Ok. This needs to be quick post for my sanity's sake. Everytime we have internet, all I do is write and write...I want to find out what is going on in the world!
The past two days have been spent laying on a sandy beach of the Selway River. The scenery rivals anything we have seen so far. Who would have thought it could be this wonderful in Idaho?!
The water is also plenty warm to swim in and that has been fantabulous. We even body surfed our way down stream a bit. We are camped on the beach above Selway Falls, so we had to be a little careful, but we managed to eddy out before we got too close for comfort. Seeing this much moving water has definitely made us interested in doing some paddling on our own. The Selway goes through about sixty miles of wilderness and they only allow one float party per day so you don't see anyone else! (that also means that it took the one group we spoke to about five years of playing the permit lottery to get a trip!)
Our first night was spent at a pay site, the second, we camped right on the beach. We only had slight troubles setting up the big tent because it was HAILING on us. Crazy big half inch? hailstones. Dinner the second night was Alfredo ( not brown gravy) noodles with tomato and brok.
That is all you get for now. Just imagine two happy people surface diving into a deserted clear river and floating downstream with giant grins on their faces. That's what we have been up to.
Recording the adventures of Robert and Jenn since 2010.
Monday, August 2, 2010
7/24:Three B's: Billings to Bozeman to Butte
Robert and I enjoyed our hotel bed for one more night and it was great. In the morning, we knew we had to accomplish our town business, but it was a chore. We found a cabelas and paid them a visit to return the gazebo. They mistakenly gave Robert trouble about getting a replacement part for the broken arm of the gazebo. At least they were gracious about taking it back. We were also looking for maps, which they amusingly did not have. We asked about an REI. The man responded with, "that's an outdoor supply store?" we knew we needed to leave.
There is an rei in Bozeman, so we headed there. The rei was huge and new, with really nice people there. One sales associate helped us pick out our next hike and a remote front country campsite too. He also talked to us about how he doesn't pass up calories along the trail- eating any and all wild food he can find. He also thinks if you can't drink from the stream, you shouldn't bother camping there. He was a little extreme, but interesting all the same. We sat for seemingly forever in front of the camping books. I ended up with a vegetarian backpacking food book and an edible plants book. Robert got maps. A lot of maps. And we were happy.
Next we found a burrito place to eat. It was very tasty indeed. There is a college in Bozeman, so there were lots of young people and we felt at home. Finally a meal of real veggies and good sauces.
On to Butte, where we planned to camp for the night. We got there and had some trouble finding a campsite. The place we wanted to camp was all locked up. Thankfully, with loads of national forest around, we found an alternate camping site easily enough. Others had found it too, but we were happy enough in the last level spot, right next to the creek.
There is an rei in Bozeman, so we headed there. The rei was huge and new, with really nice people there. One sales associate helped us pick out our next hike and a remote front country campsite too. He also talked to us about how he doesn't pass up calories along the trail- eating any and all wild food he can find. He also thinks if you can't drink from the stream, you shouldn't bother camping there. He was a little extreme, but interesting all the same. We sat for seemingly forever in front of the camping books. I ended up with a vegetarian backpacking food book and an edible plants book. Robert got maps. A lot of maps. And we were happy.
Next we found a burrito place to eat. It was very tasty indeed. There is a college in Bozeman, so there were lots of young people and we felt at home. Finally a meal of real veggies and good sauces.
On to Butte, where we planned to camp for the night. We got there and had some trouble finding a campsite. The place we wanted to camp was all locked up. Thankfully, with loads of national forest around, we found an alternate camping site easily enough. Others had found it too, but we were happy enough in the last level spot, right next to the creek.
7/23: Billings
Sorry for the out of order posts...
Awoke in a hotel room in Billings, MT. The bed was a welcome change, but we definitely got our pillows from the car so that we would be capable of sleeping. Theirs were a little lacking.
Billings seems to be a real town, not so small as to practically not exist nor so touristy that you want to leave immediately to escape all the Tourists. Billings also has the added benefit of containing my father! We went to lunch with him at a locally owned bagel place. I had a tasty ordinary bagel so as not to repeat my mistake at the last bagel place at which we ate. (I got a fancy bagel sandwich and it was horrible.) There was good conversation had by all, including the nice old guy sitting behind us.
Robert and I went off to take care of town business and Dad went off to do adult things (work). We went to the grocery store and bought some craving food: chips, salsa, sour cream, and beer! We were going to do all sorts of things in town, but then...the hotel room seemed so nice. It had Internet, electricity, squishy beds, and tv! What more can you ask for in a room? We lounged all afternoon and it was great.
Eventually it became time to meet Dad for Thai dinner. We picked him up from his place and just managed to all fit in one car to get to the restaurant. (I had to sit gingerly on top of the shot gun. Fun times.) Dinner was less than spectacular. Robert got Tom Kha Gai and I tried some of the broth. It was terrible, quiite a disaster indeed - way too sweet and way too much chicken! Robert got green curry surprisingly and I made a snap decision for pad Thai. Dad got some sweet and sour chicken thing. The curry sauce was good, but the veggies in it were piss poor. The noodles in my pad Thai were great and got scooped up quickly with my chopsticks that came already unwrapped...odd. I don't know how dad's dish was...it was too meaty for my delicate taste.
After dinner we went on a wild goose chase, trying to find the Rim Trail that over looks the city. After much map turning and GPS fiddling, we found a park that overlooked the city that may or may not have been the one that Dad wanted to find. We gazed out for a while, got cold and went back into town. We dropped Dad off at his place and said goodbye for now. It was a quick visit.
Awoke in a hotel room in Billings, MT. The bed was a welcome change, but we definitely got our pillows from the car so that we would be capable of sleeping. Theirs were a little lacking.
Billings seems to be a real town, not so small as to practically not exist nor so touristy that you want to leave immediately to escape all the Tourists. Billings also has the added benefit of containing my father! We went to lunch with him at a locally owned bagel place. I had a tasty ordinary bagel so as not to repeat my mistake at the last bagel place at which we ate. (I got a fancy bagel sandwich and it was horrible.) There was good conversation had by all, including the nice old guy sitting behind us.
Robert and I went off to take care of town business and Dad went off to do adult things (work). We went to the grocery store and bought some craving food: chips, salsa, sour cream, and beer! We were going to do all sorts of things in town, but then...the hotel room seemed so nice. It had Internet, electricity, squishy beds, and tv! What more can you ask for in a room? We lounged all afternoon and it was great.
Eventually it became time to meet Dad for Thai dinner. We picked him up from his place and just managed to all fit in one car to get to the restaurant. (I had to sit gingerly on top of the shot gun. Fun times.) Dinner was less than spectacular. Robert got Tom Kha Gai and I tried some of the broth. It was terrible, quiite a disaster indeed - way too sweet and way too much chicken! Robert got green curry surprisingly and I made a snap decision for pad Thai. Dad got some sweet and sour chicken thing. The curry sauce was good, but the veggies in it were piss poor. The noodles in my pad Thai were great and got scooped up quickly with my chopsticks that came already unwrapped...odd. I don't know how dad's dish was...it was too meaty for my delicate taste.
After dinner we went on a wild goose chase, trying to find the Rim Trail that over looks the city. After much map turning and GPS fiddling, we found a park that overlooked the city that may or may not have been the one that Dad wanted to find. We gazed out for a while, got cold and went back into town. We dropped Dad off at his place and said goodbye for now. It was a quick visit.
7/30: Idaho
We woke up, reheated curry for breakfast, and packed up to leave. Good riddance. I chatted up a small boy child and a grandma to discover this was the Wassenbach yearly campout. Great for them, they seemed to be having a bang-up time, but terrible for two non-Wassenbachians camping in their midst through no fault of their own! Good riddance.
We stopped on the way down the mountain to swim in a wonderful little swimming hole. There was some waterfall type feature and then a deep hole that would have been perfect for swimming had the water not been about 45*F. We braved it anyways though since it had been about five days since out last proper shower and the pits were a little rank, even for a couple of dirty hippies. It was great! We even halfway bucket showered with our Dr. Bronners, using our bucket and moving an acceptable distance from the stream. Clean hairs, ahhh.
Then Robert drove us into Idaho. We were heading to a city called Lowell. The scenery was amazing. Driving up a fertile valley, great trees, wide river, not sure of it's name because we were off the map at this point, but I enjoyed windows down, clean hairs getting all tangled to shit, and decent music blaring. (it was roberts iPod, recovered at long last from the depths of the back seat)
We got to Lowell and...drove right through it without realizing. It was basically a gas station (thankfully. we were cruising on empty since we didn't heed the "no gas for 62 miles" sign). We stopped and I borrowed the attendants paper to read more about the most recent yellowstone bear incident, got myself all into a tither because it was a predatory attack at a campsite that we would have stayed at had it not been full. I mean, we stopped, pulled into the campsite, drove around and were disappointed so we had to drive on. A few days later and a few fewer tourists and we would have been there. Disconcerting to say the least.
We drove up the road, following the Selway River at this point and it was a treat to see. Lots of people camping, but also lots of people swimming in the river. Legit swimming, tubing even! Maybe this river was warm enough to actually enjoy. Robert pulled off and the water isn't warm, but it doesn't seem too bad either. We will certainly try out a few of the deep swimming holes we passed tomorrow. People seemed to be camping at random along the bank, but we scoped out the official sites and decided on a 5$/night site. It's annoying because it isn't anything special compared to the free sites, but it is getting late and it's five stinking bucks.
Dinner of stir fried veggies (whatever we had left: book choy, onion, garlic and zuke). We also did chow mien noodles and the whole thing turned out smashingly. We were quite excited when we first got out of the car because there wasn't a swarm of skeeters waiting for us; however, we slowly noticed these minuscule biting gnats. After dinner, we started itching more and more as we were getting bit on top of our already considerable welts and imagining even more! We retired to the tent and here we lay.
Now. Do I return the pad to the car or just sleep on top of it?....
We stopped on the way down the mountain to swim in a wonderful little swimming hole. There was some waterfall type feature and then a deep hole that would have been perfect for swimming had the water not been about 45*F. We braved it anyways though since it had been about five days since out last proper shower and the pits were a little rank, even for a couple of dirty hippies. It was great! We even halfway bucket showered with our Dr. Bronners, using our bucket and moving an acceptable distance from the stream. Clean hairs, ahhh.
