21 1998.0 7/5/2021 cloudy, rain, little sun. Justin and I packed up, ate breakfast and hiked out about 5:45 am. Justin had his backpack with both his and my stuff. I had my daypack and tent. We chatted on the way out which made the time fly by. Soon we were at the Jeep at the Howard Easton Trailhead and it started to rain. Hurriedly I unpack my daypack and Justin gave me my gear he was carrying. I organized my pack contents. My food was already prepared. At about 7 am I hiked out on my own. I walked by many steaming geothermal items and the morning was cool so they were especially steamy. About half way I had a steep climb that i pushed to complete. I was dripping sweat for the 1500’ elevation change. Once done I hiked quietly and arrived at my OE1 campsite. The clouds were threatening so I put up my tent. Got water, dug a cat hole and jumped into my tent just as a half hour rain storm arrived. It was cool, but every so often the sun broke through the clouds and warmed the tent. I did some chores such as stitch holes in my “not so new” shoes. It’s only been two weeks since I bought them in Pinedale! I read and enjoyed Justin’s blog entries. Now I am doing my daily chores to prepare for tomorrow. It looks like the next section is much drier and I need to load up on water and refill at every water source I find on the way to the next meetup.
See “Yellowstone Backcountry Transit” for Justin’s description of the last few days.
