Bechler to OF

Jeff and René, and Eric and William joined us for a beautiful little hike up Bechler Canyon and on to Old Faithful. It is a gorgeous hike of about 30 miles. We did it in four days. We only became despondent at one point in the hike, when it had been a long hard day already, and then we got soaked with rain, and after pitching camp in the rain, and having only a cold supper, we were all freezing cold. But, we got better, and the next two days the weather was fine.

Starting off at the Bechler Ranger Station, in the far southwest corner of Yellowstone Park. Brian came too, and celebrated his 13th birthday on the trail.

Heading out. Only 30 miles left.

Jack, Adam and me crossing Bechler Ford, the first of three river crossings. See Jack's flip-flops? I've got my boots slung over my pack to keep them dry.

Cool little suspension bridge at Bachler Meadows.

Brian handles it nonchalantly.

Jann coming across.

René, with Jeff watching attentively.

Jeff and René in the golden sunlight.

Camp on the first day, at Ouzel Falls. I guess we were tired.

Adam trying to stay out of the dirt, mostly.

William not even caring.

Jack and Brian, on the other hand..

Jack had a scratch on his back side from sitting on a sharp stick at scout camp. It was bugging him because his pack hit it and rubbed. René fixed it with a little bit of leopard-spot duct tape.

Eric's larger-than-recommended fire. Next morning when we woke up, the ground outside the fire ring was smoldering. We had to dig down and dump water on it to put it out.

Jack pretending to be a babushka.

Cards in the tent, to get away from mosquitos and some light rain. We had our big six-man tent, and it was very handy. Not too heavy either, since we split it up among our packs.

Next morning, it was raining. Not only did we get wet from above, but our boots and pants were totally soaked from brushing against the plants that overhung the narrow trail. But it was warm, and we didn't mind too much. After some time, it quit raining for a while.

The second ford. Most of us just ended up crossing in our boots, since they were already so wet.

Jeff, wishing he had brought a fly rod.

Eric and William helping each other.

Laura and Adam.

Jeff and René enjoying the water.

The little boys helping Jann across. She was a little worried about this crossing, but it all ended just fine.

Coming up to the first thermal area in the hike.

Along this segment of the trail, there is a "thermal feature" called Mr. Bubbles. It's supposed to be a secret, but everyone we met on the trail that day said "you know about the thermal feature, right?" The Park Service doesn't advertise it, but allows those who know about it to bathe there. Just don't get right into the boiling part.

On the way to Mr. Bubbles, a nice little table-top waterfall, with water dribbling over evenly around its perimeter.

One of the sources of hot water into Mr. Bubbles.

You also get cold water flowing in through a rock dam, coming from an adjacent little creek.

The result is a layer of hot water on top, and a layer of cold water deeper down. It would randomly fluctuate so that sometimes the cold water would go away, and sometimes it would get you.

I don't have any more photos of that second day, because when we left Mr. Bubbles at about 4:00, it started to rain again. We had already had a long day, and were tired, and then we had to climb up past Twister Falls to our next camp. Higher and higher we went, getting more and more tired after a long slog. And as the day wore on, it began to cool off. 

By the time we rolled into camp, we were thoroughly wet and exhausted. We pitched the tents, and those that had extra dry of clothes changed, and got in their sleeping bags. 

I didn't have any, thinking that my quick-dry stuff would be ok. I had put on my dry-ish hoodie and rain coat over my wet clothes as we hiked, so I was kind of warm. But I thought we should get a fire going. I did manage to find some dry twigs, and built a pretty big teepee with them. Then Jeff found some tinder-dry spruce needles somewhere. They lit immediately, and the teepee caught. So we tossed on bigger and bigger (wet) branches to make a larger fire. About this time, I had to lie down to rest my back.

In the tent, I zipped off my wet pant legs, took off my wet hoodie, and tried to get warm in my sleeping bag. But I was freezing and shivering badly. Everyone was so miserable they kept saying we should just skip the last camp site next day and hike out to the cars. It would be a long slog, but they were tired of this trip.

About this time it stopped raining, and Jeff came by the tent and said the fire was going well, and there was blue sky coming from the southwest. I was cold and needed to get dry, so I put on my wet clothes again and went back to the fire. One by one, most of us gathered around the fire. And indeed, it didn't rain again, and we did dry out, steaming the whole time. When night came, we went to bed dry and slept well.

Next day, we headed off to the camp site at Shoshone Meadows. It was kind of slog-ish too but the weather was good and we made it in good time. I was carrying the tent and the wet fly, and when we got it out to set it up, I was amazed at how much water poured out.

At camp three, Adam trying to pick his nose with a twig.

We didn't have any more mosquitoes or any more rain, so we could open up the fly and dry the tent out in the gentle breeze. 

Meanwhile, Brian and Jack were hopping around on Shoshone Creek that flowed by.

Brian got bit by an aquatic mouse, and needed a bandaid.

Hopping back and forth over the creek.

Adam, getting water.

William swinging on the bear pole.

Adam's hair was not a pleasant sight.

My hair wasn't so bad, thankfully.

That way to relief. They had little thrones built over pit potties. Kind of nice, in a stinky sort of way.

Laura was much happier than the day before.

Jeff, thinking that he might just try out that throne thing.

And here is the view..

In the morning, a pair of sandhill cranes flew over the tent, calling out their weird cry all the while. Jann and I stalked them, and managed to catch a glimpse before they flew away.

The last day was just as pleasant as the previous. Here, I'm crossing the Firehole River.

René was suffering a bit from blistered feet. Here we are at the turnoff to Lone Star Geyser.

Because we had not been thinking straight, we had parked the cars at Old Faithful on Sunday. Grandma and Grandpa Murdock helped us do this, and drove us home again that same day. So when we got dropped off by a friend at Bechler on Tuesday to start the hike, the plan was to hike to Lone Star, and then to OF. But it was a bit longer than just hiking to the trail head for Lone Star, and René's feet were not happy. So, Jann and I decided to skip LS and hike to OF to get the cars, while the rest hiked to LS, and then to its trail head. We drove from OF to the trail head of LS, to meet them.

Waiting for Lone Star Geyser to start it's thing.

Yay. Geyser.

Almost the end.

The hike to Old Faithful turned out to be a climb up to the top of a ridge, and back down, rather than the flat trail from Lone Star to its trail head. Ugh. But we made it. It was surprising to hear the racket of traffic and civilized life after so long in the quiet wood.

And here they come to the end of the journey.

Packing it in, and heading home. We stopped at Wild West Pizza, and had ice cream afterwards. 

All in all a very fine trip, with only some dark clouds and thunder to temper our wild enthusiasm. Thanks Jeff and René and sons (and Brian) for going with us.