Greyhound
got old. On my departure date the bus was two hours late. My layover was in
Minneapolis for an hour a forty five minutes. I was assured by customer service
and the bus driver that they would hold the bus. We arrived 10 minutes late and
the bus had driven off. Here was the start to another great episode of Hell on
Wheels.
While in Minneapolis I walked around
and ate a Jimmy Johns knowing that it would be quite some time until I see that
lovely place again. I got the bootlegger sandwich which is by far my favorite.
I rarely get anything else from there besides the cookie and soft drink. I left
an old lady in charge of my belongings. She too was traveling from Wisconsin to
Livingston which where she resided. When I came back from JJ’s I started to
download some TV shows for the long awaiting bus. During the five hours I had
left to wait, I would have an occasional cigarette. On the final smoke, I met
Kati.
Kati was from Pennsylvania and has
worked at Yellowstone for a while. At a glance she was short, stocky, cute
smile, baggy clothes with sublime shirt and some hemp neckwear. She was a
hippie by sight and with her stories, a hippie for life. She too was headed for
Livingston and we were greyhound buddies since then. Twenty four hours on a
greyhound is pretty much a life time; just hope you have someone you trust with
you to help the time go by. After Minneapolis we were stuck in Fargo for 8
hours. Luckily we had a TV and internet to help the time go by. We watched the
news on the Newtown Connecticut shooting. Then when the time came it was Let’s
Make a Deal followed by The Price is Right. Little known fact, I have and maybe
will continue to do so, guess within $500 of one of the showcases within 5
minutes of the beginning of the show.
Throughout the whole trip Kati and I
had our own seats; the buses were never packed until we waited for the bus in
Billings. For a ghetto place, Billings seems to be the major crossroad to go to
Livingston and Bozeman. The bus was packed and cramped, I’m just thankful I
didn’t have to sit next to anyone that smelled bad. For the ride I met up with
Bill who I worked with last summer. We chatted and caught up within a half
hour.
Kati and I had plans for our friend
Rob to pick us up at three in the morning but waited in Livingston’s shack for
an hour with Bill. Snowplows came by
along with a train while we all talked about the horrors of last summer as well
as some of the good times we had. During the time we spent talking Kati and I
tried to contact Rob on his status. We both assumed he went to bed. Five in the
morning rolled around and Rob had shown up. Apparently the light snowfall in
Livingston was nothing compared to the road to it.
We stopped at McDonalds on the way
but they were not open until 6am. The real journey had begun. Rob had his best
friend Nick drive with him to make sure he stayed awake; Nick arrived 12 hours
before us via plane in Bozeman. When I drove from Livingston to check in for
the summer it was 8am and sunny; I could see the surroundings and the beauty.
This drive was black followed by an old Microsoft Windows screen saver but with
snow and not flags rushing towards you. Within two hours we were in Gardiner
and I remembered it like I had never left. Check in wasn’t until 8am so we
waited in Rob’s room for the time to pass. I looked at my phone for an hour
while the others took a short nap.
When the time became quarter after
eight I rounded up the gang to head back down the hill. Check in was the same
as before but instead of four people like last summer, there were about 25
employees and I knew 20 of them; it kind of felt like a high school reunion
including the part where you wanted to ask some about their time away and hoped
for others not to see you. One of my friends was called back due to answering a
surprise question in an incorrect way. They randomly picked returners to ask
questions about how they could change from the previous season. My friend
responded with hiring less international people and leaving out the part about
hiring more Americans seeing that the unemployment rate was so low. The HR
representative questioned the comment and soon enough was back with the gang.
The check in building is something
really different. The walls have a nice mural of clouds and mountains to them
that seemed to have been drawn by a freshman in the local high school of the
west along with random, but fun trivia on the walls as you wait to check in. Depending on the amount of people checking in
that day you could stand in line for 10 minutes or an hour. There are two
people behind a counter that copy your license and other information while the
other grabs your file. The room has about 10 tables to sit at while you check
over all of your hiring papers and wait to get called to get the okay to work.
