After leaving the Tumbleweed on Friday, I travelled back to the amazing Potluck put together by Udeitha's mother (and uncle). Oh. my. goodness. Platters upon platters of delicious Indian perfection. We all gorged ourselves on the extravagant foods. Even the superintendent of the park and his wife came over to eat. It was that amazing! Thank you Udeitha for being born to your mother and coming to Yellowstone!
After dinner, we chilled out around Eric's amazing campfire. But, due to my 4am wake-up exhaustion, I hit the hay pretty early. But, in that time, it was decided that we would be backpacking the next day. Beyond that decision, nothing was final. I could not wait to wake up and find out the official plans!
I slept in the next morning. When I finally woke up, I was informed that we were backpacking the Sky Rim Trail and leaving in about an hour and a half. I immediately set to packing.
Since I had never been backpacking before, I had to borrow everything. From a backpack, compact sleeping bag and single-person tent, everyone covered me. I am so lucky to have such accommodating friends here!
As we were preparing to go, one of the guys backed out and the other seemed to go the same direction. When we seemed perplexed, they showed us the official hiking guide and what it had to say about the Sky Rim Trail. Basically, Sky Rim Trail is one of the only Class-H hikes in the park (that is the highest level). Furthermore, they HIGHLY recommended no one actually take packs on this trail. With sheer cliffs constantly on one side, the other, or both, heavy backpacks would be intensely dangerous (let alone insanely difficult). We finally revamped our plans. We would hike in about 4 miles, set up camp, leave all our stuff at the camp the next day, and hike back to our camp after hiking to the rim. With this decision, our entire party of six was back together and we were off.
We stopped briefly in West Yellowstone to pick up sandwiches and camping food. We finally reached the Daly Creek Trailhead, grabbed our bags and hiked the four miles into our campsite. Once at camp, we threw up our tents, grabbed some food and hiked to the nearest peak. There we cooked up our food and watched the sunset. I was able to use my own camping stove (the one thing I do have! Thanks family!) to cook carrot ginger soup. I threw some almonds in to simmer and add some protein. It was delicious! We had a fabulous evening.
But, as we moved back down toward the campsite, it quickly became dusk. After a frightening run-in with a grouse exploding from the woods right in front of me, we began to grow wearing of bears. Back at camp, we all decided to move our tents closer together and consolidate. I was actually the only person in an individual tent, but I made sure it was placed in between everyone else. Needless to say, I felt safe and quickly crashed.
The next morning, we awoke semi early, packed up our tents, distributed our food and water into daypacks and began our journey. A couple of miles up the peak, we stopped for lunch. I ate my small bag of carrots, mini bagels with crunchy peanut butter and some fruit trail mix. Nom nom nom. Luke even had Turkey Jerky. It was delicious.
As we continued forward, the trail grew increasingly arduous with snow, mud and steep inclines. Eventually, due to weariness and blisters, three of our crew decided to head back. Christina, Matt and myself decided to continue forward, at least to the Big Horn Pass. (This is supposedly the highest point in Yellowstone that you can HIKE to without climbing gear). If we thought the inclines were tough before, the continued inclines were monstrous. But we tore through them.
One of my favorite parts was when we got to the top of a lookout point and it was this gorgeous meadow on the top of a step rise. Yellow flowers carpeted the ground along with soft grass. We spent a few moments frolicking around. Christina did some cartwheels. Matt and I tried falling into the wind to get a feel for how strong it was. (Really strong). Eventually we just crashed in the grass for a while, enjoying the incredible 360 degrees view all around us. Every direction you looked: breathtaking mountain ridges. Vast valleys. Snow capped peaks, lush forests and glittering lakes. It was almost too much to take in. We couldn't decide where to look. So laying on our backs and staring into the sky seemed the best option.
From here, we had to decide if we should turn back or continue forward, doing a massive loop back to camp. If we went back, it would only be a 5 mile hike to camp. If we continued forward it would be about 9 miles back to camp. Despite the distance, we decided to continue forward. That way we could reach Big Horn Pass and see new territory almost the entire way back.
Then came the incline of all inclines. The mothership. The ridge to Big Horn Pass. Yikes.
Christina and Matt joked that I only had one speed: fast. When it comes to steep inclines, I'm not good at pacing. I just have to plow or die. The two of them decided to take it easy and pace while I plowed. Apparently, at moments, they could see me running. I would argue it was more of leaping to a preconceived 'rest' point so that I could collapse on the ground. But, I will let them continue to say I ran up the ridge. ( :
After leaping up the hill, pausing to rest and take pictures, and continuing to leap up the hill, I reached the summit a bit before the intelligent pacers. To my, surprising, astonishment, stood a massive herd of Big Horn Sheep. For some bizarre reason, it had never dawned on me that Big Horn Pass was actually named because it was, in fact, a pass...for Big Horn sheep. Dense, right? But this is what happened.
I proceeded to quietly place myself behind a little rock and snap pictures. Eventually Matt and Christina snuck up behind me for their own photos. We probably spent a collective forty minutes observing these amazing creatures and snapping photos. We were so stoked. We were standing on THEIR ground. We thought it amazing to think that no one gets to see these creatures on this turf unless they really haul to this isolated spot. We felt proud, rejuvenated and super excited.
After finally tearing ourselves away, we proceeded to follow the completely downhill, 6 miles, on BlackButte Trail. This was such a wonderful change of pace. But I must mention that the breathtaking views along the Sky Rim Trail were like nothing I have ever seen before. They made the arduous nature of the trail MORE than worth it.
