One month until I'm home!

I’ve officially been in Yellowstone for over two months now. This means I’ll be home in one month precisely. I’m one of the last college student employees to leave for home, so I’ll be a little lonely for about a week. Oh well, all the more reason to enjoy everything now while I can! It’s been a while since I last blogged; my (roughly) weekly updates have been nonexistent. My only explanation for this is that the less novel everything becomes, the less urge I have to tell about it. But, I'll make up for it here.

The Monday after my last entry, I and a large group of friends hiked Mt. Holmes in the northern-ish part of the park which totaled at 19 miles round trip. It was a moderately easy hike for the first 8 miles or so while we approached the actual mountain, but then it climbed very steeply for the last mile. The trail was loose rocks and there was a lot of wind. In fact, the wind was so strong that while on the side of the mountain (not quite at the top) it nearly blew me off the trail and down the slope. At the top, I put my entire body weight into the wind and didn’t move anywhere. We ate a very cold lunch, appreciated the mind blowing view, used the outhouse (yes, there was an outhouse on the top of the mountain), took a few pictures, and then headed back down to normal wind speeds and warmer air temperature.

The next day, July 12th, I went with some friends to the Grand Prismatic hot spring in the Old Faithful village. We walked along a gravel walkway and then took a short hike up a hill to see the Grand from above because if you don’t see it from either above or right next to it, you really can’t appreciate anything about it apart from the strong sulfur smell. We weren’t very high up and there was a good bit of steam, but its brilliant colors were still visible. While driving back from the Grand, the sky was weirdly hazy as it is sometimes at Old Faithful (perhaps because of all the weird stuff in the air from the thermal features) so the sunset was incredible. Pictures are up on picasa. I actually ended up returning to the O.F. village a few times that week for various reasons (all just for fun), because it’s only about an hour from the lake.

On Sunday, July 18th, we took a hike to see a hot spring named Tomato Soup. It is called thus because it looks exactly like a large bowl of Tomato Soup sitting in the ground. The hike was an easy 3-4 miles roundtrip, but there is no trail, so a friend of ours who had been there previously, was our guide. If I remember one thing about thermal features from this summer, it will be that they can be any shape, size, or color. The colors, especially, never cease to amaze me. The names, as well, are interesting and make me wonder what on earth the people were thinking when they named half of the features.

On Monday, I and two friends attempted to hike the 16 miles from the Lake village to the Canyon village along the Howard Eaton trail. But, we found out about 1.5 miles into our hike that everything is closed 6 miles in due to a pack of wolves who have set up a den near the trail. And, since wolves are pretty much worshipped here, everything within 5 square miles of a den is shut off to any human travel. So, the three of us ended up hiking just 3 miles in on the Howard Eaton trail and then 3 out again. Our turning point was an overlook onto the LeHardy Rapids in the Yellowstone River which comes out of Lake Yellowstone. I really enjoyed the hike. We passed through fields, live forests and forests that were recently burned by fires. The burnt forest was quite pretty because colorful wildflowers and grass are now growing out of the blackened tree trunks, stumps, ash, and dirt. We also saw quite a few helicopters carrying supplies to firefighters because there is a fire currently burning about 7 miles from the lake. What I’ve heard is that because it was naturally started, the NPS (or whoever is taking care of it) is just trying to keep it away from guest facilities. I think it started on a beach somewhere along the lake. People here aren’t worried about it at all because it’s small and controllable—at least so far it is.

