NATURE
OVERLOAD!!!
Sherry and Frank Sayers,
Woodland Wanderers
Can you believe everything you
see in a single day??? Mountains, trees, fallen trees, streams and
waterfalls, bison, elk, deer, geysers, hot springs.
Back up. Sherry and I had never been to
Yellowstone nor Grand Teton, so when a club from Washington (Extreme
Volkssport Adventures) posted a series of events in the
two parks, we had to participate. A road trip was called for.
Please note. We are not extreme
volkssporters. But we had to try.
We got off work on Friday and drove to
Cody, WY. The last walk in Yellowstone was Saturday morning, with the
start between 0730-0900. Naturally, we were almost late. Cody is
about a hundred miles from the park, then we were surrounded by herds
of buffalo and ignorant tourists (speed limit 45, going 20 because
they think there will be a moose around every corner, no passing
allowed) on the way to the trail head. Naturally, since we were in a
hurry, I thoughtfully left the camera in the back. No pictures of the
hundreds of buffalo on the road. We did, however, see tourists stop
on the road so they could take pictures of . . . horses? Sigh.
We did manage to reach the Yellowstone
trailhead in time, but unfortunately, the president of the club did
not have the stamps at the start, so we agreed to meet them in Grand
Teton on Monday for the final walk. After the walk to the top of
Mt
Washburn (rated 5, summit altitude 10,243 feet or 3,122 meters,
elevation gain of 1384 feet), we became tourists, and spent the rest
of the day sightseeing around Yellowstone.
It eventually got dark,
and we drove the long way to our stop for the night in Idaho Falls,
ID.
Part of our road trip was to get more
states on our Pony Express Special Program, so on Sunday we drove to
Huntsville, UT
and did their year-round. As part of the road trip,
not eating out is not an option. You know, 'Walk Walk Talk, Walk Walk
EAT'. We had ice cream almost every day.
Monday it was back to Grand Teton. More
ignorant tourists. Got to the start point, no Washington group.
Waited until 0900, then did the walk anyway.
Did the 10k (rated 4) to
Bradley Lake and back. They had been caught in some significant road
construction and did not arrive at the start point until about 0915.
Problem with this is no stamp, since the event stamp was with the
Washington group and we never saw them today. I don't do a walk
without a stamp!!! We finally managed to contact the group and make
arrangements for insert cards to be stamped and mailed to us.
On the way out of the park to check out
Jackson, WY (they call it Jackson Hole) we picked up a hitchhiker. I
do not know why. I just don't do that. But I did. He was Michael from
the UK. He was hitching across the US, and had just spent 11 days in
the back country of Yellowstone. We talked on the trip to town about
his adventures and about our volksmarching and our time in London,
then dropped him off at the Visitor Center in Jackson. He was
continuing his trek to San Francisco.
We spent the rest of the day doing more
sightseeing, including Old Faithful.
Now we have walked in Yellowstone and
Grand Teton. The Black Hills Blackjack weekend was Labor Day weekend
(21 events!), so we traveled across Wyoming doing several of the
year-round walks in the various state parks and such. Tuesday we
walked
Sinks Canyon,
Wednesday Thermopolis
(and the FREE state park bath house was GREAT!!), and Thursday we were in
Buffalo.
Friday we drove from Buffalo, WY to
Hill City, SD. The Blackjack events were in several different cities
at the same time. We were spending Friday night in Hill City, so
after a late lunch at one of the best places to eat we found on the
trip (Desperados), we did one of the
Hill City walks. Several of the
folks from Colorado were there, doing many more of the walks than we
could. After the walk we drove to Custer to visit our friend Tim the
parrot in the Bank coffee shop. Of course we had a Raspberry Mocha.
Tim has been there for the past 11 years or so. He was not very
talkative this evening.
Saturday found us in Deadwood, SD.
Signed up and did the
Mt Moriah cemetery walk.
As we began the ascent
to the cemetery (pretty steep, actually) a little old lady driving
past stopped her car, rolled down the window and asked us if we were
walking to the cemetery. We said yes, and she sighed and said, “Get
in. I'll take you up there.” I thanked her and respectfully
declined. After we got to the top, we thought maybe we should have
taken the ride!!
We spent Saturday night in Spearfish.
Unfortunately, the BHVA Spearfish walks were only on Monday, and we
had to leave before then. So, we decided on a really tough day for
us. We did the
YRE in Spearfish,
drove back to Deadwood and did the short
Red X Mine walk,
then drove the short distance through
Sturgis to Rapid City
(where it was 100 degrees) to do one of the downtown
walks. Holy President Statue!! We were
'Bush'ed.
Part of our road trip was to add more
of the states in the Pony Express Special Program. Nebraska is one of
those, so Sunday night we spent in Scottsbluff, NE. After finding out
the hot tub was broken :-( we got some rest and sorta slept in.
Labor Day we departed Scottsbluff and
headed for the YRE in
Sidney, NE.
We had done this walk many many
years ago, because it is the closest to Colorado. The walk starts at
the same Community Center, follows the flood control area, then back
through town.
All in all, a great trip. Some hot
weather, some cool weather, much nature, many volksmarchers, 12
walks, some interesting restaurants, and we added three states to our
Pony Express. I think just three more to go. I feel another road trip
coming on.
