Category: Hiking

My New Favorite Hike

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Ok guys. I have news!

Yesterday, B took me on what I think might be “the world’s perfect hike”. Well, according to Natalie that is.

What, you ask are the components necessary for this bold statement? Literally, it’s in bold. And I will tell you.

It’s simple.

A nicely groomed, happy trail…TWSS.

4,000 feet of elevation gain over 7.2 miles. So basically, you’re stair mastering continuously. Bombskie workout.

A restaurant at the top. Hello waffles. Hello Natalie.

A tram that carries you back down.

Shopping at the base.

These things made hiking to the summit of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort (aka to the top of the tram) pretty awesome.

We started out around 8:30 am and after a quick stop at Elevated Grounds to fill up our Sigg and add 2 pumps SF Vanilla to my house-brewed coffee, we were on our way.

All hail Yuban.

Yuban

We reached the village at around 9 and made our way to the trail head, conveniently located right outside of the Four Seasons. With the smell of bacon, mimosas and Chanel No.5 wafting out the door and under my nose I pondered if I should ditch Bryan and poach the hot tub instead. Reluctantly, I pressed on heading up the path to catch up with Bryan. Glancing to my left I realized just yards away from where we were walking, I had learned to ski. Ca-reepy.

Killing it off the Tram

As we passed the lovely houses by the Four Seasons, I thought “Who lives in these places? Yuppie, snobbish, east coast families who play tennis, wear Burberry and visit they’re ‘modest cabin’ 2 weeks a year?”. If so…sign me up! Although I would rather play golf and wear Ralph Lauren. So there.

Not sure what I'm doing here...

The start!

The first hour or so of our hike was really beautiful and relatively flat. We had stupidly left our bear spray behind so I made sure to bust out a couple musical ditties every now and again to scare any Berensteins away. These included hits from the Biebs, Glee and that song that goes “Love me, love me, say that you love me!”. Once the trail opened up we were no longer in danger of coming face to face with a bear but another quite ominous enemy was upon us. Hills. Big. Ass. Hills.

Pretty View

The hills on this hike varied from smaller, more gradual inclines to full-on butt burners. Bryan suggested we take a rest halfway through, at about 3.6 miles. However, as we passed the halfway point sign, I urged him to keep going. As he let out a whoop-whoop and congratulated me on my obvious core-ness, I smiled because I really just didn’t want to sit down, let my legs tire and run outta juice. Which, maybe is a little hard-core?

Sustenance

Life Saving. Also - My face is wide.

Towards the top, we stumbled upon a photo shoot taking place on a beautiful look-out point. As we trudged past, I asked one of the production assistants what it was for. Hoping it was a battle scene for an upcoming movie starring Johnny Depp or even better, Real Housewives of Orange County on vacation I got pretty excited! He then informed me it was for a web series called Yoga Today.

Meh… Can you imagine those skinny OC beeyatches hiking around in the mud in Jackson? Priceless.

Paparazzi Shot

When we reached the top (10,450 feet), we were swarmed with tourists, bundled up as if it was -25 in the middle of January. Cue fanny packs, jerseys, bright white tenny-runners and Jackson Hole logo gear. Of course, they had all taken the tram up to the top of the summit. Not like us bad-ass locals :-). We quickly used the bathrooms, debated ordering a waffle from Corbett’s (which we shot down in favor of sandwiches at home), snapped a pic or two and hopped on the tram for the 10 minute ride down.

Money Shot

Our Chariot (aka The Tram)

After the quick ride down, we downed some vitamin water zeros and strolled through the shops. While shopping we saw skis. Bryan was ogling and I was crying.

Upon our return we made ginormous sandwiches, drank beers and vegged out on the couch all day.

Actually, Bryan took a nap and I wisely popped in a glorious Amanda Bynes movie while I could.

Sydney White – how I love you.

There’s a First Time for Everything

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This was me about 2 weeks ago.