Then Robert drove us into Idaho. We were heading to a city called Lowell. The scenery was amazing. Driving up a fertile valley, great trees, wide river, not sure of it's name because we were off the map at this point, but I enjoyed windows down, clean hairs getting all tangled to shit, and decent music blaring. (it was roberts iPod, recovered at long last from the depths of the back seat)
We got to Lowell and...drove right through it without realizing. It was basically a gas station (thankfully. we were cruising on empty since we didn't heed the "no gas for 62 miles" sign). We stopped and I borrowed the attendants paper to read more about the most recent yellowstone bear incident, got myself all into a tither because it was a predatory attack at a campsite that we would have stayed at had it not been full. I mean, we stopped, pulled into the campsite, drove around and were disappointed so we had to drive on. A few days later and a few fewer tourists and we would have been there. Disconcerting to say the least.
We drove up the road, following the Selway River at this point and it was a treat to see. Lots of people camping, but also lots of people swimming in the river. Legit swimming, tubing even! Maybe this river was warm enough to actually enjoy. Robert pulled off and the water isn't warm, but it doesn't seem too bad either. We will certainly try out a few of the deep swimming holes we passed tomorrow. People seemed to be camping at random along the bank, but we scoped out the official sites and decided on a 5$/night site. It's annoying because it isn't anything special compared to the free sites, but it is getting late and it's five stinking bucks.
Dinner of stir fried veggies (whatever we had left: book choy, onion, garlic and zuke). We also did chow mien noodles and the whole thing turned out smashingly. We were quite excited when we first got out of the car because there wasn't a swarm of skeeters waiting for us; however, we slowly noticed these minuscule biting gnats. After dinner, we started itching more and more as we were getting bit on top of our already considerable welts and imagining even more! We retired to the tent and here we lay.
Now. Do I return the pad to the car or just sleep on top of it?....
7/29: more children
Today unfortunately was another lackluster day. My big accomplishment was writing about our yellowstone experience. Robert went fishing a lot and I wrote a lot.
The children invading our campsite got worse, much worse. It was peaceful and deserted in our camp, but then they came. They literally set up their tents adjacent to ours. The kids were literally running through our site, on all sides of our tent, etc. It was not pleasant. We have plans to leave tomorrow to find a place with less kids, less bugs and hopefully bigger fish. (thus far they are typically sardine size)
Today, however, we ran into Darby, the nearest town. Robert needed more nymphs and some big dry flies to use as indicators. We first stopped at the espresso place that doubles as a candy shoppe and antique place too. I wanted to buy a quarter pound of candy, but I ended up with three. I filled up on jelly cherries, unbearably hot gummi bears, taffy and caramels. Only the first two were in any way tasty. S wolf kills - things wolves had killed. I haven't been to the website yet, but it recommended going to the website, saveelk.com. Interesting perhaps. They were not fond of wolves.
Next we got back to camp and Robert went to fish...and so did I. I have been increasingly interested in trying it out. Robert lets me hold his fly rod sometimes and has talked about teaching me how to cast. So I took his spinning rod and headed out to play around with it. First cast, reeling in the lure, can't see it. Oh what it that wiggly thing? Oh, it's following something shiny...oh it's a fish biting my lure! I enjoy that the water is so clear that you can see the fish chasing the lure, but once he was on there, I was lost. It took a lot of finagling on my part to get him off and i didn't like it one bit. I went back to my hammock to read. I'm not sure if I will try my hand at fishing again.
Robert eventually came home and we were hanging out in the hammock when we heard a crackling sound. It was coming from our own fire pit. The fire from last nit that had been quietly smoldering all day had suddenly burst into flames! It was quite amusing and we certainly didnt squander our good fortune. We started a fire for dinner. We made another tasty curry using tikka masala paste. Very tasty, I liked the salad balls, but I did not like the addition of the yogurt, which cooked before it melted, leaving small white clumps in our otherwise wonderful curry.
Kids went to bed and so did we. "Damn those meddling kids!"
The children invading our campsite got worse, much worse. It was peaceful and deserted in our camp, but then they came. They literally set up their tents adjacent to ours. The kids were literally running through our site, on all sides of our tent, etc. It was not pleasant. We have plans to leave tomorrow to find a place with less kids, less bugs and hopefully bigger fish. (thus far they are typically sardine size)
Today, however, we ran into Darby, the nearest town. Robert needed more nymphs and some big dry flies to use as indicators. We first stopped at the espresso place that doubles as a candy shoppe and antique place too. I wanted to buy a quarter pound of candy, but I ended up with three. I filled up on jelly cherries, unbearably hot gummi bears, taffy and caramels. Only the first two were in any way tasty. S wolf kills - things wolves had killed. I haven't been to the website yet, but it recommended going to the website, saveelk.com. Interesting perhaps. They were not fond of wolves.
Next we got back to camp and Robert went to fish...and so did I. I have been increasingly interested in trying it out. Robert lets me hold his fly rod sometimes and has talked about teaching me how to cast. So I took his spinning rod and headed out to play around with it. First cast, reeling in the lure, can't see it. Oh what it that wiggly thing? Oh, it's following something shiny...oh it's a fish biting my lure! I enjoy that the water is so clear that you can see the fish chasing the lure, but once he was on there, I was lost. It took a lot of finagling on my part to get him off and i didn't like it one bit. I went back to my hammock to read. I'm not sure if I will try my hand at fishing again.
Robert eventually came home and we were hanging out in the hammock when we heard a crackling sound. It was coming from our own fire pit. The fire from last nit that had been quietly smoldering all day had suddenly burst into flames! It was quite amusing and we certainly didnt squander our good fortune. We started a fire for dinner. We made another tasty curry using tikka masala paste. Very tasty, I liked the salad balls, but I did not like the addition of the yogurt, which cooked before it melted, leaving small white clumps in our otherwise wonderful curry.
Kids went to bed and so did we. "Damn those meddling kids!"
7/28/2010: I failed. I only caught 18 fish.
We laid in bed until...i'm not even sure when, but it was late, even for us. We took a short rinse in the lake and started our day with fried potatoes. Overall it was a pretty lackluster day for me. Robert caught fish after fish after fish and I sat in my hammock swatting flies, gnats and skeeters. More people came to our lovely remote campground. There was a family in a motorized canoe dragging five hooks as they went, only Gentry caught a fish - what a terrible name! There was also a group that hiked halfway around the lake to fish. Then the thunder rolled and the lightning struck, another love grew cold on a sleepless ni-iiiight. Ok, not so much, but we scurried back to camp, dreading the raindrops we already felt.
Back at camp, sunshine. A few drops, yes, but primarily sunshine. We made Asian soup for lunch as if we were backpacking. Julienned veggies from a bag, ramen noodles minus the spice packet, fresh bock choy, sun bird veggie stir fry mix for flavor, all the normal spices. It was, o.k. Nothing spectacular, we can do better. Robert was happy with the attempt, but I sadly was not. I have to say I am quite the conessiure (sp?) of drop soups and this was not one of the better ones I have experienced. Maybe I am biased because I dumped about four squirts of sriracha too many into my soup turning it red and almost inedibly spicy.
I don't know how I forgot to mention this: we got neighbors, a whole gaggle of screaming, running, crying chitlins and they camped directly besides us, curse them. It is true that we are taking up two tent pads because of the leaking tent debacle, but still, they are very much up in our biz. I have decided that I vey much do not enjoy other people's children. They give children a bad name. I try to read my admittedly difficult book and I can't even manage that with all their....noise. Uggh.
We retreated to our big tent with the cooler, a dangerously low bottle of whiskey and some dominoes. I won. (to be fair, the game was never fully completed, but I was ahead when the whiskey took over.) I ended up deciding sleep was the best course at that point, utterly disillusioned by the bloodsucking insects, screaming kids and sneaky rainstorms. Poor, Robert, he had to make himself a turkey sandwich dinner and had nothing good to read in the tent. It did eventually start raining again, making venturing out no fun. As I said, it was a pretty lackluster day.
Author's Note: it is currently 7/29, Robert is off wetting his line, and I am sitting in my hammock, which is unfortunately in full sun. Just as I finished the above post, my pad said: turning off now. It is too hot to use! Apparently, the pad and I are on the same wavelength when it comes to full sun.
Also, further proof that Mr. Blue Jay is shy; he only comes by the campsite once a day and he only comes when Robert is away. I got a few nice shots of him in the middle of this post.
Back at camp, sunshine. A few drops, yes, but primarily sunshine. We made Asian soup for lunch as if we were backpacking. Julienned veggies from a bag, ramen noodles minus the spice packet, fresh bock choy, sun bird veggie stir fry mix for flavor, all the normal spices. It was, o.k. Nothing spectacular, we can do better. Robert was happy with the attempt, but I sadly was not. I have to say I am quite the conessiure (sp?) of drop soups and this was not one of the better ones I have experienced. Maybe I am biased because I dumped about four squirts of sriracha too many into my soup turning it red and almost inedibly spicy.
I don't know how I forgot to mention this: we got neighbors, a whole gaggle of screaming, running, crying chitlins and they camped directly besides us, curse them. It is true that we are taking up two tent pads because of the leaking tent debacle, but still, they are very much up in our biz. I have decided that I vey much do not enjoy other people's children. They give children a bad name. I try to read my admittedly difficult book and I can't even manage that with all their....noise. Uggh.
We retreated to our big tent with the cooler, a dangerously low bottle of whiskey and some dominoes. I won. (to be fair, the game was never fully completed, but I was ahead when the whiskey took over.) I ended up deciding sleep was the best course at that point, utterly disillusioned by the bloodsucking insects, screaming kids and sneaky rainstorms. Poor, Robert, he had to make himself a turkey sandwich dinner and had nothing good to read in the tent. It did eventually start raining again, making venturing out no fun. As I said, it was a pretty lackluster day.
Author's Note: it is currently 7/29, Robert is off wetting his line, and I am sitting in my hammock, which is unfortunately in full sun. Just as I finished the above post, my pad said: turning off now. It is too hot to use! Apparently, the pad and I are on the same wavelength when it comes to full sun.
Also, further proof that Mr. Blue Jay is shy; he only comes by the campsite once a day and he only comes when Robert is away. I got a few nice shots of him in the middle of this post.
7/27/2010: Alot of Rain
(If you haven't already looked at the Hyperbole and a Half blog. Do so immediately and read the post about "alot.")
