Yellowstone - Day 4

The sun was finally out in full force for our trip from our West Yellowstone base to a more central location at Grant Village. Another trip along the Madison River, then the Firehole River and past the Old Faithful Lodge and it's namesake geyser and we left, for a while, the still burn-scarred upper geyser basin for a trip up to a pass over the Continental Divide. Along the way we stopped to see Grand Prismatic Spring - the largest and most impressive of the hot springs in the area. With the cool weather, the amount of steam coming from the hot water made for poor views and wet sunglasses, but we did manage to get a few views in.

We finally got a glimpse of Yellowstone Lake after topping the ridges and then took a short jog to the south to find the never before visited by me Grant Village complex. This was the first time I've stayed in this area, always had just driven through before. The complex was constructed in 1984 amidst enormous controversy as it was placed right in the midst of some the best grizzly habitat in the park. Needless to say, the bears came out on the losing side in favor of more visitor space. There is still a great deal of disagreement among wildlife biologists and park administration about habitat management in general, but this facility caused a firestorm in the late 80's. It's in place now, however, so little can be done to change things, but I must say it's a delightful location and the facilities - the newest in the park by far - are nice. The bears might disagree.


We explored the area around Grant Village for a bit before heading north to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone - next to Old Faithful, probably the most well know spot in the park. It is a spectacular place with a deep canyon cutting through layers of multi-colored rock.
At over 900 feet deep and half a mile wide, it certainly gets your attention. Geologically it's an interesting spot because the canyon is erosional rather than glaciated, which is what defines much of the park - and of course volcanism. In this case, it is presumed that the location of the canyon was covered by rhyolite rock - normally very hard -which was chemically altered by the existence of an underlying geyser basin. The heat and water and chemicals contained in that water had an effect on the rhyolite which altered its composition, making it very soft and subject to the incredible erosion we see today. There are still many thermal features in the vicinity today, which were visible on this trip. The cool weather caused large amounts of steam to be emitted from all these locations so I was able, for the first time, to see the locations. A fabulous place!!

On our return toward Grant Village we made a stop at the Yellowstone Lake Hotel. It was here we found all the bison that had been missing in our passage of the Hayden Plateau between the canyon and the hotel. Here is the Hayden Valley - a gorgeous place as well!!

Yellowstone - Day 3

We finally hit the rivers today, starting with a cool and cloudy visit to the Madison. This is a fast and deep river on the west end of the park. We were just inside the boundary when I took this picture. Steve managed to get one small whitefish but the advertised big and burly trout failed to find any attraction to our gear.

After this we moved deeper into the park and stopped off at the Firehole River, just below the upper geyser basin where Old Faithful erupts and pours gallons of hot water into this river. It's odd because you can feel how warm the water is. It's very different than any other trout stream I've ever fished because of that. Apparently, at some times of the year it's almost unfishable as the warm water forces the trout deep, looking for any cool water they can find, where they hide out until fall brings cooler weather.

Lucky for us, the water and weather cooperated and we each managed a half dozen trout out of the Firehole! That's a lifetime achievment for me - fish caught in the Firehole River. Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? There are two species of cutthroat here that I can't differentiate, but the two that I caught were a beautiful golden color with brililant red spots - very nice fish!

Yellowstone - Day 2

It was cool and foggy when we drove through the Park Entrance this morning. The sky above, when we could see it, was clear and gave every indication of a good day. At the first opportunity to look west, however, we could see a bank of clouds hanging on the horizon looking ready to change things.

By the time we reached the Firehole River, it was so thick we could barely see. We decided we'd put fishing on hold for a bit and travel through the three geyser basins since Steve has not been here before. That would allow a chance for him to see some of these wonders while getting the basic lay of the land along the western side of this magnificent park. We followed many of the boardwalks and visited geysers, fumaroles, mud pots and hot springs galore. By about nine am we were at the upper geyser basin and decided to follow the three mile trail there to see the sights around Old Faithful (or as Jamie likes to call it, "Old Reliable"). There are over six hundred of these things in the park so any of us visiting actually only see a tiny fraction of them.

Following our tour of the basin we wandered through the wonderful Old Faithful Lodge, admiring the unique structure and enjoying a nice lunch out of the rain, which had by then begun to fall in earnest. As the temperature dropped and the rain increased, we headed back west following the Firehole River to the intersection with the Gibbon River and began to follow it upstream. After a few miles we seemed to have out run the rain so we stopped long enough for Steve to wet a hook.

Yellowstone - Day 1

Steve agreed to pick me up at the Bozeman International Overseas Aerodrome today after driving all the way from Seattle while I rode a very bumpy Horizon Q400 the five hundred odd miles from home to here. Weather was not good for most of the trip and very turbulent. In spite of that, or maybe because of that, the views here are quite spectacular.

We've watched a number of thunderstorms roll in from the west and have seen lightning many times. Whether we are seeing fires start or not we'll find out later.

