Two oceans medow to mile 1096

Cold. That's what this morning was cold. I left my water outside the tent and there were big ice chunks in it. Thankfully I had brought my filter in or I might have had to replace it. The Sawyer filters break if they freeze. The entire medow valley was covered in frost. I didn't feel this cold in new Mexico even though it was colder temperature wise. Still the cold air made for some great hiking and amazing scenery as the sun melted the frost covered plants.
It was another easy day of hiking with half the day following, as Ley calls it, the horse super highway. The trail was obviously very popular with the horse packers. With sections of it 10 yards wide or 7 lanes across. Beads made the comment that it makes sense that wilderness areas are popular with horse packers since there are no motors or bikes to spook the animals.
After that we headed along the beautiful buffalo river. I was told this section was boring and just a connector between Yellowstone and the winds. That is so wrong. Except for the lack of geysers this Bridger wilderness blows Yellowstone out of the park. We camped a bit earlier than we'd have liked due to my bearanoia. There was a researcher mauled by a grizzly last year near here and they never caught the bear. They aren't letting people camp at the campground where it happened in tents and recommend we stay at least 10 miles away. Surprise surprise we are camped 11 miles away and I've hung the food for the first time since glacier.

Moose creek to snake river

Another easy day. We got out late. We tried to get hiking by 645 but didn't make it out until 745. No problem we only had a 23 mile day. This was supposed to be a very easy day. No big climbs, lots of water and miles of flat.
The first big obstacle of the day was crossing the Lewis river that connected shoshone lake to Lewis lake. Ley warns that it can be a chest deep crossing. I have no idea what he was crossing cause ours was ankle deep. If you were totally clueless and had never crossed a river before you could have found a spot that deep.
Beads and I decided to take an alternate that followed the river instead of the divide. Now we didn't decide this on purpose we just took a wrong turn. I was so busy admiring the scenery that I didn't check. It only added a mile and a half so it wasn't a bad exchange for all the scenery.
The rest of the day went as expected. A thunderstorm rolled in and got everything soaking wet and cold. We were too cold to visit the hot stream we had planned to soak in. Ah well. The storm let up for a bit so we had some nice views before it got nasty right before camp. We saw it coming and ran to the campsite. Making it just in time for the heaviest rainfall. We got the tents up anyway and I'm now warm, toasty and dry.

Old faithful to moose creek

We had a great stealth camp last night thanks to the backcountry rangers but we had to get up and moving by 6. No big deal there was an ayce buffet at the inn at 630. We all dilly dallied around town and saw the best old faithful eruption yet, there was no wind. We only had an easy 16 mile flat hike to do so we weren't in a hurry. Right as we were getting ready to hike it started to rain. No big deal a second breakfast while we wait. Right as we started to get ready to hike it started to rain again. No big deal the visitor center had a video to watch. Right as we got ready to hike it started to rain. No big deal beads had to visit the medical clinic to fix her shoes. Finally we got hiking at 11. Plenty of time to get there.

After 7 miles or so we hit another geothermal area which was supposed to have some nice spots in the river to soak in. We spent 30 minutes looking but couldn't find them. We ended up just jumping in the river a bit down stream since it was still way warmer than a normal river. After eating lunch it was 230,  no big deal we only had 9 miles to go. Even after stopping off at shoshone lake we still made it to our campsite by 615. Wyoming is so easy so far.

Yellowstone border to old faithful

We got up and started hiking by six to get to old faithful before the back country office closes. It was supposed to close at 4 pm and we only had an easy 18 miles to get there but we might have to hike further you camp since there is no camping at old faithful.
The hike was boring compared to what we had been hiking in Idaho and Montana. Most of the forest we still growing back from the 1988 fire, that's crazy, I'd have thought after 27 years the trees would have been bigger but we didn't have any shade for most of the day. Still it was neat to see a forest in the in between the stages of mature pine forest and burned out forest we have been seeing.
The hike got extremely interesting when we hit the geothermal section of the park. Beads and I went off trail to go look at our first hot something. I'm not sure if it is considered a hot pool, stream vent, or a bubbling pot. Either way it was cool. After that we hit the geyser area. So many people. After being in the woods and hitting only small towns since missoula the amount of people was crazy. But I hardly noticed them since I was too busy watching the geysers waiting for them to explode. I saw old faithful 3 times and one little geyser.