Today we awoke to the sound of pitter patter pitter pat...rain. As we lay there, bladders aching, we hoped for it to stop. It did not. Eventually I caved and made a dash for some tp and the nearest rock. Robert has a much stronger bladder and waited stalwartly for about another hour or so. I'm not sure because I went back to sleep in protest. When I eventually awoke again, Robert was gone and had been very busy unloading the supply boxes from the car, stashing each under it's own dry-ish tree. He proceeded to make us the best mochas you can imagine: 1 packet Swiss miss hot chocolate, 1 packet Colombian VIA (starbucks instant coffee), 4 scoops Nestle Nido instant whole milk (Mexican baby formula), and boiling water of course. The milk we discovered in my new backpacking cook book, much better than the nonfat instant dry milk powder we had been using. You can find it in the Hispanic Foods section. It's the giant canister with a smiling baby in the side. :)
Our rain shelter worked, okay, but we were reduced to two small, dampish, seats at our picnic table. It was only okay because it wasn't raining all that hard, just consistently. Robert made us gourmet bean tacos and the day was beginning to look a little brighter.
We made another deer friend, lurking around the edges of our campsite. We knew it was a different deer because its ears weren't nearly as massive as yesterday's deer's ears. I couldn't figure out what this dear was munching until after she left...you know how I made a dash for the nearest rock...yea. She was after that. She had stomped and dug up the ground in the exact spot where I had gone this morning. Multiple instructive materials have told me to go on hard surfaces so that animals won't dig up plants to get to the salts in urine, but I had never actually seen it happen, nor have I mastered the pee on top of a rock trick without unwanted splatter. I will have to revisit this skill apparently. Sorry, now dead plants.
As soon as the rain cleared a bit, we made a trek to go fishing/reading. The bugs get worse after rain, so we tried to go into "impervious mode." From bottom to top: hiking boots, socks, jeans, shirt tucked into jeans, rain jacket, hood up, bug net over hood (jenn method), bug net inside hood (Robert method), gloves (gardening gloves that Robert had stashed from his oil rig days). We made quite a sight. To complete the image, Robert was carrying both his fishing poles, one spinning, one fly with fluorescent orange line, and he rattled as he walked due to all the tackle in his pockets. I was carrying one blue nalgene with KIPP emblazoned on the side and a Weatherford sticker too, Robert's backpacking chair slung over my shoulder, and The Elegance of a Hedgehog, my new novel, stuck in my "butt pocket." We were quite a pair.
We fished/read our way around the lake multiple times. It was peaceful except for two sounds: zzzzzzz (the drone of a million mosquitoes just outside my bug net and occasionally inside), and "I caught a fish!" Robert was extremely successful today and he loved it. Most were small, but when you cast three times and catch three fish, who can complain? During a dry spell, however, I convinced him to go swimming. A huge lake with crystal water and a sandy bottom, I don't care how cold it is or how overcast the sky, I'm going in! Our main goal was cleanliness, however. It's been three days and we were getting a little ripe. It took a lot of shouting and grunting, but we both made it in, submerged and scrubbed. Then there was some naked fishing, I won't say by whom. (whoever it was that was fishing naked would like to specify that he *ahem* that person, caught a fish while naked)
Sidebar: Mountain Blue Jay
I have started to notice birds more and more. When there aren't deer digging up your pee or chipmunks bathing themselves, there are always birds to watch. My current favorite is this very shy, what I shall call, Mountain Blue Jay. He is about the size of a regular blue jay, but he is dark deep blue on the bottom half of his body and it fades into black on his head. He also has a wonderful mohawk on his head, giving him a true pointy little head, Dad. I'd love to know the real name of this guy if anyone knows and I will continue working on getting a picture. There were ample opportunities today while reading; he must have known I left the camera at home and my home I do mean, campsite. Whenever I come across something that I can't identify, it earns the name Mountain XX. There were Mountain Bluebonnets in Yellowstone and something else that now escapes me and my partner in adventure.
I was having trouble warming up after our delightful swim, so I headed back home to start a fire. Robert was quite toasty, despite his bare feet (he eventually donned some clothing) probably because of all the fish catching and releasing. I made a fire just fine, but I struggled keeping it going and getting it blazing. That is normally Robert's job. Maybe I still have more to learn about this fire business after all. Regardless, my fire limped along after a few false starts and some cutting board waving to encourage proper oxygenation.
I decided to start making my dinner since we were eating independently tonight and as soon as I had sliced my tofu for the fryer, I heard the first rumble. Robert's head barely peaked the hill leading back to our camp when the deluge began. Our rain shelter proved more than inadequate. We cursed our decision to return the gazebo multiple times. I ate my nicely fried tofu in the three inches of dryish space directly in front of the propane stove. Robert huddled at my side munching bread and butter, the only other edible bits under our supposed "rain shelter." Collectively we ate through an entire block of tofu and an entire loaf of french bread. Thankfully, we didn't eat the entire Tupperware of butter.
As we watched the wind howl through our tent, we were pretty sure there would be leakage as there inexplicably was during the last storm in the back country. We took the tent the REI in Bozeman, set it up and had it inspected. The man suggested we seam seal the bottom seams, but we hadn't done it yet since it is a delicate and timely procedure. Hence, almost certain leakage. We plotted how to set up the big tent during a lull in the storm. Poles first, then we made a break for it. Our tent proved too large for the tent pad which almost foiled the whole procedure, but we adapted as we do best and allowed one corner to fall off the side. By the time the tent was staked, there were bright blue skies and only a distant rumble as the storm had moved on down the valley. I tried not to be too disappointed that our plan was foiled and focus instead on the last of wet falling from the sky.
Robert immediately wanted to do more fishing; he is a little obsessed, perhaps. Then he barbecued chicken. Most of our recent hikes have included some conversation similar to the following: "you know what I want to eat when we get back?" "no. What?" "mashed potatoes with cheese, asparagus about an inch and a half thick, broccoli that is still crispy, and... Barbecued chicken!" tonight he got his bird.
Now it is cold and our once blazing fire is dying. Time to go enjoy the dry, very large tent.
Oh. We have decided to forgo the backpacking trip here due to the propensity of storms and the leaking of the tent and the mosquitoes.
Sidebar: Time
My watch still runs on central time. This leads to lots of fun mistakes and constant inquiries such as: what time is it? Xxx is that our time or their time? The fun part is that my response is always the same: our time. I will only ever give you the time in our time. And yet...this conversation continues to repeat itself.
Sidebar: Bug Nets
Wearing a bug net all the time makes you forget it is on. I have lost count of the number of times I have tried to eat only to be stymied by the presence of army green mesh. Then there was the time that I decided to drink through it just to see what it was like. Fun, except that it is difficult to gauge where the liquid is in relation to your lips due to nerve overstimulation from the bug net leading to some manner of drinking problem whereby I end up with water down my front. Then there was the time that Robert spit into his bug net...I'll leave it at that.
Today we awoke to the sound of pitter patter pitter pat...rain. As we lay there, bladders aching, we hoped for it to stop. It did not. Eventually I caved and made a dash for some tp and the nearest rock. Robert has a much stronger bladder and waited stalwartly for about another hour or so. I'm not sure because I went back to sleep in protest. When I eventually awoke again, Robert was gone and had been very busy unloading the supply boxes from the car, stashing each under it's own dry-ish tree. He proceeded to make us the best mochas you can imagine: 1 packet Swiss miss hot chocolate, 1 packet Colombian VIA (starbucks instant coffee), 4 scoops Nestle Nido instant whole milk (Mexican baby formula), and boiling water of course. The milk we discovered in my new backpacking cook book, much better than the nonfat instant dry milk powder we had been using. You can find it in the Hispanic Foods section. It's the giant canister with a smiling baby in the side. :)
Our rain shelter worked, okay, but we were reduced to two small, dampish, seats at our picnic table. It was only okay because it wasn't raining all that hard, just consistently. Robert made us gourmet bean tacos and the day was beginning to look a little brighter.
We made another deer friend, lurking around the edges of our campsite. We knew it was a different deer because its ears weren't nearly as massive as yesterday's deer's ears. I couldn't figure out what this dear was munching until after she left...you know how I made a dash for the nearest rock...yea. She was after that. She had stomped and dug up the ground in the exact spot where I had gone this morning. Multiple instructive materials have told me to go on hard surfaces so that animals won't dig up plants to get to the salts in urine, but I had never actually seen it happen, nor have I mastered the pee on top of a rock trick without unwanted splatter. I will have to revisit this skill apparently. Sorry, now dead plants.
As soon as the rain cleared a bit, we made a trek to go fishing/reading. The bugs get worse after rain, so we tried to go into "impervious mode." From bottom to top: hiking boots, socks, jeans, shirt tucked into jeans, rain jacket, hood up, bug net over hood (jenn method), bug net inside hood (Robert method), gloves (gardening gloves that Robert had stashed from his oil rig days). We made quite a sight. To complete the image, Robert was carrying both his fishing poles, one spinning, one fly with fluorescent orange line, and he rattled as he walked due to all the tackle in his pockets. I was carrying one blue nalgene with KIPP emblazoned on the side and a Weatherford sticker too, Robert's backpacking chair slung over my shoulder, and The Elegance of a Hedgehog, my new novel, stuck in my "butt pocket." We were quite a pair.
We fished/read our way around the lake multiple times. It was peaceful except for two sounds: zzzzzzz (the drone of a million mosquitoes just outside my bug net and occasionally inside), and "I caught a fish!" Robert was extremely successful today and he loved it. Most were small, but when you cast three times and catch three fish, who can complain? During a dry spell, however, I convinced him to go swimming. A huge lake with crystal water and a sandy bottom, I don't care how cold it is or how overcast the sky, I'm going in! Our main goal was cleanliness, however. It's been three days and we were getting a little ripe. It took a lot of shouting and grunting, but we both made it in, submerged and scrubbed. Then there was some naked fishing, I won't say by whom. (whoever it was that was fishing naked would like to specify that he *ahem* that person, caught a fish while naked)
Sidebar: Mountain Blue Jay
I have started to notice birds more and more. When there aren't deer digging up your pee or chipmunks bathing themselves, there are always birds to watch. My current favorite is this very shy, what I shall call, Mountain Blue Jay. He is about the size of a regular blue jay, but he is dark deep blue on the bottom half of his body and it fades into black on his head. He also has a wonderful mohawk on his head, giving him a true pointy little head, Dad. I'd love to know the real name of this guy if anyone knows and I will continue working on getting a picture. There were ample opportunities today while reading; he must have known I left the camera at home and my home I do mean, campsite. Whenever I come across something that I can't identify, it earns the name Mountain XX. There were Mountain Bluebonnets in Yellowstone and something else that now escapes me and my partner in adventure.
