Day 85 – The Survey
Day miles: 19
Trip miles: 1670.5
I tried to sleep in a bit this morning. I stayed up pretty late updating my journals and watching old movies from the Black Bear Lodge DVD collection. I watched Good Will Hunting, which is one of my film staples and originally left me with a life-long man crush on Matt Damon.
When I did wake up, I remembered I needed to sew the Velcro back on the bottoms of my gaiters. I ate two microwave burritos from the grocery, walked down to a small coffee wagon and bought a coffee, then over to the gas station for a danish. After that I got down to business.
While I repaired my gaiters, I watched part of North Country with Charlize Theron. It’s an older film about the harassment she and other female workers face in a mine. You know – just a little light start to the morning. When check out time rolled around at 10:30, I was ready to go.
I walked down by the grocery store to hitch. It took me about 30 minutes, but two guys who were headed out to fish at Brooks Lake gave me a ride to their turn off, which was only about 2.5-3 miles to the pass.
I thanked them and then again began thumbing to try to get a ride the rest of the way. Just when I was about to give up and walk, a guy pulled over in a mini van and asked if I was a CDT hiker. His name was Ernesto and he was conducting a survey about the CDT. He asked if I would take the survey, so I did. It was kind of odd taking a survey in the middle of nowhere by the side of the road, but Ernesto was very nice and I was happy to help with his research. I think he was trying to determine the impact of a hike on attitudes toward conservation and engagement levels in conservation activities. As a bonus, Ernesto gave me a ride the rest of the way to the trailhead when I finished.
I climbed up away from the highway through weeds and reached a dirt road that took me down to Brooks Lake. I stopped for a quick snack and watched someone paddling their kayak. It was a scenic backdrop, indeed. I wondered if my hitch was having any luck with the trout.
I hiked past Upper Brooks Lake, and then T-Bone and Happy showed up behind me. On their heels, Info appeared. I ended up hiking on with Info and got to know him a bit better. He’s an interesting guy and our chatter was a nice grizzly alert system.
I cooked my dinner around 6 by a stream, and then hiked on into the evening until 9pm. Info ended up camping in the same area – good camp spots seemed scarce, and it was getting dark.
The weather was beautiful today, and it was a good first day out of town. Tomorrow I will camp just before the boundary to Yellowstone National Park. I’m excited to see what tomorrow will bring!
Day 86 – The Horse Parade
Day miles: 24.8
Trip miles: 1695.3
It was a chilly night and morning. As I get farther north and the summer progresses, I expect nights will continue to cool down. As a result, I enjoyed a morning without mosquitoes immediately flocking to me upon exiting my tent. I made a coffee, ate some raisin, date, and walnut oatmeal, and got to hiking.
My food routine, thus far, has been to eat a few miles before I get to camp, so that the smells from cooking are not calling bears to my campsite. When I get to camp, I have a snack (usually M&Ms), floss and brush my teeth, and then make sure my food and toothpaste are all sealed inside my opsak bags. I put those inside my Ursak, and tie it to a tree somewhere away from my tent. It’s a bit of a pain to stop and eat before I’m done hiking. I really miss the efficiency of eating in my tent. But, there are too many grizzly bears around. At some point I may be forced to eat in my tent if I get hit with a bad storm in the evening, but outside of this I plan to continue a high degree of food hygiene.
There was a lot of grizzly scat in the middle of the trail this morning. I also ran into 6 southbounders. It’s odd to see them so early in their hikes while mine is winding down. They are quite a ways into their journeys though, so they already look like seasoned thru-hikers.
The morning had some fairly easy terrain, though there were a number of river fords. I walked through a burn area. Alongside the blackened and charred trees were rows of meadow grass with pink flowers. The contrast of life and death was beautiful.
