News

Just over a week ago, the Canyon Lodge kitchen (which they told us is the tenth largest kitchen in the US) got five fancy new stoves for $30,000 each.  They have little computers, along with their own temperature probes that go in the food.  When the food reaches the right internal temperature, the machine recognizes it and tells the humans.  We are still in the early stages leading to the robot revolution.

Meanwhile, I got my new 3 ounce, auto-igniting Snow Peak GigaPower backpacking stove in the mail a few days ago (on sale and for far less than $30,000).  I was so excited that I told everyone I saw (to Hilary's eventual annoyance).  Yesterday my 7 ounce skillet came, so we'll be able to make pancakes and fried eggs on our next trip.

This weblog has now been featured twice in the online Yellowstone Newspaper's opinions pieces section, once on June 5th and once on June 21st.  If you want, you can follow the link to the paper, then follow the paper's link back to the blog.

I don't like when I'm serving breakfast and have this conversation with people: "I'll have biscuits and gravy."

"How many biscuits?"

"Just one."

One the other hand, I love when foreign people ask for "shrimps."

Hilary (and I) have also noticed that after we list the soup options (including cream of broccoli soup), people often ask for the "broccoli and cheese soup."  Then Hilary hits them with the ladle and says "There's no cheese!"

Adventures galore

I’ve made a huge mistake.

In preparation for our most recent weekend I packed my backpack in a bit of a hurry.  James and I left Canyon in the late morning and arrived at our Thorofare TH (Trail Head) at 1:15.  It was at that point that I realized that I left my camera at home.  I regretted it immediately and continue to regret my huge mistake.  I was unable to photograph the wolf-prints and bear-prints that we saw all over our trail, and I was unable to capture the beautiful scenery on “film.”  The hike was breathtaking once we entered the forest, but it was hard to appreciate during our journey to our campsite.  James and I were attacked by Yellowstone’s most vicious animal – the mosquito – on our way to the campsite.  This hindrance made breaks impossible, so we consequently made our best time yet.

Still, the lakeside campsite was breathtaking.  I felt wonderful after taking a nap, and I built my first ever fire that allowed us to make S’mores. 

In other news:

James and I utilized our status as Xanterra employees to take the “Wake Up to Wildlife” bus tour with our friends Becky and Mary Kathryn.  The scenery was stunning, and the quality time with friends was absolutely wonderful.  We saw loads of bison, a small pack of wolves from very far away, and some pronghorn.  No moose.

James, our Michigan friend Katy, and a recent Rice graduate hiked to Observation Peak on Wednesday before work.  They had the pleasure? of seeing a Grizzly bear from the trail, which made me (secretly) grateful that I decided to sleep in.

Sporks?

The other day I was talking to Wilson, my Malaysian/Singaporean coworker, about his name.  He said that he picked the name Wilson when he came here this summer and that his Chinese name is "Wee Kwan."  I told him that in America they call me "Strong One."

Also, I've been browsing through backpacking gear websites, and a lot of reputable companies are selling backpacking sporks.  To me, sporks seem to fail as both spoons and forks, but many people seem to disagree.  What are your thoughts?

Fairy Creek Trail

This past weekend (Thursday and Friday), Hilary and I went on our third backpacking adventure and our first outside the Canyon area.  I’ve been choosing harder trails, but the hikes have been getting easier; Hilary is quickly acclimating and on her way to becoming a mountain woman, and I’m getting back into the swing of things.  We walked ten miles on the first day (with a 1000 foot elevation gain) and seven miles on the second day, mostly on the Fairy Creek Trail.

We saw Fairy Falls, Spray Geyser, and Imperial Geyser on Thursday and spent the night in the almost oxymoronic Little Firehole Meadow (in the background of shown photo).  The grassy expanse, named after the Firehole River, has been our favorite campsite thus far.

The following day we continued on the Fairy Creek Trail, leaving the Firehole River and meeting back up with it as it spilt over Mystic Falls before sweeping round the “fireholes” of the Upper Geyser Basin.

The Fairy Creek Trail ended at Biscuit Basin, home of the clear blue Sapphire Pool.  We continued on a boardwalk through the Upper Geyser Basin, where we got to see eruptions of Grand Geyser, Beehive Geyser, and Old Faithful, amongst many other “thermal features.”

Along the way, we also encountered various wildlife.  In addition to bear tracks on the trail, there was a buffalo next to Imperial Geyser and a deer leaping across a stream next to our path.  At Fairy Falls we made a marmot friend, though we only realized his identity after the fact.