We got to West Yellowstone about five thirty so we had time to wander through a few fly fishing shops. One would think that in a town that's only about five blocks long there would not be more than one of these stores. We visited three and have not seen them all. It would appear that fly fishing is a money generating sport in these parts. We did listen to the guides in one store discussing today's outings with one another and it sounds like twenty inch fish are just itching for Steve and I to show up with our Lamboghini Woolybooger Activator Indicator flies to yank 'em out. We will see how that works out. Remember, for me it's called fishing, not catching.

Into the park tomorrow with a very wet weather forecast. I'll update tomorrow night.

Here, once again, is proof that wandering the new book shelves at your local library is a worthy use of time. I stumbled onto this book quite by accident and am wonderfully impressed by the breadth of content Mr Reid has managed to stuff into this volume.

Equal parts adventure travel, philosophy, and spritiual guide commentary, the story revolves around journey's taken from his home in Carson City, Nevada to utterly remote locations north of the Arctic Circle in his quest for sightings of the Porcupine Herd of barren ground caribou. He writes of arctic exploration in the past, timeless vistas along still frozen rivers, the mystic ability of the caribou, and other animals, and how they manage to find their way across trackless miles of land and sky by mechanisms that still defy science, tying all this together with man's current and past views of the land and where we fit into this puzzle.

This is a thought provoking, beautifully written story that weaves multiple tales into a single view of life, time and the earth. I strongly recommend it.

Cascade Pass

I can hardly believe it's been forty years since I first set foot here. In fact, I had just arrived in the Northwest as a guest of the US Navy and took my very first trip ever into the Cascades with a group from Whidbey NAS and showed up at this place. I followed that same year with my first ever backpacking trip using gear loaned by the Navy recreation office. My pack was a wooden frame, canvas bag know as a "trapper nelson".

Stuffed into this state of the art gear was a tent large enought to hold four people and lawn chairs, a two burner coleman stove, and one of those discount store poly filled sleeping bags that rolls up to about the size of a medium sized dog. Lashed across the top of the pack were the tent poles - steel and about five feet long. Every time I passed someone on the trail, I had to turn sideways to allow them to pass. I got more than a few stares. I was a novice.

At the time the North Cascades Park was barely two years old and little had been done to develop the area. As a result, camping was still left up to the discretion of the traveler, and for someone like me, with absolutely no knowledge of anything related to no impact camping, the soft meadows of Sahale Arm were the perfect place to erect the mostrosity of a car-camping tent so as to provde the optimal view of Doubtful Lake.

Over time, with years of study at the university and many more years of trail experience, I have mended my ways and would never consider either carrying such a load of non-essentials nor moving in atop one of the fragile meadows. That's all changed, along with the gear I carry. My whole load these days just barely outweighs the oak frame and canvas sack I lugged on that trip. But what has not changed is the dramatic beauty of the pass and areas above it. This trip takes you right to the core of the wilderness park and surrounds you with vertical rock and ice in all directions. Last weekends jaunt also surrounded us with bears, as a veritable fleet of big black bruins busily stuffed themselves on roots and rodents in anticipation of the coming La Nina winter.

This was my sixth trip to this locale, and like every other time I found myself thinking, enjoy it since this will probably be the last time I come here with so many other places to go. We'll see if that holds true. In fact, if you are interested, you probably only have to tell me so and we'll be planning yet another drive up the Cascade River for visit number seven.

Something else I bet you never thought about

When I was quite small I saw a show on television about wolverines that has largely served as the basis of all my knowledge about this animal until this week. In the television production, the wolverine was a viscious beast that managed to continually break into a trapper's cabin and simply destroyed the place. This happened time and time again in spite of the trapper's repeated attempts to outsmart the animal and prevent his entry. This was probably filmed sometime in the '50s and biology for the wolverine simply didn't exist at the time. They were a much reviled beast at that time and because they (a) actually did have a tendency to break in and trash cabins and (b) were opportunistic feeders that enjoyed following the trap lines and eating whatever fur-bearing animals the trapper caught and (c) were quite aggresive when encounterd and (d) had no fur of value, they were considered a pest and a varmit and were actively pursued and killed. This image of a snarling, frightening bear-like critter has stayed with me all these years.

Last week I had an opportunity to attend a presentation delivered by Keith Aubry, a USFS field biologist, who has been studying wolverines in the North Cascades for the past few years. My perceptions have changed.

While they actually are a snarling, viscious little beast when cornered and remind me much of the Tasmanian Devil from Warner Brothers cartoons, they are quite secretive and exceptionally difficult to spot and study. Live trapping has allowed biologists to radio coller a few animals and from that they have begun to form some early opinions about the real nature of these animals. Google "wolverines in the North Cascades" and you'll find links to recent studies conducted by Dr Aubry.

