Venturing into the Wild

Saturday was our first full day in Yellowstone. Bug and I arose early and started our visit at the Madison Junction visitor center. Bug signed up with the Jr Ranger program to work on earning his badge by the end of the week. The badge is earned by purchasing and working on the requirements listed in the Jr Ranger newspaper. Some of the requirements include answering detailed questions about the park or wildlife, attending a ranger led program, and going on a ranger led hike.

While we were at the visitor center we attended a Ranger Talk on identification of wolves, foxes, and coyotes. Bug was a little expert by the time we were done, and his knowledge was beneficial later in the week when he was able to spot a gray wolf in the distance.

We took a short walk to the river. This little critter chattered at us for several minutes

We had our first hike at the Artist Paint Pots between Madison Junction and the Norris Geyser Basin. This was our first view of the thermal regions.

The easy one mile hike was fully of variety. We started out strolling through a wet meadow and a forest of lodge pole pines which quickly turned into a boardwalk crossing a steaming thermal area full of hot springs and small geysers.

The boardwalk wound up a hillside for a closer look at a couple sputtering mud pools. It also had a nice view of the forest and mountains above as well as the colorful hot springs below.

Our next stop was at the Norris Geyser Basin. Bug picked out the one and half mile Back Basin trail for us to hike before lunch.

The first geyser on the tour was Steamboat geyser. This is the world's tallest active geyser, but unfortunately it's not predictable. It was steaming and sputtering with a minor 4 foot eruption while we passed by.

Our next stop was Echinus. This is the world's largest acidic geyser. Watch your camera lens if it decides to go off while you are nearby.

Bug delighted in reading the self-guided tour signs to me along the way.

Puff n' Stuff geyser was one of our favorites in the basin. As Bug pointed out, it sounds like a steam engine puffing away.

I was quite taken with the milky pool of Pearl Geyser. It's easy to see how it got it's name.

Minute Geyser has a rather sad story. It seems that the geyser once erupted every 60 seconds, but back in the days when the old main park road ran right by it visitors carelessly threw rocks and other objects into the vent clogging it. The geyser now erupts irregularly and not so spectacularly from it's smaller East vent.

Our hike took us upward into a small forest. I made Bug pause to pose for a photo in such pretty surroundings.

Then he felt he ought to return the favor.

If I recall correctly the name of this geyser was Fearless.

Right before Bug spotted this sign we watched two grown men leave the safety of the boardwalk trail, climb a small hill, and pose for a picture next to a sputtering thermal pool. I used this as a reminder to Bug about how dangerous the grounds were and how important it was to remain on the safety of the established trail.

We stopped at the visitor center for a short picnic lunch and continued on our way.

We stopped to view Obsidian Cliff and found a small trail behind the exhibit. We followed it a short while and came to this meadow where the trail abruptly stopped.

We turned back around and enjoyed the roadside exhibit detailing how Obsidian Cliff was formed.

Our next stop took us to the Mammoth Hot Springs area where we followed the mile long Lower Terrace Trail.

The springs made the already hot day even hotter, requiring frequent stops for sips of cool water.

Bug enjoyed the winding trail and used the frequent loops to assert his independence within Mom's sight.

Heading East on the Upper Loop road we found an easy half mile hike to Wraith Falls.

We also found a nice elderly couple that took our picture in exchange for me taking theirs.

Our next destination was to be the Tower Falls area. The drive took a little longer than expected when we stopped to watch this Black Bear forage around a meadow.

We also made a slight detour to see the last remaining petrified tree. There were once three petrified trees standing here but thoughtless visitors chipped away at the other two for souvenirs. The park wisely gated the remaining tree away from the public's touch.

A very short stroll took us from the Tower Falls Visitor Center to the Hanging Valley. Bug made sure to read the self-guide sign aloud.

Tower Falls was very picturesque but this was the start of what Bug calls my "dizzy legs". I sometimes experience slight bouts of vertigo when I am able to look straight down from a high place. This was one of those times.

As we left Tower Falls and headed toward Canyon Village we spotted another Black Bear. This one had a young cub with her, but he was difficult to photograph as he enjoyed darting in and out of the tall grass.

It was getting towards dusk now and the wildlife was active in the park. These elk knew that they had the right of way. I got a chuckle out of this young one's snobbish demeanor.

