Grand Targhee: Part One (of some)

I might have already mentioned that when I was invited out to Grand Targhee, I initially had no idea where it was that I was agreeing to journey.  Come to find out that it's in Wyoming and incredibly near Idaho... and I'm reminded of all the images that Sam (co-owner of The Hub and Pisgah Tavern) posts from his Wydaho Vancations on the social medias.  Secure in the knowledge that the riding is good enough for him and his friends to drive a Sprinter across the country, stoke levels were high as the trip was coming up.

There was a moment of slight anxiety when I arrived in Idaho Falls, as my ground transportation was waiting for me in Jackson Hole, but ten minutes later, I'm in an Uber and headed for the resort.  If anything, I got an hour and a half of practice at making conversation with someone I'd never met before... something I'd be doing for the next three days.

Get there, settle in... dinner at The Branding Iron with Sarah and Alex from Thorpe Marketing... eventually meeting Dave from NSMB.com and Dan.  I order wild game meatloaf, despite feeling a bit like the Cracker Barrel option, but c'mon.  Wild game wrapped in bacon?  In.

Anyways, I stayed up kinda late even though I'd been up since 3:30AM MST, hoping that maybe I'd sleep in until mebbe 7:30AM... but my body wasn't having it.  I was up when my body said we should should be but it totally shouldan't have.  I went looking for coffee around 6:00AM and found that I was the only one out and about at the resort, save for a few employees.  Snorkels (the breakfast cafe) didn't open until 7:30AM.  Obvs, I don't travel well.

Met up with everyone else for breakfast at 8:00AM, and soon enough it was time to pick out a bike from the assortment of demo rigs at Habitat.

"How do you feel about a Yeti 5.5?"

"I feel very good about that."

I fulfilled my self-promise to go over the bike, adjust tire pressure, brake lever reach, saddle angle and height... all before the riding started.  At least I got something right.

We started the day riding lift-served trails.  Awesome possum.  Up the smaller Shosone Lift to warm up and then Dreamcatcher all the way to the top.

I've only ridden a handful of lift-served resort type trails in my lifetime.  While some of the options down were the typical flow/table top/berm/super wide trail, there were plenty of, for lack of a better word, "trails."  Just good old, high speed, slam bangity goodness.  Less bike park feel and more the reason I ride a mountain bike.

Also, mebbe some views.

We get a few runs from the top, and Dustin (our guide this morning) says it's time for lunch, or...

"Anyone wanna get one more run in?"

I didn't fly all the way across the country just for food.

We go back up one more time and stopped in at the nature center to warm up and look around before our last run.

A reminder that we're sharing the mountain with others.

Anyways, one more run and down to the Trap Bar for some lunchables.

A couple beers and just about as challenged as I've ever been by a plate of nachos, I surrendered right there.  Sarah's plate (in the background), a study in mopishness.

I could have easily went right back to riding the lift until they turned it off on me (despite my ridiculous fear of heights), but we had some cross country stuff to do... and I guess I needed to burn off the thousands of calories I'd just put inside me.