4 - STEPPING OUT Jackson Hole News&Guide, Wednesday, May 1, 2013

s one season changes to the next, we find ourselves able to engage in both winter and

summer activities depending on what the weather is doing on any given day.

There have been days warm enough to go rafting, fishing and biking this spring, but we’re also still getting significant snowfall at higher elevations. This unique transitional period, known as off-season in tourist-driven towns such as ours, often finds people glum and longing for something to do. Sure, the skiing isn’t at its best and summer activities aren’t quite in full swing, but I like to take advan-tage of the novel opportu-nity to combine summer and winter activities.

When the weather was nice last spring, I rode my bike to Teton Village with my skis on my pack. This year I wanted to rep-licate that trip, but I pro-crastinated and missed my opportunity. Now that the re-sort is closed, I decided to ride my bike from my house near the Stilson Ranch parking lot to Teton Pass.

I wasn’t feeling ambitious enough to bike to the top of the pass with skis on my back, so I went as high as Trail Creek Road, committing to ski the south side of the pass. Rid-ing to the end of Trail Creek Road to the Old Pass Road trailhead saved me having to walk out the now dry road at the end of the run.

From Stilson, I could ride on the bike path the entire way to Trail Creek Road with the exception of a short, low-traffic residential sec-tion on Main Street in Wilson. The extra weight on my back made the short climb from the Stagecoach to my turn across from the Heidelberg much more grueling than I had an-ticipated.

I stashed my bike in the bushes by the trail map and put on my ski gear. From here I made the short walk to Highway 22 to get it out

of the way early on. This carefully planned tactic was what made this excursion so enjoyable. The last thing I wanted to do when I got to the bottom of Old Pass Road at the end of my ski was to walk out to my bike at the other end of the road. That would have disturbed my downhill momentum, interrupting two fun parts of the journey with a mundane slog.

Once on Highway 22, I got a ride to the top of the pass. From there, I followed the well-traveled skin track south to Mount Elly to ski the Claw. Since the Claw is north-facing and in the trees, the snow isn’t af-fected by the sun and it remained soft and light.

It wasn’t until after I got on to Old Pass Road that I noticed the snow deteriorating. On this part, it was

warm and sticky, making for a long ride out with lots of skating and poling to maintain momentum. I was thankful that my bike was waiting for me at the bottom.

Since I brought my mountain bike, I was able to take a detour on the Coach Trail (this may or may not be the name of this section of trail) and do a very brief bit of

mountain biking before getting to Wilson. It’s not every day you get to ski powder at the top of a run and ride singletrack on your moun-tain bike at the end; however, the way the weather has been deposit-ing snow in the higher elevations and remaining warm down low, this might be a more common occurrence this May.

The high-traffic section of bike path between Stilson and Wilson elicited lots of questioning glances, which made me feel even better about my self-propelled adventure (well, almost fully self-propelled).

Though the snowpack consoli-dates this time of year, it’s impor-tant to practice safe backcountry etiquette and respect the avalanche danger that still exists at all eleva-tions if there is snow. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––Park relishes the novelty of combining summer and winter activities into one big day of fun.

Winter-spring transitallows ski-bike combo

The author rides on the bike path between the Stilson Ranch parking lot and Wilson, heading for snow still lingering on Teton Pass.

ExcursionPark Dunn-Morrison

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Преступление и Наказание

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Off Square Theatre Company presents

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Tickets for May 11are $30 and includea reception hosted

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