Yellowstone Backpacking Trip Day 5

August 9, 2019

Got up relatively early. Wanted to make it out at a reasonable time since we had to drive to Lisa’s and planned on taking a shower at the Canyon campground. Kristian went and got changed up at the fire ring where the backpacks were and I put my stuff together in the tent. Kristian came back to the tent to put his stuff together and I took all my stuff up to my backpack and packed it up. I had just about finished when I noticed movement to the north just up the little rise. It was a bear. Could barely see the face and a little of the rear because of the hill, trees, and vegetation.

Called out to Kristian that we had a bear in camp and backed away toward the tent with my bear spray at the ready. Couldn’t see him anymore as I made noise continuing to back away. Kristian came up with his bear spray and the bear was visible again. I wasn’t sure if it was a large light-colored black bear or a grizzly from my first peek because he was dark and he was wet from all night rain, but now we got a much better view because he came back for another look at who was in camp since he only saw me previously. We kept making noise and he wandered off to the Northeast. We were not planning a hot breakfast to save time and the bear sighting only reinforced that.

We took down the tent in record time, had some granola bars after taking down the bear bag and hiked out.  Reexamined the bear marks on many trees along the way.

The rain had stopped but the ground and vegetation was very wet.  My socks were still a little damp because they never dried after hanging in the tent because of all the rain. They got even wetter brushing against grasses and shrubs. I tried to knock the dew off with my hiking poles.

We made good progress out, stopping a couple times for a snack and equipment adjustments. We saw our first other humans in 4 days when we stopped for lunch at the westernmost thermal area. After that we saw a fairly steady stream of people as we got to the meadows and the wildflowers. There was a lone bison off in the distance. We finally saw one live after seeing droppings and hoof prints throughout our hike. We got to the parking lot and there was one right there as well.

Did 23,378 steps, 27 floors, and 11.33 miles.

Made it to the showers at 1:31pm in time to see a sign that said showers are closed from 1:30 to 3 p.m. for cleaning. I ran in and talked to one of the staff and convinced him to let us take showers. I was in such a hurry I didn’t even bother paying, but just went in and took a shower. I paid when I got done.

We went to the canyon gift store and got some souvenirs as well as a couple of Cokes and then drove to Lisa’s.