Today I thought a lot about being equipped for the seasons.  We are in a place that makes its entire living on the 3 months of the summer and the 3 or so months of winter.  Biking and skiing.  Polar opposites in elements but equally intriguing to the traveler looking for a wide variety of adventure.

As we biked through the National Elk Refuge, I thought how different this place looks in the winter.  We are swatting flies and slapping mosquitos but fast forward four months and they will both be nonexistent.   I have never seen this place in the winter, but according to th signs, the elk graze and roam with freedom all winter in the refuge area.

Here we are struggling to find one elk or moose in the summer because the water rose out of its banks on the Gros Ventre and it is unseasonably warm.

I’m reminded in this moment we are all equipped to handle the season we are in.  Whether we shed our coat or build thicker skin to brace for the elements that hit us, we are built to survive the seasons we experience.

If all of the animals around us can make it through the winter months, where nourishment is sparse and the weather is bitter, so can we.  Here I am sweating the hottest day of July Jackson Hole has seen in a while, but every animal I cannot find is doing the same…surviving until the heat subsides or the cold melts. The day brings what the day brings and we make it to another day.  We take a water break or we hibernate.  That’s the goal:  to do whatever it takes to keep pushing forward.