days three and four
(bison slideshow + MOOSE!)



june 3: day 3 (salt lake city, ut. to ashton, idaho 308 miles)

(feeling rushed at an internet cafe in BOZEMAN, MT.
probably the espresso jolt to the heart and the fear of mosquitos at dusk
which impels me to type fast and be on my way to the next sleeping place...)

after a stunning Mole dinner at Salt Lake City's Red Iguana, Kenny and Jan flew to Boston on the redeye. we slept overnight in their empty palace and woke up blissfully alone, regaled by birdsong and their two happy dogs. we'd been pushing so hard to leave town for this month-long adventure, we were exhausted!
we left Salt Lake at the crack of 1pm after i manufactured a minor computer
disaster and had to spend time on the phone with Apple techs (wiped out half a year of email and recovered nothing. ah, well. if they love me, they'll write to me again.).

idaho is a stunning jewel, a sweet spot that blossomed unexpectedly
out of the bald intensity of utah's rocks and salts.
glorious grasses, green, green, green rolling fields, vast expanse of sky.
four slow plops the size of babies heads hit the windshield. loud. plop plop plop plop.
then a terrific storm broke in earnest, heaven unzipped and dumped on the road.
then came the tympany: GIANT HAILSTONES. really really loudly pounding on the
roof of the Grey Goose which might have been scary but i was laughing hysterically.
i LOVE feeling my smallness in the face of nature's bigness.
the hail stopped.
half a fat rainbow appeared and we pushed on into the idaho wilderness,
stopped at a barely marked campground which was deserted save for a
few fishermen and the hosts (since when does every primitive campground
on earth have "hosts"?), Sam and Edith Sampson, who were a wonderful
unintentional comedy act in their mid-80's.

mosquitos as large as my fist (do you notice a Size theme developing here in the west?) amassed as soon as we arrived so we adopted a siege mentality as we put up
the new tent for the first time.
i'm from new england and no stranger to mosquitos but california's
mosquitolessness has turned me soft. plus: we never had mosquitos
like this in the Berkshires. never.
the spot was idyllic, beside a rushing river with osprey fishing
but the mosquitos made me grumpy. sleeping in the tent was
divine. absolutely divine.
but the mosquitos showed up the next morning again and we had
to make a rather hasty and unceremonious departure.



june 4, day 4 (ashton, idaho to big timber, montana 278 miles)

part way through the day and this is my ECSTATIC report:
MOOSE!
for gods sake, i have FINALLY SEEN A MOOSE, something
my soul has been longing for since i turned 50 four years ago.
not one.
not two.
but THREE MOOSE and i am feeling elated and
deeply moved by the huge beasts. two femmes
and a bitty baby (who probably outweighed me even in
his infancy) who looked a LOT like a rhinoceros!

ok. i should say we ALSO saw:
a FAMILY OF BISON
and that was THRILLING.



but the MOOSE, the mooses, they stole my heart



(Andrew talked me into buying a LOOOONG lens
for my new camera so i was able to photograph
all the beasts.)