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April 16, 2006
Mimicking the Marathon
In honor of those who are racing Boston tomorrow, I conducted a modified version of the marathon here. I hiked 26 miles. Okay, so there wasn't that much about it that resembled a marathon besides the distance, but permit me one dedication to tomorrow's runners! Good luck tomorrow, all!
When I went to bed last night, the forecast was calling for a 90% chance of rain and snow. That was a moderately concerning predication. I had originally planned to spend today road biking with a group of people, but that forecast caused them to cancel. Rightfully so, as slick, skinny road bike tires and snow on hills don't mix one bit. Instead, I took up a last minute offer to do what was supposed to be a "20-ish" mile hike. We'd be wandering through the same weather, but that weather seemed much more doable for hiking than biking.
We started off in a light sprinkle, donned in layers of clothing and an outer waterproof layer. Within 1 mile, we saw fresh black bear and grizzly tracks right on the trail. Tracks that had been laid since the rain started the night before. Hmmmn. Premonition, prediction, dumb coincidence? We proceeded on with caution.
After about 6 miles, we came to a creek crossing swollen with snowmelt and now rainwater, too deep to cross. Instead, we had to add on an additional 4 miles total to hike to bridge across the creek to proceed with our hike. This was a little mentally challenging, but we made it through that. I was much happier hiking several more miles than risking a bad incident crossing icy cold high water.
Several more miles into the hike we overheard radio traffic from our coworkers (They were working, we were playing.) who were working in the same area we were. We chatted with them for a few minutes via radio, and learned that down the trail from where we were, there was a bear sitting and feeding on an elk carcass. This is a very common and dangerous site in Yellowstone in the spring. As winter progresses, the ungulates die off in what is refered to as winter kill. When bears emerge from their dens, this is their first food source, as carcasses are everywhere and they are an easy meat source. When a bear is sitting on a carcass, it means they've claimed it as their own, they're eating off it, and they're very protective of it. Encountering a bear in this hunger-ravaged feeding-frenzy state can be volatile. We fretted unneccessarily over this until we passed the supposed location of the bear and carcass, and never saw a thing. I was glad to not have a close bear encounter.
The next thing we dealt with was 2 thunderstorms. It never got warm, and we were frequently sprinkled on by rain, and the thunderstorms were just cake icing. It was momentalrily nerve-wracking, as we were in a few exposed spots, being pelted by rain and hail, and watching lightning around us. I was frightened, but the first one was over quickly. The second one came, and we were in an even worse location as the tallest objects in an open meadow. We scampered across the meadow as fast as we could, and as fast as our tired feet would let us.
In the end, the hike was nearly 26 miles, and extremely rigorous. It was through some truly wild Yellowstone backcountry. I was feeling a little like a green newbie out there today, as I forgot all about the toughness of hiking in this place. I'm really glad I went, though! And things will start to feel familiar and normal again, after a little more playing in the backcountry. Days like this really teach you that, while humans are strong creatures, Mother Nature is much, much stronger. However, we humans managed to persevere through all that Mother Nature threw at us on this particular day! Though the hike was tough and I'm not wishing to hike it again soon, I had a great time!
Posted by Meghan at April 16, 2006 10:47 PM