Yellowstone is HUGE, and that's an understatement.  The road to Yellowstone is just as beautiful as the park itself.  After we woke up at 3:30 a.m. (damn early), we took Hwy 14 off of Sheridan/Ranchester towards Yellowstone's East entrance.  We were worried that it would be closed due to the fires that just occurred.  We drove through the  BIGHORN Mts, very scary b/c it was dark still and lots of muleped by for gas, much needed coffee, and good breakfast (McDonald's Egg McMuffin eat your heart out, our hash brow deer were popping out everywhere.  We stopped to take some views in of the sun rise over the Mts. and to read all the layers of soil: Precambrian (25 billion years old) and other layers.   Then we stopns were in the sandwich) at the Sinclair station. You'll find Sinclair's everywhere, there is even a reference in the TV. show "Dinosaurs."  We continued into the Rocky Mts., through Buffalo Bill's State Park and Dam and Shoshone National Forrest.  We arrived at the east entrance around 8:30 a.m.  Our first impressions of Yellowstone was that it was massive and glorious, but a little burnt.  It is amazing and sad to see what mother nature/fire could do to a place.  Tons of burnt gray trees were speckled with new growth peaking out.  It took us another 45 minutes just to get to Lake Ranger Station to obtain our backcountry use permits and our hiking/camping route.  We were in luck.  There is hardly anyone here due to it being the week before Labor Day.  We had no problems trying to reserve a nice little 6 day and 23 mile loop around Shoshone Lake.  We also bought a Fishing License in hopes of catching some fresh Trout.  So, with wise words from the ranger on wildlife (bears and wolves) and cares of backcountry camping and another 45 minutes later, we arrived at the DeLacey Trail Head and packed up our packs.  Oh Yeah, we also stopped to take this photo on the continental divide. So armed with with Angie's Walkabout Talisman and Bear pepper spray, WE'RE READY TO GO, (hopefully)!  

As we were hiking (more like dragging our butts) the 3.5 mile hike to the campsite, we were going over what we heard some other guys say about their trip around Shoshone lake.  They just saw some bear paw prints and warned us to be careful and they mentioned that the wolves were so loud.  This should be so interesting.  I know that many parks/states were re-introducing the grey wolves back to help with population control of deer and elk, and b/c they are on the brink of becoming extinct.  They are an endangered species.  Yellowstone has implemented a program to help re-establish the wolves.  There is much controversy with the "people" who don't want them back in the area.  The wolves have been killed off in Yellowstone over 60 years ago.  Now you could once again see and hear them roaming the area.  They also mentioned that there were some Moose by the lake.  We couldn't wait to see them.  We started off with a lot of gusto, but soon we realized just how out of shape we were.  The last time we had a pack on our backs that was remotely as heavy as what we are carrying now (70 lb packs) was in the Adirondack Mts with Nate and Tracy 3 years ago.  Then we only packed in for 2-3 miles, here it was 3.5 all up and down at an elevation of 8,000 feet.  For those of you who don't believe that it is harder to breathe in the higher elevations is more than welcome to carry a 70 lb pack and hike in the 8,000 foot elevation.  Our packs were so heavy b/c we were carrying enough food, water, and emergency gear for 6 days.  A lot of the stuff was precautionary, like an extra stove, emergency blanket, and such.  We've been on trips before were the stove malfunctioned, or someone got sick, or you didn't bring enough clothes.  We were doing fine with the hiking until we hit the beach.  It is such a pain in the ass to walk on pebbles for half a mile.  B/c of the extra weight on your back you sink very deeply into the pebbles.  And then you get some of the pebbles in your shoes.  The worst part was that we couldn't even find the trail or the campsite to boot.  Some guy mentioned that he could see through his binoculars a orange square about a half mile down.  So that's the way we went.  Luck was on our side.  The orange marker was our campsite.  The minute we took our packs off our shoulders rolled forward from all the exertion of having to carry the pack.  It's the same feeling when you jog on the tread mill and get off onto solid ground.  We made camp, and Glenn passed out for a little nap.  I was too excited to sleep.  I'm on vacation, so on I went into the woods alone with my camera and yelling "Hey Bear" softly so I don't wake up Glenn.  I took 2 photos before I ran out of film, so meandered on back to the campsite.  Glenn was awake, so we changed the roll of film and headed towards the woods again.  That's when we saw the Moose.  They are huge beasts!  I guess they have made their home in the prairie part of the woods.  So Glenn and I tried getting closer so that we could take an awesome close-up shot, but in order to do that we had to cross a stream.  So we did, and our shoes were soaked.  But it was worth it.  We got some photos and went back to camp.  It was getting very chilly, avg. day temp is 75 but the evening were 35.  Cold, shiver, shiver.  So we made a cup of hot cocoa, and off to bed we went.  We didn't bring the video camera or the digital camera with us on this hike.  They were extra weight that we really didn't need.  So there will be no pix on what we saw during our hike.  When we develop the other photos we'll have them put it on a CD so that later we could download it to the website.  

