beaver jam

My weekend started at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon, and for once the sun was shining. We set out for the Little America section of the park (just past the Yellowstone Picnic area en route to the Lamar Valley), and hiked a short ways from the road to an old wolf den.

The hike starts in open sagebrush and ends at the abandoned wolf den, just inside the treeline. As we hiked I told Steve that we should make a lot of noise, as there's normally a lot of bear activity in the area. Ten minutes into the hike, as I was glassing the treeline with binoculars, I spotted a movement. Bear!


It was a decent-sized cinnamon black bear, and apparently our frequent shouting of "Hey There!" had reached him, as he was moving up the mountainside and away from us when I noticed him. After waiting a while to make sure he had vacated the area, we continued on, and spotted the den in the trees.


It was much smaller than I expected it to be, and I made Steve pose next to it for comparison.


Though this den is long-abandoned, we did find fresh wolf tracks in the mud as we hiked.


We hiked back to the car, took a short drive, and then headed back towards Tower Junction. As we drove past where we had just been hiking we noticed that the cinnamon bear was back in site, grazing along the treeline. And not far from him were two other black bears--that made three separate bears grazing not far from where we'd been hiking. Just goes to show that it pays to make a lot of noise when hiking!

Right after we drove over the Yellowstone River bridge we ran into a familiar friend--the fox from winter. I had just enough time to snap one photo of him before he disappeared over the ridge.


Near Obsidian Cliff I noticed something along the edge of the road, and a quick U Turn revealed it was a beaver. I felt a little bad because after we stopped several cars stopped, and the poor guy had about 10 cars full of people watching him go about his business. But he didn't seem to mind too much.




Right before we got home, at Swan Lake Flats, the grizzly with four cubs was out again, and we watched the cubs wrestle for about an hour before we called it a day. Everyone here has their fingers crossed that she'll be able to keep all four of the little ones.

elk calf

Yesterday around noon an elk gave birth two doors down from the Visitor's Center. It attracted quite a crowd, and many of my coworkers were able to slip outside at their lunch break sand see it all happen.

I was stuck inside working though, so I called Steve and he came down right after the calf was born and snapped these pics as it attempted to--and then did--take its first steps.

HAWKS WIN! HAWKS WIN!

Race of Discovery

I came out of running retirement this weekend to run the Lewis & Clark half-marathon with Wendie. It was hard - given the snow, rain, hills, altitude, bears, bison and elk - to train for the race, but we did the best we could.

As a pre-race reward we hit the 2nd Street Bistro on the way to Bozeman for our pre-race dinner. Wendie went with the lamb pizza

while I chose to go with the burger and the biggest bowl of fries ever (those are carbs right?).

We stayed in a hotel so we could get up at 5:30am instead 3:30am. Up and at 'em, we headed to Montana State's football stadium (home of the Bobcats)

to register and catch a bus to the start (which is right near a campsite Lewis & Clark used in 1806). We were pleasantly surprised by the quality of shirts

and to find one of our friends from the winter on our bus, but once we got off the bus we got a little worried. Not only was the temp hovering around 40 but it was also drizzling. The cold we could deal with but given that it has been raining here since May, we didn't want to run in yet another downpour.

Luckily, just as the race was beginning, it started to clear up and we had perfect running weather for the rest of the day. And, just as L&C's Corps of Discovery were seeing places for the first time, Wendie and I got to take in parts of Bozeman we had never seen before.

The course was a little hilly at times but there was also a nice mix of running on the road and using some local trails, so not only did we get see some the sights but we also got to see where the locals live. Though I know Wendie likes the old-school log cabin look

which is prevalent in this area, I dug the look of the newer homes, which are sort of eco-friendly Craftsmen-style bungalows/ranches

After reaching the top of the highest hill on the course, I could see the stadium (AKA, the finish) below us and, pointing it out to Wendie, I felt like Captain Clark when he saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time and wrote in his journal, "O! The Joy!" But then like Clark, who soon realized he had to also go back the way he came, I remembered that we still had 5 miles to go. And, given that we never made it past 8 miles in our training, the last 5 miles weren't easy.

Still, with my knees aching and Wendie's asthma acting up, we made it to the MSU track,

did our victory lap (which Wendie's Garmin GPS told her was excessive since it said we had already run 13.1 miles before the extra .4 we ran on the track), and finished side-by-side. There were no personal records but we finished, which at the time seemed good enough considering they were giving away slices of pizza and oatmeal raisin cookies.

After some quick and much-needed showers, we celebrated, as Wendie only knows how, with some food. This time sandwiches from the Bozeman Co-op

and then made the hour and half drive back to the Park because Wendie actually had to go to work for the afternoon.

With a Dr. Pepper and the support of the Rangers at the Visitor Center who made this sign

she made it through her shift in one piece.

rain, rain, rain

It's been raining here for over 10 days. The rivers are overflowing, and part of Slough Creek and all of Pebble Creek campgrounds are underwater. There have been flash flood warnings and crazy thunderstorms, and every time I check the weather forecast it's more of the same.

We found a slight break in the weather last week and hit the Garnet Hill trail with a friend. This is an 8-mile loop near Tower Junction, the same one we did back in April where we found the huge grizzly prints.


The river was already high; I can't imagine what it looks like now.


The theme of this hike was MARMOTS! We must have seen over 40 marmots, the biggest, fattest marmots I've ever seen in the park.


We'd be walking along and all of a sudden spot a marmot tail wagging in the sagebrush, and then we'd start to count 'em. they were everywhere.


This big guy refused to get off the trail, and we actually had to detour around him to finish the hike. I can honestly say I've never had to make a marmot detour on a hike before...



In other news, the elk have started having their babies, and this little guy was actually born just a couple of doors down from the visitor's center.

bison! bison! bison!

Bison are everywhere right now. There are three resident bulls that hang out here in our "neighborhood" at the Yak Camp.

Lately they've been moved along by the new herd in town. Steve was late to pick me up from work the other day because, well, because he couldn't get to our car (you can see it there in the background.)


But they had cute calves with them, so it's hard to be annoyed.


And besides, there's nothing you can do; bison weight a ton and they move (or don't move) when they feel like it.

The other night this herd was hanging out up the street from our place. Everyone was relaxing, including this adorable guy.


Apparently they were just saving up their energy, because later that evening one of them decided to battle our neighbor's car. He rubbed the bumper with his head. He jumped up on the hood. Then he decided to play nice and licked the grill. Hopefully our Wyoming car insurance covers BISON.

And it's not just here--on Thursday a friend and I were running on the old Gardiner road and we came upon a bison herd on both sides of the road. We tried to make a wide detour around them, off the road, but one cranky bison was having none of it. She continued to follow us, pushing us further and further up the mountainside and away from the road. In the end, we made an almost 1-mile detour around the herd before she stopped following us, satisfied that she got her point across.

meet the neighbors

On my way home from Canyon last night I ran into a big bear jam--apparently the grizz with four cubs has decided to stay put just up the road, much to the delight of park visitors (and me, her neighbor on the other side of the mountain.)