Looking for Bear
(Catching up from the days without internet)
I was up at 5:45 on Monday morning at the glamorous Wagon Wheel campground after a restless night’s sleep and with the temperature in the low forties. I wanted to be on the road early to get past the gate of Yellowstone National Park’s entrance and before traffic through the park picked up.
After packing up, stopping to pick up toothpaste which I forgot to get the night before, and a quick breakfast at a McDonalds I was finally on the way at 7:30. About fifteen minutes later I arrived at the park entrance in which there was no line (or queue for my foreign friends).
A few miles up the road I approached what is probably the least impressive state sign I’ve seen. It was about three feet tall and just read “Entering Wyoming.” But many signs in the park are about this height and just as unassuming.
The chill of the morning soon started to leave and it was a great ride through the park. Fortunately, tourist season is nearing an end and traffic wasn’t as bad as it was weeks before. I took my time, stopping often to take a few photos. I didn’t see much wildlife, only bison and once passing directly next to one grazing on the side of the road.
Just before noon I reached the Old Faithful geyser. While I was waiting for it to erupt, an elderly woman who was seated on one of the benches in front of the geyser was saving a seat for her husband. She was anxiously looking for him to the point where she seemed worried. Just before the eruption the husband shows up saying “Thank God I found you.” They had totally miscommunicated what they were going to do and he had been everywhere looking for her. With no cell phone service around here (besides Verizon) this was a reminder of life before people had them.
After seeing Old Faithful, I wanted to get moving because I had a big climb and another smaller one. After a 57 mile ride, I reached Grant Village, which has a visitor’s center, a campground, store and restaurant. For $8 you can camp in a designated hiker/biker site (I think it’s $35 for a vehicle.) Here they have you sign a form stating that you are aware that you are camping in grizzly bear country.
A hiker named Charlie was at the site when I arrived. For the past several weeks he’s been hiking the trails alone and stated his growing concern about grizzly bears and how he saw the huge tracks of one. He also heard from a ranger about how a grizzly had stomped on someone’s (vacant) tent the other day.
On the site to the left of mine were four rather funny grad school girls from Chicago doing a road trip. Behind our sites was a bit of an uneven clearing with some limbless trees and some fallen trees. Behind that is forest. Around 7:30 before it was dark I heard a very loud cracking and crunching sound coming from that area. Very loud, as if wood was being torn apart. While I was looking for whatever it was, hoping to see a grizzly bear–but not too close, the girls had also heard and walked back too.
We were about 40 feet apart from each other and whispering loudly. “Did you hear that?!,” I asked. “Yes! What do you think it is?!” “I don’t know,” I replied. “A bear?” “Maybe it’s a squirrel,” Amanda whispered, injecting some humor. The loud crunching and crackling continued but then suddenly stopped and unfortunately we never found out what it was. But it was a bit of excitement for the evening.
Tuesday was the third rest day of the trip and as little time as possible was spent on the bike. The good news was that the southern entrance, which had been closed due to forest fires, had reopened. This would allow me to leave the park and continue on to Grand Teton National Park on Wednesday.
New arrivals to the hiker/biker campsite included hikers Peter and Glenn, from Michigan. Peter has lived around the world and done relief work in West Africa, including Lagos, Nigeria, where I used to teach, so memories of West Africa (and the infamous Lagos airport) were shared.