I must have passed a million horseback riders today! What mountain bikes were to the section of trail north of Breckenridge, horse enthusiasts were to this part of the trail in Wyoming. I passed group after group comprised of riders of all ages. Some groups also had pack animals (a horse or mule). I am not sure where they came from or where they were going, but wherever it was, those horses pooped the entire way! There was horse poop all over the trail, and even in the creeks that crossed the trail (yuck!).
I think horses need some kind of giant diaper when they are taken on trails. They really do make a mess and foul up water sources. Also, it would be hilarious to see a horse in a diaper. So many benefits….
There was a long valley walk today, and I could see people fly fishing for trout in the stream that paralleled the trail. I also walked by a cool waterfall with a great swimming hole below it, though I did not go in as the weather was starting to turn.
A couple of thunderstorms rolled through the area, so it rained for a bit. I was just about to start a very long, 3000 foot climb, so I ducked under a tree to let the lightning settle a bit before moving on. I made myself a coffee, applied some deet as I was getting probed by mosquitoes, and chatted with Info, who had caught up. He was pushing to camp right before the Yellowstone park boundary tonight. I was really glad I had a reservation at a campsite in the park for tomorrow, so I didn’t have to push too hard today.
It was still thundering, but the sky looked a little better, so I continued hiking in my rain gear. As I was starting the long climb up to 10,000+ feet, the rain stopped and I even got a little sun.
At the top of the pass, it looked like the rain clouds were going to follow me over, but they did not. It ended up being a beautiful evening to finish up the day. I stopped at a creek and cooked my dinner and ate, then continued a mile or so until I found a decent campsite.
All in all it was a really good day! I was grateful that the storms were quite mild and the evening cleared up. I am excited to get to Yellowstone tomorrow and hope the campsite I booked there is a good one!
Day 87 – The Sogfest
Day miles: 19
Trip miles: 1714.3
Today ended up being the wettest day I have had on this hike yet! It was actually a little odd. It was clear and cool when I woke up. I even saw the sun start to peek up over the trees as I got started hiking around 7:20AM. Within 10-15 minutes, it started raining.
I pulled on my rain jacket, packed away my camera and my still-damp tent, slid on my garbage bag rain skirt, and continued on. I didn’t see the sun the rest of the day, and with the exception of one break lasting several minutes, it rained all day. It never thundered, never poured; it was just a steady, medium rain.
I had multiple river fords to make, so it didn’t really matter how my feet got wet – they were going to be wet. I thought maybe the backcountry trails at Yellowstone, due to its popularity and high level of use, would be well groomed, but they were not. High weeds and shrubs (sometimes much taller than me!) crowded much of the trail and dumped their loads of rainwater on me as I pushed through. The trail was muddy and slippery in parts, and sometimes downright boggy. It was a real sogfest!
In fairness, much of the CDT is unkempt and earlier portions of Wyoming have been very overgrown with weeds and brush. Further, not every day can be a nice day. That’s just the way it is. I always say that I need the challenging days to fully appreciate the beautiful ones. It’s totally true! That doesn’t mean I don’t hate myself a little for knowing that, when all I want to do is complain in my head.
I don’t think the rain impacted my ability to see the southern portion of Yellowstone. All in all, it was somewhat unremarkable in comparison to other areas I’d passed through in Wyoming. There were no real views and I was largely just passing through meadows and forest. Some of the streams were pretty, particularly the Snake River and Heart River. There were quite a few wildflowers as well. The trail is definitely pretty, but you know, I’ve kind of been getting spoiled with all of the A+++ scenery I’ve seen on this trip.
I spent most of the day, though, just trying to get to the end. I was sopping wet, though I managed to stay warm enough. The only other people I saw were 5 southbound CDT thru-hikers and one northbound hiker I hadn’t met yet named Gourmet. He was the hiker that Stormy wanted to catch up to, but apparently had left him in the dust. Stormy doesn’t spend much time in towns, and it sounded like Gourmet did. Anyway, my point is I think only thru-hikers were crazy enough to push through the weather today. I feel bad for anyone who booked two days of backpacking in Yellowstone and arrived to walk through this human car wash.
