Muskrats and pikas and bears, oh my!

I flew into Bozeman, a small town close to Yellowstone National Park where I had signed up for a four day Yellowstone hike which was expensive but they provided all the gear, excellent food, our guides were fantastic and I figured it was probably a good idea not to go tramping around bear country on my own.

Our guides Janelle and Tom were not just fun, they knew everything about the area, the animals, plants, geography, they told us a lot about the history of the park and the reintroduction of wolves to the area and cooked up fantastic camp meals.

Besides Janelle, Tom and myself there were only two others on the tour, Linda from San Franscisco who has two uni aged kids and a love of fly-fishing and Lauren a London artist younger than me who'd left her boyfriend in a hotel in Bozeman because he'd rolled his ankle the week before.

We set out under clear blue skies, the sun beating down and helping us work up a sweat pretty quick despite the easy walk. We saw only a handful of other people as we crossed meadows of thigh high grasses and wildflowers, disappeared into shady forests, crossed hills of fallen lodge pines sprinkled like matchsticks over the slopes and passed hot sulphur springs with white or ochre crusted edges and crystal clear water.

Backpacks on and trekking off into the wilderness

A hillside of dead lodge pines

Our first glimpse of Heart Lake

Hot springs are everywhere

We passed a ranger, a rifle strapped to his back, as he headed out to check the campsites for signs of a pesky bear who had been sighted recently and see if he was still around.

Tom was happy when we arrived at our first camp in the early afternoon, he said we were 'killing it' with our hiking speed which meant more downtime at the camp so he and Linda could fit in some fishing.

Our camp was in the shade of the trees by Heart Lake, so we had a swim and relaxed by the lake, it was so quiet and sunny and peaceful.

The shoreline of Heart Lake

Hiking around the lake to our camp

Tom getting in a spot of fly fishing

After dinner we put all our things in the bear hangs then with our bear spray by our side retired to our cute, little, one man tents that were dotted among the trees.

The bear hang is just a pole up in the trees, we had rope with us and tied everything together then hoisted it up until it was out of reach of any bears that might be wandering about.

Janelle preparing our dinner under the bear hang.

My little home away from home

My tent was near the top a hill looking out over the lake, in the morning I climbed some rocks to get a look out over the lake and was surprised to see lots of furry little things scampering about. Muscrats and pikas scurried around and over the rocks doing whatever it is muscrats and pikas do in the morning, not at all bothered by me.

Aww little pika, so cute

Muscrat, not as cute as the pika, a bit more weaselly looking

We packed up and set off again, while walking we saw a giant elk in the distance, he stood staring in our direction before taking off, I couldn't believe how giant he was! But I was too slow to get my camera out before he took off :(

We continued on through the mix of landscapes we'd seen yesterday, stopping to look at scratched trees and other signs bears had been in the area.

Setting off again with a last look at Heart Lake

Small marsh areas also popped up on our walk

Walking through grassy fields full of wildflowers

We finished up for the day beside another lake and had a peaceful afternoon with everyone spread out doing their own thing, Janelle by the lake with a book, Tom and Linda fishing, Lauren with her sketchbook out and me wandering about with my camera.

We got to have a fire at this camp so we had dinner and hung out afterwards having cup of tea and a chat by the fire.

On the way to bed I noticed the amazing night sky, so I grabbed my camera and tripod, Tom couldn't believe I'd been hiking around with it in my pack, and went out to take some pics. Linda and Lauren came out to lay in the grass and watch the stars with me, an amazing clear night, millions of stars, the milky way a dusty cloud across the sky and so many shooting stars, so many wishes to make!  (pity the pics turned out to crap to post).

Lauren, Tom and Janelle hanging out by the fire

The next days camp was next to a river, a hot spring ran off into the river as well, so you could sit in the warm water, but hot springs are a bit funny, the water temp is not consistent, or maybe is the volume of water that changes, but one minute you're having a nice time in the bath temp water, then two seconds later you're all 'ah fuck, it's hot' and trying to splash cold water from the river into the hot water of the spring or swimming yourself further out into the river where it's cooler for a minute until the temp goes back down and you can move back into the warm water again.

Janelle called us down to the river and there were all these fresh tracks in the mud, there were the tracks of the deer and following very closely on those tracks were the tracks of a wolf and a bear!

Getting close to our next camp spot

Crossing the river was fun

Lauren and Linda sitting where the hot spring water meet 

Bear and wolf prints fresh and still wet in the mud

Bear print

Our last day we hiked back to where we had a last river crossing before reaching the carpark, we sat in the sunshine, shoes off and feet in the cool water waiting for our ride to arrive.

We could see the road, cars and vans, bumper to bumper, crawling along, engines revving and horns tooting, we were all reluctant to make the final river crossing and have the trip be over.

All the gang hanging out as the sun sets on our last night

One thing I love about camping is that first shower when you get home, the dirt and grime and sweat washes off and you feel like a whole new person.

Freshly scrubbed I walked into Bozeman for food and found the main street blocked off, there were food vans, all the pubs had bars set up out front and there was a large truck set up as a stage for music.

I noticed a sign for sangria and queued up behind a couple, I spent a minute of looking at the back of the girls head before figuring it out.
'Lauren?' I said and she turned around confused then smiled.
'Ha, I was wondering how anyone here knew my name,' she said.
'It took me a minute to figure out it was you, you look different clean!' I said.
Lauren introduced me to her boyfriend Mike and we hung out for a while, testing the sangria and watching the locals dancing up a storm in front of the music truck.

Next stop Miami and meeting back up with Robina.