So, I just realized that you all have been leaving comments on my blog. I’m sorry for not responding to them. I’ll do that as soon as possible. The internet is best at the crack of dawn, so I’ll get up tomorrow and do that. Unless, of course, I inadvertently turn off my alarm again tomorrow morning and sleep in like I did this morning. I’m proud (actually I’m not at all) to say that I got up and got to work today in 6 minutes! I woke up at 7:57 and clocked in at 8:03. That won’t be happening again. But, I’ll blame my sleepiness on the tiring day I had yesterday.
I went white water rafting on the Snake River yesterday afternoon near Jackson, Wyoming! It was a great trip. We traveled 8 miles (took about 1.5 hours) and the rapids were class 3 and below so it wasn’t the most challenging ride, but it was still fun. The water was super cold, but I got in for a second anyway. Don’t worry, we all rented wet suits and booties (shoes) so as to not get hypothermia. I rode in a raft with a family from northern Italy and they speak German, Italian, and their native language which I don’t remember the name of. Apparently, only a couple thousand people in the world speak their language. By the way, Jackson is beautiful. It’s a very small town with a western theme and a lot of antlers artistically placed around. It’s situated just south of the Tetons—which are breath taking in their own right. I thought the Absarokas (the mountains at Lake) were incredible, but the Tetons put them to shame. Photo opportunities were sparse so I only got a few pictures of the Tetons from the car window. Jillian and I are spending the weekend in Jackson in two weeks, so I’ll get some more pictures at that time. The evening after rafting, we ate Mexican food at an excellent local restaurant and then headed back to Yellowstone.
Last Monday (June 14th), I and some friends went on a 14 mile hike at a place called Agate Creek. It was a good hike. It was about 6 miles to the top of the grand canyon of Yellowstone and then we climbed down the edge of the canyon and ate dinner at the Yellowstone River. We saw plenty of bison and antelope along the way. At one point on the trail, there was a very young antelope curled up and completely still, except for its flaring nostrils, just 2 feet off the trail. It’s mother was visible half a mile up the hill watching us. On the way back to the trail head, our group of 10 ended up splitting into two groups of 5 because some people wanted to get back earlier while others wanted to take more time on the trail. I was one who didn’t mind either way, so I ended up with the last 5. We were about an hour behind the other group and we decided to relax and watch the sun set over the mountains near the end of the hike. It was such a vivid sunset that it turned the mountains pink! On the drive home, I saw my first Yellowstone fox. There was hardly any daylight left over and he was sprinting across the road. Fortunately, he made it safely because the drivers saw him and all the cars stopped to let him pass
On Saturday evening (6/19), my friend Gretchen invited me to join her in going to see the annual powwow in Cody, WY. The powwow ended up being a sort of competition, but I don’t understand powwows at all, so I can’t say what exactly was going on. Basically, all the Native Americans were decked out in their feathers, bells, head dresses, and bright colors and they danced to live drum/vocal music in the arena. There were quite a few spectators sitting and watching everything. Additionally, there were several tents set up with Native American jewelry and things being sold. I bought a pair of red, beaded, hoop earrings. By the way, on the way to Cody we saw two bears! One was a black bear (even though he was very brown) and the other was a grizzly. According to a park ranger I spoke with yesterday, this is a big year for bears. Usually the grizzly population hangs between 350 and 650 and the park is holding 650 right now. This is reason #48 why I don’t hike alone.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
Oh, how sweet the sound of another person vacuuming!
There was much rejoicing around Lake when the rain finally cleared up enough to go outside and have a semi-dry time. On Sunday, I went to a morning church service put on by the Christian ministry here at the park. Monday was cloudy, but I still went hiking with some friends from the national park Christian ministry. We went on two hikes-in the morning we on the Beaver Ponds loop (5.1 miles) and then in the early evening, we joined ministry teams from the other locations and hiked up Bunsen Peak (4 miles). Bunsen Peak was really steep, but the view from the top was amazing. We reached the peak right when a thunderstorm was breaking loose in the valley below us. It was fun seeing the dark clouds, lightning and rain in the distance, but I got down that mountain as fast as I could when we realized the storm was actually coming our way. And by “as fast as I could,” I mean that I ran down almost 2 miles of switchbacks and downhill trail to the parking lot. I was with a friend and we both got soaked by the rain, but that only made it more fun. Then, that evening, we all went to the house of the pastor who runs the Christian ministry in Yellowstone and spent a few hours relaxing before driving the hour back to Lake. Their house is in Mammoth. Those two people are probably the most hospitable couple I have ever met. They welcomed 20+ ministry kids (and friends) into their home and fed them all and invited a few of them to stay the night because roads were closed in the park.
On Wednesday, I went to a disco dance party put on by the employee pub. I went with Jillian and we met some friends there. We didn’t dress up in 70s attire, but we still had a lot of fun attempting to dance disco. One of our friends from Singapore was so excited for the dance that he said he planned to “dance his pants off.” Don’t worry—that didn’t actually happen, but he still had a pretty good time.
Tonight, there was a 3-on-3 volleyball tournament of Lake employees and my team won! This means we’re going to the Park-wide tournament in a week in Mammoth. The only reason I’m playing is because the rules require that a female be on the court at all times so some male friends of mine requested that I play with them. I had a fun time even though it was 45 F and we were playing on an asphalt basketball court. By the way, we are the Flying Bison.
Work is going well. I'm getting faster at cleaning rooms and making beds. It's even better now that I know I can accept tips that are handed directly to me as a room attendant! I think I've made a good solid $4 in the past week in tips alone. Bed time.
Shalom!