We passed by one of the many bison we would see through out the week. This fellow was resting just off the edge of the roadway.

It was a good first day for our explorations around the park.

Let Your Soul Take You

“Let your mind start a journey thru a strange new world. Leave all thoughts of the world you knew before. Let your soul take you where you long to be...Close your eyes let your spirit start to soar, and you'll live as you've never lived before.”

~ Erich Fromm

On Thursday the 15th Bug and I awoke very early in the morning. The truck had been loaded the evening before. We were ready to start out on an adventure.

For the last seven months we had been planning and saving. It was hard to believe that we were finally starting out on our journey to Yellowstone.

It would take two days for us to drive to the Montana side of Yellowstone. We planned several stops along the way to stretch our legs. Our first stop was at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota.

We had the opportunity to watch the workers cut stalks and sort ears for the display right before they broke for lunch.

Isn't that a natural state for him?

From the Corn Palace we continued to travel West. Our next break was for a milk shake at Wall Drug.

The sign next to this T-Rex made Bug a little nervous. It stated that the T-Rex attempts to feed approximately every 12 minutes.

I wondered out loud what the T-Rex eats? Little boys perhaps?

Bug backed up a little but still watched nervously for the animated dinosaur to get hungry.

Lucky for Bug the T-Rex couldn't reach him. We had our milkshake and continued to explore the backyard.

It was a good stop for Bug to run off some energy and stretch his legs.

We spent that night at my Uncle & Aunt's house in Spearfish, South Dakota. We are still very grateful that they allowed us the opportunity to rest at their home & fed us a great breakfast to get us started again.

Our original plan was to stop in Billings, Montana to visit the Little Bighorn Battlefield and National Monument. Bug had his heart set elsewhere though, so we took a two hour side trip for a brief visit to the Devil's Tower. Bug delighted in explaining the Indian legend of how the rock grew and gained it's odd "scratches".

That evening, exhausted, we pulled in to West Yellowstone, Montana, only to find that the cabin we had rented was no longer in operation. A note on the door explained that they were currently in a licensing disagreement with the county and had made other arrangements for our stay.

I will admit, I was close to tears. We had driven all that way only to find out that we may not have an acceptable place to stay. I swallowed my anger and disappointment and proceeded to the address listed.

We were in luck. A lot of luck. The new cabin run by a different outfit was much nicer than the original and cheaper. What could have been a devastating blow to our vacation turned out to be a great blessing.

Calm

Bug and I have been off on an adventure for the last week and a half, so I am a little behind on my blogging. The theme that was due last Monday was calm.

This photo was taken on our first evening in Yellowstone. There will be more posts about Yellowstone later and this week's entry for the Random Photo Challenge over at Photography139.

We spent all our time hiking and exploring the park, so there will not be poems posted at Impassioned Versifier for the last two weeks.

A Team Effort

Today is a different sort of challenge post for me. Sorry, there aren't any photos or a poem for this week's Random Photo theme of communication (although I did "phone in" the photo below to Photography139 as a late half-hearted attempt). I just simply didn't have time.

Between nightly visits to swim laps at the pool and trying to stay caught up on laundry and housekeeping for my upcoming trip, I was simply pushed beyond my normal daily routine.

It was well worth the diversion though.

Sunday morning Avril, Willy (of Way of the Wolf fame), and I took part in the Iowa Games. We had been training for the past several months to tackle the triathlon as a team. Each of us would handle the sport that we were strongest in. I would be the swimmer, Avril would bike, and Willy would run.

I don't really a recall a time in my life when I couldn't swim thanks to my grandparents owning a house on a lake throughout my entire childhood. I recall swim lessons to strengthen my skills, but not ever knowing how not to swim. I was on the swim team for two years in Junior High, and part of the season in 9th grade, so I had competitive experience. But that was in a pool, not a lake.

Sunday morning, after several coordinating phone calls among the three of us, I picked the gang up and we headed out to Don Williams (after a stop at Casey's for protein bars, donuts, and coffee of course). As we pulled into the park Willy announced that around 300 people had signed up for the competition.

I felt the first butterflies starting to flutter in my stomach.

I hope I can just finish and not need to be pulled from the lake, I thought to myself.

We checked in, picked up our packets, and headed to the beach for our timing chip. The half mile walk to the beach seemed tortuously long. We joked in our nervous way until we had our spot picked out in the transition area, then it was down to business.