My friends it’s true…I went CAMPING. Don’t cry, everything is fine.

For those of you who know me, you’re already well versed in the Danielson ways of vacationing. Bigger cities (i.e Seattle, Portland, New York), hotel rooms, shopping, Red Robin and the occasional melt-down. An outdoorsy, rollin around in the dirt, sports playin youngin’ I was not. My childhood was all about stirrup pants, Hello Kitty, trading stickers, Barbies and trying to convince my Mom to crimp my hair like errday.

When I started going out with B, I knew I was in for some adventures…hello THE PASS. But I was actually excited about trying this whole camping thing.

Apparently, there are different kinds of camping. For your convenience, I shall break them down in laments terms for ease of understanding:

  • Backpacking – This is when you hike with a really-effing-heavy pack on your back into the wilderness, stop at some point, put up a tent and go to sleep. Advantages – great workout and the scenery might be pretty. Disadvantages – Having to carry everything you need on your person. This means that a 5th of vodka, ipod player, Juicy jumpsuit and 3 bags of Stacy’s Pita Chips are simply out of the question.
  • Car Camping – This is when you drive in the luxury of your own vehicle to the campsite directly and either sleep in your car or in a tent. Advantages – Ability to pack as much as you like, including multiple bags of chips, cases of beer/wine/vodka, ukuleles (why not?) and maybe a teacup yorkie named Professor Snazzypants. Disadvantages – n/a.

To ease me into the whole camping thing, Bryan opted for the car camping option. That’s m’boy.

We departed at around 2 o’clock and Bryan had smartly packed all the essentials.

  • Clothes
  • Tent
  • Sleeping bags + pillows
  • Chairs
  • Cooler
  • Beer, wine, rum
  • Water
  • Food
  • Bear spray
  • Sunblock
  • Toilet Paper
  • Camera
  • Fire Wood

My contributions.

  • Dry Shampoo
  • Blush + Mascara
  • Nerds Rope
  • Chex Mix
  • 2 celebrity gossip magazines and a Food and Wine
  • Hot Pink deck of cards

We drove out to Slide Lake (about 1 hour from Jackson) and claimed a camping spot as we anxiously awaited our friends, Jeremy and Lorie to join us. To pass the time, we ate, drank and played trivia games on Bryan’s phone.

Michelob Ultra, Cactus Lime = Delish

Boxed Wine...Duh

When Jeremy and Lorie arrived, we decided to try and find a more secluded spot along the Gros Ventre River. It didn’t take long for us to find this little gem.

The View

We immediately made a fire and let the good times roll.

CAUGHT!

The next morning B and I woke up around 8:30 and went on a “nature-walk” as I was calling it (SO Bob Ross). But not before I got in a little bit of breaking news:

And dorky faces…

Our Nature Walk was so beautiful and we had a nice little 20 minute stroll.

Check out this arty photo I took of the wildflowers:

I May be Going into Business

When we returned to camp, Jeremy and Lorie were stirring and Lorie brought the ingredients to make breakfast sandwiches. Ingredients included:

  • Amazing organic ciabatta bread
  • Tomato
  • Bacon
  • Homemade Pesto Aioli

Sizzlin Bacon

Can you say holy-yum?

Since my allergies were killin me softly and I forgot my meds (aka Allegra) we packed up camp and hit the road back to Jackson.

Overall, I did a pretty good job at camping. Some would argue that one cannot be “good” or “bad” at camping, but I think you can. The only skills I need to work on are

1.) packing more candy

2.) bringing allergy medicine and

3.) urinating in the woods :-).

A Grand Time

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What’s up lambs?

About a week ago, Bryan and his two good pals Jeremy and Cody decided to make it their new tradition to go up the Grand Teton each 4th of July weekend. With the crazy amount of snow we got this winter (818 inches), they boys set out at 11 PM last Saturday night to climb the mountain on Sunday to avoid any avalanche dangers.

