Montanaho is a big place. I finally reach Yellowstone National Park and Wyoming. Warning, this is a BIG picture post. And wordy. Be prepared to scroll. All pictures are as-taken, no photoshopping, and all are clicky. If you want to see the real size pic, its best to do it on a computer not a phone.
I took a zero in West Yellowstone, walking around, eating ice cream, visiting the outfitter. I got a hotel, I needed to shower, recover from my 30 mile day, and regroup. The hotel sucked. It was mediocre, AND full of tourists on a bus tour. The whole floor I was on turned into social hour until 11pm and then started back up at 5am, as the people slammed doors, yelled to one another, and shepherded their kids around. Groan.
There’s a small airport just outside town (a 2 mile hike on the highway), so I hiked out and rented a car. Hint: last-minute car rentals at an airport the size of your backyard is PRICEY. But I had a sweet VW SUV to cruise in.
Day0 – road trip
I drove into Yellowstone Park. Traffic was not too bad at the gate, the trick is get there early. The CDT goes through a small southern corner of the Park, and I wanted to see more. Maybe wolves? I first drove north to the Mammoth Hot Springs area. It was nice to see scenery without walking it. Periodically along the road I’d see hikers. The Mammoth Hot Springs resort area was gross; a hotel, a spa, parking lots, people. The springs themselves were pretty cool. One ego-boost; they’re reached by a series of wooden stairs going up about 5 stories. As I bounced up the stairs, I passed loads of people puffing and wheezing. The altitude, I realized. Smoking a tourist up a set of stairs isn’t really proof of much, but I took it.
The springs trickly out slowly, depositing minerals in these ever-growing steps.
I got to the top and I hear “Hey Smokebeard!” Looking around, I see Casper and her mom! It was great to catch up with her after the whole “Llama Drama” and see how far she’d come. She was one of those hikers where you just know they’ll finish. (And she did, late November)
I drove a big loop through the park, skipping “The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone” for time, and also because I still got view like this:
Since my car had bluetooth, I played a lot of music on my phone. The band of the day was Rush. As someone once said, “Led Zeppelin makes me want to move every muscle in my body; Rush makes me want to move every muscle in my MIND.” The general upbeat, positive, affirmative, creative lyrics and music were a huge mood-lifter. After about 990 miles, I really needed it.
Good to rest my kegs and my soul.
Day1 – heading to the Park
That night I skipped the hotel, opting instead for the RV park. Arriving near dusk, I asked the guy if they were full. “It depends on how you’re paying. If you pay cash, and I don’t have to put it in the computer, then we have room.” The price was 50 bucks, I told him I had 40. He showed me where I could camp. I got up early, and did the last of my town chores – bought some tshirts, returned the rental, WALKED back to town, then got my Park permit. Unlike Glacier, where the Rangers are generally crappy and unhelpful (except the ones at St. Mary!), the Ranger here was awesome. They reserve 4 sites for thruhikers, because they know we don’t care if we camp right on top of each other. “Do you want the standard set of campsites?” he asked. “Yes”. “Ok, here’s your permit. Be sure to have your bear spray accessible.”
That was it. No baloney.
I stopped off at the outfitter, and asked if I could pay them to mail some tshirts home for me. The guy there was so cool, he told me to give him the addresses and “I’ll have our office manager just throw them in the mail, don’t worry about it.” (The shirts arrived home safely). How cool was that?
Twice I had people in town ask me where The Rendezvous was – turns out its a sort of Renfair/LARP/craft festival at the old airport on the way out of town. There I ran into Frito, Toolman and Zoey! Caught up with them for a bit and threw my thumb out. After about 30 min I got a ride with a guy who ran the local Playhouse (?!), who drove me all the way back to the CDT even though he wasn’t heading there. Nice.
Getting out of town
It was a 22 mile water carry, so I filled up 5L at the Sinclair station. I bought one of those protein shakes and drank it – a mistake, because I felt full and then forgot to eat lunch. I hiked out the long dirt road. It was all SUVs and vans carrying river rafts for people on the Snake River, but that quickly faded to nothing. I crossed a couple of streams, chugged and refilled water. At one of them I met guys panning for gold! They said they found some flakes. Kind of neat.
