Category: Hike

25 2084.2 7/9/2021 sunny, breezy. On trail about 5:25 am. Doing it as a slack-pack. No big climbs but many smaller ones. After lunch I got off trail while listening to an audio book. Missed a turn. Must have gone over a mile off so walked it back. Probably lost over an hour. Made me get done around 3:30 pm. Gotta watch better for Trail junctions. Ugh! Justin made brats for dinner. Yum. We think a forest fire started on the other side of the hill where we are camping. Big white puffy clouds erupting there. Justin is going to keep an eye in it. I can smell the smoke.

24 2062.5 7/8/2021 sunny, clouds, smoke. Today was climbs and long. I was out on trail at 5:25. Both climbs were ok. The audio book helped me keep my mind off the climbs. By 11:00 I finished the second one to Targhee pass at 10,000 feet. Whew! I had lunch about 12:15 and met Cheeto, Blind squirrel, and Flip. They were flip-flopping around CDT waiting for the Colorado snow to dissipate. Then about 3 miles to the Jeep I crossed a stream and they are there cooling down AND SO IS JUSTIN. And he had cold sodas for me. Fantastic! Nevertheless the last 3 miles were hard. I was exhausted. Later at the Jeep Justin and I met a CDT section hiker named iPod. He’s doing southern Montana. We gave him a coke and chatted for a while. For dinner Justin cooked steaks. Yum!

23 2039.6 7/7/2021 sunny, clouds, sparse dark clouds, some sprinkles. Got up a few minutes early, packed up my backpack and put it in the Jeep. Headed out with my slack-pack after breakfast of a pop-tart and Mio-laced water. Bopping along on forest road I made great time and completed almost 6 miles in first two hours. Kept pushing and got 20 miles done and got to Justin by about 1 pm. Yippee! We went to West Yellowstone for great BBQ and then back to the trailhead. Set up my tent. Although dark clouds appeared and a few rain drops fell we had a light dinner. I had corn chowder. Now it’s time for bed. Tomorrow will be a tough day with two big climbs and 23 miles. I’m planning to slack-pack it. I hope that there are only a few blowdowns and I can make it all the way. I’ll tell you tomorrow in my daily log. Night night.

22 2019.8 7/6/2021. Sunny, hot,puffy white clouds. On trail at 5:30 am. My worries about crossing Summit Lake exit stream were nonexistent. No water ford was needed. Although I was loaded down with maximum water I hiked along quickly. For the first two hours I listened for animal noises. In that time I completed over 5 mile which was my plan. Then I had my first snack and sipped just a little water. I took off my windbreaker and started to listen to my audio book. In two more hours at 9:30 I completed 5 more miles. At 11:30 I found a culvert with a pool of water about six feet across and a foot deep. I stopped for lunch there. I guzzled a bottle of water and refilled. I continued on at 12:05 and at about 2 pm I had completed my 20 miles. Then I started to look for a campsite. I was walking down a forest road. I finally found one after a gate blocking the road and set up my tent at a pull-out and sent out my daily InReach message. That’s when I saw Justin had been to this gate the day before. So I sent him a message asking him to join me here. In about 30-45 minutes he was pulled-in with COLD SODAS! Over the next few hours I drank five sodas. I must have been dehydrated. He made pork tacos and they were delicious. Tomorrow I planning on slack packing 20 miles. Water will again be tight so I’m carrying 3 liters. We will meet again and have BBQ. I’m trying to boost my daily mileage after the very hard and very slow start due to the damn blowdown hell.

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.

20 1984.1 7/4/2021 sunny with puffy clouds. Justin woke me at 5 am although I had been awake since 4 am. We packed up the Jeep and Justin drove me 40 minutes to Heart Lake Trailhead where I had left off yesterday. Then I was off at 6 am on my slack-pack hike. I listened to a book on tape for the first time. And I arrived at 1:20 pm with a 20 minute lunch stop. Justin was already there. After lunch I took a nap and it was only when Justin woke me at 6 pm that we started dinner. I had curry which was fine. Justin forgot his spoon and sucked stroganoff out of his mountain house bag. The wind picked up and it started to rain so after dinner we hung our bear bags and went into our separate tents for the night.

19 1963.6 7/3/2021 sunny, some clouds, some dark clouds in distance. Got up, packed and shortly after 5:30 Justin and I were hiking. We stopped at Heart Lake for a snack and talk to the rangers who stopped by our campsite yesterday while I was sleeping. We only had 12 miles to the Jeep. There was a medium climb of 600’ about halfway. For the entire hike Justin and I chatted and the miles sped by. So nice. We got to the Jeep at Heart Lake Trailhead at about 11 am. We drove from there to the Howard Eaton trailhead where tomorrow Justin will park and hike in 3 miles to meet me with our overnight equipment. I will be slack-packing 20 miles to OA1 campsite. Next we drove to Old Faithful Lodge.  Check in time was 4:30 pm so we went to eat at the Geyser Grill. I got a double bacon cheeseburger. Then we sat out, relaxed until about 3 pm and got to our cabin. Justin took his shower first while I repaired my gear. I had to sew some rips and a button. Justin washed his clothes in the sink. I showered with my clothes and washed them along with myself. Then I organized my slack pack for tomorrow which is a first for this section. Then it was figuring out the gear for tomorrow’s overnight and food for the next three days by myself. Finally after all this prep we got dinner of pulled-pork at the lodge. A busy wonderful different day. Thank you Justin! I was so tired that while Justin called Stephanie I could barely keep my eyes open so I went to sleep. Stephanie has been helping Katie with hiking and camping stuff. I really appreciate her helping Katie prepare for her hike.

18 1951.6 7/2/2021 sunny, clear, puffy white clouds. Woke about 4:45. Justin and I were on trail about 5:30. Lots of little ups and downs which were tiring. Overall the terrain was flatish. I led and Justin followed. He was gracious to chat to keep me entertained to make the time go by and to scare off any bears. We stopped for lunch by Heart River. And soon we were at our reserved site 8J3 after 14.6 miles. We had a little trouble finding the site because we had to cross Surprise Creek to see our marker. Our tents are up and we’re each in our tents to keep the mosquitoes away. Although dark clouds threaten, no rain has happened.

17 1937.0 7/1/2021 clear, sunny, cloudy, rain, thunder. Although it rained yesterday afternoon it was clear when I awoke. Unfortunately because I had both side flaps down/sealed the inside of my tent was wet which got the inside dirt and dust wet too so the ceiling became muddy after I packed up the tent. I was on trail at my regular time but since today was a meetup day I sent a message to Justin telling him I was leaving camp. The first few miles were easy, but then I started a 2000’ climb over 3 miles. I got it done but it took time and a lot of energy. I messaged Justin when I summited. The descent took time because I used my poles to slow myself down – they are my “brakes”. I got to our initially planned meetup spot but decided to go on to shorten his hiking distance. I finally stopped just at the YNP boundary and sent him a message. The rain was threatening and delayed Justin a bit. Justin is here now and we’re sharing our adventure stories – his first hitchhike and his hike along with my hike.