My Favorite Things - I

Mornings at Jenny Lake

I love to get out of bed around sunrise and pull back the heavy curtains so I can watch the first purple of the sun color the cathedral group out my window. Then I grab a bathrobe and rush to the bathroom because it is incredibly cold in the cabin at that time of morning. I get warm and awake under the shower, perform a few morning ablutions, and put on my hiking clothes as quietly as I can, even though I know Katherine is fully awake by this time.

I like to sit on the chair opposite our bed as I pull on first the boot liners and then a fashionably slouchy set of socks from REI. If the hike we planned for the day is a long one like Lake Solitude (18 miles round trip), I put on a pair of Vasque high top backpacker boots. If it is going to be a short hike, the low top Vasques do the trick. High or low, but always Vasque. They are light, sturdy, and fit me perfectly.

I love the way hiking clothes feel in the morning at Jenny. The weathered boots and slouchy socks with liners let the other guests know you mean business. Hiking shorts with plenty of pockets are my favorite things to wear and at 6 in the morning the cold air hits bare legs with a delicious jolt. This is all ameliorated by a temporary sweater over a gray tee shirt.

I give Kathie a kiss and tell her I'll meet her at the lodge when she is ready for breakfast. Then it is out the door and into the unmatchable air of the Tetons in July. The sky is invariably bright blue and cloudless by this time and Mount Rockchuck, the only mountain we have an unobstructed view of from our cabin, is awash with sunlight. Sometimes there will be a deer grazing out front. Wild flowers color the path. Smoke curls out of the chimney straight ahead.

The walkway in front of the lodge has been washed off shortly before my arrival and a sign warns me to be careful as I mount the first steps. On the other side of the door are stacks of newspapers that I judiciously ignore and a drowsy eyed staff tending to the European breakfast spread, or tending the fire.

Since I am a sweetheart, I pour Kathie some coffee and run it back over to the cabin, usually placing it on the ledge outside the shower. Then it is back to the lodge to pour my own coffee and sit cozily by the fire. I am almost always the first guest to arrive, so I sit and sip and read which ever book I have with me, but invariably David, or the Monacos, or Edie and Beau, or someone visiting the area for the first time and in need of hiking advice, will come over and join me sitting on the mantel. There we will talk over yesterday's feats and today's adventures.

From my vantage point I can see Katherine walking toward the lodge. She is dressed in the same hiker's chic I described a few paragraphs ago. By the time she joins us at the fire, that morning's host(ess) arrives shortly to usher us to our table, the one with the unfettered view of those amazing mountains.