By 6pm I was done. The dirt road I was on had faded to a footpath, and someone, the USFS probably, had dug trenches across it at intervals to close it. I ended up camping IN the road. It was nice to have a little daylight at the end of the day, so I sewed up my shirt, poorly. Utter silence, no wind. No bugs, no road, no planes, just ears ringing. Forest bathing like on the Long Trail. It’s rare to sit and do/hear nothing.
Town was nice, but it was good to be back out.
Day2 – hikers without borders
I decided to sleep late. I knew from my permit that I had a short day, so why hurry! The one pressure I had was water, but I was pretty confident I’d find some drinkable stuff in the Park. The trick with Yellowstone water is that half of it is warm, and either filled with bacteria or minerals or both. You need to find cooler, flowing water.
Reached the Park boundary at about 9am, and the WY state line an hour or so later! So long Montanaho! I was glad to have taken the full “Red Line” which follows the border. Many hikers do the “Big Sky / Super Butte cutoff” and skip about 300 miles, coming directly S into the park. But I was also glad to be out of Montana.
I reached camp at 3pm. It was weird to camp with others for the first time in a while. We had an old timey Dinner Circle. The hard part was waiting for 5pm so we can eat and not be hungry again before bed. A lot of people just napped in their tents. Camped with: Sunglasses, Dr. Pepper, Frizz, Pedi, Beefcake. Beefcake was a lunatic doing 30+ mile days with a dinky pack. Good for him.
Day3 – Old Faithful
Up and on the trail early with Sunglasses. We were both eager to do the short miles to the Old Faithful area. Crossed the 1000 mile point! It was only 10 miles to Old Faithful, and only another 5 after that to our campsite. All flat. All on sweet National Park trail footbed. Easy-peasy. “Cruisey” even.
Walked through the whole boardwalk maze around the Old Faithful valley geysers. I ran into this guy who stopped me and asked “thruhiker?”. When I said yes, he reached into his wallet and gave me 20 bucks! He explained he had hiked the AT years ago. “Go get a burger.”
I picked up my box at the PO in Old Faithful Village, including new shoes! Glorious. The old ones were basically mocassins at that point, despite me adding a 2nd layer of insoles into them. The PO lady was super nice, as were the people in the Health Center. Huge hiker box there.
I went to the Old Faithful Inn, a huge old wooden structure from the old days. Mingling with all the rich people was weird. I sidled up to the front desk and asked a nice lady, “I heard a rumor that you let thruhikers use your showers here.” “Well, we let NICE thruhikers use the showers. Are you nice?” She smiled and gave me some towels. The building is old enough that it predates in-room bathrooms, so there’s a shared shower setup at the end of one of the wings. Neat old tile bathroom. The showers had soap and shampoo and conditioner dispensers, except no single shower had all 3. So I would use one, hop out, jump in the next shower stall, use the next, etc. In the end, after much scrubbing, I was clean. And my hair was largely not a giant snarl anymore.
I got a giant ice cream and watched Old Faithful with the tourists. There’s a huge viewing area with benches.
Around 6pm I left. I had 5 miles to go. All super easy walking. While refilling water at a stream, I saw a bald eagle, and ran into Sunglasses again. She was excited as I was about the showers. We camped at Upper Firehole. There I met Hoolin, an older fellow who had done the AT in 1981, the PCT in 1984. I heard and saw sand hill cranes in a field. Near the camp area, there were these neat steaming pools of geothermal water. There were also plenty of cow pies, which I realized must be buffalo here in winter at the hot springs.
Day4 – 12 miles
Got up at 6. Sunglasses leaving. A guy named Scurvy said 10 mins before, a big block bear went about 100 feet away around the camp. I went back to bed. Actually dreamed. For the 2nd time out here, I slept until i was done sleeping.
A few miles from a road, National Parks are generally empty. I had the whole place to myself. The CDT goes through a place called Geyser Basin which was LIKE the Old Faithful area, except without all the people and guardrails. Just a few lines of stones on the ground to tell you ‘you better not walk here’. It was only 5 miles from Old Faithful, and it was like being the only person on the planet.
