| (Yellowstone Trip - June 9 to June 24, 2000 - Part 6 ) | |
| Thursday, June 15, 2000
Reluctantly, we packed up to leave Roosevelt with its great location and great bed! (or were just a little tired?) At breakfast, we met Charles and a group of wolf-watchers once more, and thanked Ranger Bill Wengeler for suggesting yesterday’s Yellowstone Rim hike. We bounced along the road, hustling to rendezvous with Ken D. and Shannon at the Lone Star trail head at 11:00. We took the western route from Canyon through Norris to avoid the construction down by the Lake, and arrived at the trail head ahead of our hiking companions. |
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At first we feared this big bison in the parking lot had eaten the two of them, but they soon arrived. We left our loon flag waiving from the car antenna in case any others loons saw our note in the Mammoth Visitors Center "green book" and came to join us. It was a beautiful sunny day to take a hike and we had lots of fun conversation. |
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| Ken is very knowledgeable about wildlife, and pointed out many species of wildflower for us, and Shannon is just a joy to be around - really enthusiastic, charming young woman (loon in training?). Returning hikers told us the time of the last eruption, so we figured we still had at least another hour after picnicking at the Geyser. | |
| Shannon passed some of the time constructing "Stickhenge" until we decide to hike a bit further to see what thermal features we could find. With paths going in three directions from which to choose, (the two we didn't take actually heading toward other thermal features - some springs or Buried Geyser), we set off in the wrong direction. We may have been worried about bears hiking deep into the woods, but not to fear! KenD is a natural bear repellant (now that's a strong personality! Unfortunately, some of it rubbed off on us when it came to looking for Grizzlies! We never did see one! But that's another story…). We hiked about half an hour before turning back toward Lone Star. |  |
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When we returned, over a dozen people were already waiting for the eruption. While waiting we took some of the usual photos of the big cone! |
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| KenD asked a stranger to take a photo of Shannon and himself, and after overhearing the stranger say to another hiker that he’s from Charlotte, KenD asked "Are you Steve?" Ah-Hah! Another lurking loon is exposed! Steve was kind enough to also take a group shot of the four of us... | |
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but this is unfortunately our only photo of Steve ... |
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Wait!!! Here is another glimpse of Steve in action! (Now you know why his web site has all those great pictures!). |
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The show is starting... |
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...a little more... |
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...MORE ... |
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... AND... |
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... WOW!!! |
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| One last picture with the
"three" of us!
After the show, Steve joined us for the hike back to parking lot. Conversing with our loony friends made the walk back seem much too short! |
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The drive we had feared through the construction around Lake wasn’t as bad as expected, and it was pleasantly interrupted by a black bear jam near the turn off to the Lake Hotel area. We also saw an elk buck with a huge rack just before Canyon. |
| After dinner, our usual dessert (Moose Tracks) at the Ham store, was interrupted by (surprise!) Shannon, who takes us aside. "Get Ken engaged in an animated conversation so I can shop!" she said. Smart kid (and not a difficult task)! It was made even easier when Jennifer, JohnD and his brother MikeD came along. However, Shannon’s shopping was cut short (sorry!) when we noticed the puddle that Ken’s melting ice was leaving on the floor. | |
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