Posted by 27.8 miles
Bluejay and Redline were awake and shuffling camp gear well before 5am in the complete dark. They woke me with the banging of opening and closing of the bear box to retrieve food bags. My alarm wasn’t set to go off for another 20 mins and I did my best to ignore the ruckus and snooze a little longer. Even went my alarm would go off, with sunrise a few minutes later each day now, I’d hit snooze at least once. But my snooze was interrupted by their talking at normal volume, not whispering, and their use of standard headlight white mode, not the red night mode. I waited reluctantly rose.
It was great to be packed up and leaving camp before the early rises just as the sun started to reveal itself from behind the hills. A big day lay ahead and the early start would help.
I was keen to reach the Yellowstone National Park Boundary by the end of the day and it would take an effort to hike the 27 plus miles, to camp just outside the park boundary.
All overnight camping in Yellowstone requires back country permits and a set itinerary to follow. I’d obtained permits over the phone while in Dubois. The fixed itinerary had all CDT hikers grouped up together at the same spots every night so I’d catch up with Bluejay and Redline over the coming days.
A few miles on trail for the day there was a river to ford that would mean wet shoes. Too early in the day for such shinanigans I took my shoes and socks off to cross bare footed. Half way across the ford I heard some noise behind me over the rushing water and turned around to see another hiker crossing. I had a double take. A hiker wearing black clothes and thick black rimmed glasses. It was none other than Etineene who I started the trail with but haven’t seen since Lordsburg. Making eye contact we both screamed a laugh of recognition, “Hey man!!!” over the waters roar. Finishing the crossing we met on the other side for fist bumps and a catch up.
We would hike together for a few miles and enjoyed the chance to chat. Etienne is a faster hiker and I let him go on ahead unable to keep up with him. We both had the same plan of camping on the park boundary so would have a proper catch up in camp.
Along the way I bumped into two new hikers Tweeter & Monkey Man. I’d stop to talk for 15 minutes or so. They were also headed northbound and would share the first campsite, Surprise Creek, inside Yellowstone the following night.
The hiking was tough today in the heat and I recall basically trudging along from mid morning right through the day.
I had lunch at Two Ocean Creek at a point called the ‘Parting of the Waters’, where the creek splits into two branches, one flowing towards the Pacific Ocean and the other towards the Atlantic Ocean.
Beyond this creek was a major climb for the day which I absolutely struggled on in the heat.
Late in the afternoon there was one major river crossing that had to done across North Buffalo Fork which I’d heard mixed reports of. There were a lot of comments about this one being deep, possibly above the waist, and some people choosing to camp on the edge to wait for water levels to drop overnight for a morning crossing. Others had chosen to wait to others to cross with them linking arms for added security.
Arriving it looked deep and fast flowing with a decent current but very doable. This was not one to be done barefooted. I’d need full security of foot placements heading across but I was not keen for wet clothes. Knowing there was unlikely to be anyone about, I stripped my bottom half naked, put my shoes back on and started the crossing which I didn’t mind at all due to how hot the day was.
Slowly, slowly I headed across, pack buckles unclipped and facing up stream. Maintaining 3 points of contact between feet and hiking holes I inched across. The current was strong, catching my poles and sweeping them down stream as I planted them into the water. Inching me way across I made it to the other side. The deepest sections indeed were just below waist deep. Safely on the other side I wrung my wet socks out, reclothed and kept moving.
The trail followed along the river and the terrain was quite flat however I was struggling in the heat. Frequent short breaks were required in the shade. At least there were plenty of water sources along the way.
I eventually made it camp on the border of the Yellowstone NP boundary just after 7pm. A solid day. Etienne was resting in his tent and advised the mosquitoes were bad and that I’d want to get my tent set up straight away. He was spot on.
We had dinner together and it was great to hear about each other’s hikes so far. We would have to get use to hanging bear bags in Yellowstone as its a regulation and mucked around with different techniques to get our bags into the trees. Thus far I’d just been tying my bear bag to trees as recommended by the manufacturer. Knowing that I’d be mainly tying and not hanging, I’d actually sent my small bear bagging kit home in Pinedale several weeks ago. Now I was at a loss on how get my rope tossed into the trees. Etienne shared the brilliant tip of tying the rope tossed to a half filled water bottle to throw up over a tree limb. Brilliant and simple – no need for a bear bag kit after all.
Mick Beckers 