All day, there were multiple tiny thunderstorms. Carrying the umbrella allowed me to hike, not get wet, and NOT have to sweat in my raingear. “Breathable” is a lie.
Crossing a river on a rickety set of logs, I saw a snake eating a frog. I figure the frog was toast, so I didn’t bother to stop the snake.
That youngblood Mateo passed me, heading for Grants, another village/campground/resort area in the Park. He had found his stride and his people, doing huge miles. He was mostly motivated by the All You Can Eat buffet at Grants. He has permit, but he and his crew were stealth camping everywhere.
Shoshone Lake
Got to Shoshone Lake early afternoon. This side of the lake is gorgeous. Full of gravel and clean water with no sign of muck. I had to ford about a hundred feet of it to get to the campground. Nothing above thigh high. Since I was already wet, I stripped down and went back in the water and got clean. Amazing how grimy you can get in a day or so. I had passed my official campsite a few miles back, and got to this one at 4pm. Like most sites, it was totally empty of real campers, so I hung my foodbag, and pitched my tent. Then the rains came, of course, because it was the afternoon.
I ran into a few NOBO hikers today, mostly just the ‘hiker nod’ as they crusied along with their earbuds in.
Around 8 miles to Grants tomorrow morning, and then 20 or so to the boundary. The trails were so easy that I figured I’d take time and head into town in the morning.
Day5 – Grant Village and Heart Lake
Up at 530, hiking by 7. It was hard to leave, in the morning sun the lake was gorgeous. Treacherously cold though. I got a near insta hitch to Grant Village. After wandering around a little I went to the General Store for coffee and donuts. I ate an entire box of them. I charged my phone and dried my shoes in the sun outside the building. There were people drying tents and things in the parking lot. Eventually everything was dry and I was full, so I left.
It was a harder hitch out, but an off-duty security guard picked me up and drove me back to the trail. This was a very busy trail, it led along “Witch Creek”, named for all the hot water springs that were in, and fed into, the creek. NOT a drinkable water situation. Some of them were hot like a hot bath.
The trail went through a lot of high lodgepole, and I met a lot of day hikers who kept assuring me that the views were awesome. And they were. Witch Creek flows down a valley into Heart Lake, which is surrounded by a bunch of low hills. Here I departed from the CDT a little, and headed west along the lake to my campsite at Sheridan Trail. Heresy, I know, to hike OFF the official trail, but “That Brunette” back in Montanaho had told me to make sure I camped there. Well worth it. The lake on 1 side, big fields and a mountain to the right.
I ran into Lark, Handy and Strix! 3 older-ish hikers like me except younger, that I had last seen in North Fork, Idaho! We had a good chat and caught up. Over night we had more rain, of course, and in the morning Lark said he saw lightning strike across the lake, flames, and then the rain extinguished them. Very neat.
I realized after this little vacation mid-trail, the work begins. 70 miles to Dubois. Maybe 3×23 mile days?
Sunset. Sandhill cranes making noise.
Day6 – leaving the Park
Up early. After a brief Breakfast Circle, where I knew I’d never see those hikers again, I pushed on alone. I sat on beach for a while and watched/listened to loons. So cool. At night it’s the elk bugling, in the morning its the loons.
The CDT moves into a couple of long dry valleys, first the Heart River then the Snake River. I counted 26 NOBO hikers. If any talked, they talked about getting to the buffet meals in the Park.
Finally, sadly, I left Yellowstone, and entered Bridger Teton Wilderness and amazingly caught Strix. She and the others were going 25 to a known campsite, I was aiming for 23, there was a note in the phone app about possible camping.
Half pasta half Chinese food. Hungry. Low on snacky stuff.
Day7 – Parting of the Waters
I woke up kind of excited to connect this year’s trail to the end of my attempt in 2022. A sort of ‘Golden Spike’ moment, if you will.
The trails are getting higher, up to about 10,000 feet now.
