Centennial Mountains, Yellowstone, and the Teton Wilderness
Well we are in Lander Wyoming now, hanging at our friend Rob's place (a former student/field assistant on the VCNP, now doing a floristic survey of the Wind River Range), enjoying all the best that civilization has to offer for a day. We've left the MT-ID border behind, crossing the Centennial range, the Yellowstone plateau, and the southern tail of the Absaroka mountains. We have also crossed the halfway point of our trip, in terms of total mileage and time - a strange realization that alters the perspective, suddenly making finite what before seemed like an endless journey. The days drift by, and so do the miles. The season too seems to have reached its summit - we see more fledgling birds and hear less birdsong, watch the flowering plants fruit (mosquitos still incredibly abundant)....but we become aware that we were climbing a big round mountain called summer, and that we're levelling off, starting to think about the descent down the back side....
Well, the Centennials were interesting, very dry in the west, but thick and lush with subalpine fir and tall forb meadows in the east. Difficult walking through these meadows, basically a wade through chest-high vegetation, punctuated by frequent stumbles in pocket gopher holes and rocks hidden beneath the flowery, leafy tangles of sticky geranium and stickseed. Shared camp one night with Zacharias, a Peruvian shepherd ("borregero"), 3 dogs and a thousand sheep.
Out of the Centennials, we dropped down to resupply in Mack's Inn, ID, definitely our worst "town" stop yet. A busy highway, a lot of unfriendly tourists (the exception being a fellow New Mexican - yeah NM). A lot of ATV's, big trucks. Not the friendliest locals either, some old grumps eager find out whether or not we were "environmentalists" and then tell us what they thought of the like of us. Well the old guy asked me "what good is a wolf", but apparently wasn't interested in my thoughts on trophic interactions, increases in willows beavers and warblers, nor thoughts economic nor regarding conservation ethics. "don't belong out here""overeducated" and then "young and have a lot to learn" and then a general grump about what were we doing walking across the country anyway, why didn't we have jobs, etc.
So we were ready to get back into the backcountry, and the Yellowstone plateau soon made us feel like we belonged again. Didn't see a soul out there till Old Faithful. Which was a zoo as expected, but the geothermal feautures were truly fantastic and well worth the visit. And I thought it was actually pretty cool to see a thousand people cheering and clapping at a big blast of steam and water coming out of the depths of the earth. We saw three eruptions of geysers in the Old Faithful area, picked up our backcountry permits and food box at the P.O., and headed back onto the trail, stopping at the Lone Star geyser for dinner. Where, 3 miles from the zoo of Old Faithful, we found only a couple other people, and no guardrails - you could go right up the the geyser and put your hand on the cone as it was erupting. Phenomenal.
The next night we camped at Shoshone Lake, enjoying a short 15-mile day interspersed with much swimming and lazing around in the summer sun...
The rest of Yellowstone backcountry was wonderful, lonesome, 2 days without seeing anyone. Here's Beth crossing the headwaters of the Snake River... This was actually just outside the park in the Teton Wilderness.
nice Monkeyflower along the creeks...
The sign at Two Ocean Creek, a river that splits, with one fork flowing east and the other west. Very unusual.
We enjoyed the hike through the rest of the Absarokas as well, though our trail turned into a bit of a horse highway once we got off the Two Ocean Plateau - we also encountered a number of horsepacking groups, and another group of goat-packers. I don't know why no one just backpacks in this area, but apparently its pretty popular among those who'd prefer not to walk but still want to get out into the wilderness...
Tonight we head back up to Togwotee Pass, and then tomorrow head into the Winds, time to ramble on...
Well, the Centennials were interesting, very dry in the west, but thick and lush with subalpine fir and tall forb meadows in the east. Difficult walking through these meadows, basically a wade through chest-high vegetation, punctuated by frequent stumbles in pocket gopher holes and rocks hidden beneath the flowery, leafy tangles of sticky geranium and stickseed. Shared camp one night with Zacharias, a Peruvian shepherd ("borregero"), 3 dogs and a thousand sheep.
Out of the Centennials, we dropped down to resupply in Mack's Inn, ID, definitely our worst "town" stop yet. A busy highway, a lot of unfriendly tourists (the exception being a fellow New Mexican - yeah NM). A lot of ATV's, big trucks. Not the friendliest locals either, some old grumps eager find out whether or not we were "environmentalists" and then tell us what they thought of the like of us. Well the old guy asked me "what good is a wolf", but apparently wasn't interested in my thoughts on trophic interactions, increases in willows beavers and warblers, nor thoughts economic nor regarding conservation ethics. "don't belong out here""overeducated" and then "young and have a lot to learn" and then a general grump about what were we doing walking across the country anyway, why didn't we have jobs, etc.
So we were ready to get back into the backcountry, and the Yellowstone plateau soon made us feel like we belonged again. Didn't see a soul out there till Old Faithful. Which was a zoo as expected, but the geothermal feautures were truly fantastic and well worth the visit. And I thought it was actually pretty cool to see a thousand people cheering and clapping at a big blast of steam and water coming out of the depths of the earth. We saw three eruptions of geysers in the Old Faithful area, picked up our backcountry permits and food box at the P.O., and headed back onto the trail, stopping at the Lone Star geyser for dinner. Where, 3 miles from the zoo of Old Faithful, we found only a couple other people, and no guardrails - you could go right up the the geyser and put your hand on the cone as it was erupting. Phenomenal.
The next night we camped at Shoshone Lake, enjoying a short 15-mile day interspersed with much swimming and lazing around in the summer sun...
The rest of Yellowstone backcountry was wonderful, lonesome, 2 days without seeing anyone. Here's Beth crossing the headwaters of the Snake River... This was actually just outside the park in the Teton Wilderness.
nice Monkeyflower along the creeks...
The sign at Two Ocean Creek, a river that splits, with one fork flowing east and the other west. Very unusual.
We enjoyed the hike through the rest of the Absarokas as well, though our trail turned into a bit of a horse highway once we got off the Two Ocean Plateau - we also encountered a number of horsepacking groups, and another group of goat-packers. I don't know why no one just backpacks in this area, but apparently its pretty popular among those who'd prefer not to walk but still want to get out into the wilderness...
Tonight we head back up to Togwotee Pass, and then tomorrow head into the Winds, time to ramble on...
posted by coop at 2:57 PM
1 Comments:
heya people- thanks for the comments. glad to know that someone besides my parents are reading and enjoying a vicarious cyber-CDT. Without even having to leave the comfort of your own house. No blisters either I reckon. Stay tuned and I promise the excitement will continue....
peace and love.
JC
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