welcome to Yellowstone
I woke up atop the hill I battled the night prior, having fully, and deeply, slept the full night. First full nights rest on trail in a while thanks to my replacement air pad, good temps, and dry camp spot. Even though I had struggled up the hill later than I had wanted, I was excited for a majority of smooth descent into Yellowstone National Park.
As I made my way, south bounder upon south bounder passed by. Even a couple from Germany, who wanted to make it known that while they lived near Munich now, they definitely weren’t from there (but a much smaller town more north).
In addition to seeing a few foreigners, I also saw the most Americana thing possible. A Yellowstone Park Ranger in his full uniform rolled up on a horse, packing out 5 donkeys from the park. He had the quintessentially western leather chaps on, with fringe of course, and they were worn in from many years of use. He pulled out his dip can (chewing tobacco) and the two cans had been held in the side of the chaps for so long that indents had formed in the leather making a perfect holster for them.
He warned me of a dead horse in northern Yellowstone that grizzlies have been feeding on, as that’s one of the major reroutes from the fires in Idaho. I was still going out the west side, so it didn’t bother me too much. In fact, it likely meant any grizzly in the area would make its way north to feed and not be around me.
As I reached the boundary line for Yellowstone NP, a very small metal sign greeted me in the woods. While there was a rangers cabin nearby, it was empty. What a great feeling to be entering one of the busiest tourist destinations in the country with not a single soul or sound nearby.
I continued on down the trail, with only 24 miles to do I took some extra breaks and relaxed along the Snake River. With the permits having me in specific campgrounds, I can’t really adjust my schedule much. I was excited about this camp though as reports were saying it’s one of the most stunning campgrounds on the trail.
I arrived to Heart Lake and was greeted by a few day walkers out for a couple days. I was a bit surprised because I had thought the permit office only grouped CDT hikers together. We tend to be a bit louder and more rowdy than most hikers since the trail is our “home”. But we are almost always in bed and asleep by 9-9:30.
Around 8-8:30, I’m laying in my tent after dinner as it begins to sprinkle some rain, and I hear “hey hiker trash!”, the universal term for thru hikers to refer to eachother as.
I zip open my tent to find Hobo Toe and Free Bird rolling into camp. We have some quick chats but it starts to rain more so they setup their tents and are off for the night. Rolling thunderstorms on the horizon and rain falling on the tents, off to bed we all go.
The next morning we all head out roughly around the same time. A couple sobos mentioned a hot stream nearby that they recommended soaking in. So I was keeping my eyes out for that.
The trail wound itself around the lake and was beautiful. We spoke to a couple more day walkers along the way and continued on to find the hot stream. And so we did.
Hobo Toe, Free Bird and I hop in and soak for a while. It’s right on the trail, so we became the wardens of the CDT trying to tempt folks into the hot stream. It begins raining fairly heavily, so we decide to stay in even longer. Hobo Toe had to go resupply in Grant, which was a short hitch off the road a few miles ahead, so he reluctantly got out and headed on his way. We were on the same permit schedule, so we were all going to camp together anyway.
Free Bird and I decide to wait for the rain to stop, so sit there longer. About 2.5 hours total! It was wonderful.
Eventually, River Dance passes by and he’s with Doggone! Doggone and I stared on the same day, and it was nice to still see him on trail. Taxi Lady (his wife) is up the trail waiting for him on the road, and I found out River Dance has to go into Old Faithful Village to get a package as the PO there is closed on Saturdays, which I wasn’t aware of and needed to get a package, too.
The rain stopped and I got dressed and continued on, while Free Bird decided to have breakfast there and hang a bit more. He’s going for his TRIPLE triple crown. I.e. he’s done all three trails three times each. So he kind of loves the trail life and doesn’t push a ton of miles.
I caught up to River Dance and Doggone and decide to roll to Old Faithful to grab some food and have a side adventure since there was a ride sorted.
The village was crazy packed with people… crazy crazy packed. I grabbed some food, we went to the PO and the bee lined back to the road to get a hitch back to trail.
The journey took a little longer than I would have liked and expected, but overall it was worth it to fill my belly with calories. The food in the village is half a step above cafeteria food, and below airport food. But food none the less.
It’s getting later and we had about 10 miles to camp. I’m a city boy at heart and despise night hiking, so I say adios to River Dance and bolt forward. He’s camping in our site anyway, so didn’t feel like I was ditching him.
As I’m half a step away from running to camp, I run into Raven, a friend of Free Birds who he had mentioned would be meeting up with him for a few days. She’s got a full pack in addition to a paper bag full of food she’s carrying like a baby along the trail.
With one day of food, no garbage (dumped it in the village) and barely any water, my pack was super light, so I offered to throw some of her snacks in my pack so she could keep her hands free, then continued my dash for camp.
Just before I get there, it starts raining a bit again. But nothing too heavy. It was only about half hour, then I arrived to camp and the rain stopped. I then found out Free Bird had mistakenly said he was camping with us, but in reality had been permitted for a camp two miles prior. Great. I have some of his and Ravens food I’ve been carrying, and now can’t give it to them! I felt bad… but hey, miscommunication and he would be up trail in the morning, I hoped.
WiFi and Dirty Bowl (the couple who passed Tucker off to me) was there with Hobo Toe (who also picked up food for Free Bird from town but unable to give it to him) as well as Jazz Hands were already there and setup in their tents hiding from the rain.
I say outside as the rain stopped and ate my dinner. WiFi and Dirty Bowl were kind enough to pack out a beer for me as a thanks for taking Tucker, and then we all went to bed. River Dance eventually made it into camp around 9:30. I was happily in my tent on my way to sleep by then.
Overall, Yellowstone has been great so far. Being permitted to camps has its downfall, but it’s also nice to be grouped together with other thruhikers (and have a pit toilet in the mornings!).
