Fairyland Expedition Day 3

Homeward Bound
Our final day we awoke at 4B1 to gathering clouds and the occasional low-flying plane or helicopter. The latter was somewhat startling in such a remote place and I worried that maybe there was a forest fire somewhere nearby.
We puttered around camp eating and packing, letting Stephen sleep in for awhile. Finally the clouds began to look threatening, so we kicked Stephen out of Andrew's yellow tent and started packing in earnest.

Just before we left, we took some photos at the 4B1 site. If I look a little distracted in this photo, it's because a coyote was watching us quietly from about 15 feet away. It just strolled up and stood for a few moments. We wondered if it was rabid. Its unusual for coyotes to be so bold during the day in such an undisturbed place.
Stephen with the flag of his mountaineering club back in Taiwan.

Me at 4B1. The orange thing is my GPS unit. My camera is in the black case. My backpack weighs a ton and my hair braids are going on their third day with no re-braiding.


One last glimpse of Joseph's Coat before we head to the left (southwest). As we made our way out of the Joseph's Coat/Whistler Geyser area, I led us up a gentle ridge that linked up with our GPS trail from our hike in from 4M2 everyone followed me except for Andrew who broke off from the group. Pilar and I called for him and he answered back for some time before he wandered out of shouting distance. He hadn't told us what he was doing or when to expect him to rejoin us. I wasn't too worried about us. I had my trusty orange GPS unit and I was following our trail from the other day in reverse. From time to time an especially thick cloud layer blocked reception, but generally we stayed right on course. We walked right into 4M2 without much trouble but we were unnerved to see that Andrew wasn't there waiting for us as we'd guessed he would be. We sat for a moment and decided to yell for him. Our calls were answered, but by several voices coming from Wapiti Lake Trail. It was Rachel, Zack and Tim on the outward leg of their own Fairyland Expedition. Zack found us and went back for the others. While he was gone, Andrew limped into 4M2. We weren't sure whether to hug him or beat him senseless. He'd sprained his ankle while he was separated from us. He said he sat around for about 15 minutes in pain before pulling the laces of his shoe tighter and continuing on. Zack returned with Rachel and Tim and sat listening to our tales from Broad Creek for awhile. We told them how to find 4B1 and, "Don't go chasin' waterfalls." Then we watched as they disappeared over the hill toward Joseph's Coat. We sat around eating trail mix and Power Bars for awhile before we hit the trail. At this point we were very appreciative of the trail, admiring the trail crew's handiwork; the neatly cut deadfall that we didn't have to climb over and the way the trail avoided hills and bogs. We passed three large piles of grizzly scat and listened as distant thunder grew closer and felt sprinkles now and then as we hiked through the woods.
As we broke free of the forest and walked out across Hayden Valley, the storm closed in on us with cold rain and lightning strikes. I was terrified of being out in the open with the lightning, but at the same time we really wanted to get home. Pilar and I talked about how nice it would be if the Employee Dining Room had French onion soup and clam chowder. We were walking pretty fast-way ahead of the guys. It started to hail tiny ice chips.

As we neared a stand of pine we heard a strange growling coming from it. We walked on cautiously and found a bull bison standing in a clearing. The thunder was upsetting him and he was growling and stomping. He was right next to the trail. We slowly detoured around him, once again climbing over deadfall. The guys caught up to us and we yelled for them to detour also. As we rejoined the trail at the edge of a thermal area we nearly walked into a second bull hidden by trees. This one was just as agitated. His back was to us and I talked to him to let him know we were there as we once again detoured around. Andrew popped out of the trees just where we had and the bull turned and took two quick steps at him. He managed to get back into the trees just as Stephen came out by the bull. By this time he was beyond agitated. He lowered his horns and charged at Stephen. Stephen ran with the bison on his heels and I screamed my loudest, "NOOOO!" Amazingly enough, he stopped. We quickly regrouped and hurried away down the trail, leaving the bison stomping and snorting. The last mile or two was cold and rainy, but uneventful. When the trail head with the truck finally came into sight Pilar and I cheered. We stuffed the backpacks into the bed and climbed into the cab to wait for the guys. By this time they were about a half a mile behind us. By the time we drove back to Canyon Village and parked in the employee parking lot, it was dinner time. Our friends and coworkers were making their way out of the dorms headed for the EDR. Everyone wanted to hear our story and find out if we'd made it to Fairyland. We told them about Joseph's Coat, 4B1, the Yellow Brick Road. We told them about the waterfalls and about the bison. Our Fairyland was in the adventure we'd had trying to reach it.