July 26th
Yellowstone Campsite 8M2 along Moose Creek(1840.4)-Yellowstone Campsite OE1 at Summit Lake(1865.2)
Campsite Elevation: 8,557ft
24.8mi
*This day is written in two parts because a lot happened and I want to be able to load lots of pictures.
Today I got going extra early knowing a lot was ahead. I started hiking by 6am. My brother and nephew were going to meet me at Yellowstone Village about 15mi into my day and I also needed to resupply there. I also knew there would be a lot of tourist foot traffic and sightseeing along the way, so I wanted to get an early start. Bloodbath and Rampage also got going earlier than usual and left about 30mins after me. It was nice to hike on my own this morning. The morning is just a special time and I really like the quiet and peacefulness of it. Early on this morning, I hiked along Shoshone Lake. Seeing the sun as it rose through the clouds was the perfect way to kick off a memorable day!
I soon entered Shoshone Geyser Basin and it was a sight I didn’t expect
at all! I was shocked to turn a corner to a whole new world. One second
I’m walking through wet, cold, tall grass and wooded trail, and the next
I’m walking through what felt like another planet…steam rising all
around me, pockets of the warmth of a sauna, the strong smell of sulfur,
bright aqua pools, dusty rust colored ground, and the powerful sights
and sounds of boiling hot waters. It was really cool to have it all to
myself as it was quite a magical area.
After the Shoshone Geyser Basin, I entered the woods again for awhile. I passed by the Lone Star Geyser that only erupts every 3hrs, but was 1.5hrs from the next eruption. I’ve heard it’s a great one to see, but had to pass it by to stay on schedule and make it to Old Faithful Village to meet my brother and nephew. Right around this area was where the mosquitoes got much worse. I tried to move faster and wear my rain jacket, but it was pretty hot out…I caved in and for the first time all trip, I used my deet, dang!
I made it to Old Faithful Village around 10:30am. My brother and nephew were meeting me at noon. It took me a bit to find everything, but I found out that Old Faithful was scheduled to go off at 11:30am, so I had just enough time to get my resupply box from the post office and take it to the lawn to do my resupply while I waited for the next big eruption. This is where the stressful part of my day began…when I went to the post office, I found out that some things that Bloodbath, Rampage, and I had ordered had either not arrived or were delivered somewhere else in the park because Amazon delivers UPS and the address we gave was the general delivery post office address, which doesn’t accept UPS packages. Let the stress begin! I quickly went over to watch Old Faithful erupt and did my resupply. While doing that, I realized that this leg is 40mi longer than the estimate in my Yogi guide. This has happened on many legs as Yogi uses the Ley maps for her estimates, but I’m hiking mostly the more official Bear Creek route, which tends to be longer. Problem is that when I did my resupply planning, I only had Yogi’s book as a reference…let’s add a bit more stress to this day as now I am now short two dinners and a day of snacks. I was however able to snap a picture of my resupply gifts as I waited for Old Faithful.
I want to thank Edie, George, Frank, Mule, Katy, Chad, Corinna, and Yankee for all they sent that is pictured above. THANK YOU!!! Also, my dad sent more pink cookies from my childhood hometown which I was too busy eating to remember to put in the picture, so THANK YOU Pops!
Old Faithful erupted and was more of a bunch of steam. I thought it was just unique to see so many people from all over the world waiting for a bunch of steam to shoot up in the air.
Back to my stress… I checked the two places the postmaster suggested in the village and then saw Bloodbath and Rampage had arrived. I broke the news to them that the new shoes that they ordered to have shipped to the village didn’t make it. It was heart breaking as they really needed those shoes and are hundreds of miles overdue for new shoes. It’s essential and now they have to hike another 150mi on painful worn out shoes. I feel so bad for them! We spent over an hour trying to use my phone on a slow Internet and intermittent phone reception to find the packages and have them redirected to our next town. Then the kicker…somehow mine was delivered successfully to “the front desk” and signed by “white.” WTF! I went to multiple buildings and multiple people called trying to find this mystery location and person…no luck at all! Basically, my $40 order of a cool iHome speaker and an extra lightning cable for my iPhone has been lost into the void or stolen and I have to be thankful that it wasn’t a pair of overdue shoes. Just a crappy situation all around. I’ll just have to reorder that stuff next town and suck up the loss.
That is when my brother and nephew arrived. I was both very excited to have them joining us for a night and also very frustrated by the stress of everything and the limited time I had. I also couldn’t get any of my blogs posted, had 30% charge on my phone, and had a ton of unanswered emails. We still had 10mi to hike to our assigned campground, so we needed to leave Old Faithful Village as soon as possible. Find out how the rest of this day went in Part 2 on the next post…
