Imagine if you could look back 37 years to a moment in time and virtually be there in that instant. I recently dug up my old journals from the late 1980s, a time when I was young, strong and doing my Masters thesis in the high Tetons of Wyoming. As I reread my first entry in the ancient journal, I had that transcendent feeling of being back there… Here is the entry:

7/18/88 2:03 p.m.

I’m sitting on the shore of Lewis Lake in Yellowstone National Park. This is a momentous journal entry, as I am on my way to the Grand Tetons to do my thesis field work.

There is a chill wind blowing off Lewis Lake even on as hot a day as this.

I can’t help but feel like John Wesley Powell or perhaps Alfred Wegner, on the edge of discovery and adventure. It is a free wistful feeling I have at this time; the sound of the waves lapping on the shore, a brisk wind in my face and the sun bright overhead. I am on my way to the Tetons, and perhaps I shall have a significant role in uncovering their secrets.