Elevation: 13,775 feet

Grand Teton is the high point of the Teton Range, and the second highest peak in the state of Wyoming. No big deal.

Climbers scale this mountain in various lengths of time, anywhere from 2 days to 3 hours and seven minutes (the newest record).  In order to attain such fast times, climbers actually run up the  mountain and free-climb (meaning no ropes) when the terrain gets technical.

Bryan’s PR? 5 hours, 55 minutes, car-to-car. UNREAL. Anything sub-six hours is considered expert.

Here is Bryan’s account of their climb, last Saturday. Enjoy kittens!

So this weekend we once again climbed the Upper Exum Ridge of the Grand Teton on the 4th of July weekend, a new tradition. We started off on a beautiful starry night/morning on Sunday, July 3rd. With the enormous amount of snow we received in Jackson Hole this winter we knew we were in for a long day of climbing on snow and ice but the temperature was perfect and before long we were watching the sunrise from the rocky, wind blown Lower Saddle. We filled water bottles, consumed energy bars, enjoyed the scenery, and prepared for the climb.

When we approached the Wall Street Ledge we noticed from the undisturbed snow that no one had climbed the Upper Exum anytime recently, perhaps not since last season. With the sun now warming our faces we began the climb.

My new La Sportiva Boulder X shoes made for great climbing on the grippy granite rock. The climbing was easy yet exhilarating as we made our way toward the summit. There was quite a bit of snow and ice but we were able to avoid most of it and stay on rock, sometimes doing fun split-like moves between the rock.

A few hours later we were on the summit ridge and eager to rest and take in the view.

At 1:00pm we had reached the summit, basking sunlight we were elated and marveled at our surroundings. The sky was indescribably clear and the snow-capped mountain ranges of Western Wyoming glistened in sunlight.

Before long we started to make our way back down the mountain, through the snow, to the Lower Saddle where we had stashed some beers in the snow earlier in the morning. We glissaded (slid on our butts) down the snow fields and were soon on dry ground at another location where yes, we had stashed a couple more beers. By 5 we were approaching the parking lot and looking forward to seeing our girlfriends and enjoying the warm early evening on the deck at Dornan’s. It was a long but deeply satisfying day with good friends on one of America’s most iconic peaks, The Grand Teton.

Good Times Had by All

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What a week!

There is just SO much that I could tell you. Unfortunately, only about 10% of it might be of interest. The rest would leave you scared, annoyed and maybe a little bit hostile.

Cutting to the chase:

1.) Bryan’s brother Corbin arrived Monday morning!

Bryan and Corbin in Hawaii

Since it was the 4th of July, naturally we had made some plans including raftin and q-in. I had procured three spots for us on Matt’s boat and it was a BLAST. Our group included 5 boats, at least 2 cases of brews, tons of food, a platypus full a wine (pictured below) and of course, Holly brought her flask. I knew I was friends with her for a reason!

We Call it "The Platty"

After a thrilling day on the Hoback River, we came home and fired up the Q.

Bryan also prepared his delicious guacamole.

The candy dishes  and glow sticks were courtesy of yours truly :-).

We grilled kabobs and hamburgers, had plenty of chips and dip, drank beers and OF COURSE ended the night with s’mores.

P.S Glow sticks from the Dollar Store suck.

Other haps of the week (unpictured unfortunately) were:

  •  Floating Flat Creek with Bryan and Corbin intertube-style, mine popping on a rusty nail and being dragged downstream until I realized that I could stand up. #blondemoment.
  • Dinner at Trio. I had:
  • Enjoying Bryan’s delicious homemade pizza while watching “Due Date”. BTW, Robert Downey Jr.  is getting cuter and cuter with age.
  • Drinks + Dinner at the Caddy and Nikai. So. Effing. Good.
  • Making this awesome girl’s Cake Batter Pizzert. Vegan, using spelt flour. How granola-ey of me huh?

Today is my day off! So I celebrated by making this for breakfast:

Bluebs, Organic Cinnamon Toast Cruch, Puffed Wheat and Almond Milk

Then I went up Snow King!

