Sorry TJ, I can't agree that it was over a year later that Ennis went up to Lightning Flat. To me, "this spring" means "the spring of this year" i.e. the spring just past. Jack and Ennis were last together in the spring and, if other get togethers are anything to go by, Jack probably headed up to his parents ranch straight after leaving Ennis (it's a 14 hour journey to Wyoming so he presumably was used to "killing two birds with one stone" - seeing his parents after seeing Ennis) He's angry about what's just happened between them so, instead of talking about Ennis like he always used to, he talks about "some other fella" (Randall in the movie) But, of course, that never happens - perhaps only because Jack dies, or perhaps because he never really intended it to happen, he was just p*ssed at Ennis.
We also know that the next meeting they'd talked about was August - even though Ennis had pretty much already said that wasn't going to happen, I think he sent the card to Jack BEFORE then, just to confirm that November was still looking like his next chance to get away (I can't remember the exact wording on the card - maybe someone can help here) That then comes back marked "deceased" ( :'( ) and Ennis calls Lureen. There's no way that he would have delayed that phone call - and once she tells him that Jack's parents have his ashes but that Jack wanted them scattered on Brokeback, there's no reason to assume that he would have delayed his visit up there for any significant period of time. Maybe a week or two weeks till he composed himself enough, but certainly not months.
Incidentally, before you say it, I know the movie and the book are separate, but I can't recall there being any indication of a significant time gap before the visit to Lightning Flat in the book either.
