Fairyland Expedition Day 1

Our odyssey began mid morning from the Wapiti Lake trail head just south of Canyon Village. We started out across the north end of Hayden Valley, which is a huge expanse of rolling hills covered in sage, grass and wildflowers. It is referred to as the American Serengeti for its awe-inspiring herds of bison and elk. After a few miles we left Hayden and continued on into the forested hills to the northeast.

In the forest we found grizzly tracks on the trail and met a charming pine marten. We hiked a total of 5 miles to 4M2, the back country campsite that was to be our jumping off point into pathless wilderness. After lunch at 4M2 we punched in the coordinates for Whistler Geyser into our GPS units, pulled out the compasses, crossed our fingers and set out to the northeast. About two miles later we found ourselves at Whistler. We explored and speculated about which thermal feature was actually Whistler. The guys and I hiked up a dry creek bed into an area that reminded me of Roaring Mountain.
It was flanked by enormous boulders with passages between them and to the west another thermal feature that looked like it had exploded. We regrouped with Pilar and followed the stream out of Whistler into Joseph's Coat Hot Springs. Joseph's Coat is a very large network of thermal valleys on Broad Creek named for its colorful, striped slopes. It is a living geothermal Coat of Many Colors.
At Broad Creek we split up to search for 4B1 our campsite. 4B1 is reputed to be one of the hardest to find back country sites in America. Pilar and Andrew searched to the southwest and Stephen followed me over some ridges to the south.
From the top of the first ridge I saw a beautiful blue green lake. I thought it would be hot but when I got closer I found that it was cold and stagnant. I continued up the second ridge and decided it was a bad place for a campsite. As I turned around and headed back past the lake I noticed four stumps that had been cut level with a chainsaw right next to Broad Creek. I'd been told that the site was 3-400 feet from the creek, but I decided to check it out anyway.
The stumps turned out to be seats around the fire ring. A little ways off was a neatly painted sign "4B1." I yelled for Stephen and together we went back for Pilar and Andrew and the backpacks.
After we set up camp everyone was tired and napped on the meadow and on logs. I must have been running on the joy of discovering 4B1 though. I was still full of energy so I set out to explore Joseph's coat.
I went back up the white slope where we'd popped out at Broad Creek and took some pictures of the big fumarole there.
Then I went back past the blue green lake and found another big fumarole that had coated the trees around it with white powder. They looked like ghostly flocked Christmas trees except for the bright green new growth.
Down by the creek I found some sulphur springs and a set of coyote tracks.
For dinner we had freeze-dried meals from the employee dining room. You just add boiling water, reseal the zip lock it comes in, let it sit 10 minutes or so, add the sauce powder, shake and squish to mix it and voila! A surprisingly good meal!
That night I had nightmares that one of our party would stumble in the dark into the thermal area 20 feet from the tents, break through the crust and be boiled alive. I had pointed out the thermal area to everyone so they would know, but I was still worried. The next night Stephen was surprised to see steam rising from one of the springs and we all laughed nervously when we realized he hadn't understood anyway!
Me as a Dr. Seuss elk-antlered creature.

Finding Fairyland

The day after tomorrow the 2007 Wildflowers Expedition to Fairyland will begin. What is Fairyland? It is a hot spring basin so remote that less people have been there than have stood on the summit of Mt. Everest. It is not shown on any map. I read about it on this site: http://home1.gte.net/res00j35/yellowstone/fairyland/day04.htm back in February or so and decided I had to go.
Our party name, 'Wildflowers' is from the Tom Petty song that has become our anthem of summer in Yellowstone. There are just four in our party, Andrew, Pilar, Stephen from Taiwan and me. We are all very excited. I am nervous. It is my first true backpacking trip. It will be at least 25 miles roundtrip. At least 10 of those miles will be off-trail 'bushwacking.' Our campsite 4B1 is one of the few off-trail backcountry sites in the Park. If you want to see where we're going, follow the trails from Artist's Point on the South Rim of the Canyon to 4M2, here jump trail to 4B1 and follow Broad Creek north to its confluence with Shallow Creek.
We will be gone the 10th - 13th of July.
With any luck the next posting will be complete with photos from FAIRYLAND!!!

A Day in the Life of a Canyon Room Attendant

This is a funny clip of our fearless leader addressing the troops before yet another thrilling day of cabin cleaning. Watch for the signature clipboard slap. Notice how enthusiastic everyone is. The carts are called "Molly Carts," the people in navy shirts are Team Leaders (TLs) and the maroon shirted folks like me are the Room Attendants (RAs).