For all you who don’t live in Jackson Hole (most of you), Snow King is a ski resort but also the name of the mountain it sits on. It is located about 1 mile from town and makes for an excellent workout in the summer. The mountain starts at 6,237 feet and the summit is at 7,808. This means that hikers gain 1,571 feet of elevation in anywhere from 25-75 minutes. it takes me about 38-45 minutes to hike up (longer if I forget my ipod).

Today was so beautiful outside that I smartly remembered to grab my camera to show y’all what it looks like out there.

View from the bottom

Harses, harses, harses, harses…Anyone?

Heading Up

Wildflowers, 1/3 of the way up

Breaking a Sweat

Awesome Wyoming Fanny Pack

Taking the chair lift down

Purty

Wind on My Face

This hike always rocks my world a little bit. It’s short, but intense on the stems. To power through, I listened to hits from Glee and Mamma Mia! On the way down, I slowed things down a bit with Phoebe Snow (look her up) and also this song.

I’m such a Ringie.

Now, I am relaxing with a delicious Life Water, graham crackers and an Amanda Bynes movie (obv), while I mentally prepare for our kickball game at 6:30. Perhaps I shall bring along the camera tonight and capture the Kicking Mules (our team name) striving for victory? I vote yes.

When the Weather is Fine

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What up BB’s?!

I know I have been a bit MIA this week but I promise you I have a good excuse. You see….

IT TURNED INTO SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!

You know me and m’love for the sun so obviously I am a happy camper.  B and I kicked off the season with a hike/picnic in Grand Teton National Park and ’twas perfection. Well, except for the fact that I got stung by a mini-bee. Nobody believes that mini-bees exist, but they DO.

We drove into the park and decided to hike into Death Canyon. What a name, right? We are SO core.

I love wearing pink while hiking. And also doing most other things.

A loaf of bread obv got suck to the side of my head

Trying to get an action shot of water splashing = Impossible

After the hike portion of our journey, it was finally time for the food portion! We hopped back into the car and drove to Jenny Lake, which is a really popular spot in GTNP and for good reason. There is a beautiful trail that winds all the way around the lake and they offer boat rides to and from each side as well. Bry and I laid some towels out in the sand/rocks and feasted upon the surprise contents of the cooler,  which featured:

  • Pita chips
  • Salami
  • Triscuits
  • Laughing Cow Cheese
  • Watermelon
  • Apples + Oranges
  • Lemonade
  • GUSHERS
  • and of course, PBR

Duh

Where have these been all my life?

After the PBR was consumed…

Other haps of the week included a couple of runs (3 and 4 miles), an accidental donning of denim on denim aka the Canadian tuxedo and LOTS of crazy tourists asking for “6 pump hot chocolates”. Ew.

The most exciting of all?

Bryan’s promotion!

That’s right, in two weeks time Bryan will be moving locations and working on cooler and awesomer stuff like credit analysis and bigger consumer loans. Oooohh…Ahhhh. B is in banking, btw. What a great reason to celebrate, right?! So of course I enlisted the help of Holls Balls (or Holly) to accompany me to the dollar store where we made some purchases and then headed home to decorate.

We went with the “luau” theme and I think it worked quite nicely here, no? Since Holly had to take off, I was left in charge of the big surprise once Bryan got off. I think it tuned out ok…case in point…

I even got him a special “promotion” cup. Which was blue and featured a flamingo. Relevant, no. Awesome, yes. We then popped open the$8.99 bubbly and toasted.

After peering a bit closer at the bottle, we noticed that it was an award-winning bubbly! I told Bryan, “Obviously, I only buy the classiest champagne.”

Check out the actual award below…

The 2008 Dallas Morning News Wine Competition? Ah hells yes.

I know how to pick em.

Fun with Bug Bites

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Cripes it’s Friday!

What a random week  we’ve had. There are so many stories to tell that are completely mediocre, where do I begin?!

