Journal Sept 6 – A New State
After a breakfast of Onion Bagels, Cream Cheese and coffee (another luxury that we allowed ourselves because of the short stretch to Old Faithful), we continued on old Forest Service roads. Many of these roads had tank trap style berms put in place to try and keep out illegal OHV use. New growth abounds everywhere. The ’88 fire, like most wildfires, burned with varying intensity creating a mosaic pattern. Likewise, the regrowth has returned with variated vigor. Some places look like they are only now starting to recover, while other places have grown back so strong and complete it’s hard to see the original disturbance.
We entered Yellowstone park and had lunch in a pocket of older lodgepole that had been left untouched by the big fires. After passing through Yellowstone’s thin western strip that is part of Idaho we entered Wyoming. Finally a new state. After 9+ weeks of Montana or MT/ID we have entered a different place. It is a mark of progress that feels very real.
The day continued cloudy and cool with an occasional spritz of rain. We climbed fully atop the Madison Plateau and for the first time on the hike had no real georaphic reference points. Every direction looks pretty much the same, flat land and tall pine, spruce and fir trees growing at very uniform age and heights. For this reason, it reminds me of the muskeg swamps of northern New England or Ontario. It’s fairly monotone and the hiking is somewhat monotonous.
We keep our eyes open for the animals which populate the park, but see none. All is very quiet. The plateau is dry and that may have something to do with it.
The divide is so indistinct that without the map it would not be noticed. A few backcountry thermal features near the trail give off steam (and smell of rotten eggs). Just to the east side of the divide lies Summit Lake, our designated campsite.
We gather firewood to ward off the cold chill of the evening – another luxury allowed by shorter days. Across the lake the sun sets lighting the sky with pink, orange and red. We’ve had very few good sunsets from our campsites and enjoy this one.
Miles 15.9
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