In Yellowstone you have to book specific backcountry campsites. Again, I thought they might be kind of nice given the popularity of the park. The site I stayed at was probably the worst campsite I’ve had on this trip so far! It was like someone who had never camped in their life picked this spot. It was full of high grass by a river, so it was pretty swampy. The grass was thick and tall so it just sponged the water into the ground beneath it. The site didn’t face the creek or have any kind of view. It had tons of other campers present, and by “campers” I mean mosquitoes camped out waiting for humans to arrive. Because it was such a grassy, wet site, even if it wasn’t raining, my tent would still be soaked with condensation in the morning.
There was one more quirk to the spot. There was a bear pole, which was basically a log affixed to two trees horizontally for hikers to hang food. The bear pole was directly over the biggest flat area, and there were only two other spots where the tall, wet grass had been matted down. I knew someone was going to set up under that bear pole because there was no where else. Sure enough, this happened. So, I didn’t hang my food because hanging it right over a tent is pretty ludicrous. The people camping didn’t seem to care about having their own bear lure dangling over them while they slept.
I was a bit surprised. I actually almost left and looked for another site, but I didn’t want to have to deal with rangers if they happened to come around checking permits. “Sorry sir, but I just couldn’t bring myself to camp in a swamp.” “I just had malaria yesterday ma’am and didn’t want to be greedy. Might yellow fever be an option here?” “Oh, that site. Yeah, I left when the grizzly sat on some hikers in their tent so that it could reach the food above them on the bear pole.”
The site wouldn’t be as bad if it weren’t raining, but again, a little forethought about the location would probably eliminate this area as a prospect. And yes, I’m being a little grouchy. I should probably just be grateful that the wind didn’t kick up today and I was able to be wet all day without getting too cold. Also, I didn’t get mauled by a grizzly today, so that’s an added bonus.
One of the SOBOs I passed today said she thinks it is supposed to rain tomorrow as well. I plan to stay at a campground in Grant Village tomorrow night. It is one of the towns in Yellowstone with a lodge and some other facilities. I think it costs $10 to camp there. I really hope we at least get an hour of sun, because after sleeping at this campsite tonight, my tent and quilt will be pretty wet. I guess I will see.
Lest I sound like too much of a grump, I think all of the cool thermal features, including Old Faithful, will be day after tomorrow, so the weather will likely be better for those. Also, Grant Village has both a dinner and breakfast buffet! I plan to eat the dinner buffet tomorrow night, and the breakfast buffet the following morning.
I have 13 miles to hike tomorrow to get to the road into the village. I’m hoping I can hitch a ride in as it is a 6.5 mile walk off trail. I feel like it should be easy to get a ride within Yellowstone as everyone here is a tourist in the park in some way, shape, or form. Even if it rains tomorrow, maybe I can find someone who has a campfire or something where I can dry my quilt a bit.
Being in Yellowstone reminds me of Dorie. If she were to come up here, I would hope the weather wouldn’t be like this for her experience! I think as long as it clears up before Old Faithful, which I imagine it will, I’ll be in good shape to enjoy the thermal stuff, which is the really unique thing that Yellowstone has to offer.
Being in Yellowstone today means that I will be in Idaho in 3 days! That means I will be done with Wyoming in only 3 more days! It feels kind of surreal. I will spend some time hiking between Idaho and Montana along the border before heading into Montana for good until I reach the end of my hike.
Time has flown by, but concurrently it feels like I have been on trail forever. At some point on my AT hike I reached this same threshold. I’m at peace with the hike coming to an end, but I’m definitely looking forward to the remaining parts to come. Idaho and Montana (especially Glacier) are bound to have all kinds of treasures to show off.
The mental journey I have undergone on this hike has been very different than my AT experience. I knew it would be, and I hoped it would be. There can only ever be one first thru-hike, and I think it’s best not to chase that same feeling / experience again. In an earlier entry I wrote about understanding the difference between chasing dreams and chasing ghosts. Trying to achieve the same experience again would have been chasing a ghost.
