High Adventure 2013 - Yellowstone Mammoth Area!

After our 2 days of backcountry backpacking, we decided to see some of the other sights that Yellowstone is known for.  There's no way you can see everything in Yellowstone in a week, so we had to pick and choose what we would go to see.  We decided to visit:

• Mammoth Area Wednesday
• Old Faithful Area Thursday
• Canyon Area Friday
• Then come home on Saturday.

In Mammoth, we didn't get an early start, so by the time we got to Mammoth it was already getting very busy!  With 3 vehicles trying to find a parking spot it makes it hard!  We were able to park by and walk the boardwalks over Mammoth Springs.  Mammoth Hot Springs is a huge hill of travertine left over from the sediments in springs on the hill.  They say that the sediment grows 3 feet per year in some places!  There was quite a bit of boardwalks, and we were able to see quite a lot of the spring!  It was fun to see all the different colors, but next time we need to make sure everyone has sunglasses, cause most of the hill is white, and bright!

Mammoth Springs

After Mammoth, we went into the "town" of Mammoth and had our sack lunch on the lawn.  We were able to watch the Elk that were walking around town like they owned the place, and we enjoyed the shade under the trees (it was already pretty hot!).

Then we went to the Boiling River.  It's a spot where a hot spring dumps into the river and they've created a soaking area, where the spring dumps in on one side, and the river dumps in on the other so you can pick the temperature you want to soak in - it ranges from too hot to handle, to too cold to handle!  There's a 1/2 mile hike to the soaking spot, and it's very busy and well known, but it was worth going to cool off, and soak for awhile!

Boiling River

After that it was too busy so we worked our way back to camp.  We did stop at the Artists Paint Pots and did the 1/2 mile walk there to see the boiling mud, and we stopped at another point, but we wanted to get back to camp so we could get dinner over with quickly and get to bed early.  We planned to get up at 4:45AM the next morning to hit Old Faithful!

High Adventure 2013 - Yellowstone National Park!

This year for High Adventure we went to Yellowstone National Park for a week.  We started out the week with an overnighter backpacking trip into the backcountry to Union Falls in the lower portion of the park.  This required back country permits and reservations, but it was worth it!  We backpacked in 6-7 miles to our reseved campsites, and spend the night, then did a day hike to Union Falls, the second tallest waterfall in the park!

Union Falls

After Union Falls we hiked back down and over to Scout Pool (also known as Ouzel Pool) to soak in the warm river there, sit under the waterfall, and jump off the rocks into the water.  After trying over and over again to swim upcurrent to the waterfall (you can go on the sides, holding the rocks, but we like to challenge ourselves), one of the scouts found out that you can drop down to the bottom of the river and swim along the rocks at the bottom up to the waterfall quite easily.  So we started doing that for fun and a challenge.

Scout Pool

After getting our fill with the falls there, we hiked back to our campsite, had lunch and backpacked back to the vehicles.  

So what was so amazing about this trip?  We did it with our scout with Spina Bifida, so we carried him the entire way!  We used our scout carrier to pack him up there and back, but that means that he, plus the two carriers don't have backpacks.  That meant we had to spread the weight of three people's equipment into the other packs.  Most people had their stuff plus someone else's stuff (I had all mine plus another sleeping bag for someone else).  Then as we went, we traded off on the scout carrier and with the packs.  It was an awesome experience!  It was very difficult for some of those involved, but that's what makes it amazing!  It WAS HARD, but everyone did it anyway, and nobody complained!  It was an awesome trip!

Musings

Ahem.  Yep, I just finished my BSA Physical for High Adventure. Passed with flying colors even!  Except for one small thing.  My doctor asked if I regularly exercise. . .
I gave my doctor my exercise routine: "I climb the stairs at work instead of taking the elevator, and a week ago I backpacked 8 miles." (don't tell the doc that my work only has 2 floors, and no elevator).  Doc said, "so you're active, but do you exercise?"

So now my doc's got me wondering what I should be doing to stay in shape (more than once a month at campouts).

I can still out backpack, out hike, out climb out swim any of my scouts (even the 17-18 year olds).  But I need to start exercising.  I used to jog, but my knees can't take it anymore.  I think I'll start biking in the mornings, but that means getting up earlier (I already get up at 5:40am).

We'll see how it goes, but I am going to try to be better.