Mid morning I reached a National Monument, the Parting of the Waters. Here, a stream coming down splits in two, half going west to the Pacific, and half going East to the Atlantic/Gulf. The trail went down, down, down into a valley, and turned into a cruisey, dusty horse trail. Down in the valley I headed east and crossed a river near to a YMCA camp, there were lots of big campsites with fire rings, bear poles and horse tie-outs. I could have stopped, it was nice to camp in the grass by water, but I saw on the map that 5 miles later there was an old USFS cabin/campsite that CDT hikers used. It was still early and flat, so I pushed on. The nice part about hiking in river valleys is that rivers (generally) are pretty flat, so the valleys are flat, so the hiking is easy.
I got to the cabin around 6:30 and quickly set up camp on the lee side, just as the rain started. By the time I finished frantically setting up my tent, the rain stopped. It stayed raining up on the mountains surrounding the valley, so it was really cool to watch the sun set through the rain. Recounted food. Especially with exit tomorrow after 22 miles, I had plenty of bars. Ate the last Builders bar, that I didn’t know I had, to celebrate.
It would be 15.5 miles past my injury quitting spot, plus about 3 on the old CDT to a campground for dinner then 3 mostly road to highway. I decided to to try it. Could get in and do a full zero. There had better be food there, that 8 person trail blob and the nobos might have cleaned out the grocery store.
I was also looking forward to coffee at that place, right on the corner in Dubois. I say “the” corner, because there’s only 1 road with things on it, and the “highway” makes a right turn in the middle of town.
At 9pm Roadrunner, another SOBO showed up, said she’s with a group too. She said she had heard my name, which seemed weird. Who’s talking about me? If she was behind me, how would she have heard of me?
Her friends rolled in around 11pm and talked for the next hour.
Day8 – the First Redemption
I got up and left the others asleep, hiking out before sun hit the valley. Cold. On the way up, through a big burn area, I saw my 2nd Grizz of the trip! First I heard it, I think jumping down off something, and crashing through the bushes away from me – but I saw it’s big brown rear end. Definitely not a black bear. I know black bears can be big, and you really need to see the head and shoulders, but I’m 99% sure it was a grizz.
Late morning, I arrived at the same meadow where I had to get off in 2022. It was quite an experience, both sad and happy. Outside of the Winds and the San Juans, I had stitched my two trips together, the trail was nearly complete!
Hail
Just after crossing a big river and really getting out of the hills, the rain came. And the hail. And the thunder. I hid under my umbrella; surely a storm this intense wouldn’t last long? WRONG. It kept up. Finally, I just hiked through it, my shoes instantly wet and muddy.
One neat thing – since hail is ice, and ice floats, if you get a big hailstorm near a river, the river turns white with all the little floating snowballs!
The rest of the day into the afternoon was pretty crap. The trails were this sort of slick clay mud mixed with horse poop paste, which would cling to the bottom of my shoes. I had to stop and clear the treads on my shoes over and over, else I was just slithering around in it like the hippies at Woodstock. Gross. Trying to go uphill in this was rough, like walking in sand. Except 40 degree, wet, slimy sand.
With thunder overhead so close that it hit 1-2 seconds after the lightning. The last valley before the road was brutal, on both sides I could see the mesas covered in white, and the lightning and thunder boomed overhead. I kept thinking that holding an umbrella up as I crossed an open field was probably dumb, but I also managed to kind of race between clumps of trees. You dont want to be near a single tree, but a group is better. Better than standing in the middle of an open field with an umbrella. I made it to the USFS campground, thought about staying over. But then I realized it was just a few miles of muddy roadwalk + maybe a mile of XC (cross-country) to the road, and I was already soaking wet, and if I stopped I’d be freezing.
So I pushed to road, laughing at the idea of getting into Dubois. I had done it!!!
Dubois
Stu and Roadrunner were hitching at the road with no luck, so we flew my “CDT HIKER” sign. My groundsheet is white Tyvek, I’ve written on it “CDT HIKER” and it folds in a way that can read “TO TOWN” or “TO TRAIL”. 2 cars later, we were on our way to Dubois and the church hostel. At the church, there were 9 other hikers including Handy, Lark and Strix! We were over the limit, but the church people let us stay there anyway. I ate an entire 14″ pizza, loaded up with veggies. And kind of hungry an hour later.
At this point I no longer felt any real pressure to hike, this was all victory lap. I was super excited to get into the Wind River Range in WY, and then get south to the San Juans in CO.