I worked the rest of that week and then left Friday evening for a back country camping trip with three friends of mine. We hiked about 8 miles in and set up camp. Due to work schedules, however, we didn’t start the hike until 8 PM and, with heavy backpacks, didn’t get to our site until 11. We had headlamps, though, and a full moon, so it was a good night hike. The trail was an easy one as well and we saw zero wildlife. At one point, we forded the creek, but that was before it got dark. The water was nearly freezing, fast moving, and the bottom was slippery rocks of all sizes. If you ever need to ford a river or creek, I highly recommend using a stick for balance because I know that I would not have been able to get across without a stick. It saved my life I’m sure. Well, it wasn’t quite that drastic, but it at least saved me from getting very wet and cold and possibly losing my entire backpack. Speaking of my backpack, I’m finished with external frames. The one I’m using from home is at least 15 years old and it just doesn’t work for me. It creaks and is awkward on my hips and shoulder blades. If I don’t get a new frame backpack here, then I will in Virginia because I definitely intend to do more backpacking in the future. (Appalachian Trail next summer?) Overall, backpacking was an excellent experience. The canyon we hiked through (we went from Hellroaring Creek to the Black Canyon) was beautiful and, most importantly, the mosquitoes were not quite as ruthlessly murderous as they have been on other hikes in the park.

What are men compared to rocks and mountains?

If you’re ever given the opportunity to choose between rafting the Snake River or the Yellowstone River, I recommend that you choose the Yellowstone River. But, then again, it also depends on the water level of both rivers and how far you go. I rode the Yellowstone on Monday, June 28th and we went for 18 miles so it took both morning and afternoon. The morning ride was smooth and a little slow, but it picked up a lot after lunch when we went through the canyon and over class 4 rapids. What made the day even better was that the ride was free because one of our group has a friend who works for the company we went with. The late afternoon and evening after the ride, we spent in Gardiner, Montana at the house of a support staff member for the Christian ministry in the park. We ate hamburgers, played some volleyball and frisbee, and then did a little swing dancing.

The next day (Tuesday), I and a few buddies woke up early (4:30 AM) and hiked to watch the sun rise. Despite the trillions of mosquitoes, it was a beautiful view over the lake and Absaroka Mountains. We hiked an easy mile to a lookout point, watched the sun rise, swatted mosquitoes, took some pictures, swatted some more mosquitoes, took some more pictures, swatted even more mosquitoes, and then did the other mile of the hike back to our car. Starting that Thursday, I spent a few days with Jillian and a few friends from Lake at her parents’ house in Jackson, WY. It was a really relaxing and enjoyable time. We saw a couple of world cup games, took quite a few naps, ate delicious food, went shopping in town, and of course we hiked in the Tetons. On that hike, we (5 people total) went 13 miles through Paintbrush Canyon and it was perfect weather with a magnificent view at the top. Our total elevation climb was around 2600 feet. While on the way down, we encountered a black bear on the trail, but he got out of our way real fast. There were a lot of mosquitoes as well, but those were only a nuisance at the lower, warmer elevation where there wasn’t still 2+ feet of snow on the ground. After the hike, we all went to pizza at a local place called Dornan’s that has a spectacular view of the Tetons. The next day we walked around town. The shops in Jackson are a lot of fun—as is the town itself. There’s this central park that has four archway entrances made entirely of hundreds of deer and elk antlers. Since the National Elk Refuge is right next to Jackson and it’s not in a national park, it’s easy AND legal to collect antlers here. Or, at least the Boy Scouts have permission to do so. On Saturday evening, our friends from Singapore who were staying with us made dinner for everybody. It was tasty, authentic, home cooked Singapore/Chinese food made without any reference to recipes. We (the Americans in the group) were all very impressed. Because I had to work Sunday (today), I hitched a ride home late Saturday evening with a friend who just came to Jackson for the day on Saturday. I had ridden down in Jillian’s car, but they were all staying for another day or so because they didn’t have to work.

It’s been pretty easy to forget about the real world while I’ve been out here. But a few instances lately have brought me (and I’m assuming those around me) back to reality. First, my roommate’s grandma passed away a few days ago. Second, a friend of mine just found out that his 26 year old sister is dying of cancer. He’s going home in a few days. Third, another friend of mine just found out that her good friend (from a long time ago) has leukemia and she is going home to be with her for the remainder of this summer. A lot of people come to work at Yellowstone as a means of escape from the heaviness of their lives, but when it comes down to it, there really is no escaping after all. At least, not on this earth.