Meghan's Blog

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May 15, 2006

Griz!

Perhaps I haven't mentioned a particular friend that I hike with here in Yellowstone. He has a goal of hiking all of the park's 1000+ miles of trail in a short time frame. We're talking every single little mile of trail. He's also an outstanding endurance athlete, running half marathons and other longer distance races like I would nonchalantly take an evening walk around the block. So, putting these 2 interests together, he designs crazy Yellowstone hikes. Every hike is at least 20 miles long, regardless of terrain and remoteness. Last year, we did a most crazy single day hike in which we traversed an entire mountain range in 1 day. The details are still clouded by the exhaustion I felt, but I recall several mountain passes, beginning our hike at dawn and ending at dark (on a long summer day in July), and eating a huge amount of pizza afterwards. In any case, hiking with him always brings hikes into the category of epic.

On yesterday's hike, which easily makes it into the epic category for several reasons, I saw my first griz of the year! Okay, admittedly, it was about a 1/2 mile away, but it was a grizzly! It was foraging on a green, sagebrush hillside on one side of a creek called Slough Creek. Happily, I was on the other side of the creek. It was a big male, and you could see it knock aside and pull up big bushes as if brushing a fly away. We had seen its tracks dried in mud, meandering up and down the trail for a good bit. We knew it was good griz habitat. We hiked out and back on this trail, and the griz eluded us until we were on our way back. What a treat!

Yesterday's hike begain as a 19 mile out-and-back hike (I was a little suspect before we went out because the distance seemed short by my friend's standards. This should have been my first clue.) along a trail called the Slough Creek Trail in Yellowstone. Slough Creek is actually a pretty wide creek whose headwaters are a decent distance outside of Yellowstone National Park. The creek meanders slowly through a wide canyon, flanked on both sides by tall mountains. At this time of year, one can still see feet and feet of snowpack on those mountains. Slough Creek and its associated wide canyon is a paradise for wildlife, hikers, fishermen, and mosquitoes. Luckily, it's too early for both the fisherman and mosquitoes, so we shared this wilderness only with wildlife.

It was supposed to be an easy, flat, fast 19 miles, and it was. The 9.5-ish miles out to our turnaround point went quick, we were there in no time. I hadn't packed a ton of water or food, because I know that we always hike steadily when we're out together, and this 19 miles would fly by. As we sat in the shade of our destination cabin eating lunch, my hiking partner encouraged us to push on another 3 miles to the park's boundary with the Gallatin National Forest. I said sure, why not? This extra 6 miles roundtrip, though it added 6 more miles on fatiguing legs, proved fruitful as we spotted a young male moose along the way. He was standing in Slough Creek grazing on greenery. When he directed his attention to us, you could see his tiny velvety nubs of antlers just beginning to grow. He's probably just a year old now.

In 25 miles of hiking, the animals spotted were abundant: 2 bald eagles, several sandhill crane pairs, 1 coyote (Notably, the coyote was chasing around 2 sandhill cranes, presumably trying to get to their nest. We watched the huge sandhill cranes successfully chase off the coyote.), 1 moose, many bison and elk, 1 grizzly, 1 osprey, and zillions of groud squirrels (These are the same kinds of ground squirrels that caused me earlier duress while trying to sleep. Their vocalizations are ridiculous. We observed some interesting behavior in the squirrels we saw in this area. One watch guard for a particular area of squirrel holes climbs up into the top of a sagebrush, stands on its back legs, and keeps watch. I took some pretty funny pictures of squirrels in sagebrush, I was amused!), among other things I might be forgetting.

It was a long 25 miles, no doubt. Additionally, it was also a warm and sunny day. About 5 miles from the end, out of food and rationing my water, I began to suffer a little low blood sugar moment. I layed down in the shade to rest for a few minutes. When I opened my eyes, my friend was holding out a Pop Tart for me to eat. I know what Pop Tarts are, but I've never eaten one. This Pop Tart was cinnamon-flavored and so sweet with sugar. My friend ate one, too, and those simple sugars went to work quickly. We hiked those last 5 miles very quickly, and the next thing I knew, we were back at the trailhead.

I'm always stiff and sore after these hikes in places that running never makes me sore. I gimp around a bit, and run only easy miles the following day. What amazes me is that my friend will do 2 of these crazy hikes in 1 weekend, back-to-back! I guess it's good that he has a plethora of hiking partners, so that when he wears one out on one day, he has another person to hike with the next day. It sure humbles me!

And so, I'll be reduced to a few slow, stiff miles of shuffling/jogging today, and I know I'll wait until the cool of the evening to go out. I applied sunscreen prolifically yesterday, but apparently I missed 3 key spots, an area on the back of my neck, the edge of 1 shoulder, as well as the backs of my knees. I need no more sun today, so I can nurse these sunburned spots!

This morning's wildlife spotting: A mother black bear and her single cub. This is a different set of bears than those I mentioned earlier this week. The mother black bear is small and probably young. Her cub is very light colored, almost a cinnamon color. This is interesting because there is a huge, male black bear who lives in this general area who's known both for his cinnamon color and his frequent appearance with many, many female black bears. Every year, there are always several cinnamon-colored cubs around, and we humans certainly know who their father is! This sow and cub were walking around in a shady, wooded area, and they were almost fully camouflaged. Only once in a while could I spot the cub's light-colored fur flash in and out of the sun. Mother bear was almost playing with her cub, swatting at it playfully when the baby bear grabbed her. They looked like they were having fun!

Tomorrow: An overnight into the backcountry, I think. The weather continues to promise another set of beautiful days. Though we'll be carrying overnight packs, the distance is shorter, so I don't expect to be reduced to exhaustion. Just a nice overnight trip into a beautiful backcountry area.

And a final note, Corrado and Jeff wrote really nice comments on my last entry, so I just wanted to shout out a big thank you! So, THANK YOU!

Posted by Meghan at May 15, 2006 1:00 PM

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Posted by: Beth at May 15, 2006 4:39 PM

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