On Wednesday, I went to a disco dance party put on by the employee pub. I went with Jillian and we met some friends there. We didn’t dress up in 70s attire, but we still had a lot of fun attempting to dance disco. One of our friends from Singapore was so excited for the dance that he said he planned to “dance his pants off.” Don’t worry—that didn’t actually happen, but he still had a pretty good time.
Tonight, there was a 3-on-3 volleyball tournament of Lake employees and my team won! This means we’re going to the Park-wide tournament in a week in Mammoth. The only reason I’m playing is because the rules require that a female be on the court at all times so some male friends of mine requested that I play with them. I had a fun time even though it was 45 F and we were playing on an asphalt basketball court. By the way, we are the Flying Bison.
Work is going well. I'm getting faster at cleaning rooms and making beds. It's even better now that I know I can accept tips that are handed directly to me as a room attendant! I think I've made a good solid $4 in the past week in tips alone. Bed time.
Shalom!
Friday, June 4, 2010
Rain+days off work with out friends=cabin fever
It’s been a cloudy week at Yellowstone. In fact, it’s been raining and/or storming on my days off and relatively nice while I’m inside cleaning rooms. It’s actually raining quite steadily at the moment. That hasn’t stopped me from going out, though—at least for the most part. Last Thursday (5/27), Jillian, I, and two friends named Mike and Michael went on a hike called Osprey Falls. The trail head is an hour from the lake, but the hike is definitely worth the drive. It’s a 4 mile hike that culminates at an 800 foot waterfall and then there is another 4 miles back out. It’s mostly rolling hills until the switchbacks along the steep canyon walls that lead to and from the waterfall and river. On the hike, we saw a few elk, a marmot, a few bison, and part of an elk skeleton consisting of its backbone and skull. While driving there, we saw a coyote and then on the drive back to the lake, we saw a black wolf! He was a couple hundred yards away so my camera wouldn’t have worked, but I got a good look at it through Jillian’s binoculars. There were a lot of people stopped along the side of the road photographing the animal with their supersized wildlife lenses.
The next night, a group of us were relaxing in the common room and realized we didn’t actually have much to do apart from get angry at the ridiculously slow internet. So, I suggested we make a blanket fort with our bed sheets and the available furniture and that’s what we did. It ended up being a lot of fun and quite a few people joined in our party.
On Saturday after work, Jillian, Emily and I went for a hike at a 2 mile trail called Storm Point. We ended up hiking through heavily falling snow which actually provided for cool picture opportunities. We did not see any wildlife, but while hiking through the woods, we definitely heard a pack of coyotes or wolves or something barking and yelping. That was quite exciting.
Since Angela went home on Wednesday (6/2) (for personal reasons), Emily, Max, Angela, and I went for one last hike together on Tuesday late afternoon. We hiked up the Elephant Back Trail through drizzling rain and trekked our way through knee deep snow at the mountain’s top. We were rewarded at the top, though, because the view reaches for several miles over the hotel and across the lake and we were able to see the clouds breaking up over the snowy mountains and the yellow evening sunshine falling on the ridges. We had to book it down the mountain, however, in order to get some hot food from the EDR before they ran out of it. We didn’t see any spectacular wildlife, but it’s amazing how different the forest appears depending on the weather of the day. It can change from totally dry evergreen to a rainforest like atmosphere to a (cold) tropical cloud forest to a snowy North American pine forest.
After dinner last night, Emily and I saw a mama grizzly and her cub up close. They were in the woods right next to our dorm and they crossed our path about 30 yards in front of us. It was really exciting, but there were so many people around that the two of them got out of there as fast as possible. Later on that night, I played softball for the first time in a few years. Since they need females to be part of the park league, Emily and I played (partially doing them a favor and partially because we wanted to). I surprised myself and actually hit a lot of the pitches thrown to me. It was a fun evening and I’m looking forward to playing again.
It’s lunch time. Shalom!
The next night, a group of us were relaxing in the common room and realized we didn’t actually have much to do apart from get angry at the ridiculously slow internet. So, I suggested we make a blanket fort with our bed sheets and the available furniture and that’s what we did. It ended up being a lot of fun and quite a few people joined in our party.
On Saturday after work, Jillian, Emily and I went for a hike at a 2 mile trail called Storm Point. We ended up hiking through heavily falling snow which actually provided for cool picture opportunities. We did not see any wildlife, but while hiking through the woods, we definitely heard a pack of coyotes or wolves or something barking and yelping. That was quite exciting.
Since Angela went home on Wednesday (6/2) (for personal reasons), Emily, Max, Angela, and I went for one last hike together on Tuesday late afternoon. We hiked up the Elephant Back Trail through drizzling rain and trekked our way through knee deep snow at the mountain’s top. We were rewarded at the top, though, because the view reaches for several miles over the hotel and across the lake and we were able to see the clouds breaking up over the snowy mountains and the yellow evening sunshine falling on the ridges. We had to book it down the mountain, however, in order to get some hot food from the EDR before they ran out of it. We didn’t see any spectacular wildlife, but it’s amazing how different the forest appears depending on the weather of the day. It can change from totally dry evergreen to a rainforest like atmosphere to a (cold) tropical cloud forest to a snowy North American pine forest.
After dinner last night, Emily and I saw a mama grizzly and her cub up close. They were in the woods right next to our dorm and they crossed our path about 30 yards in front of us. It was really exciting, but there were so many people around that the two of them got out of there as fast as possible. Later on that night, I played softball for the first time in a few years. Since they need females to be part of the park league, Emily and I played (partially doing them a favor and partially because we wanted to). I surprised myself and actually hit a lot of the pitches thrown to me. It was a fun evening and I’m looking forward to playing again.
It’s lunch time. Shalom!
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