Writers Note I really thought I published this last week and was feeling good about being on a schedule. Oh well. There will be two posts this week.
Not to beat a dead horse but the work load has finally come to a head. Between people starting to watch my overtime very closely and just working to come home, drink beer, sleep, and go back to work, it's all a bit much. So, I've made a few changes and decided to take an unscheduled day off to get my mind right. Of course, this means hammering out a post.
A few days ago I decided I'd had enough and took half a day to just goof off and hang out with Gina the Frugal. It was a day I was supposed to have off anyway but an unexpected incident with an employee meant I had to put in at least a few hours. When that was completed, we headed for Storm Point not but a few miles from our base camp. Gina had taken the same hike the day before and immediately after leaving the trail head, she caught up with a group being led on the hike by a park ranger who had been working during the summers in Yellowstone for fifty two years. He was a wealth of knowledge and I'm sorry I missed his take on the area.
However, Gina did a phenomenal job of relaying what Mr. Ranger Sir (a Yogi Bear reference) had said and we were quickly off to take the loop. Not but a few hundred yards down the trail we spotted a group of about ten people just standing and looking at a couple of bison laying in the meadow and pointing. Knowing that this isn't an uncommon scene, we moved closer and decided we would just pass them by and let them be looky-loos. However, the closer we got, the more we realized that our large bovine friend was nearly on the trail, which explains why everyone wasn't moving. Without so much as a thought, we went left down towards a pond and walked in the small basin, just out of the bisons sight and moved past it in short order...looking over our shoulder every so often to make sure he was still munching grass and not paying attention to us.
Storm Point was a beautiful little outcrop just off the trail, which is a 2.3 mile loop, but only interesting enough to hold our attention for a few minutes. Gina was determined to get in the frigid water of Yellowstone Lake and had spotted a rocky point the day before just past this and we made our way on.
An interesting note would be that we passed a small, sandy area that had signs everywhere that cordoned off the area stating that it was a revegetation area and you best not get caught walking in it. Turns out that the Yellowstone Sand Verbena, a species unto itself, exists only in this 1.48 acre range and no where else. Of course, over the years it had been trampled by tourists and brought to the edge of extinction. I'm sure hungry bison didn't help either. One way or another, the delicate little flower seemed to be flourishing and blooming beautifully that day and we were glad to see it.
We got to the rocky point and, as advertised, Gina immediately hopped in the water but hesitated to become fully immersed since it's cold as all hell year round. Having left work and not changed my shirt, I had my pocket food thermometer and used it to check the temp of the Lake. Gina had it in contact with a shallow rock and it read 60 degrees. I'm sure the water was much colder based on Gina's reactions.
Leaving there, we followed the loop through the woods, which makes me pause to mention a few facts. The first would be that the mosquito population in Yellowstone is large and thick and the mosquitos here are freaking huge. If you come here, pick a preferred method of bug deterrent and use a lot of it on every square inch of your person. I had unintentionally missed my lower shirt and belly and as soon as I got into the woods, they were eating me alive there.
The next would be that it's named Storm Point for a reason. We recently had what most described as a Micro Burst event while she and I were in Cody, WY. It knocked out power to our location, causing a flurry of movement to get all of our food stores to other refrigerators down the road. But as we walked into the woods, it quickly became apparent that the storm had a major effect on this part of the park. Large trees that were several hundred years old were snapped off as if a giant were making a trail.
We ended the hike by meeting in the parking lot with a lovely young lady we met on the trail and giving her a sticker and we then came back to the RV and cooked here for the first time in weeks, since we often eat at the employee dining room.
Life here goes on and I still ride the Silverwing into work every morning and watch my mountains as they evolve and the views of them change every day. Sunrises here are particularly amazing to the point where I just stop by the side of the road to watch in sheer amazement.
We're fortunate to have been able to work here this summer and that knowledge will never be lost on me. Now, with the changes at work, it's time to fully enjoy this most amazing place. This place, this summer, and this easily falls under the category of This Does Not Suck.