So what do we do around here? CLEAN CABINS! and for an unlucky few, clean lodges. We wake up and eat in the EDR (Employee Dining Room) or, with the way they cook, "Eat Dead Rats." We have to be at the Linen Room by 8 am. If you're good, the TLs will fight over you. You swipe your card and report to Wren for your List. The List will make or break your day. A good list has more "Occupied" rooms than "Due Outs." We usually get about 12-15 rooms each. So you take your List and do some rough calculations that never pan out load up your Molly Cart with the amount of towels, washcloths, bathmats, pillowcases, sheets, TP, tissues, soaps, bear soaps, shampoos, ice bags, sanibags, literature, postcards, pens, cleaners, sponges and last but not least a toilet brush with a three inch handle. Needless to say, the toilets don't get cleaned all that often. Once you've chosen a functional Molly Cart (some have been wrecked in illegal Molly Cart races) and loaded all this stuff up, you head out to your assigned cabins. On the way you may pass a large grunting buffalo. If you're lucky the large buffalo is not laying in front of the cabin you have to clean. Once at the cabin door you recite the RA mantra, knock, knock, knock, "Hello, Housekeeping" three times. Sometimes, just to break up the routine you might use a foreign accent or an Exorcist Voice. If no one gripes at you for waking them up, you head on in and swing into action. Here's my routine: strip the beds, make the beds up with fresh sheets, strip the used towels, use a bath towel to wipe out the shower and bathroom floor, replace towels, clean mirror, sink, table, desk windowsills, empty the trash, look at the toilet. We have four cleaning solutions all of which go by colors: pink-foaming cleanser, yellow-disinfectant, green-air freshener, and blue-glass cleaner. Everyone competes to see who can clean successfully with just yellow. We are also supposed to "hand vaccume," walk around and pick up little bits of stuff. If you just let the chipmunks come in they will clean the floor for you though. As far as tips go, the lodges get the best tips, but they're the biggest pain in the butt. I was in Dunraven Lodge today and made $18 in tips off of my first four rooms. We're supposed to turn them in for tip pool but no one does. We have lunch at 11 am and clock back in at 11:45. You have to hurry or the lunch line goes out the door of the EDR. After lunch it's back to the cabins. On a good day I finish my rooms by 2 pm. When you finish you turn in your key and List and unload the cart. If you're lucky your team is finished too otherwise you have to help them. There are about 3 people on a team. The TLs drop in to see how you're doing throughout the day and report to the front desk which rooms are finished. A good TL will help you if you have a bad list or go get things you have forgotten or run out of from the linen room. A bad TL hides out until lunch taking naps or playing battleship. A really bad TL goes into rooms ahead of you and takes your tips!
That's about it in a nutshell. Next time you stay somewhere remember that the person who put the little cups out probably just cleaned the toilet. Those little paper caps really don't mean much.

Under the Rose Moon

This month's full moon, called the Rose Moon, is the lowest in the sky all year and by trick of the human eye appears to be the largest. To celebrate the occasion we loaded up two cars and my truck with people and hiked out to Cascade Lake last night. We started out in a dark forest but by the time we reached the first meadow the moon had risen and the land around us was bathed in a silvery blue. I led the way and it was nice to look back and see the lights of our party of 16 like a trail of fireflies strung out through the forest and meadow. As we approached the lake, we were greeted by two pairs of glittering eyes in a clump of willow. We shut off our lights, and as we watched, two enormous moose lurched to their feet. After a minute or two, we detoured around them and sat on the lake shore, watching the moonlight shimmer on the water. Bats swooped over the lake, hunting and after about 20 minutes we were frozen. Stephen from Taiwan suggested we build a fire so he, Andrew and I walked off to the nearest campsite and, finding it vacant, built a fire in the fire ring. I will upload our fireside international roll call on YouTube so I can embed it here for you. I took some pictures but they will be along a little later since I have to resize them. On the return trip, we heard loons in the marsh and wolves howling in the distance.

By eerie coincidence, our hike coincided with the anniversary of the 1973 death of a 29 year old French woman. She jumped into the Yellowstone river above Upper Falls and plunged down both Upper Falls (109 ft.) and Lower Falls (308 ft.). This happened at Canyon where I am living.