08/25/01

The next day we woke up early and we were freezing our butts off.  We didn't think that we would need our winter clothes, like a hat.  But we later informed that it could snow in any month here at Yellowstone, so we should be prepared for anything.  We were a bit sore, and tired.  It is so dry and dusty out here that our allergies are in full force.  Unfortunately, we didn't bring our allergy meds with us.  After breakfast we threw on our packs and did the next leg of the hike.  Today, Saturday, we had a 5 mile hike planned.  We started off strong, but soon it was apparent that Glenn's allergies got the better of him.  With in 15 minutes of the hike Glenn was wheezing and tired.  It was going to be a long day.  It wouldn't have been so bad if it was level ground that we were hiking on.  Instead we were hiking up and down mts. and beaches.  It took us 6.5 hours to finally go the 5 miles to the next campsite.  Towards the last 2 miles I too became exhausted.  It was a combination of allergies, altitude, and sun.  The last 2-2.5 miles was out in direct sunlight.  The area was burnt down so bad that there were only trees a couple of feet high.  This gave us no shade.  When we finally got to the area that our site was in, we couldn't find it.  Some campsites are for people hiking and others for people boating.  The one site we were at was supposed to be a duel site, but our number wasn't there.  So, I deduced that the duel campsite is the one we wanted, and even if it wasn't we were so exhausted I just wanted to puke.  Luckily we were right.  The campsite was right next to the lake again, and next to us was a ranger station, out in the middle of nowhere.  We were hoping no one was there so we could go camp out there, but we think some scientists were there conducting water studies.  We decided that we should turn back, that we couldn't make it all the way around the lake without a day of rest.  So we decided to stay another night at this campsite, hoping no one will boot us off.  Then the day after that we would return to our car and leave a day early to Glacier.  We were so tired, and after a short rest we put up our tent and made something to eat, then proceeded to pass out.  

08/26/01

It is a good thing we decided to stay and relax a bit.  Glenn's allergies were so bad he could barely move.  He was blowing his nose and sneezing all day.  It wore him out so bad he just sat around or took naps.  I, on the other hand, went out exploring our wooded area.  Oh, and Glenn and I did try to do some fishing.  We caught nothing, but it was fun trying.  We should have been fly fishing.  Our campsite is located near the Lewis and Clark River.  It was so beautiful, and we didn't bring our camera out fishing with us.  No fear, I'll return later to take some photos.  The only problem is that I loaded the film wrong and a whole roll got screwed up.  So no pix available of this campsite and the rest of the hiking trip.  STUPID ME!  We didn't know if Glenn would be alright the next day to hike 7 miles out.  All we could do is hope and pray that he has enough energy to make it.  Otherwise we'll be camping illegally somewhere in the woods.  One thing that was pretty neat was during the night we heard the wolf pack really close to us.  I've never heard such howling.  It was scary, and if I didn't know better I'd think it was ghosts making those noises.  They woke me up several times during the night, and every other night, too.  We also had company for dinner.  The local chipmunks, squirrels, and birds were so brave that literally went into our packs and stole our food.  It was cute for only a moment, then it got irritating as they knocked over our food bowls and hot chocolate.  One of the coolest things we saw was right outside our tent, not more than 10 feet away were two fawns playing and eating.  They were so cute, and so unafraid of us.  They just hopped around and enjoyed life.  Twice this happened to Glenn and I were we saw deer frolicking around right by us.  The other time was in Point Reyes National Seashore in CA when we woke up one morning and saw two deer playing tag.  We are going to return to Point Reyes on this tour also.

08/27/01

  We had the alarm set for 5 a.m. so that we could eat, pack up, and leave.  We wanted to hike out mostly when the sun wasn't beating down on us.  One look outside our tent at how dark it was and we decided to snooze until 6 a.m.  It was still freezing out, like it is every morning, so we donned on our gloves and layers of clothing and quickly broke down camp.  We cut our travel time in half.  The first 5 miles were done in 3.5 hours unlike our other time at 6.5 hours.  We rested and had to hike the next 3 miles out.  This took us 2.5 hours.  We were very tired, sunburned, and Glenn was still suffering from his allergies.  BUT WE MADE IT!!  We hiked over 18 miles, and the GPS confirms it, in 4 days.  We were very proud of ourselves.  We got to the car and stuffed our packs in half-hazardly.  All we wanted was to go to the Old Faithful Lodge to take a hot shower and sleep.  Surprisingly, Glenn had enough energy to drive us 45 minutes to the Lodge.  We stank and looked exhausted.  People were just staring at us.  We went into the Lodge seeking a room.  But they didn't have any.  They recommended that we drive into West Yellowstone, a town just outside the West Entrance to Yellowstone.  Since we didn't think that we would be back this way, we stayed for Old Faithful to show its stuff.  We had to wait about an hour or so.  Later we went to the ranger's office to tell them we weren't staying at the last campsite and off we went to a Best Western in West Yellowstone.  Oh, and this is where we found out that I loaded the camera wrong and the pix of Old Faithful didn't come out.  So sad.  But you guys could see it with the digital and video.  We finally made it to our hotel, quickly unloaded the car, great more stairs to climb, and then proceeded to take a much needed shower.  I smelled so nature-y that both Glenn and I had animals coming up to us and landing on us.  The campsites were so dusty that our pores were filled with it.  YUCK!  Time for that facial and a massage.  Wait, we are unemployed, I guess no pampering allowed, so sad.  Since we were so active and tired we didn't eat very well on the hiking trip. Let's put it this way, that last day hike that was 7 miles? well all I ate was a couple of forkfulls of hashbrowns, and half a protein bar.  That was it.  Man, we were starving after the shower.  Do we eat or go to sleep?  EAT!  So we found a place to grab some grub, mmmmmmm country fried steak and pot roast.  Then we went back to the hotel and worked on the computer a bit.  Surprisingly, we didn't go to sleep until midnight.  

08/28/01, Yellowstone continued.