Today started a little more calmly. We had a leisurely breakfast watching to see if any of the lakeside sites would become free. One did, just a couple of sites away from us. So we claimed it as early as we could, while the folks there were packing up. As I was returning from the pay station, I could see people literally racing around looking for better spots. It seemed that someone was waiting to pull into ours as we were leaving to change sites.
In fact, when we drove around the loop to our new site, someone had parked a car in it, but we had already tagged and paid for it. We knew where the car came from, a site with a big FunFinderX just down the road. We stopped and told the man that his car was in our site and he said that he thought we had left early and was saving it for his sister, who was arriving later. We said no, we hadn't left, we were just going off for the day. He apologized and said he'd move the car. We went back up to the site and posted a "Site Occupied" sign on the post and left our chairs by the table, just to make it clear.
Finally, we were off to see some sights and take a walk in the woods. We still couldn't see very far; it was still hazy. We first stopped at the Oxbow Bend overlook to check out the birds. White Pelicans, Double-Crested Cormorants and Turkey Vultures were all in attendance. We then took a detour down a dirt road, Cattlemen's Bridge Road, that led down to the bank of the river just above the Oxbow Bend. I was interested to see if the river might be quiet enough to out T/T Speedy in for a paddle up into the oxbow on a later day. It might be, but since we later found out that you not only need a boating permit from the Park Service, you also need an Invasive Species certificate from the State of Wyoming and neither is free, we might not be doing any paddling in the Tetons. While we were down there we did see ducks. The only ones I would identify were Mergansers.
It was time for a hike. We went up to Colter Bay to walk the trails in the direction of Hermitage Point. We weren't sure how far we would go as it was our first walk at 6900 feet, so we wanted to take easy and do a relatively flat one today. Hermitage Point was about 10 miles round-trip, so we didn't think we'd do all of it as an after lunch walk, but a shorter loop would be nice.
We took our lunch and headed down the trail along the lake until we found a nice spot on the shore to admire the mountains in the haze and watch the boats go by as the left Colter Bay Marina, including a Hinckley Picnic Boat. This was a bit jaw-dropping that someone would ship a Hinckley to Wyoming so they could cruise up and down a 16 mile long lake. Jackson Hole is that kind of place.
After the boat watching it was off to do some walking and birdwatching. After a brief detour up the trail to the Colter Bay Overlook we strolled along the shore of Heron Lake. No herons were to be seen, but a few ducks and a lone coot. After reaching the end of the lake the trail splits in four directions, two forks head out toward Hermitage Point, but connect by a cross trial to make a 2.5 mile loop. We thought about that option, but were deterred by the "Trail Closed Due To Bear Activity" sign on a string across one of the branches. So, we took the other option and set off toward Swan Lake.
Swan Lake was quite a bit bigger than Heron Lake, but like Heron Lake it was mostly choked with water lilies. There were quite a few open spots though with some wildlife. There were a couple of beaver lodges, but we saw no beaver, no swans either. There were more ducks and a Canada Goose with one very young gosling who was paddling like mad to get to mom who was quite far ahead. There was a big flock far out in the lake, but it was not possible to determine what they were. It was back into the woods, watching out for that "Bear Activity" where we saw several small gray birds with yellow beaks and long tails that we can't identify.
After a six mile or so walk we were back to Speedy, where it was off to the Colter Bay Showers and Laundry, where we partook of both as well as using their WiFi hotspot to upload to the Speedy Journal and get mail. I no longer stink and neither does my clothes. Ellen always smells nice, but she showered anyway.
It was back to camp and dinner at the Trapper Cafe at the Signal Mountain Lodge. Based on raves by Backpacker Magazine we ordered their famous Nachos. The menu says it serves 2-4. The mountain of chips, cheese, chicken, beef, beans, tomatoes and onions, surrounded by bowls of guacamole, sour cream, halapenos and salsa, could have served 6-8. That's what you get for listening to a rag that is targeted towards 20-somethings. Needless to say, we didn't finish it. We probably ate too much, but still ordered and piece of blackberry pie with ice cream to go. We hoofed it back to Speedy and devoured the pie, before sitting down to write this.
They may have to roll us out of Speedy in the morning.
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