I definitely feel like I have experienced a lot of growth in chasing this dream, though I’m not quite ready to write about it. For one thing, I still have a lot of hiking to do! My thinking on things could change. Also, I am not sure I will completely understand how this experience has shaped me until I have been back home for a while. I do think it is interesting how the trails we take in life lead us to places that we cannot see. I went into this hike with an idea of what it might mean, but per usual, it is leading me somewhere else. I wonder where sometimes, but my only job is to keep walking and let the trail meet my feet.
So as not to be completely vague, I think one of my big takeaways from this trip will be a self-confidence booster shot. I think that comes at a good time, as I have been thinking a lot about what I want my next professional move to be. I hiked the CDT because life is short and I wanted to do it before it slipped away. I want that boldness to follow the rest of my life as well, including the risks I take in business, in continuing to challenge the status quo way of living, and otherwise. I’ll try and open up more about some of this later as my thoughts mature and crystallize on the matter.
I did some mileage calculations the other day. I think I am going to take a couple of alternates in Montana that will shave some miles off of my route, just to make sure I don’t get stuck in a situation where early snows close the passes in Glacier before I can get there. I’m going to target finishing sometime before September 20 if at all possible. The alternates I’m thinking about won’t really impact my hiking experience (e.g. I won’t really miss anything) and are part of the maps in FarOut, so don’t require any extra navigation effort. If I take these routes and still get hit with early snows, at least I will know I did all that I could.
As an aside, I forgot to mention that when I was in Dubois I ate a buffalo burger at the cowboy cafe. It definitely tastes different than beef, and though I’d had buffalo a long time ago, I couldn’t remember the taste. I also had spicy elk in my skillet scramble there. Honestly, there wasn’t much elk to speak of so I can’t really comment on the taste. I plan to get some elk jerky at some point.
That’s a good segway into my find of the day. While it was rainy and gross, I did pass by an elk skull with a HUGE antler rack on it (see photo earlier in this post) I lifted it and it was surprisingly heavy! Imagine having two bowling balls strapped to your head – comfy right? It is illegal to remove antler shed from the park, so I expect I may see more. I wonder what happened to that elk….
Some other hikers just pulled up to this campsite. Pretty sure they are SOBOs. I heard them commenting about the fact that the campsite is just weeds, lol. Glad it’s not just me! I’m grateful to have other bodies to dissuade grizzlies from coming to camp, and I’m happy to be in Yellowstone even if today was a bit wet. Tomorrow should be exciting. I’m curious what a Yellowstone village will look like and can’t wait for that buffet!
Day 88 – The Village Life Raft
Day miles: 12.4
Trip miles: 1726.7
Still raining. That was my first thought when I woke for the second time at 5:30AM. I first woke an hour earlier to water hitting my face. Large rain drops were striking the outside of my tent causing condensation inside to spray into my face. Of course, it was also misting my quilt and everything else. I swabbed the inside of the tent with my bandanna and went back to sleep.
My sun hoodie was soaked, so I just left my smart wool base layer on and got to packing. I ate 3 oatmeal packets and made a cup of coffee to warm up. After that, I shoved my damp quilt and everything else in my bag, then climbed outside into the light rain and mosquitoes to take down my soggy tent.
I balled up my tent and strapped it to the outside of my pack since it really didn’t matter if I got a little more rain on it. I headed out at 6:30. The other hikers had not been eaten by grizzlies overnight, but were still motionless in their tents.
It rained lightly for most of the morning. It did, however, stop for about two hours when I reached beautiful Heart Lake. The trail follows the sandy shore of Heart Lake, which is pretty, but also akin to walking in non-compacted sand at the beach. I felt like I was expending more energy than usual and going comically slow.