Mile 1096 to Dubois

Another perfect day. I didn't see a cloud all day. We were spending most of it in valleys again but with valleys like these how can you complain. There was one "big" climb, only 600 ft, which brought us to the brooks lake region. That's another beautiful valley with a dude ranch and campground in it. It was also the area with the bear attack. We met a northbounder who had had a bear circling his tent all night. He hadn't heard about the camping restrictions. When we got to the highway beads started hitching to Jackson hole while the rest of us were going down to Dubois. Dubois is a cute little tourist town.

Snake river to two oceans medow

The weather looked iffy. It was forecast to be nice but weathermen tend to be wrong.  Turns out they were right today. It stayed cool and overcast all day. The hiking was lovely with us following the snake river for a few miles before breaking away before leaving Yellowstone. It was fun hopping across a river that I had floated before. The majority of the day was spent in beautiful river valleys. Just these wide open medows with rivers flowing down them. We did have one big climb of 2000 ft. But with the rest of the day being just a flat river hike it went by quickly.
The  highlight of the day for me was the two oceans creek and the parting of the waters. The creek forms on the big mountain we climbed then flows down to a point where it gets split in half. Half the creek flows west to the Pacific and half flows east to the Atlantic. You can see the spot that the creek is physically divided into two. Beads and I each threw a stick in the creek and tried to guess which way it would go. We were both wrong, mine went to the Pacific hers went to the Atlantic, we had guessed the opposite.

Sawtelle to Yellowstone border

The weather man said we were done with rain for a few days. The way the clouds were looming I didn't believe him but we didn't get any rain so it worked out. Not much to say about today. The entire day was road walking on a dirt road. No views but that's what you get with shortcuts.

Saddle near mile 906 to Sawtelle

Ick. The storm last night was crazy windy but surprisingly little rain. The plan for today was to take the macks inn cutoff. It saves us 40 miles of a big north and back loop. There is a big bush whack across s valley but that takes us up to the actual headwaters of the Missouri River followed by miles of road walking. The hike wasn't bad but it was a cold wet day. We got rained on until 2. Then we had a nice break from it for a few hours. That was nice cause we had hit the road and could make good time. We were about two miles from the sawtelle resort when the storm started up again. It was going to be a doozy. We could hear the thunder and I saw lightning strike the mountain we were just on. Luckily we got picked up by a nice family in a pickup that turned around and offered to give us a ride without us hitching. I have a rule about hiking on asphalt where I'll accept unsolicited rides when offered. Beads was a bit unhappy at first but when it started to hail moments after we got in the hotel lobby she got over it. We got lucky there as well. The entire hotel was booked for a family reunion. It seems this was a big Mormon holiday weekend and the girl at the front desk said they were booked. Fortunately the lady in the back office remembered the cancelation of one double queen room. We took it on the spot. I also let the machine gun know they could crash with us when they got to town and boy were they happy. They got caught in the hail and had spent last night up on the ridge with almost no sleep due to the wind on their tent. The only complaint I had was the pool and hot tub had been taken over by the kids, so many kids... Oh yea we saw 3 moose today. My first moose. 2 little ones and a huge bull. They were across the valley but we could see them clearly, even if the pictures can't.