I was having trouble warming up after our delightful swim, so I headed back home to start a fire. Robert was quite toasty, despite his bare feet (he eventually donned some clothing) probably because of all the fish catching and releasing. I made a fire just fine, but I struggled keeping it going and getting it blazing. That is normally Robert's job. Maybe I still have more to learn about this fire business after all. Regardless, my fire limped along after a few false starts and some cutting board waving to encourage proper oxygenation.
I decided to start making my dinner since we were eating independently tonight and as soon as I had sliced my tofu for the fryer, I heard the first rumble. Robert's head barely peaked the hill leading back to our camp when the deluge began. Our rain shelter proved more than inadequate. We cursed our decision to return the gazebo multiple times. I ate my nicely fried tofu in the three inches of dryish space directly in front of the propane stove. Robert huddled at my side munching bread and butter, the only other edible bits under our supposed "rain shelter." Collectively we ate through an entire block of tofu and an entire loaf of french bread. Thankfully, we didn't eat the entire Tupperware of butter.
As we watched the wind howl through our tent, we were pretty sure there would be leakage as there inexplicably was during the last storm in the back country. We took the tent the REI in Bozeman, set it up and had it inspected. The man suggested we seam seal the bottom seams, but we hadn't done it yet since it is a delicate and timely procedure. Hence, almost certain leakage. We plotted how to set up the big tent during a lull in the storm. Poles first, then we made a break for it. Our tent proved too large for the tent pad which almost foiled the whole procedure, but we adapted as we do best and allowed one corner to fall off the side. By the time the tent was staked, there were bright blue skies and only a distant rumble as the storm had moved on down the valley. I tried not to be too disappointed that our plan was foiled and focus instead on the last of wet falling from the sky.
Robert immediately wanted to do more fishing; he is a little obsessed, perhaps. Then he barbecued chicken. Most of our recent hikes have included some conversation similar to the following: "you know what I want to eat when we get back?" "no. What?" "mashed potatoes with cheese, asparagus about an inch and a half thick, broccoli that is still crispy, and... Barbecued chicken!" tonight he got his bird.
Now it is cold and our once blazing fire is dying. Time to go enjoy the dry, very large tent.
Oh. We have decided to forgo the backpacking trip here due to the propensity of storms and the leaking of the tent and the mosquitoes.
Sidebar: Time
My watch still runs on central time. This leads to lots of fun mistakes and constant inquiries such as: what time is it? Xxx is that our time or their time? The fun part is that my response is always the same: our time. I will only ever give you the time in our time. And yet...this conversation continues to repeat itself.
Sidebar: Bug Nets
Wearing a bug net all the time makes you forget it is on. I have lost count of the number of times I have tried to eat only to be stymied by the presence of army green mesh. Then there was the time that I decided to drink through it just to see what it was like. Fun, except that it is difficult to gauge where the liquid is in relation to your lips due to nerve overstimulation from the bug net leading to some manner of drinking problem whereby I end up with water down my front. Then there was the time that Robert spit into his bug net...I'll leave it at that.
7/26/2010: Schumaker Camp
Last night we made it up the twenty mile long dirt road; it actually wasn't a bad road at all. You could definitely get a horse trailer up here and probably some types of RVs. This made us worry that the camp would be crowded, but we were pleasantly surprised - only one other group here, an old couple that decorated their campsite with rocks and arranged logs. (they seem to be even hippier than we are)
Anyways, last night we simply pitched our tent and passed out. We heard another group come in even later than us, but they didn't camp so they were gone soon enough. In the morning, Robert took to killing bugs between the walls of the tent and the fly - they were swarming the worst we have seen yet, great! After one particularly vigorous swat, we heard an animal run away outside our tent. It didn't seem too big, so we didn't bother investigating.
Breakfast was a leisurely affair. I pulled all twenty sacks of groceries out of the backseat and then we just sat and looked at them for a while. It was too daunting of a task to arrange them into hiking meals and put them away. Eventually we packed granola for the trail and ate yogurt with leftover granola. At one point we looked up and noticed a deer close to our camp. How cute we thought. Then it came closer and closer until it was rubbing against my hand like a lonely Theo-Cat! Ok, not that close, but Mama Deer was not afraid of people in the least. We are not a fan of pet wild animals so Robert tried to run her off with his slingshot. Even after hitting her a few times in the rump, she continued to creep back into our camp whenever we turned our backs. Once when Robert drove off to steal wood from other campsites, she made her move for real, walking straight up into the middle of our camp to a tree and began eating something on the ground. I sat still and let her be because I realized she wasn't after our food or pets. When Robert came back she left and I investigated her snack...salt! Someone had dumped out a good bit of salt and she was licking it up as fast as she could. She continued sneaking into camp until she was licking more dirt than salt and then we didn't see her again. Quite amusing.
We lunched on sandwiches and made a fire to stave off the hordes of bloodsucking mosquitos. You can literally swat them three at a time if you exert even minimal effort. I found a perfect spot for my hammock and tried to lay their as comfortably as possible with all the bugs. I read some of the Lipsmackin' Vegetarian Backpackin' cookbook Robert convinced me to get on our last REI run. There are tons of recipes that I am dying to try, but many of them require either a kitchen, a dehydrator or special foods (those not to be found at a Wally world in Butte, MT....how do you describe humus to someone who doesn't know what a chickpea or a garbanzo bean is? I'm looking for this brown powdery stuff that when you add water makes a brown paste that tastes good on crackers. Tabouli got me even stranger looks.) We have a plan for this trip, but future trips will definitely include
more interesting faire. If Mom doesn't have her old dehydrator or I cant steal it from her, one shall have to be purchased sofort!
Next I think was an exploratory walk around the campsites and to the other side of the lakes (we are camped beside Twin Lakes). The highlight of the walk was when Robert caught a fish on his fly rod! It was his first on that rod for the trip and a doozey at that...a whole three inches long. He claims there are only small fish in the lakes, but I'm not 100% on that. We walked all the way past the second lake and scouted our trail a bit. It will be fun, but I'm not excited about the bugs. (fact check correction: Robert says it was actually four inches long. There is photographic evidence, so you can decide for yourself when you see it.)
Back at camp we set about making pizza in the dutch oven. This time we hand wrote the recipe so as not to be foiled by a faulty Pad that reloads all open websites and was incapable of reloading our pizza recipe on our last attempt. The dough went well and even rose just like it should, a big accomplishment for me...I have not mastered basic baking skills yet sad to say. However, halfway through the process it stopped threatening rain and started delivering rain. Since we returned the gazebo in anger, we had to fashion our own rain shelter or go hide in the tent. We manned up and rigged a way to suspend the tarp over our picnic table, stealing the idea from an outfitter we saw do it at Alta Lakes. I am beginning to feel like quite the seasoned camper: fire-check, impromptu rain shelter-check, good food-checkcheck.
Speaking of good food, the pizza was basically a failure. We burned the crap out of the bottom of the first pie, the second was cooked primarily from the top and unburned, but still the dough tasted like thick bread, not pizza. If anyone knows a good dough recipe or the secret to making deep dish pizza not taste like bread, leave me a comment please!
Our postprandial walk turned up four baby grouse and a momma grouse that called them back to her side with the softest mew sounds. We also found an abandoned outfitter camp complete with a stock yard with electric fencing, irrigation for who knows what, and lots of poles to create tarp shelters and the like. It was strange and crazy all the things they built up here. Eventually the bugs chased us back into the tent where we are holed up now. (Butler Creek Outfitters, we think. Robert read it off the top of the toilet seat in their homemade John.)
Three side bars:
Jenn Photographs a Chipmunk
As the title suggests, Mr. Munk and I were having a bit of a photoshoot this afternoon. I was trying not to make him nervous and get as many cute shots of him as possible, so I was creeping up on him from behind the camera, shutter clacking away. I would occasionally open both eyes to scan for foot hazards, but I failed to notice a two foot drop off and yes, walked right off it! I fell on my butt, Mr. Munk vacated his bathing rock and a good laugh was had by all.
Schumaker Camp
I realize I failed to describe the peculiarities of our campground, so I shall remedy that. As mentioned previously, the camp is up a 20 mile long dirt road. It is a free campground in the Bitterroot National Forest. We were just hoping for picnic tables and fire rings. What we found was much more. It seems that the CCC has been renovating the campground and recently from the looks of it (there is a cat parked here and some campsites appear half finished). Each campsite has a new picnic table, made from real wood, a tent pad sprinkled with fresh wood chips, an industrial fire pit with a functional grate and loads of firewood (if we had a splitting maul we would be in the money, as it is the logs are a little too large to burn so we are stealing already split logs from the old couple that left today) and many have wood chip walkways leading to the picnic table. All in all, the campsite is quite interesting. I'd love to look it up online and see what is really going on up here. All of what we know is conjecture and I read CCC stamped into the side of our table wood.
Robert Kills a Chipmunk
...with a slingshot. Thats about all the detail you need. Oh and then he buried it, how humane. (Robert: that's mean.) (jenn: . )
Anyways, last night we simply pitched our tent and passed out. We heard another group come in even later than us, but they didn't camp so they were gone soon enough. In the morning, Robert took to killing bugs between the walls of the tent and the fly - they were swarming the worst we have seen yet, great! After one particularly vigorous swat, we heard an animal run away outside our tent. It didn't seem too big, so we didn't bother investigating.
Breakfast was a leisurely affair. I pulled all twenty sacks of groceries out of the backseat and then we just sat and looked at them for a while. It was too daunting of a task to arrange them into hiking meals and put them away. Eventually we packed granola for the trail and ate yogurt with leftover granola. At one point we looked up and noticed a deer close to our camp. How cute we thought. Then it came closer and closer until it was rubbing against my hand like a lonely Theo-Cat! Ok, not that close, but Mama Deer was not afraid of people in the least. We are not a fan of pet wild animals so Robert tried to run her off with his slingshot. Even after hitting her a few times in the rump, she continued to creep back into our camp whenever we turned our backs. Once when Robert drove off to steal wood from other campsites, she made her move for real, walking straight up into the middle of our camp to a tree and began eating something on the ground. I sat still and let her be because I realized she wasn't after our food or pets. When Robert came back she left and I investigated her snack...salt! Someone had dumped out a good bit of salt and she was licking it up as fast as she could. She continued sneaking into camp until she was licking more dirt than salt and then we didn't see her again. Quite amusing.