Southwestern Montana Oddesey

I just took the comment restrictions off the blog. People were saying that they couldn't leave comments so now everyone should be able to. Please comment your hearts out!
My California friends, Andrew and Pilar came with me on a trek through southwestern Montana for our "weekend." Our weekend is Tuesday and Wednesday. We left the park through the west entrance and headed out to Virgina City home to the infamous vigilantes who hanged 20 "road agents" (outlaws) and buried them on the original "Boot Hill." Read more about it at http://www.virginiacity.com/vigil.htm
The we continued on to Nevada City to annoy each other with calliopes in the music hall. They're really pretty cool. You put in your nickle and this 20 or so foot long contraption springs to life playing horns, pianos, drums and stringed instruments. What's even more impressive is that these things have been driving people nuts since the 1800s!

After the music hall we motored on into Bozeman and went on a shopping spree. Pilar bought a mandolin, Andrew a guitar and I a 0 degree sleeping bag that packs up the size of a football for backpacking. We were so engrossed in our shopping (this happens when you come down out of "the sticks") that before we knew it, it was 10 pm and we were racing against nightfall to find a camping site in Gallatian National Forest. Gallatian is the most poorly marked national forest in the country. About 2 hours and 20 miles later (40 miles if you count the wrong turns) we pulled into Battle Ridge campground only to find a sign reading "Closed to Public Use." I parked the truck in front of the sign and the three of us piled into the back for the night. The 0 degree bag was nice and toasty!

Hello Housekeeping...

Let it be known that I have single-handedly changed the course of history for the Room Attendants of Canyon Village.
Up until about a week ago we had this stupid policy in place that required us to go help other Room Attendants in other areas of the Village upon finishing our list of rooms to clean. This might sound good in theory, but in reality it resulted in people dragging their feet, cleaning slowly and hiding out in rooms napping to avoid being sent to work. Being that I have a real job in the real world, I didn't come up here to make money, so I was irritated by this system because it was really cutting into my Yellowstone Time, especially my daylight hiking hours. It went like this for about the first two weeks or so and then one cold, snowy day, I got WRITTEN UP. It was the third day of snow since I'd been here and I had a horrible list of rooms to clean because it was "Due Out Sunday" (the day that most weekend guests are due to leave and their rooms have to be put back together.) My friend Stacey and I had combined our lists and when we finished we were exhausted. It was cold, the snow wouldn't stop so we turned up the heat shut the cabin door and laid down on the beds for a short nap. We hadn't taken any of our breaks yet that day. Well, we'd been there about 10 minutes when the door opened and someone I'd never met was standing there looking angry. She yelled at us and then left without bothering to ask if we had anything to say. She had a band aid over her eyebrow ring, by the way.
So, the next day I'm called into the main housekeeping office. As it turns out, Band aid Eyebrow Ring Girl is the Canyon Housekeeping Manager. She is 22. I sit there for a while with her and the Guy From Personnel and she explains that we are only to take our breaks at 10 am and 2 pm and NEVER to lay on the beds. I apologise for laying on the bed. After a few other formalities she asks if I am OK (at this point, I'm so angry I'm shaking). Then I meltdown and tell the two of them EXACTLY and in great detail, how I feel about the way things have been going and EXACTLY what I think about their policies. In the middle of my ranting they ask me if I want to be a Team Leader. I laugh hysterically and say, "Oh, God no!" Through it all I'm telling myself that they can take their job and stick it, if that's what they want to do. I have a real job in the real world after all. I do inform them of that last little point. By the time I leave they are apologizing for writing me up.
As it happens, I have the next two days off and we go to the Tetons to celebrate Jessica's 21st birthday. When I get back to work two days later and finish my list of cabins to clean I am informed that room attendants are no longer required to help out after they've finished their lists, unless the need the hours and want to work more. Over the last week I have had room attendants, team leaders and assistant managers come up and thank me for throwing a fit and causing the change. They say they tried to do this last year and it never happened. I'm just happy because now I have my Yellowstone Time every afternoon. This has been my best week here. I've hiked at least 12 miles in the last three days after work.

So I clean rooms up here and one would expect that that would entail
some pretty nasty experiences, but wow. Sometimes it just shocks a person. I think it was about my second or third day on the job when we found this sign on the sink of one room. My friend Andrew happened to be our teem leader that day. It was our last room of the day and after everyone whipped out their camera phones and debated about who got to keep the sign he stifled the poo with a big plunger. Andrew is my hero.
I will have to take some time to come up with tips for people who stay in motels in a later post. (Mostly avoid the ice bucket!) P.S. If you ever have to leave a sign like this, you should really leave a tip. $10 a poop is the going rate.
P.P.S.S. If you're wondering about the title of my blog, Exit to Eternal Summers, look up the lyrics to the Fastball song "The Way."