Rock spring to Saddle near mile 906

Beads did some calculating last night and realized that we had to hike 5 more miles than we expected to reach macks inn. We also knew tonight and tomorrow would be a big storm day. 25 miles was the top of an exposed mountain. We'd have to hike a 33 to get to a saddle that would give us some protection from the weather. So we got up and moving by 6 am. Machine gun and hand stands had camped at the spring with us but we had no idea where. They are faster hikers than us so they'll probably catch us.
The hike was as amazing as ever. It was a bit of a bush whack at times and we got soaking wet in the morning dew thanks to the trail being over grown. But we managed to not get lost and make good time. We made it to the base of the exposed mountain ridge right at 6. That gave us 3 hours to climb 1000 ft and hike 7 miles. We could see the storm in the valley to the southwest and it looked nasty. We made it but just barely. I got a little rain on me as I was heading down the mountain to the saddle and a bit more as I set the tent up. Mostly it was a crazy strong wind.

Lima to rock spring

Another typical town day. We did 16 miles with the majority of it along a dirt road. We ended up camping at a spring which had a bear box. The local forest said we were required to use the bear boxes while we were in the forest.

3 miles from I 15 to Lima

We had made arrangement with the motel in Lima to pick us up at 9. The owners of the motel were very nice. Lima was a cute little town that we had actually visited before on our drive up. The gas station was closed then, along with everything else that time of day. The only place open in town was the diner next door so I got to eat 4 meals there. All in all a good rest day.

Sawmill creek to 3 miles from I 15

I can't say it enough. This trail is amazing. According to the northbounders we ran into today's hike was going to be tough. Lots of extremely steep hills to go up and down. They were tough for sure but I thought some of the passes in the Pintler or scapegoat wildernesses were harder. It's probably a direction thing cause there were some steep downs for us. Either way the views more than made up for the difficulty. We spent almost the entire day up high on some medowy mountaintops. Nothing to restrict our views. Just amazing. I took the official route down off the divide and kinda wish I hadn't. The hike was kinda steep but the main problem was the stickers. I don't have gaiters and was wearing shorts. Luckily I am throwing away the shoes tomorrow but I've got to decide what to do with the socks.

Nicholia creek to sawmill creek

A quick look at the sky told me beads was right and doing the fossil route would be a wet nasty experience. The shortcut we took was a bit different than the one Ley suggested. He had us gig straight up a drainage that was very steep. Instead we went up the drainage right next to it that was a nice gentle climb. It cost us a half mile but saved us a lot of pain. A few miles later we took another shortcut that saved us a couple more miles so we had done 12 miles by lunch while only hiking 7.
It was a good thing we did cause the weather turned nasty. As we were climbing a 1000 ft. hill the weather hit us. Hail, freezing rain, cold wind then a steady heavy cold rain. It wasn't that bad since it hit us as we were going up, so we had extra body heat and we were in the mountains rain shadow on the other side. The rain shadow was neat every direction I looked was a big nasty storm, except the little valley we were in.
We made such good time with our short cuts and freezing climb that we decided to push up and over another mountain. The views were amazing of course but the thing that got me the most was the echo. It was 6 echoes, yes 6. I really want to come back with an alp horn.

3 miles north of Morrison lake to Nicholia creek

We camped at a ridge lay night with a great view of the sunset. I normally try to get off ridges to camp in case bad weather rolls in during the night. There was also a huge herd of elk that we woke up to romping around our camp. I've been seeing a lot more elk along the Idaho montana border than I did up north. The Idahoians claim it's the wolves in Montana that are killing off the herds. The hike was very nice. More fantastic views and easy hiking. We ended up camping at an intersection for a shortcut, the official route and a scenic route. I want to do the scenic route which Lee from Darby said has great fossils along with the view. Beads wants to take the shortcut. I said I'd see what the weather was like in the morning and decide then.

Leadore to 3 miles north of Morrison lake

The hike out of Bannock pass was a long climb. We had 3000 ft in about 9 miles, not hard but it took forever. After that we were up on the divide doing the usual ridge walk with lots of small ups and downs. We've heard from several people that this next section is going to be one of the hardest due to the steepness of the terrain and lack of switchbacks. I'm skeptical since the information came from northbounders. The experience going one way doesn't always translate to the other. Either way they all agreed the first two days aren't too bad. So I'm just going to enjoy myself and the nice gentle rolling mountain ridges.