Also, many geographic features of Yellowstone are still unnamed, so as an explorer and adventurer I took it upon myself to christen the lake we encountered at the highest point on our trail "Loch James Everett Newman."

After completing our hike, we got a ride back to Canyon Village from a nice married couple who called themselves Doug and Lorraine.  The pair met when they were college students working in the park in the 1960s.  After graduating they got married; Doug worked for NASA for thirty-something years, and he is now an adjunct professor of mathematics at William and Mary.  Now that they are “semi-retired,” they have returned to Yellowstone this summer and last, working in the Mammoth dining room and gift shop.  Getting to ride with them and talk to them was a lot of fun.

As usual, Hilary took some great pictures during the hike, which I have posted on flickr (link to the right).  This new batch of photos is particularly good.

 

Seven Mile Hole Addendum

A couple of things I would like to add to Hilary’s entry regarding our hike:

I enjoyed hearing the gentle roar of the river from our campsite, as well as getting to see the canyon from a different (and beautiful) perspective.

Though parts of the hike were challenging, the scenery was wonderful along the way.  When we stopped to catch our breath two-thirds of the way out, we sang and played the ukulele against the backdrop of the canyon.

On the way back, we made tasty pancakes for dinner (on the upside-down lid of my pot) across the canyon from Silver Cord Cascade (pictured).  The creek several meters upstream of the then-invisible waterfall was our water source on our Ribbon Lake trip, and I was glad to finally see Silver Cord on this hike.

We had collected our water from the mighty Yellowstone River, which I thought was just so cool.  We had some water left when we returned, so I asked our friends, “Who wants to drink some water from the Yellowstone River?”  Hilary reminded me, “All of Canyon’s water comes from the Yellowstone River.”

Second Hike

Hilary Mills Hazel wrote this blog entry.

So James blogged all about our relaxing “weekend” last week, but we decided that it was high time that we went on another backpacking trip.  After much deliberation, and three hours in the backcountry office planning out our entire summer, James decided that we should go to Seven Mile Hole.  By going to this particular campsite we would be camping inside the canyon, right next to the Yellowstone River. 

I was a little bit apprehensive about this trip after such an experience two we

ekends ago, but I was still up for it.

When we arrived at the trailhead, James told me that it would be basically flat up until the drop into the canyon.

Mostly flat.

Right away it was hilly, and then it was cliffy.  We lost our trail at one point kind of near the end of our trip, and had to hunt around

 until we found it.  After three prospective trailheads, we finally found one that was obviously a trail.  We followed it for about ¾ of a mile, but were dismayed to discover that we took the wrong fork in the road.

We backtracked, and finally found our campsite.

Once we arrived we set up camp and made our meal.  Two other lost hikers found us, and we pointed them back up the hill to the fork.

I slept more warmly than I did last trip, and had an altogether better time.  The area was very lovely, and we were very close to the river, which was very fascinating.  Nevertheless, I was a bit bored by midday and decided that I would rather leave late a day early than leave early in the morning on the intended day.

After fighting my way out of the Canyon, I agreed with James.  It really was mostly flat once we got out.

Snow!

It snowed yesterday at Canyon Lodge! (in June!)  I watched it cover the ground and the trees from the cafeteria window as I served breakfast and lunch.  Though there have been scattered piles of snow lying around leftover from past snowfalls (as seen in a previously posted picture of Canyon Lodge), this is the first time here that we have experienced any new snow, so fresh and soft and falling right in front of us.  Hilary took some good pictures of it, which I have put on flickr (link to the right).

One of the nice things about Yellowstone is that it draws employees from all over, offering different points of view.  My coworkers from Michigan, Illinois, and other northern states acknowledged that the snow was pretty, but did not share my enthusiasm, and may even have found strange how often I mentioned that it was "still snowing." Nevertheless, my Georgian comrades appreciated the snow as much as I did, and my friend Andy from Singapore was happy as well; she had never seen snow before, and had said when we first got here that her goal for the summer was to see snow.  

When my boss Roger told me to take my lunch break, I replied, "Okay, I'll take my snow break."  I did eat lunch, but I also found time to have a fun snowball fight or two with Hilary.