BlackButte was a pine forest that broke into occasional open meadows. It was gorgeous in a completely different way. I couldn't get over the potent aroma of the pines. It was heavenly. Somewhere along the way, we seemed to go into a zen-like mode. We couldn't stop talking about our senses and their interplay with the world around us. We were so aware, so happy and content.
Finally we reached to Daly Creek Loop. 4 more miles back to base camp. Unlike BlackButte, this was either flat trail or small inclines. It was pretty nice. Mostly meadows and some Douglas Fir forests. Finally, back at camp, we grabbed our packs and hit the four mile hike back to the car. We made a bet: since none of us had watches, we would each guess the time upon our arrival at the car. Whoever was closest bought drinks at the restaurant we would eat at in West Yellowstone. My only frame of reference was that the 3 guys had left us around noon.
The hike was on. And let me tell you. After 18+ miles of hiking, throwing on a backpack was not ideal. My inexperience with backpacking really showed through, at this point. Matt and Christina were content to stroll, chit-chatting about life, while I found myself charging ahead so that I could get back to the car as soon as possible. This actually worked out, because halfway to the car, I couldn't see them behind me anymore, and my legs felt like jelly. I decided to take off my pack, take off my superman hat (which I'd worn all day) and snag some water and fruit trail-mix. By the time they reached me, I was rearing to go.
Back at the car, Christina guessed 9:31pm, I guess 9:12pm and Matt guessed 9:00pm. When we started the car, it was 8:55pm. Matt had won. Boo! But, I was actually happy, because that meant we would arrive in West Yellowstone a little after my guess and before Christina's.
On the drive, I stuck my head out the window. So refreshing. When we finally pulled into West Yellowstone, we were ravenous. We found this patio dining called Serenity. We didn't realize it, but we had placed ourselves in the finest dining experience in West Yellowstone: wearing grungy clothes and smelling awful. Oh well. Despite high prices and a Russian waitress who spoke little English, we were able to order and have the most extravagant dinner. Thai Calamari Appetizer, Delicious Drinks, refreshing salads and decadent entrees. Christina got a blue-cheese butter glazed rib-eye. Matt got a vegetable and grilled chicken pesto, and I order an orange chicken curry called Chicken Panang. We were in Heaven. By the time we finished eating, it was 11:00pm. We dragged ourselves to the car, I climbed into the back and promptly fell asleep and we drove the hour and a half back to West Yellowstone. After unpacking and showering, I was in my bed by 1:30 am.
Needless to say, today has been an adventure. BUT, I am far less sore than I thought I would be. I actually FEEL great. But it is the lack of sleep that has gotten me today. I had to Skype with a 2nd grade class from Wisconsin today at 8:30am. It was really fun, but channeling enthusiasm and gusto was much harder than usual!
At the end of the work day, Alexis and I went to Jim Halfpenny's Track Education Center to finally make plaster molds of animal tracks. We only had an hour and a half (he wouldn't schedule us more time), but we managed to make 10 molds: Grizzly Bear, Black Bear, Wolf, Coyote, Mountain Lion, River Otter, Elk, Moose, Bison and Pronghorn. A good sampling, if I say so myself.
After traveling back to Mammoth, I was quickly snatched up by Udeitha, Christina and Eric. We met up with Matt and Molly at the Iron Horse for dinner. I love that place. They discussed their fourth of July plans: going to a car-camping site out of the park to have a extravagant cookout and camping experience. It sounds like fun, but I'm super excited for my fourth of July plans: mom and dad's arrival! That should happen tomorrow. So...the next time I will write, I will be relating our adventures!
Until then, enjoy an excessive amount of photos below!
Momma's spread
Thank you Udeitha's mom!!
Ready to go at Daly Creek Trailhead!
The hike in!
Our campsite
My lil tent.
Putting up the bear bag. ANYTHING with a sent goes in. Food, toothpaste, deodorant, bugspray, etc.
Cooking my delicious soup!
Sunset from our primo dinner venu.
Morning!
Our bags hanging. We all followed Christina on this. She finally realized her bag-hanging habits come from backpacking in New Mexico to keep scorpions out of the bags.
The hike begins.
Stopping for a pose.
The group (sans Matt taking the picture).
The guys chilling for lunch.
Indian Paintbrush
Pretty. I have literally hundreds of breathtaking shots like this from all directions.
And then there were three.
Glorious
Snow was constantly covering our trail.
Precipice shot!
( :
We made it to the flower-covered Overlook!
I was happy.
Paradise Valley
Bighorn Pass is up there.
The climb up to Big Horn Pass is at the top right of this photo.
This shot gives you an idea of the incline.
How the trees grew on this incline was crazy!
I made it!
And then I saw them.
The Big Horn Sheep herd
With a vast and beautiful mountain range behind them.
Mommy with babies!
So cute!
I loved this.
Now we are going down! Through the woods!
TALL trees!
Oops! A tree fell on our bridge!
Back to the Valley we originally hiked in on. We had to backtrack through this valley to get back to our campsite.
After we grabbed our bags, we hiked out and the sun began to hide behind the ridge lines.
Thai Calamari. Best food ever.
Panang Chicken. So good.
Alexis pouring in some plaster!
Track Education Center!
Holding a pronghorn and moose mold!
A raven chasing a golden eagle while we ate dinner at the Iron Horse!
Sorry to plague you all with so many pictures!!!!
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