Here are the Missing Photos

The arch reads "For the benefit and enjoyment of the people," refering to the dedication of Yellowstone as the world's first national park. When you check in at HR you pass under a plywood replica of this arch reading, "For the benefit and employment of the people."

Jesus is one of my students.















More close-ups of the Art Truck
Basecamp for our Midnight Spring Cave expedition.
Tailgate of the Art Truck
I made it!

Jeff on the trail to the Quartz and Mica mine outside of Grand Junction.
My cabin in Gardiner, MT. I slept here the night before I checked in at Yellowstone.
Me at the Quartz and Mica mine. The foreground is mica chips.

Upon crossing over into Yellowstone I was greeted by this buffalo herd.
Buffalo on Parade!
Jeff checking out the local cusine in Wundervue, CO.
Coyote mom and pup in Yellowstone.
Flowers on Mine trail.

Solstice

Whoopee! There is now a Wapiti Internet connection! Wapiti is my dorm. Sometimes I just call it Elk, no one is sure how Wapiti is pronounced.
I got off at 3 pm today and hiked out to Sylvan Springs on the far side of Gibbon Meadows. It is a place that has always caught my attention as we drive by. It's near Monument Geyser basin. The best part was that once I got out there, I could see ANOTHER geyser basin, this one hidden at the foot of the mountain. I couldn't resist so I had to hike out to that one too. I didn't get back until 8:05-5 minutes after I'd requested that they call the rangers to drag my lifeless body from the wilderness. It was a little eerie hiking by myself but I'm determined to get used to it. I'm tired of waiting around for others to find their enthusiasm.
"The Valley of the Shadow" this was an eerie place to walk alone, especially after having read the hot springs chapter of "Death in Yellowstone."











The namesake spring of the Sylvan Basin. This spring boils so vigorously that it is almost a whirlpool.













Overlooking Sylvan Basin, Gibbon Meadows in the background.













A moss forest, actually only about an inch and a half high.














Dead trees in the stone terraces of Sylvan's runoff.













The beautiful pools.
I love this milky blue pool. The pool has a lovely scalloped edge.














Runoff channels.

Gibbon River, meandering through Gibbon Meadows. Isn't a gibbon a kind of ape?












Stone waterfall (dark grey) this is the hidden, second geyser basin I found after arriving at Sylvan.













At the hidden basin.














Also at the hidden basin.

Elk antler in the runoff.














Wildflower called elephanthead for obvious reasons.




















The Emerald Pool.















A fluffy marsh wildflower.

Peak Experiences

This is a pika. He is about hamster-sized and we found him near the summit. Pikas collect grass all summer and dry it to use as hay during the winter. Sometimes they steal hay from eachother.
Shooting star wildflowers.
Me, Jessica, Pilar and Andrew at the summit.
Summit views.

This photo is for my Mom-thanks for the backpack, I still love it.
Female bighorn sheep, looking so scruffy, we weren't sure what they were.
Cow Parsnips against the slopes of Mt. Washburn.
It's so windy near the peak that half the trees have blown away.
This painting was in the observation towere at the summit. I like it.

Wow, this blog thing doesn't work so well around here. Getting online is a major challenge. I had the last two days off. Monday I hiked to Monument Geyser Basin with Rachel and Shane-with-the-broken-arm (there are about 5 Shanes here). Stacy came too, but fell asleep by the side of the trail after the first 1/4 mile. I love Monument Geyser Basin and wish I could share the photos, but they won't upload.
Tuesday Jessica (who is now my roommate) and I went to West Yellowstone. Today Jessica, Pilar, Andrew and I climbed Mt. Washburn. It was really a nice hike. We saw:

• TONS of tiny wildflowers



• a pika (sort of a wild, big-eared, alpine hamster)



• mountain goats



• grizzly sow and two cubs



• marmots



• the Grand Tetons on the other side of the park

Again, I wish I could upload the photos... I guess you'll just have to wait. Everything is here, wish you were beautiful.

Wapiti Dorm Life

OK, forget what I said about calling me. phone is a useless paperweight up here. I guess it still works as an alarm clock. If you just want to leave me a message to say Hi, I do check my messages when I go to Old Faithful or one of the surrounding towns.
I officially have friends now; Jessica from Missouri, Pilar and Andrew who are going to Humbolt in California and Stacy from Houston. Stacy is also 27 and going to nursing school. Jessica will probably be moving in as my roommate. Right now she's in Bison, the underage-no alcohol dorm.