During the last three days we continued enjoying Yellowstone and saw some of its most impressive thermal features. Then we traveled in three states in 24 hours — we left Wyoming and entered Idaho, followed shortly thereafter by entering Montana. We’ll flip back and forth between Montana and Idaho for a while as the trail roughly follows their border.
Day 98 – Mile 2006.3 – Old Faithful
We enjoyed a lot of excitement on the trail today. At about 6:30 in the morning, before the rest of the Yellowstone tourists were out and about, we were walking right past the Old Faithful geyser when it erupted! We weren’t even trying to watch it at that point — we were just headed to breakfast — but it was very special to enjoy the eruption practically alone. We left Old Faithful Village at about 1 pm and walked the Yellowstone Boardwalk away from the crowded part of the park. The geysers were super cool, but being around so many people was overwhelming, so it was nice to get away. Several miles into our hike we hit the 2,000 mile mark. I guess we’ve walked a long way! Next up we made it to the Idaho border. Neither Renee nor I have been to Idaho other than just passing through, so we are excited to see a bit of the state. Finally we made it to the Yellowstone boundary at about 9pm and we immediately set up camp. We didn’t get a permit to camp inside the park tonight, so we had to get to the exit to keep it legal. For dinner we cold-soaked curry rice. Usually we cook our dinners, but we are in the midst of a long dry-stretch, and this way we were able to prepare dinner at the last water source and carry it instead of using water we carried to camp to cook dinner… We don’t have enough water bottles with us to comfortably carry water for drinking and cooking. We should probably pick up more bottles in the next town. š -T
Day 99 – Mile 2035.3 – Montana or Idaho?
Today was a pretty easy day on the trail. We followed dirt roads for much of the day. We did not see any other hikers today, but we saw lots of ORVs, ATVs, and a motorbiker at one point. The motorbiker gave us bananas and apples, which were super tasty. This stretch of the trail is pretty dry with 10-15+ miles between water sources. We had to go 0.4 miles off trail for water at one point. The dryness means we have have to carry more water, but it also means there are no mosquitoes and our feet are dry! We also crossed into Montana today – our 5th state on the trail! We will follow the Idaho/Montana border for awhile. -R
Day 100 – Mile 2053.7 – Targhee Pass
We’ve been hiking for 100 days! That’s a long time to be outdoors, but we’re still loving it! We started our hike a little earlier than usual so we could get to a highway by 8 and quickly resupply in West Yellowstone, MT. The plan pretty much worked! We got to the highway on time and we made it through our town chores pretty quickly. We also enjoyed McDonald’s, Subway, and a burrito in town. Yum! When we started hiking again in the afternoon we got our first taste of Montana’s/Idaho’s mountains. We climbed Lionhead Mountain and then Targhee Pass. Both were beautiful and the trail up/down was well built. The rocks near the top of Targhee Pass are striped with red and white — they look like giant hunks of meat š„ š! Before camp we met a very friendly southbound hiker from the UK named Windy Fields. He gave us a useful description of the fire detour we have ahead in a week or so. For dinner we had unstuffed peppers and we celebrated our 100th day with pita chips, hummus, and huckleberry beer (thanks Olivia!) -T