After Heart Lake, I thought I saw some campfires, but it turned out to be steam from thermal activity! It was very cool. I passed a number of creeks where the water was hot, as well as some bubbling pools of water. The smell of sulphur was thick at these features. I also walked over an area where I could feel heat coming from the ground. It was so strange and interesting. It kind of felt like the whole place might just explode at some point. I suppose I should be glad that my campsite last night wasn’t on top of a geyser, though I guess it would have made my morning coffee a lot faster.
I wished I had filmed some of those thermal areas, but I had my camera all packed away due to the rain, and it looked like it was going to start dropping buckets again soon. I took some pictures, and perhaps it’s best I didn’t take video as I’m not sure it is the kind of thing that is impressive to watch if not in person….
I climbed up over a mountain before descending down to the road into Grant Village and ran into one of the backcountry rangers. She asked me where I camped the night before, and I casually mentioned how wet that campsite was. She said they had relocated it due to bear activity at the previous location. What?! The previous location was only 0.1 miles north!! It only takes two-legged me 2 minutes tops to walk that distance. That doesn’t seem like much of a relo for an animal whose prize-winning organ is its nose. I told her the bear pole was directly over the largest matted spot in the weeds, so people were almost always going to camp under their food. I suppose I had a slight Larry David moment there, where it was clear I just wanted to point out what a shoddy campsite it was. If it were a real Larry David moment, I would have brought up the $10 I paid for said site and suggested that she refund it, plus compensate for pain and suffering. I didn’t do that. Maybe they can use my $10 to move the bear pole.
We had a nice little chat and then parted ways. The closer I got to the main road, the nicer the trail got, but it started to rain again. I stopped to use the pit toilet at the Heart Lake Trailhead. I had successfully mind-controlled my bowels this morning to prevent myself from having to dig some swampy bog hole to crap in. It struck me that I should have brought this up with the ranger as well – “not suitable for poop holes.”
The rain picked up as I walked out to the road. My theory about the ease of hitching a ride in a park full of tourists specifically there to explore the great outdoors was totally off. Car after car of people whizzed by without stopping. There was a ton of traffic, but despite it being the one place where it was pretty obvious I was hiking in a park and not a serial killer, no one pulled over. Maybe it was because it was raining, or maybe people had packed so much gear in their cars for their vacations that they feared they didn’t have room. Who knows – most people probably just worry about stranger danger.
After about 40 minutes in the rain, I was thinking about walking the 6.5 miles when a guy stopped for me. He said he saw me there earlier and was surprised I was still there. He gave me a lift to the turn off into town, which still meant I had a mile or so to walk. It was raining fairly hard now, so I stuck out my thumb as I hiked.
After a quarter mile, a van stopped and gave me a lift the rest of the way. The guy driving had 4 boys in the back. He said they’d had so much help on their trip (sounded like that van had been breaking down on them) that they figured they would return some of the karma. I loved that philosophy!
I wasn’t sure where to go and had no cell signal, so I hopped out at the visitor center with one of the boys. The visitor center told me where the campground was, so I went back out in the rain to walk maybe half a mile down the road to get there.
I was able to secure a tent site, but as it was raining fairly hard, I didn’t bother walking down to it to set up my tent. Instead, I walked back to a registration building for the lodge to inquire about the dinner buffet. It turned out there was no dinner buffet. There was only a sit-down dinner that required reservations. They had a first available time of 10PM. No thanks!
They did confirm there was a breakfast buffet. Apparently the dinner buffet is in Old Faithful Village where I plan to eat another breakfast buffet, but will not linger around for dinner. Nevertheless, I will deplete the Grant Village breakfast buffet to the best of my ability tomorrow morning.
I went to the restaurant for lunch. It was kind of pricey, but decent food. I had a burger, fries, side salad, cup of corn chowder and two hot coffees. I wanted the coffee to warm up, as I was starting to get cold from being wet. I had a table with a view of Yellowstone Lake, which is a massive body of water. It was shrouded in gray mist, so I couldn’t see much, but it was still cool.