It turns out that we've done to the wolverine pretty much the same thing we did to the wolf and grizzly bear and have driven it to the brink of disappearance. It's all about habitat loss and misunderstanding - the same old story. It's also interesting that the wolverine makes its range associated with the presence of snow in early spring. All wolverine offspring - kits - are born in snow caves. They will only occupy a range that is associated with snow on the ground during spring months which immediately limits their range to high latitude or high altitude. This is another species that will be heavily impacted by a warming climate since their range will rapidly diminish with shorter, warmer winters and lower snow cover. Read more and see if you don't change your opinion about these mysterious creatures.

Now for something completely different

I remember a number of years ago - maybe back about 1997 - I wrote a letter to the Seattle Times in response to a rather lengthy search and rescue mission for some missing climbers on Mt Rainier. In I took a look at the costs of search and rescue and how such things are funded. I'm not certain of what has changed since that time but what I recall is that for most of us, for most of the time, we're pretty much expecting that someone will come and get us if we are injured or lost or for some reason unable to make our way out of the mountains.

The Rainier episode utilized high altitude helicopters stationed at Fort Lewis or McCord Air Force Base. It was characterized as a training opportunity for the pilots and crew as well as a rescue mission. This, I think, was intended to stave off negative comments about taxpayers foothing the very expensive bill for all those hours of flying. I pointed out in the letter that not everywhere provides this gratis rescue service. I suspect things have tightened up a bit since then and would not be surprised to learn that rescuees are being tagged with a charge for retrieval services.

At Denali National Park there is a fee system in place that offsets much of the cost of rescue of the tallest mountain in North America. You can imagine the costs there are high because of the remoteness and high altitude. In Europe, even all those years ago, stranded climbers were expected to open their wallets.

And then today, while reading a news update / blog on the climbing season at Everest, I ran across this - For a relatively minor investment, they'll come and get you.
http://www.globalrescue.com/

Here is their blog with recent stories. http://blog.globalrescue.com/


Just when you think you've seen it all....

I'm Back

Greetings to everyone who has given up on ever hearing anything from me again. I can't quite explain what has transpired that allowed so much time to pass since my last entry. No excuses though, I'll try to get back to more regular postings.

In no particular order, a few random updates.

Hockey season nears an end with only four teams remaining in the struggle for the Stanley Cup. I continue to be amazed at the low number of followers of this incredible sport. News in my local paper always manages to show up on page four or beyond of the sports section, following updates on such topics as baseball (zzzzzzz), basketball (no contact hockey on wood), auto racing (you're kidding right?), and soccer (the new buzz in the Northwest). It also gets pushed back by news of doping in cycling and the many local sports updates. Clearly I'm in the minority, but to me it's the absolute best spectator sport - if you can keep up. The speed and intensity, the physicality, the mind-numbing grinding effort required to get the puck in the net, the pain and fatigue - how could you not love it? Anyway, I read today that only about a quarter of Canadians are rooting for the last remaining Canadian team in the playoffs - the Montreal Canadiens. It appears they are despised outside their home territory and if fact one writer noted that if aliens arrived on the planet today and announced that they intended to eat the Canadiens first, he'd be ok with that. Incredible. In spite of being the number 8 and last team to squeak into the Eastern Confernce playoffs, the men from Montreal have dispatched all the heavyweights including the Washington Capitols and the Pittsburgh Penquins. You've gotta love that !

Travel plans for the year are much quieter than last. We had a massively busy 2009 with trips to Utah for skiing, Colorado for neice Rachel's wedding, Las Vegas with Scott and Christine, to New Jersey for Thanksgiving and then the annual pre-Christmas trip to Whistler. This year, in keeping with the slower economy and our need to repair the massively expensive damage to the house caused by a ruptured pipe, we're staying a bit closer to home. Or at least that's the plan at the moment.

One notable exception to this is a September trip to Yellowstone with my old high school buddy Steve Bohnemeyer who had the foresight to move into my neighborhood so we could reconnect. Having been to Yellowstone several times (and written about it a bit here) I still have a burning desire to fish some of the streams there. Every visit has been a bit rushed as I tried to take in the many incredible sights and share them with whoever was along. Steve, to whom fishing stands second only to breathing, was easily convinced to join the expedition and share his experience and skill with me - a bit of an advanced novice fly fisherman. I have the basics in my mind but lack any real experience with catching anything longer than my hand. Most of the waters in Yellowstone are world famous for trout fishing. I ordered a couple of cans of bear spray yesterday so we can hang them on our vests in case we stumble onto a grumpy grizzly. I am very excited about the trip and look forward to the experience.

It's nearing June already but the snow remains deep and low in the mountains so hiking has just begun. A couple of weeks ago I visited the foothills of Wenatchee with Martin, enjoying some nice vistas of the town of Wenatchee and the Columbia River on hills covered with spring flowers. This is the time of year to go since the rattlesnakes are still snoozing. Apparently, as things warm up the snakes pile up in this area. Maybe not the best place to visit in July even if you didn't mind the heat.