Pinedale, Wyoming is a gem of a town in a location as stunning as any mountain town in the West.
That's enough to make it a favorite of mine, but the topper is that it doesn't have the kind of crowds drawn to the National Parks and ski slopes near Jackson Hole.
For a Max Tracks trip in October, I started looking for places south of the Wasatch, to be warm enough to have adventures, and then I realized something odd. That weekend, southern Utah was going to be pummeled by a cold rain, and Pinedale was going to be partly cloudy and warm.
It doesn't take much to sell me on a trip to the town.
Another benefit: my son Luke also loves Pinedale, so he was excited to tag along, and the area is a great place for a Labrador Retriever, which let us test out a brand new technology:
CHACO CAM!
It's a bio-technological hybrid video recording system involving a amiable canine and a miniature device that can capture images as they move.
Ok, I strapped a GoPro to my dog.
The Chaco Cam, like so many innovations, was a little buggy, but has potential. I got the "Blair Witch" found footage effect as we hiked through the woods at 10,000 feet in the Wind Rivers. I also got a glimpse into how devoted my mutt is to me. I never thought about his perspective, trailing directly behind me, attentive to any move I might make. Kind of an existential experience to watch, really.
Ok, enough navel gazing.
One rule of Max Tracks is that I'm supposed to see things I haven't before, and I realized I could easily accomplish that even in a familiar place.
You know how sometimes you don't see something that's always been close to home until a friend visits town and points it out?
I never visited the Museum of the Mountain Man, which sits prominently on the bluff above Main Street along the road that takes you into the Wind Rivers.
So I did the thing that stresses out all people who like to do crazy things like plan ahead and make phone calls. I left Chaco to help Luke with college homework and walked into the museum.
I don't claim the technique is foolproof, or even a 50/50 bet, but on this Saturday Afternoon, the museum's executive director, Clint Gilchrist, was right there, helping take down their big event tent for the season.
He put on a good clean flannel (I was wearing a good, kinda-clean flannel) and showed me around.
First thing you see walking in is that alongside the beaver traps and black powder rifles are a lot of exhibits honoring the folks who called this land home for hundreds of years, the native tribes of the Mountain West.
They have a gun owned and used by Jim Bridger, the undisputed grandaddy of mountain men.
"He came out at 19 years old. We believe he came to every rendezvous, maybe missed one. So by 1840, he's the grand old man. They called him Old Gabe," said Gilchrist, pointing out he earned the title when he was 36.
The museum has an exact replica of a buffalo hide tepee from the period, now held by the Smithsonian. They also profile some of the region's native leaders, and their most valuable exhibit is a 300-year-old sheep horn bow.
Gilchrist talked about Alfred Jacob Miller, believed to be the only artist who traveled the region during the era of the mountain men in the 1820s and 30s.
"He saw a sheep horn bow like this in use. And he said, not only could it fire an arrow into a buffalo, it could fire through a buffalo," Gilchrist said.
The bow is shorter even than modern traditional bows, meaning that to have such power, its draw-weight would be the equivalent of lifting 80 pounds.
The capper to this Max Tracks trip was a surprise. Chaco and I drove to the local park, a beautiful landscape meandering along Pine Creek, and we saw the biggest and most handsome moose I have ever seen.
I don't claim to have seen more than my share of animals, but I have seen a lot of moose, and this guy was something special.
Chaco disagreed because we had to stay inside the truck instead of playing fetch.
After a long time observing and filming (you really should watch if you haven't yet), we returned to our motel room and I told Luke to get up and go see Bullwinkle!
He returned and observed, "I think that might be the biggest animal in this mountains."
There's a good chance he's right. Only Buffalo could come close, and they like flatland. Grizzlies only get about have as big in terms of weight.
Bottom line, the king of the mountains could winter anywhere he wants, and he chooses a park in Pinedale.
