Four day car rental: 110 dollars.Gasoline: 50 dollars.
Backpack, sleeping bag, tent, and other camping gear: 1.000 dollars
Stove, stove fuel, camp pot, and food: 100 dollars
Cameras and GPS unit: 1.000 dollars.
Walking 22 miles of wilderness in Yellowstone National Park on a holiday weekend and seeing nobody. At all.
PRICELESS.
It was a legen...
...wait for it...
...keep waiting...
...here it comes...
...almost there...
...DARY hike. Legendary. I believe I was saying the word "epic" a lot (and using it to label things on my GPS as well) the third day. Just fantastic views and solitude. That third day (July 4th) had some of the best hiking I've EVER had, for views and everything. A day to day summary.
Day 1. July 2, 2010. "Getting In"
I only hiked around 2 miles that day. But this was preceded by about 8 hours of driving. One doesn't realize how big the west is, or how LARGE Yellowstone National Park is, until one needs to get to the West Yellowstone area, from Laramie (and I did some driving the day before, on the 1st of July). I had a guidebook that I chose my hike from. I needed a 3-4 night hike, preferably with mountains and nice things to see. My first option was a little used area in the northwest corner of the park (in Montana). My second choice was near the South Entrance along the Snake River. I chose the northwest hike because the Snake River loop would involved multiple river fords, and the river was running still kind of high. And fording a river (not a creek or stream a full blown river) alone was not high on my list of risky moves I wanted to take. Plus, it didn't sound quite as scenic, or as isolated (i.e. fewer people). Anyway, I digress. After filling out my backcountry permits, watching the backcountry safety video, and getting to the trailhead, I headed in. I think it was about 3pm.
Just the walk in was pleasant, and I was able to see some new things almost right away. It was nice to have a short walk to my first camp, and be able to relax and admire the scenery. And watch for wildlife. I had plenty of bird life to keep me amused as well. Not much else to say about that day.
Day 2. July 3, 2010 "Decision made, & bird number 1.230 [world]/431[North America]"
Wilderness hikes, no matter where I have taken them, have always offered me the opportunity to clear my mind, sort through things in my head that need sorting, and just contemplate everything and nothing (I stare off into space a lot when I am resting on a backpack trip). This trip also purposefully had very modest mileage goals: 2 miles, 5 miles, 5 miles, and then 10 miles (on the way out). Short mileage meant lots of free time in camp to admire and contemplate.
The walk this second day was lots of fun. Overall the hike had very moderate hills. Or maybe it seemed that way after the transects I had been doing for work! I really was able to enjoy the hiking, enough so that I often forgot I had a 40 pound pack on. I pause often for photo opportunities, of nature and me in nature. First, Yellow Columbine, and then me before I cross a stream.
From the stream crossing, I hiked the switchbacks up the hill, and the trail eventually flattened out to come to my camp, next to the lake you saw in the early photos. Awesome reflections.After I was there for a little while, I realized there were some ducks on the water! They had been hanging out on the rocky shore on the other side, and had also been hiding among the logs and trees surrounding the lake. The bird nut that I am, I of course had my binoculars (thank god I invested in the lightweight pair!). So I watched for a while. And it dawned on me: this might be the species of Goldeneye I haven't seen yet! There are two species of Goldeneye in North America: common and barrow's. I didn't have my field guide with me (I rely on sketches and notes, to look up when I get out); but when I got back to my car on the 5th, I discovered it was Barrow's Goldeneye I was watching. And I was pretty sure this was new (I had to get back to Laramie to know for sure). So yup, without even thinking I would see a new duck on the trip, I did. I had been hoping for new bird, namely a ptarmigan or a rosy-finch, but I never got up to the right altitude for them. I'll take the duck, though! An added bonus.
The nice thing with such leisurely hiking is that I don't have to leave camp early (I think I left camp 1 around 9am), and I get to my next camp at lunch time. So I had my lunch. Packed my stuff in my pack and hung it (bear safety), and just relaxed. And thought.
I had a minor personal dilemma I had been mulling over for a while. [no, it's none of your business]. The quiet and solitude are what I needed to reach the decision. And now I can move on. And I felt (and feel) better for it.
And then I wandered around. Took pictures (still working on the photo stitching for the lake reflections). Admired the ducks. Set up camp. Collected firewood. I don't normally build a fire...but it was going to be a cool night, and a campfire is nice to be next to when writing in my personal journal and watching the light fade over the lake.