We lunched on sandwiches and made a fire to stave off the hordes of bloodsucking mosquitos. You can literally swat them three at a time if you exert even minimal effort. I found a perfect spot for my hammock and tried to lay their as comfortably as possible with all the bugs. I read some of the Lipsmackin' Vegetarian Backpackin' cookbook Robert convinced me to get on our last REI run. There are tons of recipes that I am dying to try, but many of them require either a kitchen, a dehydrator or special foods (those not to be found at a Wally world in Butte, MT....how do you describe humus to someone who doesn't know what a chickpea or a garbanzo bean is? I'm looking for this brown powdery stuff that when you add water makes a brown paste that tastes good on crackers. Tabouli got me even stranger looks.) We have a plan for this trip, but future trips will definitely include
more interesting faire. If Mom doesn't have her old dehydrator or I cant steal it from her, one shall have to be purchased sofort!
Next I think was an exploratory walk around the campsites and to the other side of the lakes (we are camped beside Twin Lakes). The highlight of the walk was when Robert caught a fish on his fly rod! It was his first on that rod for the trip and a doozey at that...a whole three inches long. He claims there are only small fish in the lakes, but I'm not 100% on that. We walked all the way past the second lake and scouted our trail a bit. It will be fun, but I'm not excited about the bugs. (fact check correction: Robert says it was actually four inches long. There is photographic evidence, so you can decide for yourself when you see it.)
Back at camp we set about making pizza in the dutch oven. This time we hand wrote the recipe so as not to be foiled by a faulty Pad that reloads all open websites and was incapable of reloading our pizza recipe on our last attempt. The dough went well and even rose just like it should, a big accomplishment for me...I have not mastered basic baking skills yet sad to say. However, halfway through the process it stopped threatening rain and started delivering rain. Since we returned the gazebo in anger, we had to fashion our own rain shelter or go hide in the tent. We manned up and rigged a way to suspend the tarp over our picnic table, stealing the idea from an outfitter we saw do it at Alta Lakes. I am beginning to feel like quite the seasoned camper: fire-check, impromptu rain shelter-check, good food-checkcheck.
Speaking of good food, the pizza was basically a failure. We burned the crap out of the bottom of the first pie, the second was cooked primarily from the top and unburned, but still the dough tasted like thick bread, not pizza. If anyone knows a good dough recipe or the secret to making deep dish pizza not taste like bread, leave me a comment please!
Our postprandial walk turned up four baby grouse and a momma grouse that called them back to her side with the softest mew sounds. We also found an abandoned outfitter camp complete with a stock yard with electric fencing, irrigation for who knows what, and lots of poles to create tarp shelters and the like. It was strange and crazy all the things they built up here. Eventually the bugs chased us back into the tent where we are holed up now. (Butler Creek Outfitters, we think. Robert read it off the top of the toilet seat in their homemade John.)
Three side bars:
Jenn Photographs a Chipmunk
As the title suggests, Mr. Munk and I were having a bit of a photoshoot this afternoon. I was trying not to make him nervous and get as many cute shots of him as possible, so I was creeping up on him from behind the camera, shutter clacking away. I would occasionally open both eyes to scan for foot hazards, but I failed to notice a two foot drop off and yes, walked right off it! I fell on my butt, Mr. Munk vacated his bathing rock and a good laugh was had by all.
Schumaker Camp
I realize I failed to describe the peculiarities of our campground, so I shall remedy that. As mentioned previously, the camp is up a 20 mile long dirt road. It is a free campground in the Bitterroot National Forest. We were just hoping for picnic tables and fire rings. What we found was much more. It seems that the CCC has been renovating the campground and recently from the looks of it (there is a cat parked here and some campsites appear half finished). Each campsite has a new picnic table, made from real wood, a tent pad sprinkled with fresh wood chips, an industrial fire pit with a functional grate and loads of firewood (if we had a splitting maul we would be in the money, as it is the logs are a little too large to burn so we are stealing already split logs from the old couple that left today) and many have wood chip walkways leading to the picnic table. All in all, the campsite is quite interesting. I'd love to look it up online and see what is really going on up here. All of what we know is conjecture and I read CCC stamped into the side of our table wood.
Robert Kills a Chipmunk
...with a slingshot. Thats about all the detail you need. Oh and then he buried it, how humane. (Robert: that's mean.) (jenn: . )
7/18-7/22: Backcountry Yellowstone
Awoke this morning with the tent in full sun again, I hate it when we do that. (However, full sun at nine AM in MT ain't so bad.) We camped at the free Pigeon Creek Campground, next to what i can only assume is Pigeon Creek. There were actually a fair number of people here, only two other empty spots besides ours, granted the campground only had about seven sites that we saw... My only complaint was that some man kept going into the composting toilet to smoke. Quite annoying!
We got coffee and some nibbles at Starbucks in Butte and hung around there for a while because of the free wi-fi. Robert even tried their instant coffee because of an ad about some award earned from Backpacker Magazine touting it as the best trail coffee. He liked it well enough to buy some, so we might just get a mocha on our next excursion! We used the wifi to get several audiobooks for our next drive as well: Alice in wonderland, huck Finn, count of Monte cristo, and a few short aesops fables. Gotta love free podcasts!
When we got hungry enough for lunch, we asked the friendly barrista for a suggestion. We got several....all of which turned out to be closed. Apparently we are in a good Christian town that shuts down on sundays. Thanks a lot, Butte. We ended up eating at a place called Bob and Sandys Cafe (BS Cafe for short, aren't they cute!). I mention the name so specifically so you will be able to avoid it should you ever care to visit the fine town of Butte. I ate a grilled cheese sandwich, to which I asked to be added kraut and shrooms, in an attempt to convince myself that it was actually lunch food and not a snack. Robert, the normal one, got a burger. We both got side salads and fries to round out the meal. The salad was all iceberg, nothing else at all. The fries were tiny and seemingly unsalted, but at least hot. My sandwich was fried in just enough butter so as to make it edible. Our water glasses were never refilled. In short, don't bother.
Next we found a laundromat. It served our needs, but it was hot and dingy with some interesting characters, like the man who must have had OCD because I saw him wash his hands about ten times, he washed each load twice, and he never touched the knobs with his fingers. Poor guy. We planned our trip on the map and I looked up veggie hiking blogs to pass the time.
Next we hit up the walmart to provision for our next hike. It took a while and we ended up forgetting enough things to warrant another trip after dinner, oops. For dinner we tried a place recommended by the locals from this morning, Pekin Noodle Parlor, supposedly the noodles were superb. False. Well, actually, the plain white noodles served in a clear broth were the best part of my meal, everything else was "marginal at best," a phrase we have been using to describe too many meals eaten out lately. The only vegetable I could positively identify in the slop on my plate was celery, oh and the canned mushrooms which were dumped on top of fried rice to make...mushroom fried rice, clever. (robert: it reminded me too much of our backpacking gruel meals than anything else.) I should mention however that the building was located in the old part of town, harkening from the 1800s when the area abounded with Chinese immigrants and the place was supposedly a brothel. Each table is separated from the rest in a mini-room type thing where you can just imagine a bed would fit nicely. (r: I don't think it was actually a brothel. I think they did that.) The point of the story is, the best thing i ate today was a blueberry scone from starbucks, so much for supporting local businesses.
Now we are headed off Into the wilderness yet again. The backseat is a mess with piles of provision bags and clean clothes stuffed back into the laundry sack since they are delicate and not yet dry. It looks like the bags are cascading down between the seats like the very slow yet somehow terrifying blob from old b movies.
Our plan is the following: drive up to darby, arriving around 11:15pm, take a small dirt road twenty miles into the wilderness and camp at either Schumaker Camp or Bear Creek Pass, stay there for a few days then hike out west, cross into Idaho, loop around and hike back, thirty five miles or there abouts, don't know the name of the trail or even if it has a proper name. :) "I'm excited. We might Get lost!" -Robert talking about our last trip, but I think it fits nicely for this one as well. Goodnight for now, Im going to try to be a better passenger and help amuse the driver so he doesn't fall asleep and drive us off a mountain.
Addendum: the bugs are currently so thick outside that It seems to be raining. Robert has run out of wiper fluid yet again and still the bugs persist in staining the windshield mercilessly! Listening to Alice and it is great.
We got coffee and some nibbles at Starbucks in Butte and hung around there for a while because of the free wi-fi. Robert even tried their instant coffee because of an ad about some award earned from Backpacker Magazine touting it as the best trail coffee. He liked it well enough to buy some, so we might just get a mocha on our next excursion! We used the wifi to get several audiobooks for our next drive as well: Alice in wonderland, huck Finn, count of Monte cristo, and a few short aesops fables. Gotta love free podcasts!
When we got hungry enough for lunch, we asked the friendly barrista for a suggestion. We got several....all of which turned out to be closed. Apparently we are in a good Christian town that shuts down on sundays. Thanks a lot, Butte. We ended up eating at a place called Bob and Sandys Cafe (BS Cafe for short, aren't they cute!). I mention the name so specifically so you will be able to avoid it should you ever care to visit the fine town of Butte. I ate a grilled cheese sandwich, to which I asked to be added kraut and shrooms, in an attempt to convince myself that it was actually lunch food and not a snack. Robert, the normal one, got a burger. We both got side salads and fries to round out the meal. The salad was all iceberg, nothing else at all. The fries were tiny and seemingly unsalted, but at least hot. My sandwich was fried in just enough butter so as to make it edible. Our water glasses were never refilled. In short, don't bother.
Next we found a laundromat. It served our needs, but it was hot and dingy with some interesting characters, like the man who must have had OCD because I saw him wash his hands about ten times, he washed each load twice, and he never touched the knobs with his fingers. Poor guy. We planned our trip on the map and I looked up veggie hiking blogs to pass the time.