As I tugged on the uniform swim cap and adjusted my goggles the rest of the team gave me pointers. We coordinated who would do what during our pass off of the timing chip to make the transition as smooth as possible.

Soon the announcement came for swimmers to line up according to wave. I was pretty lucky that I was in the last wave (reserved for teams and kids 15 & under). At 8:00 they started the race with the Elite wave. That's not too bad, I thought to myself as I watched them dive into the water. A minute later they started the second wave, men ages 16-34. There were a lot more people in this wave and for the first few strokes it looked like mass chaos. Then they straightened out and each found their own swimming space. The third wave (women 16-34) was even more chaotic. Closer to the start line now I could see people swimming into and over each other.

What have I gotten myself into, I wondered? Too late to bail now, I can do this, I'm a strong swimmer, I reassured myself.

5 minutes after the first wave left it was my turn to get into the water. This isn't so bad I thought as I stepped in, cool, but not freezing. I listened to the announcer's instructions and fidgeted with my goggles. I studied the course in front of me. 400 hundred yards total, 1/4 mile. To my left was a long yellow rope attached to two small and one large buoy. On my right were two kayaks marking the approximate distance of the smaller buoys , a small motor boat was stationed at the end just past the large buoy.

200 yards out, circle the large buoy counter clockwise, 200 yards back, I repeated to myself. Counterclockwise, not good. I naturally breathe to my right when I swim. I hadn't been working on breathing to the left. I would need to use the boats as my markers instead of the buoys.

The countdown began... 5...4...3...2...

I dove forward into the water. The cold compressed around my chest. I felt someone one my left plow into my hip. I lifted my head enough to get my bearings. I could make out the first kayak to the front and right of me.

"Veer left, veer left!" I could hear the kayaker scream.

That quick glimpse showed me that I was surrounded. The large red buoy was now more to my left than directly in front of me. I pushed harder, gasping for breathe with every lift of my right arm. I touched some one's foot in front of me. Someone was trying to swim over my waist in their effort to veer left. Someone was directly on my left side, keeping pace and brushing my arm every few strokes. Preventing my veer to the left.

I have to get out of this before they push me under, I thought to myself. Breathing was getting difficult. My chest felt tight from the cold and exertion. The cold, thick, mucky water made it difficult to fully expel my previous breathe before it was time for the next one. My lungs needed fresh air before my usually dormant asthma flared up.

On the next stroke I flipped over to my back.

I was in survival mode now. Something from back in my days of water & life saving skills training kicked in. On pure instinct I flipped over and started doing the back stroke, pulling myself quickly past the school of blind swimmers I had been immersed in.

As I caught my breathe I tried to lift my head enough to get my bearings. Out of the corner of my right eye I could see I was right beside a red buoy. Someone hit me from behind. confusion set in. I was doing the back stroke, no one should be swimming toward me. I bobbed up right and uttered a confused sorry as I turned my body to look behind me.

Here were all the swimmers I had just passed coming straight toward me. I turned myself to head the same direction as them and pushed as hard as I could. Twice I looked up to see that I was once again veering to far to the right.

I could now see the shore ahead of me. Head there, I told myself, it doesn't matter if that's where you are supposed to be or not, you NEED to get out of this water before you can't suck in another breathe.

I reached the end of the dock where I knew the water would be just above my knees. I stood up and staggered to the shore. As I took my first step up the boat ramp someone grabbed my shoulder and yelled "that way, that way" as he nudged me in the direction of the transition area.

A smile broke out on my face, I was on dry land again. I broke into a sprint. I couldn't say anything when I reached Avril. She laughed and told me I did good as she bent down to take the timing chip.

Once the chip was off my ankle and securely on hers she took off on her bike. I leaned against the bike rack and watched the last of the swimmers approach the shore.

"I don't think I did it, Willy," I gasped, "I think I skipped a buoy."

Willy explained that while he didn't watch me the whole time, he thought I did fine. Then he took off on a warm-up run.

I dried off, pulled on my shorts, brushed my hair. All the while convinced that I had somehow inadvertently cheated and skipped a buoy. I was positive that I had not swam the whole course. I couldn't have. I wasn't in the water more than two or three minutes, was I?

