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Published: August 12th 2008
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Earthquake Lake
Looking out over Earthquake Lake Today is Sunday Aug. 3rd
It was down right chilly this morning, so we started out the morning with a bon-fire. It was GREAT!
Headed toward Yellowstone, and stopped on the way to see about fuel and showers. We all thought the people there were high on something-they wanted $7.00 bucks a piece for showers, and gas was over $5.00 a gallon! So we told them they could keep their crap, and headed for Yellowstone again.
Went through the gates @ Yellowstone and stopped @ a Yuppie Chateau to get some breakfast. We were informed that they were "no longer serving breakfast". We were welcome to return for the evening meal.
So we checked out the other restaurant in the place, and apparently everyone else had been told the same thing as there were probably 75-100 people in line for breakfast there.
We checked out an expensive little shop there, then left.
Went on up the road where we ate a quick bite of microwaved burritos, chocolate milk, chips, sandwiches, and sodas.
While we were there, some crazy brod in a car came barrelling into the parking lot and almost took Pat out. He actually had to
Earthquake Lake
Part of Earthquake Lake Gorge move out of the way to keep from being hit. He was standing there getting ready to get on his bike again.
We drove up the road at a very slow pace as we were following alot of slow pokes up a 10% grade and then back down again. A motorhome kept driving off the road in front of us, and we all thought he was going to end up in the ditch somewhere. The guy would scream through straight stretches, then slow to 20-25 around corners. It was kind of frustrating.
Once we finally got past him, we stopped for gas and went to a little souvenier shop. Bought some treasures, then rode across the street to a huge souvenier shop. We all bought more treasures, then went back out to the bikes.
When we got back out to the bikes, there was a couple on a bike from Virginia out there. They were getting ready to go too.
We got to talking, and they told us of an experience they had earlier that day. They had been riding through Yellowstone, in an area where there is a high populus of Buffalo. There were cars parked along both sides of the road, and quite a ways up ahead Buffalo were blocking the road. The couple thought that they may be able to find a place to turn the bike around if they went a little further on ahead. As they were creeping along on the bike, a huge Bull Buffalo stepped out into the road and was looking straight at them. The Buffalo walked toward them, so the guy shut off the bike. The guys wife, who was on the bike with him started to shake. She was terrified. The Buffalo just kept coming closer and closer, and it was bigger than the motorcycle. The lady began to cry, and the guy told her not to make a sound, so she sat back there crying silently and shaking with terror. The Buffalo came up to the bike, and put it's nose against the windshield. It didn't push on it, just touched it and kept it there. It was staring at the guy, so the guy stared back and refused to break the stare down.
Finally the Buffalo turned around and walked the other way, and the couple were able to find a place to turn around and get out of there.
I told Chuck I didn't feel like having any stare downs with Buffalo today, and seeings I was on my own bike, I'd really rather not go test the same Buffalo they had. We had seen a bunch of them already anyhow.
We decided we all wanted to go see Old Faithful, so that's where we headed next.
On the way, we pulled over to get some pictures, and Chuck decided to jump over the guard rail, and hike down the mountain. It was really steep, and he slid down until we couldn't see him anymore. Once he was where he wanted to be, he was able to take some beautiful pictures of the river and valley below.
While he was down there, he spooked a little black bear, and it took off running. It was too fast for him to get a picture of it, but he also saw a wolverine, so he snapped some shots of it too.
While Chuck was hiking back up the hill, the rest of us were peering down into a ravine trying to decide whether the animal moving around in the bottom was a bear or an elk.
Pat's the one that spotted it first, but no one had binoculars, so we couldn't tell for sure.
When we went to leave, we knew it was a bear because Chuck asked us if we had been watching the little bear down in the bottom of the ravine. It took off when we started the bikes up again.
As we were riding down the hill toward Old Faithful, we could see it blowing through the trees.
We decided to hang around until it blew again. It took about 2 hours until it did. More and more people kept coming while we waited, and there was a huge crowd by the time it blew. We were all sitting back near the buildings watching the crowds and the vent when we heard a loud cheer. The crowd was cheering and doing a wave. It made us all laugh. Once Old Faithful blew, and we were finished taking pics, we made a mad dash for the bikes and jetted out of there.
The end of the day brought us just outside the park @ West Yellowstone. We found a nice camping area on the Madison River. There were even more Grizzly warnings there, and lock boxes to put our food, toiletries, and bug spray in.
We were warned not to sleep in anything we had eaten or cooked in because a bear had mauled a guy 2 weeks before. The guy had went to bed in the same clothes he cooked in, and the bear ripped open his tent, and took a bite out of his arm where the food smells were.
That made me pretty nervous, so I prayed that God would surround our camp with guardian angels and close the mouths of the bears just like he did for Daniel in the lion's den. My husband laughed at me, but it made me feel better knowing I'd asked for extra protection.
As soon as we were set up in camp, we got our swim gear on, and rode our bikes across the camp ground to the river. We found a great spot in the river to take baths. It rocked! The water was nice and warm, and had a current that floated all the road grime off.
We bathed, and swam around awhile, then Pat decided to take his underwear off under water. He hurled them across the water, and sent them floating toward the bank. We think he was replayng the scene from Wild Hogs. I would have laughed if someone would have come down there just as he let his skids fly. lol
We all rode back to camp wet, and dried off then hung our towels and wet clothes on a makeshift clothes line.
After that, Corrie, Tammi, Pat, and I all rode back into town, West Yellowstone, and got dinner at McDonald's. We figured it would be quick and cheap. That way we wouldn't have to cook in camp, and leave food smells to bait in the Grizzlies. Chuck stayed in camp, as he wasn't feeling very good. He thought the burritos from earlier in the day were doing a number on him, so I told him I'd bring his dinner back.
While we were at McDonald's, we kind of felt like cattle being forced through a shoot or something. The meals are automatically given to customers to go. There was even a time limit sign posted on the wall that you couldn't be there for more than 20-30 minutes. We ate our food there then rode back to camp.
Once I'd given Chuck his dinner, we all sat around b.s.ing. Chuck had built a great campfire while we were in town. We had purchased small bundles of wood when we had first gotten there. They were $6.00 a bundle. We thought that was a little steep, but we bought 2 anyway. The campfire felt awesome.
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