Next we hit up the walmart to provision for our next hike. It took a while and we ended up forgetting enough things to warrant another trip after dinner, oops. For dinner we tried a place recommended by the locals from this morning, Pekin Noodle Parlor, supposedly the noodles were superb. False. Well, actually, the plain white noodles served in a clear broth were the best part of my meal, everything else was "marginal at best," a phrase we have been using to describe too many meals eaten out lately. The only vegetable I could positively identify in the slop on my plate was celery, oh and the canned mushrooms which were dumped on top of fried rice to make...mushroom fried rice, clever. (robert: it reminded me too much of our backpacking gruel meals than anything else.) I should mention however that the building was located in the old part of town, harkening from the 1800s when the area abounded with Chinese immigrants and the place was supposedly a brothel. Each table is separated from the rest in a mini-room type thing where you can just imagine a bed would fit nicely. (r: I don't think it was actually a brothel. I think they did that.) The point of the story is, the best thing i ate today was a blueberry scone from starbucks, so much for supporting local businesses.
Now we are headed off Into the wilderness yet again. The backseat is a mess with piles of provision bags and clean clothes stuffed back into the laundry sack since they are delicate and not yet dry. It looks like the bags are cascading down between the seats like the very slow yet somehow terrifying blob from old b movies.
Our plan is the following: drive up to darby, arriving around 11:15pm, take a small dirt road twenty miles into the wilderness and camp at either Schumaker Camp or Bear Creek Pass, stay there for a few days then hike out west, cross into Idaho, loop around and hike back, thirty five miles or there abouts, don't know the name of the trail or even if it has a proper name. :) "I'm excited. We might Get lost!" -Robert talking about our last trip, but I think it fits nicely for this one as well. Goodnight for now, Im going to try to be a better passenger and help amuse the driver so he doesn't fall asleep and drive us off a mountain.
Addendum: the bugs are currently so thick outside that It seems to be raining. Robert has run out of wiper fluid yet again and still the bugs persist in staining the windshield mercilessly! Listening to Alice and it is great.
7/18-7/22: Backcountry Yellowstone
We got to Yellowstone on the 20th I think. Went to Old Faithful, briefly, then went looking for a campsite for the night. None to be had, so we drove to Timber Camp, a USFS no fee campground, which is about a 20 min drive up a dirt road outside of Jardine, just far enough off the beaten path to afford us a campsite. In fact, an entire campground to ourselves. It was great, save for the bugs. We made enchiladas of the tastiest kind: black beans, artichoke hearts, shrooms and hatch green chili sauce (plus of course, cheese and flour tortillas). We haven't been feeling too well gastrointestinally speaking; there is much speculation about a possible case of giardiasis, but that is impossible to confirm as of yet. Regardless, it didn't slow us down tonight and we ate all seven giant enchiladas. The only other notable at this camp was the fact that someone barricaded the road in two places, effectively shrinking the campground to three sites and providing ample room for their project...a cabin it seems. There is a grid of posts, just cabin sized. Also, there are two skinny trees lashed horizontally to two living trees, making a frame for a tarp shelter. It's a pretty good idea, one which we will certainly steal. We eventually got neighbors, late in the night, probably had our luck at finding a campsite.
In the morning, we drove around to all the nearby campgrounds, hunting the ever elusive campsite. We happened to pull in to Pebble Creek, just as the host was talking to another couple. He motioned for us to wait; we were turning around because we saw the sign behind him..."we really are full." alas, they were not "really" full, there was an unexpected vacancy and we were in luck for once. I don't want to get started on the subject, because I might not get off it for a while, but front country camping in yellowstone is annoying enough to make you not want to return.
Also, driving anywhere takes twice as long as it should do to the slowing and stopping to look at wildlife. Not to say I didn't enjoy seeing the bears, elk, buffalo, geese, etc., but when there is one mangy buffalo 500 yds away, show some self-control and don't stop - the herd is probably around the corner! Two amusing incidents with tourists and wildlife: one. We were slowed to a stop on a road, looking about for the hold up and I see a horde of, not animals, but people! fleeing some unseen terror. Kids, adults, cameras flying. It is one of my favorite images from the park. Eventually, the buffalo from which they were fleeing crested the hill and crossed the road, but this was truly secondary to the sight of the tourists running as fast as their corpulent bodies could take them, never mind the children that were forced to fend for themselves! Two. We saw a grizzly bear. He was doing bear things, just far enough off to not mind the onlookers and just close enough to afford some great onlooking. He eventually swam the Lamar River and crossed the road, scared into a lope by the park ranger.
Back to our day. We went looking for a backcountry office to pick a hike and get a permit. It took a while to choose a hike because you have to reserve each campsite along the way and only one group is allowed to stay at each site. We had a nice, 35 mile thru-hike picked out when a notice came over the CB indicating that part of our proposed route was closed. There was a carcass with seven grizzlies feeding on it, not far off the trail. Yikes. So like the adventurous hikers that we are, we simply reversed our route to give the grizzlies a few days' head start! This means though that our last day of hiking would be 11 miles through thick grizzly country, a bear management area in fact, where travel is restricted to 9am-7pm, giving the bears free foraging time morning and night. We planned five days, four nights, our longest trip yet and we were quite excited to leave the all the people clogging the front country. As the ranger put it, "you won't see anyone in the back country; you have to walk there."
Oh - we spent 3.25 each on the best shower yet. Unlimited water, you control the temperature, in short, amazing. We just had to wait for the slushy rain storm to cease so we could fish out our towels and keep them dry on the way into the building.
For dinner we were going to make pizza, but the recipe was contained on a website on my pad, which no longer had service and has this awesome feature of reloading websites every time you try to view them. No pizza. Instead, we cut up all of our fresh veggies made a salad and a lovely curry. We used a new paste that just required added water, very backpackable, which is exciting.
First day, we had to vacate our hard earned campsite so a new set of lucky ones could take it. We moved to the trailhead to pack. This was the first time I packed with my new bag, so I was very excited. We also got a spring scale so we would know for sure how heavy our bags were. Shortly, we were on the trail for a five mile hike to our first campsite. We actually saw a fair number of people, all fishermen, going to fish the Lamar, which we hike up to its headwaters. The ford of the Lamar was a little challenging because the water was cold and the river wide, but nothing we couldn't handle. Then we scurried down the trail because the sky was darkening for the daily four o'clock rain shower.
We found our campsite in a clearing by the river, down a fairly steep hill from the trail. We barely had enough time to set up our tent and start a fire when the rain hit. It wasn't exactly a light shower either. We huddled under some trees in our rain jackets, wishing we had bought rain pants as well, the first of many times this sentiment will be echoed. We thought it was clearing off when another storm rolled in from the opposite direction. Very strange. This one had crazy strong winds, too, knocking down two trees just that we watched in our campsite area. Note to self, check for dead trees before pitching the tent. Dinner was gruel and then to bed.
Day two: slow wake up, short hike to a place where we could river swim/shower without soap. It was nice and deep, but the water was so cold it took a lot of galumphing to get into it. Robert went first with lots of manly grunting. It took me longer because I am delicate. Eventually, we were rinsed and felt much better. I was drying in the sun...a naked noodie...when I saw a nice looking old man walking by! He smiled, I shrugged and smiled back. If he got skunked by the fish, he was certainly rewarded with a show. I thought we were alone. Oh well, the swim was great.
Along this stretch of trail we saw bear prints. It sounds like nothing special now, but at the time, I was pretty excited. In the light you could see the prints stretch out ahead of us one after the other. We don't know the difference between blacks and browns, so I'm not sure which it was, but at the time we decided on brown. He was on the trail for some time so we stepped up our clapping and shouting. I'm fond of: "hey there bear" because it rhymes, but anything will do and they all make you feel like an idiot, calling out and talking to the ether. Calling out is supposed to be more effective than a bear bell, so that's what we went with. 90% of bear attacks are because people surprise bears on the trail, so it is pretty important to make your presence known.
We had a bit of difficulty finding our next campsite because the marker was gone. We got to the next site and had to back track to the place where we had seen a bear system, but no marker and called that our camp. We were practically in the middle of a swamp so the bugs were horrendous, another continuing theme. We decided to cook and all that by the river because the bugs seemed to be better there. Dinner was more gruel. The food on this trip was terrible all around and there wasn't enough of it so we were hungry most of the trip.
We saw our first bits of wildlife on this day. I was headed to the river from camp at one point and surprised a deer coming up the trail. It was startling for both of us, but the deer didn't run far. We thought it was worthy of a picture, so we turned on the camera momentarily. I don't think I have mentioned it, but the camera batteries were awfully low so we decided to save them for the last day and the possibility of seeing bears.
The other bit of wildlife we heard more than saw. We put our tent up in a stand of trees, near the middle of the swamp, normally where horses are hobbled and buffalo wallow it seemed judging from the dung. Early in the morning I heard a noise, instinctively I poked Robert in the ribs. The noise repeated regularly and frequently. Finally we spotted the elk. She was across the swamp, looking around and bleeting/honking/barking. We don't know elk sounds, I was just excited to be hearing an elk period, but then we wondered who it was talking to. Robert speculated that it might be calling it's calf, but no calf appeared. Then we thought that perhaps its baby had been eaten by a bear or wolves. Then it was really sad hearing her calling and calling. She kept it up for about twenty minutes before getting far enough away so that we couldn't hear her anymore.
Day three: We got out of that campsite and the bugs as quickly as possible. Our next campsite was fairly close so we knew we didn't have much to do. We knocked it out before lunch, surprising ourselves with how quickly we have covered the ground. The only outstanding bit was the buffalo we found wallowing by the river. As soon as he saw us, he freaked. He started bucking and stamping. We stopped and waited for him to make the next move. We were Sade in a stand of trees, but our trail went right next to him, cut on one side by the river and on the other by a steep hillside. He realized we weren't a threat quickly enough though, put his head down to graze, and eventually laid down to rest. At that point we felt comfortable enough going around him as best we could. He just lazily watched us pass, but we saw a little bit of why there are so many warning signs about buffaloes. Supposedly, more tourists get gored than hurt by anything else in Yellowstone.
Since we made it to camp so quickly, we decided to go for a swim. The river did a delta sort of meandering thing by our camp so there was plenty to explore. We waded in a bit, but couldn't find a deep enough spot for proper swimming. We cooked lunch on the rocky beach, surprising a very cute sandpiper baby in the process. This lunch was actually palatable - coconut Ginger noodles from a yellow to go box. Then we went exploring again and found a deep spot where we could wade in over our heads. This was great swimming, but still too cold to stay in for long. Then we scouted the trail we would take the next day. It crossed the river at quite a difficult spot, if you ask me. We tried a w other crossing spot nearby and decided on one that we liked a little better. It was deep and fast, but shorter across with better footholds. I was not looking forward to it. Dinner and chased into the tent by the bugs once again.