That morning, I served breakfast to some park guests from China. Sometimes I communicate with visitors with limited English, but these folks were the first ones I have encountered who seemed to speak none at all.  Some of the foods we serve are oatmeal and biscuits & gravy, all of which are near each other in the food line.  The first Chinese man enthusiastically pointed to the gravy.  I asked, "would you like a biscuit with that?"  He said nothing.  I smiled and pointed at the biscuit, and he shook his head.  "Do you want oatmeal?"  I pointed at the oatmeal, and he shook his head.  I pointed at the gravy, and he smiled and nodded.  With a doubtful, questioning look, I held up a bowl, and he continued to smile and nod.  I reluctantly served him up a hot bowl of gravy, and he was happy.  The next man also smiled and pointed to the gravy, and I sighed and gave it to him. I said, "I don't think this is what you think it is," but the words were lost on the two men.

The Washburn Expedition

Hilary and I had Wednesday and Thursday off this week.  When I told her that it was supposed to rain both days and that it was supposed to freeze at night, she told me she wanted to skip backpacking this time.  Secretly relieved at her resolve to stay in, I told her that if she didn’t want to go, I suppose I wouldn’t mind sitting this one out.

For whatever reason (but probably because of several early morning shifts), Hilary wanted to begin her weekend by sleeping in.  I decided to carpe the diem and fill in for a tired coworker, so I got up early to serve breakfast in the cafeteria.  I don’t know why I like it so much, but I particularly enjoy serving breakfast.  Getting to serve it with my Michigan friends was a bonus and a pleasant surprise.

Afterward, Hilary and I ate lunch, did laundry, and watched The Italian Job (which I thoroughly enjoyed) while it rained outside.

We get to ride on tour buses for free as employees, so we decided to go on "The Washburn Expedition" today, named after the Washburn Expedition.  We rode in the same nifty type of bus we took to get here on day one, making a loop around much of the northern half of Yellowstone.  We saw a bighorn sheep, a distant black bear, several pronghorns, and many bison, along with three waterfalls and many beautiful hills, mountains, and meadows.  Along the way, we visited Mammoth Hot Springs, which make attractive terraces by depositing bits of limestone as the water flows.

In other news:

I have posted photographs from our first hike and from today's bus tour.

Hilary has her “Greetings from Texas” postcard from Erin proudly displayed on her wall.

We have both recently decided that English muffins are one of the best foods on the planet and have been eating them at every meal.

Hilary was yawning as I was writing this entry and apologized for being “so yawny.”

I just bought a wonderful National Geographic topographic map of Yellowstone that has all of the backcountry trails.  I love it and have already spent about an hour studying it.

Identities

I worked my first shift as server Sunday evening at the Stir Fry station.  The best part of serving is getting to talk to the guests.

My favorite interaction was with a stocky, bearded man who approached my station with fervor for stir fry.  Noticing that he was scrutinizing my three sauces, I said, “We have sesame ginger, sweet & sour, and teriyaki sauces, if you were wondering their identities.”  “Identities,” he laughed, “I like the way you talk.”  After going back to the front of the calf to get a tray, he returned still laughing, “You’re killing me . . . identities.”

Thirty minutes later a woman came and starting looking at my food.  She pointed and asked in a European accent, “What are those?”  I told her, “They’re egg rolls – little fried things with vegetables inside.  They’re pretty good.”  After pausing for a few seconds she said, “I don’t like vegetables,” and abruptly walked away.

First Hike

Hilary here, and the other day (Friday, May 29 to be exact) I went on my very first backpacking trip. James and I stayed at our dorm until about one o’clock in the afternoon so that we would be able to rent a tent from the rec(reation) center, only to find out that our waiting around was fruitless since they did not have any tents yet. Fortunately, we were able to borrow one pretty quickly from a fellow employee who has just graduated from Rice University. We got our backcountry meals from the EDR (Employee Dining Room), packed our packs, and finally were on our way.

This being my first hike, and being with James Everett Newman, I did not want to skimp too much on the weight of my pack. The bag started out heavy (for me), and just kept getting heavier.

A few miles later, it was time to slap some moleskin on my feet.
Still later, I started to notice the burning on my hips as my backpack continued to rub me raw.

Then James Everett Newman offered to carry mine as well as his, and manfully carried both for the last three miles of our trek.

My legs hurt, my lungs hurt, and so far I felt pretty miserable. Then we passed a beautiful view of the canyon that took my breath away. My breath is taken away all the time at this altitude, but this was different.

Despite the not-all-together stellar start to my backpacking career, it sure was worth it.

Also . . . James had a blast.