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(The photo included with this post shows a section of the road that I refer to in this story. The ranch I refer to lies south from where I stood to take the photo.)   As I drove east out of Jackson Hole, on the narrow, winding road that served as access to the Gros Ventre Wilderness, I couldn't help but feel I was on the precipice of another adventure. The scenery became more spectacular with every mile, and signs of civilization became fewer and farther between. It wasn't long before the pavement turned to gravel, and the road itself...

(Me and Barry standing in front of one of the cow camp cabins we called home for part of the summer.)  We had been married just over a year when our cow camp adventures began. With the adventures came lessons I will never forget. One of the first was how to get on a horse "without wallerin' up there like an old, fat lady". (Barry's words) Another was learning to trust my horse to get us back to camp safely on a night that was "blacker than the inside of a cow". One of the first lessons that comes to...

Being a camp cook was not something I ever planned on doing, or even realized existed, until I moved to the Jackson Hole area many moons ago. I consider the time I spent as a hunting camp cook to be one of the most enjoyable job experiences I've ever had. It provided adventure in the great outdoors, and a challenging learning curve, in many ways. The hunters I met added a human interest element to the job that I found I enjoyed. I met a retired NFL player, Hollywood stuntmen, a police officer from California, CEOs from large business firms,...

When I hired on as cook for the first camp I worked at, the first thing I did was go to the nearest bookstore and buy a Betty Crocker cookbook. I remembered my mom using a Betty Crocker cookbook, so that's what I bought. That book was like a bible to me that fall, and I still refer to it now and then. Yes, I had helped out with a bit of cooking at home while growing up, but I don't recall ever making an entire meal for the family by myself. I had worked as a cook at a...

I had one of the most terrifying moments of my life while I was alone in hunting camp one night. Usually, the wrangler or one of the guides was assigned to be the only soul left in camp during the time in-between hunts. As I mentioned in an earlier post, one of the reasons for this was to deter any grizzly visits to camp while we were away. The outfitter and guides were well aware of a grizzly that lived in the area and had made its presence known for some years now. The bear had yet to cause any...