Day four: the next day broke cloudy and unfriendly. We made it across the river without incident and filled up water on the far side so our packs were lighter going across. The hike was steady, only short ups and downs, but the terrain began to change fairly drastically. We were now following a tributary of the Lamar up to Mist Creek Pass, which we wouldn't reach until tomorrow.
We pushed to get to our campsite quickly because it was coldish and threatened rain. Our campsite was up a substantial hill across the now minuscule tributary. We lamented that there wasn't much flat space besides the cooking and bear bag hanging area. Then we took a shortcut and pitched our tent between the bear bag and cooking area. (A mistake I don't plan on repeating.) we ate lunch and then crawled into the tent at about four in the afternoon. Each spot we camped, the bugs got continually worse it seemed. The cold and drizzle only furthered our desire to hole up in the tent.
We laid there for hours, literally. When it was dark again we forced ourselves to cook a better than expected wild rice dinner from packlite foods. Then we went back to sleep! Well...one of us did. As soon as robert begins to breath deeply in sleep, I was convinced a bear was just outside our tent! I slept very very little.
At about five, the lightning flashed and the thunder cracked. It was even more terrifying than the thought of a bear. The whole tent lit up and the thunder followed close behind, only two, maybe three, miles off. The hardest rain only lasted about fifteen minutes, but it drizzled a good bit more. At last I went to sleep though, convinced a bear wouldn't be curious enough to investigate our tent in the rain.
Day five: this was the longest day. We awoke as early as we could to be on the trail as soon as we were allowed (9am). The tent floor was an astonishing puddle, but we had to push on and worry about that later; we had eleven miles to cover and only could be on the trail until seven pm. The first part of the hike was up, a lot, because we were cresting a pass into the next valley. This was prime bear territory so we hiked with the camera out and bear spray at the ready. The terrain was unburned, thick forest and we saw lots of bear tracks. My favorite were the muddy ones where a bear had walked through the mud and then had to climb over a log, leaving nice tracks.
We clapped and shouted our way into the valley, where the trees backed up and prairie abounded. We found a little pool of water, complete with gurgling bubbles and green slime (we must have been back in or close to the caldera) and a mess of ducks with lots of babies too. Near this spot, our trail turned into a game trail. We knew we were actually off trail when our path dead ended in a stream that was too deep to cross with a pack on. We broke out the map and found some way finder points. We had a pretty good idea of where a trail was, not ours per se, but one that would get us home.
After a few false starts and more game trails leading us astray, we found a decent trail leading in the correct direction. Then Robert found a black spec. It was a bear, a grizzly we are pretty sure. We took this time to eat lunch to see if bear friend would venture a little closer in his foraging. He did not, but lunch was super tasty! Hummus, triscuiits, olives and provolone. At this point, many things would have tasted good, but the olives were divine. Robert even let me have one of ins olives because he is a sweetheart.
We kept up a good pace and eventually, long after the feet hurt and the back, we found our way out of the wilderness into a parking area. At one point I stopped short and Robert thought we had surprised a bear, but i just wanted to take a picture of a really cute squirrel/fox thing that still needs to be identified.
We thought we were done, but our day continued. We needed to get back to our car and find a place to camp. According to Robert, precisely the seventh car picked us up...we needed to hitch hike to get back to our car btw. Two ancient men in long white robes picked us up. As soon as they had made room for us in the back of their purple minivan and we eagerly climbed in. When i asked where they were from they said, "god," and I knew we were in for it. They described their beliefs that I will only summarize for you here by giving you what they called the three keys to heaven: no sex, no materialism and no killing. They were members of a group called the Christian Family, followers of Lightning Amen, supposedly Christ returned in a human form. It only got stranger, but in short they had to give us a ride because they were blessed with this wonderful vehicle and they had to share it. They had liquified everything and were traveling around the country. They were very fond of buffalo and stopped at every opportunity to put down their windows, extend a hand and say,"hey mr. Buffalo, how is your day? Aren't you a big fella?" they were wonderfully cute old men, with perhaps less than ordinary beliefs, but they got us all the way back to our car and we were exceedingly grateful.
Now we just needed showers and food and a place to stay. We headed for a village where we could get food and showers and near the rangers house. (I missed relaying this story. When we realized that we would run into trouble finding a place to stay when we got of the back country, the ranger offered to let us stay in her front yard! We were a little apprehensive, but without other options, we were going to give it a try.) We decided on food first and headed towards the place where you can get hot vegetables...the cafeteria. It was horrible, but we are picky I guess. I had toe-fuu spinach pie that needed a lot of things, some overcooked mixed and frozen veggies and some mashed taters that I dipped in BBQ sauce to make palatable. Robert had prime rib with cold fried potatoes, mixed veggies, a salad (green on top, white iceberg underneath!). We both had a biscuit, which was the highlight of the meal when combined with two butter and two honey packets a piece.
It was getting late so we decided to skip showering and head to Ranger Sarah's for the night. We called. No answer. We called again, no answer. Curses. We drove by, no lights on. Feeling uncomfortable setting up camp without her blessing, we had no choice but to start driving. We headed for showers, but they had just closed. On we drove, out of the park, away from everyone. We stopped at multiple, multiple campsites along the way, full, full full. Now it was truly getting late. We opted to start trying for hotels even, all full. One place gave us a giant list of places to call, all full. At that point we decided to head on into Billings, MT, our next stopover. We got there around four thirty and crashed in the first hotel bed of the trip, after a quick shower in our private, luxury shower!
See, it was a very long day.
In the morning, we drove around to all the nearby campgrounds, hunting the ever elusive campsite. We happened to pull in to Pebble Creek, just as the host was talking to another couple. He motioned for us to wait; we were turning around because we saw the sign behind him..."we really are full." alas, they were not "really" full, there was an unexpected vacancy and we were in luck for once. I don't want to get started on the subject, because I might not get off it for a while, but front country camping in yellowstone is annoying enough to make you not want to return.
Also, driving anywhere takes twice as long as it should do to the slowing and stopping to look at wildlife. Not to say I didn't enjoy seeing the bears, elk, buffalo, geese, etc., but when there is one mangy buffalo 500 yds away, show some self-control and don't stop - the herd is probably around the corner! Two amusing incidents with tourists and wildlife: one. We were slowed to a stop on a road, looking about for the hold up and I see a horde of, not animals, but people! fleeing some unseen terror. Kids, adults, cameras flying. It is one of my favorite images from the park. Eventually, the buffalo from which they were fleeing crested the hill and crossed the road, but this was truly secondary to the sight of the tourists running as fast as their corpulent bodies could take them, never mind the children that were forced to fend for themselves! Two. We saw a grizzly bear. He was doing bear things, just far enough off to not mind the onlookers and just close enough to afford some great onlooking. He eventually swam the Lamar River and crossed the road, scared into a lope by the park ranger.
Back to our day. We went looking for a backcountry office to pick a hike and get a permit. It took a while to choose a hike because you have to reserve each campsite along the way and only one group is allowed to stay at each site. We had a nice, 35 mile thru-hike picked out when a notice came over the CB indicating that part of our proposed route was closed. There was a carcass with seven grizzlies feeding on it, not far off the trail. Yikes. So like the adventurous hikers that we are, we simply reversed our route to give the grizzlies a few days' head start! This means though that our last day of hiking would be 11 miles through thick grizzly country, a bear management area in fact, where travel is restricted to 9am-7pm, giving the bears free foraging time morning and night. We planned five days, four nights, our longest trip yet and we were quite excited to leave the all the people clogging the front country. As the ranger put it, "you won't see anyone in the back country; you have to walk there."
Oh - we spent 3.25 each on the best shower yet. Unlimited water, you control the temperature, in short, amazing. We just had to wait for the slushy rain storm to cease so we could fish out our towels and keep them dry on the way into the building.
For dinner we were going to make pizza, but the recipe was contained on a website on my pad, which no longer had service and has this awesome feature of reloading websites every time you try to view them. No pizza. Instead, we cut up all of our fresh veggies made a salad and a lovely curry. We used a new paste that just required added water, very backpackable, which is exciting.
First day, we had to vacate our hard earned campsite so a new set of lucky ones could take it. We moved to the trailhead to pack. This was the first time I packed with my new bag, so I was very excited. We also got a spring scale so we would know for sure how heavy our bags were. Shortly, we were on the trail for a five mile hike to our first campsite. We actually saw a fair number of people, all fishermen, going to fish the Lamar, which we hike up to its headwaters. The ford of the Lamar was a little challenging because the water was cold and the river wide, but nothing we couldn't handle. Then we scurried down the trail because the sky was darkening for the daily four o'clock rain shower.
We found our campsite in a clearing by the river, down a fairly steep hill from the trail. We barely had enough time to set up our tent and start a fire when the rain hit. It wasn't exactly a light shower either. We huddled under some trees in our rain jackets, wishing we had bought rain pants as well, the first of many times this sentiment will be echoed. We thought it was clearing off when another storm rolled in from the opposite direction. Very strange. This one had crazy strong winds, too, knocking down two trees just that we watched in our campsite area. Note to self, check for dead trees before pitching the tent. Dinner was gruel and then to bed.
Day two: slow wake up, short hike to a place where we could river swim/shower without soap. It was nice and deep, but the water was so cold it took a lot of galumphing to get into it. Robert went first with lots of manly grunting. It took me longer because I am delicate. Eventually, we were rinsed and felt much better. I was drying in the sun...a naked noodie...when I saw a nice looking old man walking by! He smiled, I shrugged and smiled back. If he got skunked by the fish, he was certainly rewarded with a show. I thought we were alone. Oh well, the swim was great.
Along this stretch of trail we saw bear prints. It sounds like nothing special now, but at the time, I was pretty excited. In the light you could see the prints stretch out ahead of us one after the other. We don't know the difference between blacks and browns, so I'm not sure which it was, but at the time we decided on brown. He was on the trail for some time so we stepped up our clapping and shouting. I'm fond of: "hey there bear" because it rhymes, but anything will do and they all make you feel like an idiot, calling out and talking to the ether. Calling out is supposed to be more effective than a bear bell, so that's what we went with. 90% of bear attacks are because people surprise bears on the trail, so it is pretty important to make your presence known.