After lunch I walked back into the rain to go to the General Store to resupply. There weren’t a lot of options and it was pricey, but I was able to get what I needed. I will be eating ramen for my dinners in this stretch, which might be a nice break from Knorr rice sides. I do like ramen.
There was a little cafe attached to the General Store, so I went there and bought a coffee and an ice cream. The ice cream was mountain berry flavor in a waffle cone and quite good!
They had a giant, stuffed animal moose in the corner of the cafe. It was life-sized, but not a real moose that had been preserved, so it was a little odd. I really needed to charge my electronics, but the only outlet was under that moose by its back legs. Some kids watched excitedly as I crawled under the moose to try and plug my wall charger in. One man was staring at me, clearly wondering what I was doing. I had zero shame – a hiker has to do what a hiker has to do.
I sat for a while until it looked like the rain had almost stopped. I took the opportunity to stop by the showers and laundry to get the 411 in all of that, then went to go set up my tent. The camping areas at Yellowstone were quite big, so I set up in my allotted spot, happy that I wouldn’t be right on top of someone else. I didn’t leave anything in my tent other than my bear spray and sunglasses, hoping that the rain would not return and it all might air dry a bit.
I grabbed my pack and went back to the laundry center. It was just before 5PM. The attendants there were super nice and the whole facility was kind of amazing. The laundry was huge, they had $5 showers with towels and soap, and they even had concessions. The business person in me highly approved of all of it!
I washed and dried my clothes, showered, talked with two other hikers, and ate my dinner there. I finished charging my electronics. It was pouring outside, so myself and the other hikers were eventually just waiting to see if the rain would let up before venturing back to the campground. Finally, that moment came.
It ended up being a good call to shower and do laundry. I wasn’t going to at first, just figuring I would be sleeping in a wet tent anyway. But, I was able to get clean and have all of my clothes clean and dry, and I didn’t get rained on going back to the campground. I wore my flip flops so I didn’t immediately have to put my clean socks into wet shoes. It all worked out great!
There were bear boxes at the campground, so I threw my food in and jumped in my tent. I wiped down the inside with my sun handkerchief – despite all the rain the inside of my tent wasn’t too awfully wet. It felt good to be warm and dry. While it is still raining a bit now, I think it is supposed to clear up tomorrow.
I was grateful for many things today, most notably the kindness of strangers, the convenience of the village facilities, and a few key windows of time without rain today. I’m super excited about the breakfast buffet tomorrow! I better go to bed so that I can make sure I’m there right at 6:30 when it opens. I have 20 miles to hike tomorrow, so I will stuff myself, hopefully get a hitch back to the trail, and then be on my way towards Old Faithful. It’ll be another daily adventure!
Day 89 – The Turning of the Tides
Day miles: 19.7
Trip miles: 1746.4
It dripped a bit overnight from all the rain, but I don’t think it rained again. My tent was still wet when I awoke, of course, but the morning appeared to be calm. I hustled to get packed up and over to the restaurant. The breakfast buffet started at 6:30 and I wanted to be there right when it opened.
I walked along the road feeling so grateful that it wasn’t raining. It actually still looked pretty overcast, but all I knew was, in that moment I was clean, dry, and marching towards a feast.
I got to the restaurant at about 6:45, so pretty close to their start time. I was surprised at how many tourists were already there. I got a coffee and some cranberry juice, and then piled my first plate high and tight. They had eggs, potatoes, bacon, sausage, breakfast tortillas, French toast, scones, cereal, mixed fruit, etc.
My taste buds were in heaven. I systematically destroyed that first plate of food, and sat back sipping my coffee. What was the socially acceptable amount of time to wait before getting another plate? Bah, never mind. I went back for a second round, and eventually a third. All in all I ate for an hour and sufficiently stuffed myself. The only thing I didn’t like was the large amount of people eating close together and everyone touching the same serving tongs. It wasn’t enough to stop me, but I couldn’t help but feel like I was going to get COVID or some flu bug.