According to Miss Andrews, circa The Sound of Music, I suppose I shall start at the beginning, a very good place to start.

I should preface this with a question: Anyone out there working F&B ever feel like all the days just kindof blur together?

A normal 9-5 means putting in yer 40 hours and meticulously counting down the minutes on Friday until you can go home, change into your “after-work” clothes (ala Mr. Rodgers) and start downing gimlets while watching SATC and curling your hair MaryKate and Ashley style. Or was this just me?

Now, Saturday feels like Thursday and 11 am can feel like 6 pm.

What am I getting at? Oh yes. My point is that while I promise to start at the beginning, I’m a little unsure as to what that is. So in no certain order here are some awesome stories from this week.

I worked the afternoon shift at Elevated Grounds Coffeehouse and got off around 6:30 pm. I hadn’t worked out so I texted Bryan and asked him if he wanted to do a hike after work. One of the many perks of living in Jackson Hole is that there are a plethora of short, amazing hikes literally right outside our door. We decided to conquer Snow King for it’s increasing steepness and breathtaking views.

Top of Snow King

About half way up, Bryan paused. I looked over expecting him to say “Oh my gosh, there’s Harrison Ford!”. Instead he slapped the back of his leg, killing a mosquito and leaving a small streak of blood down his leg. Insert RFAN. Random fact about Natalie:

I HATE BUGS.

Actually, allow me to clarify. I could care less about bugs, but what I hate is what they leave behind. Bug bites. I consider myself a gal with a healthy amount of self-control, but when I get a bug bite, I scratch the bejesus out of it. I’m sorry I just do.

Here is a shot of my leg when I was traveling around Panama with friends and I got EATEN ALIVE by sand fleas.

So we proceeded to the top of Snow King, despite the air being thick with flying blood suckers and as we made our way down, I surveyed the damage. Three. Two on my arm, one on my leg. And yes, I have scratched them. I have scratched, have had troubles sleeping and am just irritated with these pesky little pumps.

Arm Bug Bites

Leg Bug Bite

I am happy to report that I  got my hands on some Cortizone 10 and the stuff seems to do the trick for a while anyway.

The Chipped Purple HAS to Go

But enough with gross bug bites. On to better things with less inflammation. Some inflammation, just…less.

I made delicious caprese sandwiches this week.

Ingredients

Finished Prod

And we had a house party with Holly, Matt and Jess. More mojitos. Twas a good time.

We got a handle this time...

Matt and Holly Shenanigans

B Doing a Yidda Jig

Jess the Yogi

I Made Krispie Treats

That’s all I got.

BTW, I also hate the word “inflammation“.

June is Bustin Out All Over!

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All over the meadows and the hills!

Yes, I was in a musical review of Carousel at Spokane Falls Community College. “June is Busting Out All Over”  depicts the amazing month of June and all the wonder it has to offer. Birds chirping, green meadows, flowers a’bloomin. However, this is not the case for poor Jackson Hole. This is the weather I have to look forward to next week:

Poopy, to say the least.

In order to overcome the scattered and isolated t-storms (such ugly words) you must either follow these rules or hike up yer skinny jeans, throw on the galoshes and say “bring it on June!”. This weekend was no exception.

Technically, my “weekend” began on Thursday since I’ve undergone a couple career changes and will now be full time at Elevated Grounds Coffee House. So freakin awesome, right?! What did I do to celebrate? Made cupcakes of course!! I was gifted this amazing mix a while back and decided to give it a try:

Sprinkles Cupcakes Mix

Not without my favorite apron of course:

For the mix, all you do is add eggs, milk, salt and vinegar. The kit also gives you a super easy recipe for cream cheese buttercream frosting and the signature Sprinkles adornments. The frosting contained cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, salt and vanilla. Here’s a shot of the naked cupcake:

Next, I put all the frosting into a Ziploc bag, snipped one corner and piped the frosting on. I’m such a pro ;-).

