My Adventures Thread

[BOX]

Heading east towards Bozeman, MT.







Again being led by a pilot vehicle through the fire area. We only had to wait 5 minutes heading west, but had to wait over 1 hour heading east. Heading west we saw 1 chopper dumping water, but saw 2 choppers working on the fire heading east.







More fire pictures.

[Buffalo Phil]

That's crazy. The west coast is being battered with those forest fires.

[hoggie101]

when i grow up doug i wanna be just like you

[Bigbike]

soo sweet! I wanna go!

[BOX]

Did a 6 mile hike on July 5th near Canyon Village, WY. Should have an update on that within the next couple days.

[BOX]

Did a 6 mile hike on July 5th near Canyon Village, WY. Should have an update on that within the next couple days.

Ran into a bunch of bison on this hike. Had to bushwhack our way around some of them.
They can weigh over 2,000 lbs and are the largest land animal in North America.
They can run 30 mph and jump 6 feet high. They like to use their heads as giant battering rams.
More people are killed by bison than by bears in the park. I think by around 10 or 20 fold.....

Actually had a bison almost walk into the building I work in 2 days ago.

There are around 15,000 elk in the park.
Around 3,500 bison.
Around 300 grizzly bears.
Around 300 black bears.
Around 150 wolves in 14 packs.

Saw this guy before leaving the employee dorm area on the way to the hike. A sign of things to come I guess?

[Burton58]

Doug saw a buffaloooooooooo

[Bigbike]

[BOX]

I left Canyon Village, WY around 3pm on July 5th with the goal of hiking the Wrangler Lake Trail.

The trailhead is only around 2 1/2 miles south of Canyon Village where I live.

Wapiti Lake trailhead (elevation 7,725 feet), which is also the Wrangler Lake trailhead. Left around 315pm.







Clear Lake / Ribbon Lake loop is the 6 mile hike we ended up doing. Not the Wrangler Lake trail which would have been an 8 mile hike. I will get to the reason why in a little while.

Clear Lake / Ribbon Lake loop is a solid brown on the map below.

Wrangler Lake trail is a hyphenated purple on the map below.





There was only 2 of us.....





Bison grazing a few hundred feet into the trail.





Onward.....

[BOX]

Around a half mile into the trail and we came to our first turn towards Wrangler Lake.





"Area closed to all travel"

I wasn't sure what that meant until the next day, but it was obvious we couldn't do Wrangler Lake trail and decided to do Clear Lake / Ribbon Lake loop.

Area closed to all travel apparently meant that one of the park's wolf packs had made their new den out there.





Heading towards Clear Lake now. Sky looking ominous.





1 1/2 miles into the trail and we reach Clear Lake.

[Burton58]

you look cold. what's the temp?

[BOX]

1 3/4 miles into the trail and we reach some thermal features.









2 miles into the trail and we hit forest for the first time of the day.







3 miles in and we hit Ribbon Lake. After Ribbon Lake we did not see another person on the trail for the last 3 miles of the hike.

Worst
Lake
Ever

Couldn't see any water or lake because it was so damn marshy. The mosquitoes were starting the become annoying even though we put insect repellent on the minute we had hit the woods. We were on our way away from there quickly.

[BOX]

Unnamed lake around 3 1/2 miles into the trail. As you can see the skies open up on us. The mosquitoes were pretty terrible until we got out of the woods so we were moving quickly through this area.







Finally no more woods approximately 4 miles into the trail. As you can see on the map we skirted along the open/closed area for the remainder of the hike.





Bison. This guy seemed to pop up out of nowhere. We were hiking and all the sudden you are 20 feet from a 2000 pound animal. We froze for a few seconds then kept on trail quietly without disturbing him. A few hundred feet more down the trail a bison was walking towards us on the trail itself. We had to bushwhack a few hundred feet off the trail and around this one. No pictures because it happened quickly and we wanted to get out of his way.

[BOX]

you look cold. what's the temp?

I think it was low 60s when we started and high 40s when we finished. The rain made it feel pretty chilly for the final 2 1/2 miles.

[Pedro]

Just one thing missing from this picture...........