Which is one thing I had to get used to. I was farther north, much so, than where I work. So I still had quite a bit of light at around 10pm, and the sun was shining quite well at 5am as well. Times like that made me think I could be hiking 15-20 miles a day if I so chose. But I learned a few years ago to choose not to.
Day 3. 4 July 2010. "EPIC" "AWESOMELY AWESOME"
I foresaw that this day would be offering me some nice views, and some snow (on the trail), but nothing prepared me for what I saw. Also for the first time, I successfully did some route finding. Thanks again for the GPS Mom and Dad! It helped a lot!
So, from Crescent Lake (where my camp was), the trail meandered through some forest and slowly up some hills. It crossed a few meadows here and there. I always remember when I came upon them, to talk aloud to myself and clap my hands here and there. For the uninitiated: bear attacks occur generally when you surprise a bear. So the rule is, don't be quiet. But don't be loud and obnoxious either, or the bear may attack out of spite. Or another hiker will. Little joke. Ha ha. To continue:
I really enjoy this kind of hiking! From this point on the trail, I knew that the trail "disappeared". Not completely, but it climbed a bit from this point, and was going over terrain that still had snow in patches, as well as mostly rocky soil. So lack of trees meant there wasn't much to put trail markers on. So, off trail navigation, there I went! And as I hiked higher and higher, I got more and more distracted. I knew from my map that I had to hike to the highest point on the ridge, then turn southeast and follow the edge of the cliffs to the next trail.I got more and more distracted because the views kept getting better and better. You can see by the grin on my face I was having an awesomely awesome time (my new favorite phrase). I believe I labeled this point on my GPS as "Epic":
That meadow you see below and behind me is what I would walk out next to and through the last day (and saw lots of wolf tracks in).And yet, I was still getting higher and higher on the ridge, until eventually I saw the National Park Boundary marker sign (one of quite a few, though I can't imagine anyone coming up the cliff/scree slope). And then I turned around. And labeled the GPS point "more epic":
[this is a photo merge from five shots. actual photo is 1 foot tall by 5.5 feet wide]. I was blown away. As I said, there are no words to describe how wonderful the view was.And for the next mile, I got to enjoy this view for quite some time. Plus others to my north, where the cliff dropped off. And I got to walk over a bit of snow as well. And admire the fields of glacier lilies (in order: cliff view, snow pack, and lilies).
And as you can see from this last photo, I successfully found the next section of trail, and continued on to camp. And had my usual routine of lunch, enjoy the scenery, and get camp ready. And did my usual stare off into space and zone out and relax thing. For the first time though, I got my tent up kind of early, since it looked like it might rain. And put the rain fly on. I'm glad I did, since it did rain. I somehow made dinner between rainshowers, and realized I didn't want to leave the next day. But duty called, so I had to.Day 4. 5 July 2010. "Back to 'civilization' "
Well, after all the work I had been doing this past year, I made really good time on the hike out! It helped it was all downhill. And that at least 2 miles was in a burn area (recent, not the 1988 fire), so there wasn't much to see except for burned trees. I did get to track wolf tracks for a while...I never realized how big their paw prints were.
I think they were tracking a moose. There were also some very large hoofprints on the trail, which were much too large for deer, and I think too large for elk, either. The hoof tracks were more scattered than the wolf tracks, but I saw both sets of tracks in the same sections of trail. I had tracks on the trail for quite some time.I also got to enjoy watching those always personable birds, juncos, feed a very old youngster. And I also found a nest of a sparrow along the trail as I walked.
And when I got to about one mile from the trail head, I saw my first large mammal that wasn't a mule deer (which I didn't see OFTEN, but often enough that they weren't a big deal). And as you can tell by how small it is in the photo, this is how far I WANTED it to be while I was hiking alone.
That dark object mid picture is a black bear, just doing it's thing in the woods. It was actually only a hundred meters or so away from the camp I stayed at the first night, that I had to walk near on my way out. And such, ended my very enjoyable trip through part of Yellowstone National Park.I hiked alone in an area I was no longer top on the food chain...I wasn't even in the top 3! I visited a new state. I saw a new bird species. I saw awesome views. I didn't see any people until I got to the trail head. I did my first successful route find. I had campsites all to myself. I actually packed too much food.
I had a great, fun, awesome, stupendous, terrific, great, and there just aren't enough words to describe the time I had. I can't wait to go back. I leave you with my parting view of the area I hiked:
No comments:
Post a Comment