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FALL 2018 ISSUE 02 / VOL . 03
What visual image comes to mind when you look at the Grand Tetons ? Opinions vary .
Sure enough , I hit a modest jackpot when I pulled up to Great Fountain Geyser . It agreeably sputtered , then shot into the blue sky in a graceful plume three stories tall . I scored another win at Firehole Lake when I parked my bike in a lot absolutely empty of any other vehicles , and had the place to myself . And my third stop was a charm : I got to see my best old friend , my favorite thermal feature in my favorite national park : Grand Prismatic Spring .
Kurt Cobain ’ s line came into my head : “ I love you so much it makes me sick .” As I breathed deeply of the sulfur , the steam , the brilliant rainbow colors , the delicate bright algae and bubbling water , I knew exactly what he meant . Suddenly I was transported back one year in time . The previous September , while I was preparing for a different motorcycle ride , an infection started , spread , slid into my bloodstream . One day I was running my customary six miles and packing my saddlebags ; the next day I was in the Intensive Care Unit , fighting for my life , as my organs failed and my systems shut down . I came closer than ever to cashing in my chips and joining the Big Poker Game in the Sky .
Floating for days on a hazy morphine cloud , barely hanging on , I lay in the hospital dreaming of Grand Prismatic Spring . Now fully recovered , I stood at the place which had sustained me through the darkness . My stomach wrenched remembering how near to the finish line I had drifted . There may have been a few tourists on the boardwalk but I didn ’ t see them through the tears of gratitude that filled my eyes .