My heart rate and breathing slowly returned to normal as I paced the transition area. Waiting for Willy to return from his practice run I watched the buoys get pulled in. Then it struck me, I couldn't have skipped a buoy. I would have hit the rope. I would have gotten tangled. The kayaker would have yelled for me to stop. I was always too far left to come even close to striking that thick yellow rope.

Then another revelation hit me. I had done it. I had really done it. I swam the whole thing. I hadn't somehow cheated myself or my team. I had done what I set out to achieve and while I didn't know yet how well I had done, I did know that I came out of the water ahead of a whole lot of people.

Willy returned from his run and I filled him in on my epiphany. He chuckled and we attributed it the the exertion and reduced oxygen levels. We anxiously waited for Avril's return while watching the elite group arrive. Willy pointed out how even the elite group was so fatigued by this point that they had to be pointed in the right direction and how someone would have done the same for me had I veered off course.

Avril arrived a little while later and willy took off with the timing chip. We took a few minutes for her to recover while I amused her with my delirious tale. As soon as she had caught her breathe we started the uphill half mile trek to the finish line.

Willy, who had a 3.2 mile course, passed us shortly before we reached the finish line. We cheered him on and joked that he wasn't trying hard enough if he could still smile and joke as he passed us.

We reached the end and collapsed at a table devouring our earned rewards of bananas, oranges, bagels, trail mix, granola bars, and water. Lots and lots of bottled water. We congratulated each other on our accomplishments and spoke of the struggles and joys we each had as we were focusing on our goals.

As we walked out of the cabin times were just starting to get posted and the awards ceremony was starting. The final confirmation that I had indeed completed the race came when I read my swim time of 7:50:8. 7 minutes and 50 sec to swim 400 yards. I had been hoping for 8 minutes, but half expecting 9 instead. I was elated!

We listened and cheered as they read the winners of each race category. The last categories were the team efforts. We broke into grins and cheers as they read our names off as the 1st place over all team. We had finished before all the other teams, including beating the second place all-male team by almost 2 whole minutes.

We came home exhausted but very pleased with our "gold" medals.

After a wonderfully warm shower and lots of scrubbing I collapsed into bed for a two hour nap. I'm slightly achy today, but Avril's inquiry of "that was fuuu-uunnn, what's next?" inspiring me to consider more.

The 4th on the 5th

We have been getting a lot of rain here in Central Iowa. The weather has been mostly nice but with almost daily brief thunderstorms. The storms have usually been short lasting but dumping a lot of rain on us all at once.

Except on Sunday, which was a mostly day long drizzle. So the Independence Day festivities got pushed off for a day.

Bug and I got the honor of watching the local fireworks with a close friend of mine, her two children, and her cousin-in-law. While it wasn't a spectacular show, we very much enjoyed visiting and watching the reactions from our little ones.

This little guy wasn't really playing with fire. He is holding a plastic battery operated light. The batteries were running low on my camera causing the flash to delay longer than normal, but I sure found this to be a fun effect.

Bug and the little tomboy princess were anxious for the show to start.

Oooohhh...

Ahhhh.....

Market

In the words of Chris over at Photography139 (be sure to check out this week's Random Photo Challenge submissions), I totally phoned this one in this week.

I spent a lot of time at the pool during the last week concentrating on strengthening my stroke for the upcoming team triathlon. I already had the inspiration for this week's challenge poem at Impassioned Versifier, so I didn't put a whole lot of thought into the required photo.

When I learned the subject of last week's theme the first thought that came to my head was fruit for some reason. I guess I associate markets with fruit, inspiration from the farmer's market perhaps? I considered taking a photo of the sweet corn & cantaloupe loaded into the back of a local farmer's truck. Alas, he had sold all his produce before I got off work everyday throughout the week.

Since I was refused that opportunity my next option was to click a shot at the local supermarket. Having grown up with my father managing a convenience store I knew the rules on photography in a retail business, so toting my camera around wasn't an option. Luckily the camera on my phone decided to be agreeable for once, allowing me to finally get the photo of fruit at the market as I imagined it.

Dark Shadows of a Twilight Week

"There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast. "
Charles Dickens

I am a little behind this week as I prepare for my upcoming vacation with Bug and work to settle things in my house, but as promised, here are a few of the extra shots considered for the last few week's Random Photo Challenges

The two photos above were considered for the theme Colorful. The photos below are part of the Still Life series.