Yellowstone National Park Backcountry DAY 1

I have always loved Yellowstone.  It is easy to say that it is my favorite place to visit.  Since going as a child with my family I have always found the park to be magnificent.  Since moving to Eastern Idaho I have visited with my own family at least twice a year.  I have to admit though, that up until a few years ago, I had no idea one could venture off the pavement and boardwalks, away from the tourists, into the backcountry.  Since really getting into hiking and backpacking I have wanted to spend time on the trail in the world's first national park.
Last February I did some winter camping in Utah with my friend Zach.  During that trip we talked about when we could do something over the summer and where we should go.  We talked about heading back to the Tetons and maybe hitting up Zion's or even the Grand Canyon.  With about half a week of open window between our school schedules we opted for something a little closer to one of our homes.  Yellowstone was chosen and by April 1st (the first day for backcountry applications) I had our application in the mail.  We got the trail and campsites we requested (reverse order).
Preparations went on and anticipation built.  Many emails with ideas for meals, how to lighten our packs and selections for gear were sent.  In June my brother in-law came to live with me for the summer and I invited him along as well.  So as time passed and plans were finalized the time came to head out.

Lunch at Firehole River

The first night was spent at the Grant Village on the West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake.  We camped here on Wednesday so that we could get to the backcountry office and hit the trail as soon as possible.  It was a little strange camping in a normal campsite living out of a backpack.  That night, and that night only, I was a little jealous of all the other campers luxuries.

Jordan read the whole trip, even while
hiking at the front keeping pace.

Thursday morning we checked in at the backcountry office and got our permits.  After a short video on how not to get eaten by bears we parked at Old Faithful and walked a few hundred yards to the trail head.  We started on the Howard Eaton trail and headed south towards Shoshone Lake.  By the time we actually hit the trail it was around 10 am, and we hit camp around 5pm.  With a stop for lunch at the Firehole River and a little back tracking to actually find our camp the day went pretty quickly.

Small portion of the almost 270 degree
view from the beach.

Even though things went smoothly as far as timing the day did have it's problems.  First, I didn't eat enough for breakfast or lunch and by the end of the day in hot temperatures I was dehydrated and under nourished.  I had a killer headache, and almost vomited a couple of times.  Second problem was my Steripen, used for purifying water, wasn't working.  After only one previous use the batteries had failed (even though that was months ago I figured the batteries should last).  Lesson learned, I grabbed extra batteries for my head lamp but forgot about the Steripen.  At first this wasn't going to be an issue because Zach had brought his water filter and we would just have to pump our water.  Unfortunately later in the evening after getting to camp his filter failed as well.  We resorted to boiling all our water for the rest of the trip (we had just enough fuel and ran out at breakfast on the last day).

Backcountry site 8R5 Basin Bay Point

I couple of very valuable lessons learned here.  Even an experienced camper can forget something.  I will always keep a list and check it twice.  If we had been on the trail even a day longer we would have had to resort to drinking straight from the water source, risking sickness.
 At camp we did our best to relax after the failure of our equipment.  I wasn't going to let it get me down.  The camp we were at was beautiful.  Tent site and cooking area were elevated about 10 feet from the waters edge and we had a small beach to sit at.  Jordan spent all evening down there and had to be coerced to coming up to help cook and clean up.  After eating I got out my pole and lures.  Zach and I had both got 3 day fishing permits for the trip and each carried out own poles.  Not expecting to catch anything from shore I waded out into the very warm water and used the time to enjoy myself.  I felt like i could have gone 50 feet off shore and still only been up to my waste.  Shoshone lake is not very deep.  Wading up to my knees was fine for me.  After about 30 minutes I was about to call it quits.  That is when a Brown Trout took hold of my lure, at first I though I was snagged up on some weeds, then my line started to drag.  I got him in closer and at about three feet away the 5-7 incher surfaced and shook loose.

Jordan packing with bear
pole in background

After the sun went down we hustled to get camp cleaned and ready for bed.  This was the first time I was required to hang my food.  We decided it would just be better to hang our entire bags on the bear pole provided, that way we wouldn't have a curious bear carry one of our packs away.  It was about this time that all the bugs had come out.  Along the trail we had mosquitoes bothering us, but this night was insane.  We had to hustle and practically dive into our tents in order to survive the night.  As we laid in the tent we could hear the flies down on the water.  The noise was incredible.  We all agreed it sounded as if we had been sleeping in a bee's nest.  After twilight dispersed and the flies went to bed so did we.