We could have hiked further today, but two things stopped us.  First, we heard from Quadzilla (another calendar year triple crowner) that a horse had been put down near the trail a few miles ahead and he didn’t think it had had been cleared yet.  In other words, there might be a carcass up ahead attracting bears.  Second, two hikers going SOBO (Waves and Flame, they were Nobo but flipped) said they are pretty sure a bear was in their campsite last night - they were so scared that they packed up and moved.  (I’m not entirely sure I would have gotten up in the dark if I thought a bear was around, but I wasn’t there).  Since they were camping a few miles ahead in a more established campsite (probably where we would have camped), we figured what the heck, let’s make it another early day.  It’s such a joy being in camp early!

Speaking of bears, Nick saw a grizzly today!  I was ahead of him when it ran onto the trail so I didn’t see it, but Nick said that after he yelled “hey bear”, it ran away, up the trail after me.  Nick claims he yelled for me to watch out, but I didn’t hear him.  Obviously the bear got off the trail before he reached me because this post would have been much more interesting if he hadn’t.  :)

While the bear was the most exciting thing Nick saw, the most exciting thing I saw was the Chinese Wall, a nearly 4 mile stretch of beautiful rock that looked like, well, a wall.  It is impossible to portray in pictures how cool it was - this is one of those times where seeing it from above (like from a drone) would be great.  I hate saying that though, because drones are extremely annoying and I’m very glad they aren’t allowed in wilderness areas.

Besides the Chinese Wall, I also enjoyed the peacefulness of the day.  The weather was perfect and there was a beautiful breeze blowing through the trees.  It was the kind of day where I didn’t want to listen to anything other than the quiet sounds of nature.  It was wonderful.  When we walked through areas with dead trees, the wind whistled past them instead of gently rustling through- this was a little eerie at times but also fitting to the mood of the day.  All in all, it was a nice little hike through The Bob.

Lastly, I cannot forget to mention that the trail tried to reclaim the sunglasses I found when we were entering into Yellowstone.  I had stopped to get water from a not-so-great source and had to push my way through some overgrown branches to get to a good collection spot.  This is where, unbeknownst to me, a branch grabbed the sunglasses off the top of my head.  After I grabbed some water, Nick and I walked another 0.25 miles, mostly through mud, to find a good spot to sit and eat lunch.  I didn’t notice the sunglasses were missing until I went to put them on after after lunch.  Since I didn’t want to lose my trail treasure and I really didn’t want to hike 3 more days without sunglasses, I made my way back through the muddy trail to the only place they could be - the crappy water source with the overgrown branches.  It took me a while to find them, but I did - they had fallen into the water and looked very sad and forgotten until I rescued them.  I’m so very grateful I found them!

Along the trail:

Camp: