Trip Report – Old Faithful
After a little over 9 weeks and about 875 miles we are done with Montana. It was a great state and, with frequent forays the last few weeks into the wild Idaho side, it was very memorable. But it’s nice to finally be in Wyoming, although Yelowstone is, in many ways, as far removed as you can get from the rest of Wyoming. OK, we are in a state of culture shock. We saw more people in one hour on the 2 miles along the Firehole river guyser basin than we saw along all the rest of the trail from Canada! The lobby of the Old Faithful Inn has more people and commotion than several of the small towns we resupplied in.
I am happy to report that in the 800+ miles of the CDT that we have hiked so far we have seen surprisingly very few noxious weeds. I think it is a tribute to the success of the Forest Service requiring “Weed Seed Free Feed”, and a tribute to all the horsepackers who adhere to the practice.
The Cenntenial Mountains gave us our first fall colors, but that season only lasted about a day before our first taste of winter came in the form of a September 1st snowstorm, and then a September 3rd snowstorm. Along with ice-filled water bottles and frost on the INSIDE of the tent, we have been put on notice that summer is over and it is time to hustle our way down to Rawlins.
My left knee has started to complain on a daily basis, so I’ve picked up a new bace. It seems to be helping. And, the relatively flatter terrain which remains leaves me optimistic tht this won’t turn into a real problem.
The flock of tourists here at Old Faithful proves an interesting contrast to the trail which lies immedidiately ahead. We’ll soon be entering an area that lays claim to being the point furthest from a road of any kind (in the lower 48). Southeast of the park there will be places where we are 28 to 35 miles from the nearest road of any kind.
For now, it is time to relax at the Inn, enjoy the scene in the lobby, warm ourselves by the fire, soothe ourselves with a beer and watch the geezers, err, I mean guysers, go off. They are both SO predictable.
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