CDT83
16th July Sunday
At 2,040mile mark, only 1,000 to go
Seven o’clock I had my thumb out to hitch-hike to the entrance to the Yellowstone national park and by 8, I got a lift with Dale, a retired ex border security guard, in his pickup and lucky for me, I had an option to get a lift all the way to Old Faithful Village, which is the main centre of the national park or get dropped off at the entrance and go from there, 25 mile walk.
Hayden Valley
I ended up getting a lift to Old Faithful with a large detour to all the major sights of the Yellowstone national park, in the pickup I got within a couple of metres of a wild buffalo, we watch a herd of Buffalo feeding on the plans, saw a Grizzle bear, Elk and deer along the way.
There’s an Elk there somewhere
Went to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and viewed the great waterfall, Hayden Valley with its pleasant green pastures fields with more Buffalo and to top it off, we made it to Old Faithful to watch it erupt which does every 2 hours.
Old Faithful
Do I feel guilty about not walking the trail 100% and missing 25 miles?, definitely not as today was the best day I’ve had on the trail so far and thanks to Dale for being my private tour guide, I had such a remarkable and memorable day.
While in the national park, I had to get a permit and pay for a camp site. Usually, the ranger said, they look after CDT hikers like me and put us up somewhere real close to the Village but it was already filled up so the next closest place was about 4 miles out. And after watching a compulsory video about dealing with a close encounter of a Grizzly, I paid my 3 dollars for the permit and campsites and again Dale was kind enough to dropped me off at the trail head from where I walked an hour to the Lone Star Camp site.
Along the way I passed a Geyser, this one erupts every 2 hours sending hot water into the air to about 30-40 feet which lasts 10-15 minutes, but this one I didn’t wait for.
Dale and myself as he finally dropped me off at the trail head from where I will walk to my camp site (Lone Star Camp site)
I asked the lady at the Ranger office about access to WiFi, she said that there isn’t much except if you want to pay for it and she said it was expensive so it looks like it’s going to be another four days before I get in touch with the outside world.