We had a bit of difficulty finding our next campsite because the marker was gone. We got to the next site and had to back track to the place where we had seen a bear system, but no marker and called that our camp. We were practically in the middle of a swamp so the bugs were horrendous, another continuing theme. We decided to cook and all that by the river because the bugs seemed to be better there. Dinner was more gruel. The food on this trip was terrible all around and there wasn't enough of it so we were hungry most of the trip.
We saw our first bits of wildlife on this day. I was headed to the river from camp at one point and surprised a deer coming up the trail. It was startling for both of us, but the deer didn't run far. We thought it was worthy of a picture, so we turned on the camera momentarily. I don't think I have mentioned it, but the camera batteries were awfully low so we decided to save them for the last day and the possibility of seeing bears.
The other bit of wildlife we heard more than saw. We put our tent up in a stand of trees, near the middle of the swamp, normally where horses are hobbled and buffalo wallow it seemed judging from the dung. Early in the morning I heard a noise, instinctively I poked Robert in the ribs. The noise repeated regularly and frequently. Finally we spotted the elk. She was across the swamp, looking around and bleeting/honking/barking. We don't know elk sounds, I was just excited to be hearing an elk period, but then we wondered who it was talking to. Robert speculated that it might be calling it's calf, but no calf appeared. Then we thought that perhaps its baby had been eaten by a bear or wolves. Then it was really sad hearing her calling and calling. She kept it up for about twenty minutes before getting far enough away so that we couldn't hear her anymore.
Day three: We got out of that campsite and the bugs as quickly as possible. Our next campsite was fairly close so we knew we didn't have much to do. We knocked it out before lunch, surprising ourselves with how quickly we have covered the ground. The only outstanding bit was the buffalo we found wallowing by the river. As soon as he saw us, he freaked. He started bucking and stamping. We stopped and waited for him to make the next move. We were Sade in a stand of trees, but our trail went right next to him, cut on one side by the river and on the other by a steep hillside. He realized we weren't a threat quickly enough though, put his head down to graze, and eventually laid down to rest. At that point we felt comfortable enough going around him as best we could. He just lazily watched us pass, but we saw a little bit of why there are so many warning signs about buffaloes. Supposedly, more tourists get gored than hurt by anything else in Yellowstone.
Since we made it to camp so quickly, we decided to go for a swim. The river did a delta sort of meandering thing by our camp so there was plenty to explore. We waded in a bit, but couldn't find a deep enough spot for proper swimming. We cooked lunch on the rocky beach, surprising a very cute sandpiper baby in the process. This lunch was actually palatable - coconut Ginger noodles from a yellow to go box. Then we went exploring again and found a deep spot where we could wade in over our heads. This was great swimming, but still too cold to stay in for long. Then we scouted the trail we would take the next day. It crossed the river at quite a difficult spot, if you ask me. We tried a w other crossing spot nearby and decided on one that we liked a little better. It was deep and fast, but shorter across with better footholds. I was not looking forward to it. Dinner and chased into the tent by the bugs once again.
Day four: the next day broke cloudy and unfriendly. We made it across the river without incident and filled up water on the far side so our packs were lighter going across. The hike was steady, only short ups and downs, but the terrain began to change fairly drastically. We were now following a tributary of the Lamar up to Mist Creek Pass, which we wouldn't reach until tomorrow.
We pushed to get to our campsite quickly because it was coldish and threatened rain. Our campsite was up a substantial hill across the now minuscule tributary. We lamented that there wasn't much flat space besides the cooking and bear bag hanging area. Then we took a shortcut and pitched our tent between the bear bag and cooking area. (A mistake I don't plan on repeating.) we ate lunch and then crawled into the tent at about four in the afternoon. Each spot we camped, the bugs got continually worse it seemed. The cold and drizzle only furthered our desire to hole up in the tent.
We laid there for hours, literally. When it was dark again we forced ourselves to cook a better than expected wild rice dinner from packlite foods. Then we went back to sleep! Well...one of us did. As soon as robert begins to breath deeply in sleep, I was convinced a bear was just outside our tent! I slept very very little.
At about five, the lightning flashed and the thunder cracked. It was even more terrifying than the thought of a bear. The whole tent lit up and the thunder followed close behind, only two, maybe three, miles off. The hardest rain only lasted about fifteen minutes, but it drizzled a good bit more. At last I went to sleep though, convinced a bear wouldn't be curious enough to investigate our tent in the rain.
Day five: this was the longest day. We awoke as early as we could to be on the trail as soon as we were allowed (9am). The tent floor was an astonishing puddle, but we had to push on and worry about that later; we had eleven miles to cover and only could be on the trail until seven pm. The first part of the hike was up, a lot, because we were cresting a pass into the next valley. This was prime bear territory so we hiked with the camera out and bear spray at the ready. The terrain was unburned, thick forest and we saw lots of bear tracks. My favorite were the muddy ones where a bear had walked through the mud and then had to climb over a log, leaving nice tracks.
We clapped and shouted our way into the valley, where the trees backed up and prairie abounded. We found a little pool of water, complete with gurgling bubbles and green slime (we must have been back in or close to the caldera) and a mess of ducks with lots of babies too. Near this spot, our trail turned into a game trail. We knew we were actually off trail when our path dead ended in a stream that was too deep to cross with a pack on. We broke out the map and found some way finder points. We had a pretty good idea of where a trail was, not ours per se, but one that would get us home.
After a few false starts and more game trails leading us astray, we found a decent trail leading in the correct direction. Then Robert found a black spec. It was a bear, a grizzly we are pretty sure. We took this time to eat lunch to see if bear friend would venture a little closer in his foraging. He did not, but lunch was super tasty! Hummus, triscuiits, olives and provolone. At this point, many things would have tasted good, but the olives were divine. Robert even let me have one of ins olives because he is a sweetheart.
We kept up a good pace and eventually, long after the feet hurt and the back, we found our way out of the wilderness into a parking area. At one point I stopped short and Robert thought we had surprised a bear, but i just wanted to take a picture of a really cute squirrel/fox thing that still needs to be identified.
We thought we were done, but our day continued. We needed to get back to our car and find a place to camp. According to Robert, precisely the seventh car picked us up...we needed to hitch hike to get back to our car btw. Two ancient men in long white robes picked us up. As soon as they had made room for us in the back of their purple minivan and we eagerly climbed in. When i asked where they were from they said, "god," and I knew we were in for it. They described their beliefs that I will only summarize for you here by giving you what they called the three keys to heaven: no sex, no materialism and no killing. They were members of a group called the Christian Family, followers of Lightning Amen, supposedly Christ returned in a human form. It only got stranger, but in short they had to give us a ride because they were blessed with this wonderful vehicle and they had to share it. They had liquified everything and were traveling around the country. They were very fond of buffalo and stopped at every opportunity to put down their windows, extend a hand and say,"hey mr. Buffalo, how is your day? Aren't you a big fella?" they were wonderfully cute old men, with perhaps less than ordinary beliefs, but they got us all the way back to our car and we were exceedingly grateful.
Now we just needed showers and food and a place to stay. We headed for a village where we could get food and showers and near the rangers house. (I missed relaying this story. When we realized that we would run into trouble finding a place to stay when we got of the back country, the ranger offered to let us stay in her front yard! We were a little apprehensive, but without other options, we were going to give it a try.) We decided on food first and headed towards the place where you can get hot vegetables...the cafeteria. It was horrible, but we are picky I guess. I had toe-fuu spinach pie that needed a lot of things, some overcooked mixed and frozen veggies and some mashed taters that I dipped in BBQ sauce to make palatable. Robert had prime rib with cold fried potatoes, mixed veggies, a salad (green on top, white iceberg underneath!). We both had a biscuit, which was the highlight of the meal when combined with two butter and two honey packets a piece.
It was getting late so we decided to skip showering and head to Ranger Sarah's for the night. We called. No answer. We called again, no answer. Curses. We drove by, no lights on. Feeling uncomfortable setting up camp without her blessing, we had no choice but to start driving. We headed for showers, but they had just closed. On we drove, out of the park, away from everyone. We stopped at multiple, multiple campsites along the way, full, full full. Now it was truly getting late. We opted to start trying for hotels even, all full. One place gave us a giant list of places to call, all full. At that point we decided to head on into Billings, MT, our next stopover. We got there around four thirty and crashed in the first hotel bed of the trip, after a quick shower in our private, luxury shower!
See, it was a very long day.
7/17
7/17
Woke up with grouse
Horse ppl ran us out of campsite
Ate at Thai me up, great Tom kha soup and spicy noodles ok
Got killer sick after lunch
Laid down at bus station for about an hour, felt ok rob drove
To yellowstone, long drive but pretty
Paid 25 to enter both Teton and yellow for seven days
Went to old faithful, cluster fuck of too many ppl
Bathroom issues
Found ranger station finally, almost all campsites full, try Teton said the woman
Tried mammoth, but full, saw elk eating the post office lawn
Traffic stopped- rob sent to look, brown bear!
Drove on to campsite outside of park, full
Drove up to timber camp past jardine and there was no one and FREE
Bugs horrible
Difficulty collecting firewood bc far away
Someone has pushed rock to block road past the first two campsites, I think they are making a house back there, road blocked again with a tree, two trees lashed to two other trees to make a shelter with a tarp
Very nice place to camp
Made great enchiladas with green sauce, shrooms, artiks, black beans and cheese
Got neighbors eventually
Now sleeps
Woke up with grouse
Horse ppl ran us out of campsite
Ate at Thai me up, great Tom kha soup and spicy noodles ok
Got killer sick after lunch
Laid down at bus station for about an hour, felt ok rob drove
To yellowstone, long drive but pretty
Paid 25 to enter both Teton and yellow for seven days
Went to old faithful, cluster fuck of too many ppl
Bathroom issues
Found ranger station finally, almost all campsites full, try Teton said the woman
Tried mammoth, but full, saw elk eating the post office lawn
Traffic stopped- rob sent to look, brown bear!
Drove on to campsite outside of park, full
Drove up to timber camp past jardine and there was no one and FREE
Bugs horrible
Difficulty collecting firewood bc far away
Someone has pushed rock to block road past the first two campsites, I think they are making a house back there, road blocked again with a tree, two trees lashed to two other trees to make a shelter with a tarp
Very nice place to camp
Made great enchiladas with green sauce, shrooms, artiks, black beans and cheese
Got neighbors eventually
Now sleeps
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