In the morning we headed back into Jellystone, but after a few disappointing hours at Mammoth Springs and Old Faithful, I was ready to get away from the hoards of people and back into the mountains. It was a challenge to find a spot where you could view Old Faithful without feeling like you were waiting for the Chicago Bears to rush onto the field. They have stadium seating and lodges built on three sides.
We were several miles down the road toward the Grand Tetons when I received a call from my friend Brad. He was with a group from Taylor and Wheaton that had been doing field study in the Black Hills and were now touring through Yellowstone. He and the group were at Old Faithful, and so I turned around at the opportunity to see him and to relive the great spectacle one more time.
It was faithful.
My fellow travelers had gone ahead to secure a camping spot for the night in the Tetons. They left me a message as to their location, and I arrived at the turnout after dark with the trip odometer reading 11457 miles. I pulled onto the gravel road and noticed a sign on my right that read, "No fires or camping without permit." Hoping my friends had gathered the appropriate permits I continued on down the road. I pulled in next to their parked cars and followed the distant flickering light to a small fire surrounded by two tents and my friends who were warming themselves and dishing out hot, freshly prepared vegetable soup. I hardly mentioned the sign at the bottom of the hill prohibiting all of the actions we were participating in. They shrugged it off and said that there were others just down the road in a camper. After a long day, and with the setting wonderfully prepared: warm food, warm fire, friends, and tents, I didn't object.
We sat around the fire eating soup and going through every conceivable bear situation. I tried my best to recall the various deterrent techniques outlined in the video I was required to watch before heading into the backcountry in Glacier NP. We had fun clapping and exclaiming "whoa bear" with various accents and inflections. I hope the bears sitting watch in the shadows were as amused as we were. The girls seemed to think that the bottle of parking lot pepper spray and the can of aerosol hairspray would provide ample defense against a full grown male grizzly. I begged to differ.
In the morning I woke early and was happy (or maybe slightly disappointed) to see that no grizzly had torn the door off of the car that had 30 lbs of cherries in the back seat. I made a few phone calls looking for a shop that could replace my worn rear tire. With no luck, I was beginning to get discouraged when I noticed a white truck pull up slowly next to our vehicles. When I saw the green emblem on the door, I knew our fate. It was a park ranger. Emily had woken up just in time to be asked by the ranger for her ID. I provided mine as well and went to wake up the others.
The fine was $125 and would be split among the five of us. This was gracious considering we each deserved a full fine.
We solemnly packed up and headed south to the Jenny Lake visitor's center to make plans for hiking and legal camping for the night. There, we acquired backcountry permits for Surprise Lake. The others went ahead while I went over to the lodge to further my search for a new rear tire. More dead ends. The Sturgis rally was sucking up all of the resources from Wyoming to Wisconsin.
I started the five mile hike up to Surprise Lake around 4:30pm and hauled up to meet the others. The site was awesome, and I had to congratulate them on their fine discovery. After a cool dip in the lake, we cooked up some lentils. Warm, garlic, goodness.
Unfortunately, our bear deterrent techniques worked a little too well, or the girls prayed too hard because although there had been many recent sightings of bears in the area, we saw none.
In fact, I just talked to my friend Brad who made the same hike one day after us. He encountered a bear and her cub on the trail. Unbelievable!
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