I’m Trying the Natural Light Thing!

I served these cupcakes with chicken souvlaki pitas and tzatziki. They were BOMB.

Homeade tzatsiki

We also enjoyed this bottle of  wine given to me by Stacey and Zack, the lovely owners of Elevated Grounds. Notice the blend? SO fitting right?!


Friday:
I didn’t have to work and it was raining which meant doing hoards of laundry while watching The Price is Right. I was the epitome of a housewife, even though I am not married and consider dogs to be babies. I basked in my cliche.

After the laundry was folded, the floors were mopped and the vodka was gone, I decided it was time for exercise. So I threw on my stretchy pants and…watched a Lifetime Movie. Those things are pure danger. After “Deadly Whispers” (totes amazing) I hiked up High School Butte while listening to the Sweeney Todd Soundtrack and Justin Bieber. I was a hot + sweaty mess  of a girl.

Then, Bry  informed me that we had our first kick-ball game of the season. It’s true, B and I joined a kickball team for the summer. After you stop laughing, know this: people in The Hole, take their kickball UBER serious. Despite the fact that most participants are holding a PBR in a “Frankie Say Relax” beer coozy, folks can get seriously verklemped over this so-called P.E game.

Since I tend to take sports a little more lightly than most, it was easy for me to laugh and distribute high-5’s despite our pathetic 15-3 loss. The good news? I got on base, ran to third, wore cute pink sparkly knee socks and totally intimidated the other team like this:

Saturday:

Bryan had to work which meant another deliciously housewivey day. I kicked it off by doing sit ups while watching House Hunters  in my jammies and socks. Does anyone else do this? I love the show but do tire of comments such as “This room would be great for entertaining” and “I was really hoping for granite counter-tops with an island”. Come on people! Old and funky is making a comeback. Along with coolots and stirrup pants (I promise).

After the rained cleared up a bit, I completed a 4 mile run along flat creek at an embarrassingly slow pace. But I’m trying not to focus on that :-). Again, I returned home a sweaty beast:

I ran in my fairly new Nike Lunar Lites.

These babies are great. I also wear custom orthotics since I have (and I quote from my P.T) “ridiculously flat feet” and they help enormously as well. Another cool aspect of this shoe is that it has the slot in the sole for the Nike+ chip.

From Nike:

How it Works

Simply place the Nike+ Sensor under the sockliner of your left Nike+ ready shoe and start running to sync it with your Nike+ SportWatch GPS, iPhone 3GS ® or other Nike+ tracking device. The sensor measures your pace, distance, time elapsed and calories burned. This information is transmitted wirelessly to your device for real-time feedback while you train.

I have the wristband and I love it.You can also create an account at Nike+ and see all your runs, challenge others and achieve goals by running more miles or faster paces. While the Nike+ may not be as accurate or as fancy as the popular Garmin, it is a huge motivator for anyone out there like me, who isn’t a “natural” runner and doesn’t want to spend $350 on the Garmin.

Wristband and Chip

After my epic run,  I cooled off and waited for B to get off work.

Ice water + lemonade. Ignore the skis in the background.

After B got off, we ran some errands and then made the clutch decision to concoct mojitos. YUM.

Enjoyed on the Porch

A few were consumed:

Must re-paint nails

After 2 3 mojitos, a couple of Bryan’s friends arrived so I went inside, pounded a red velvet and watched “Bad Santa” on TV until I fell asleep with my mouth open. I hope they didn’t see me…

Sunday:

This morning we awoke to more rain so we promptly hit up the Red Box and got two movies (True Grit and Love and Other Drugs). We returned home and Bryan got to work making huevos rancheros. Seriously, best I’ve ever had.

Then we went down to the gym where I completed 20 minutes on the elliptical and a 20 minute interval workout on the dreadmill while watching “Hungry Girl” on the cooking channel.

I’m off to paint my nails teal.

So until next time – eat cupcakes, drink rum and have an awesome day!