letting in more hot water to get the temp up  to 103, which is where they like it. 

While eating dinner we observed a band setting up in the big main room, (or ball room cowboy style? You know, wide open space with stuffed big game heads adorning the walls or balcony walls, which are around three-quarters of the room with the open end where the band stage is located.) Carrying in some small items was a tall, leggy, blonde, with short shorts on. A very stunning woman, at least to our table of seven males. 

We came back at 9 to listen to the band. I thought they were a very tight band with lots of experience playing all kinds of music. Their band name is Northern Lights and the leggy blonde? She is a singer in the real sense. They played a lot of blues based stuff during their first set and she could belt a blues, sing a ballad and I never heard a bad note. Her name is Marghie Cates. The backup band was a guitar player who could sing, an electric six string bass player who could sing well and a drummer who also did backup singing. I talked with the bass player Saturday morning before leaving for Dillon. He is a professional musician, private music teacher by day to over 45 students, and playing on the weekend. The bassist and drummer have entered their 60's and the bass player is looking at retirement. All in all a very listenable band and a nice way to end our time in Jackson Hot Springs Lodge.

Stats: Av= 12.8, El Gain= 489, Max Alt= 6207, ODO= 4067, D= 18.5, T= 1:25, Mx= 21.5