The waitress taking care of me happened to be from Jasper, Georgia. She was working in Yellowstone for the season. We chatted for a while and she even knew about the CDT and what a thru-hiker was. Later, when I asked for the check, she told me she had taken care of it for me! I tried to protest, but she insisted. I am not sure if it was the fact that we chatted for a while, or that we were both from Georgia, but it was a very kind thing to do. I’m going to have to find a way to pay that one forward….
After the breakfast buffet, I made use of the facilities, said “see you down the trail to a couple of hikers I recognized, and headed out. I walked through the parking lot and out to the main road into Grant Village. I walked along with my thumb out, and it actually didn’t take long at all before a sedan pulled over. It pulled awkwardly off the shoulder of the road in front of me, so I jogged to catch up to it. The driver flipped the car into reverse as if to back up to me, but then backed into a small tree causing a loud snapping noise. Yikes! I jogged faster.
As I arrived a young woman got out of the driver seat and an older lady hopped out the other side. “Do you need help?” the driver asked. I always find this question so kind. Whenever someone asks me this when I’m walking on a road or hitchhiking, I feel like they have a big heart.
They were heading in the same direction as me, having also stayed at the Grant Village campground last night. They were in their way to check out one of Yellowstone’s lakes. They both lived in Minnesota, and had that quintessential accent. We didn’t have much time to talk, however, as we arrived at the trailhead shortly. I thanked them profusely as I hopped out.
Unlike the southern portion of the park, the trail after Grant Village was in pretty good shape. I hiked at a good clip until I got to the west end of Shoshone Lake, another large body of water in the park. The sun was out and there was a nice log on the beach to sit on with a view of the lake. It was the perfect place to dry my gear and have a snack.
I sat there for a while just enjoying the view. The lake was calm and the backdrop of gentle mountains was a reminder that this was real country, not just a park.
I gawked as a group of outward bound teens proceeded to ford the inlet to the lake. They and their leader stopped at my log to rest and put their shoes back on. I learned that they were all from inner city Washington DC, and that they got to do a trip like this each summer. It sounded like a really cool program. The trip leader gave me a Snickers bar on her way out. It had been such a banner food day! One of the kids also dropped a strawberry Starburst that was still wrapped up, so I ate that too.
I left the lake and forded the river to start climbing up the other side. The mosquitoes got so bad at one point that I wore my rain jacket, even though it was a hot sunny day, so that they could no longer bite me through my shirt.
I descended down into a marshy area where I immediately stepped into a pocket of suction mud – gross! My socks were going to smell like death warmed over later! Once I got through the marshy muck, I passed through a very cool geyser basin. There were bubbling pits, steam was rising both from geysers and patches of soil, and the whole place smelled like a basket of hard-boiled eggs due to the sulphur content.
Some of the thermal pools were a beautiful turquoise, fringed with oranges, reds and yellows. Apparently. different types of bacteria thrive in that warm water and are responsible for its coloring. The coolest feature was a geyser right next to the trail that erupted once every one or two minutes. It was not a small eruption either! The best part was, no one else was around.
It was so odd to see all of this thermal activity. I’ve always found it strange that the layers of Earth are so dynamic and complex. The fact that heat is escaping from magma chambers as the Earth’s plates move just blows my mind. I guess it blows off a lot of steam too!
My campsite (Upper Firehole) that evening was a huge improvement. I was able to set up my tent on flat, dry ground. There was a thermal feature just a hundred feet or so from the site, and steam was rising from the surface like I was in an odd war zone.
I talked with a Southbounder and two section hikers while making dinner. The mosquitoes came out with a vengeance soon enough, so we all dove back into our respective tents and called it a night.
Yellowstone did not disappoint today! I was grateful for the kindness and compassion of strangers, the delicious (and gifted) buffet, and the wonders of nature that I observed today. Tomorrow morning I would wake up very early to hike into Old Faithful Village in time for their breakfast buffet. I could get used to this buffet hopping….
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