Day 16 - The Day of the BIG hike!

Day 16 - The "Big" Hike

Before I talk about today’s events I want to mention how stinking dry my skin is at this elevation!!! This high elevation is brutal. The skin around my eyes is so dry that I feel like if I blink too hard it will just crack like dried mud. The eczema on both hands is red, raw and swollen. It never occurred to me to bring extra moisturizer. UGH!

So, today is the day we will go for a big, long hike. Unfortunately, it is also the day the Brennan’s depart and begin their ride home. The good-byes are hard because we have had so much fun together these past few days. The group is now down to 21.

 The total length is 8 miles up to a lake (yes I said up). By no means is this as challenging as Chocura, but this is a long hike. We are predicting that it will take roughly 5 to 5 ½ hours to complete at kid pace. This year Maggie, Matthew and I were added to the hike. Each year we extend the participant list to include kids who can physically handle the hike. This is the first year that all three of my guys can go so it is my first year going as well, yeah! It will be a pretty good challenge for the kids, but it wouldn’t be camping if we didn’t do a grueling hike with the masses. Let me add that the day is overcast and rather chilly, 59 degrees. We really have no idea what the weather report for the day is going to be, so we’ll take our chances. We are a hearty crowd.

To digress briefly, another observation for this trip; I am totally unaware of what is happening in the world. My plans to keep up with current events went out the window. The kids have done so well keeping themselves entertained that we have had to use very little electronic time. So, most of the electronic time has been me keeping up on the blog. I’ve been trying to keep up with emails too if I have enough time.

OK, back to the important stuff…today’s hike. It is amazingly difficult to get 21 people organized for an all day adventure. The group is being split up between different events. Suzy & Shannon are taking Cole and Rinny for a short hike today and Alexia & Will are heading off to Cody, Wyoming. The rest of us have to pack lunches, water and rain equipment for the day because there is a chance for rain. The guys are busy setting up tarps to protect the tents. We had to get 15 people into two vehicles which required a huge shuffling of ‘stuff’. I ended up having to repack the car in order to free up two of the seats. We finally pulled out of the campsite by around 11:30.

The hike was originally supposed to head out to Wapiti Lake, but that main trail was closed for animal rehabitation. So, we chose another loop to get out us out to Ribbon lake. After some final preparations and bathroom runs we started out on the hike. A big part of the pre-hike preparation included attaching Bear Bells to the children so they can make even more noise than they usually do. Then we split up the adults, 2 in front and 2 in back, so each pair had a can of bear spray (just in case).

The hike starts out winding us through some rolling hills and wide open fields. It is a little daunting knowing you are so exposed with no trees to hide behind if one of the animals decides to launch at us. We followed the path for a little while and came upon our first Bison of the day. He was off in the field a decent distance so we weren’t too concerned. One rule of thumb when hiking near the wild animals is to get no closer than 25 yards to a Bison and no closer than 75 yards to a bear. We gave ourselves a greater distance when moving through the fields with the Bison. No need to take any chances. The trail then wound around into a patch of trees. There, right off the main path were two big Bison. So, we went off the path to the other side, into the trees to make sure we would be able to safely pass. About halfway into the walk the mosquitoes attacked. It was crazy how they just swarmed around us pretty much through the rest of the walk to the lake. We didn’t let this small detail detour us.

The terrain changed from wide open fields to a combination of wooded areas and sulphur pits. We would wind through the woods for a while and then you would smell the sulphur. The pits looked like a baron dessert. The area surrounding the active pits had dried mud that almost looked white. Dead trees littered the area and gave it an eerie appearance. There was a Bison hanging out in one of the pits, but it was far enough from us that we didn’t have to veer off the main trail.

After walking just over 2 hours we arrived at the lake. The lake was rather small, but very quaint. We were hoping to see a Moose grazing, but it wasn’t in the cards. We did, however, get to see gigantic frogs leap into the lake from the lily pads along the edge of the lake. This was our halfway point and our lunch stop. It was late so the kids were ravenous. We did have to dine with the mosquitoes, but I think people were so hungry they barely noticed. While eating lunch the wind started to pick up a little and it did appear to get a little darker. So, we packed up our stuff and headed out. The walk back to the parking lot was on a different trail so the scenery was a little different. We only ran into one Bison on the trail who barely registered our existence. We veered off the path to stay a safe distance and continued on our way. The rain started about 20 minutes before the end of the hike, but we were well prepared. Everyone took out their raincoats and we managed to stay dry the rest of the hike. The kids were relieved when the parking lot came into view. I think they were tired, but they really should be very proud of themselves because they truly did a fantastic job. The entire hike took right around 4 ½ hours. Pretty good pace for a bunch of kids!

We loaded the cars back up, boys in the Leeming’s car and the girls in the Chalmer’s car. The boy’s car headed back to the campsite. The girl’s car headed out to find wifi connection (I just can’t go without!). It just so happened that the wifi search took us to a lodge that had an ice cream shop. Mark and I were concerned that the girls would not want any, but we were wrong ;-) Mark picked up some stuff at the General Store while I helped the girls eat their ice cream. Hmmm, I don’t think the boys will be too happy about this. The girls agreed so together they came up with a story to answer the “what happened to you guys?” inquiry that was bound to be asked by the boys upon our return. The story had something to do with following ‘Moose Tracks’ that ‘sprinkled’ the trail and Abby’s hat blew into the canyon and we had to go get it…

Wouldn’t you know, it was the first question asked when we returned to the campsite. The girls tried hard to stick to the story, but Shannon read right through it. Tonight it was Shannon & Stewart’s turn to cook and thankfully Shannon had started dinner before we got back. This was the perfect dinner for a cold, rainy night. It was a kielbasa and tortellini stew that was quickly gobbled up by all the cold, tired, hungry hikers. The night was so raw that the kids didn’t even want to play around the campgrounds. So, we all huddled around the campfire and Stewart took out the guitar. We usually spend our evenings singing, but this trip has been so different because of the long daylight hours. The kids have been so busy playing that campfire song time hasn’t even occurred, until tonight.

We sang for 45 minutes, right up until quiet hours at 10pm. The kids were pretty toasty by then so the bedtime routing was quick and easy. The parents stayed up talking until almost midnight talking about the events of the day and helping each other think through some of the challenges of adolescence.

Tomorrow is the last day at Yellowstone and the parent meeting had not come up with any solid plans. Wonder what we’ll do?!?!