There are five people sitting behind a counter, almost like a court room with
judges, but HR sat at the same level. The first person made sure you have all
the papers signed. The second person made sure the first person did their job.
The third person takes care of payroll and W2’s. The fourth person makes sure
the first four people do their job. The fifth and final person takes your
picture, unless you’re a returner than you can use a previous picture from a
different season, and then hands you your employee card and sets you on your
way.
So while my paperwork was ready to
go and I’m waiting for my name to be called as if I were at the DMV I saw a lot
of people come through the door and wait behind me. Most of which I was very
excited to see. We would chat about our two and half month break as if it had
been years we had seen each other. Suddenly I recalled that I need to find a
roommate for the season. Chris had walked through the door and as I asked how
his vacation was I snuck the roommate question in. He stated that he was going
to room with me or Jody, my previous roommate. I thought to myself, well shit,
only because the person I was going to room with was going to be Jody or Jason
and seeing that Jason was in a management program, he would get his own room.
So being the man that I am, I stole Jody’s roommate. Sure enough, his bus was
delayed anyway and didn’t show up until about 7pm that night.
The Holidays
The holidays
away from home are nice. Learn and do new traditions with friends that you have
just met a week or two ago and enjoy the spirit rather then the gifts. Is that
how I celebrated Christmas? No, but that was New Years. We went down to
Gardiner to pick up some party supplies for the room after the pub. The pub had a nice little party to celebrate
the occasion but nothing like we had in our room.
Our room fit
a twin and a queen size bed along with the closets and a computer desk. The
walking space was very limited. Pack the room with 12 people and it was more of
a fire hazard than anything. The great thing about the winter crew is that it’s
more of a privilege to work in the winter than the summer. The employees hired
during the winter season are typically the best of the best from all the
locations in the summer. In order to not receive a job in the winter would have
meant one of two things. It’s your first season or you were not good at your
summer job and there’s no room for screw-ups.
The Christmas celebration/after-party in our room was filled with great
people who only had good vibes to bring to the party.
On the 30th Chris and I went to Lamar for the
first time being back. The road from Gardiner to Cooke City (The North Entrance)
is open all year round no matter the weather. Cooke City has two roads going
out of it, the entrance to the park and a road that goes to Cody, WY. The road
to Cody is closed from November to about May or June depending on the snow
conditions from the winter. The kids in the town take a bus to school to
Gardiner five days a week. The ride is at least an hour and a half and they
have their first and last period on the bus.
As Chris and I got to Roosevelt I
learned that his heat didn’t work. To make the matter worse, the window to his
car was broken. It was about 10 degrees outside and we used the air
conditioning to try and warm the car up a little bit, but we had no luck. We
managed to see two coyotes while we drove out there. We did see bison and elk
of course, but those are the common animals in the park. I tend to not write
about them unless something strange or odd happens with them.
The next day Rob and I were about to
go cross country skiing and then we asked our friend Andrew if he would like to
go. The three of us went to the ski shack to get our free skis and a quick
lesson on how to put the skis on and off. We headed to the Upper Terrace at
Mammoth Hot Springs (MHS). Andrew was the first to fall, I was second and Rob
fell late in the trail. Doing cross country after having so many years of
downhill skiing was more of a challenge then to that of someone having no
experience skiing. The mechanics of the two are similar but the gear is
different. I like the security downhill has with the boots being a hard plastic
that goes up to your shin whereas the cross country boots go slightly past your
ankles. The main problem I had was trying to lean back. Without the calf support
from hard plastic, I pretty much just fell down a lot.
After skiing I assisted Chris with
decorating the pub for the second biggest party of the year; survivor party
being the first. Chris had mini Champaign bottles ordered for the occasion
along with hats and noise makers. All we had to do was put up some streamers
and lights and we would be done in a half hour. Chris and I kept on thinking
how we could do a balloon drop in the middle of the dance floor. Thinking
outside of the box is a talent I like to think I have. Sometimes my ideas are a
little out there and are not practical in our universe but other times my ideas
have the possibility of working. So then it struck me. I would take a lot of
string and tie it to two posts and the same on the other side of the dance
floor. From there I would connect a piece of string to one side and cross over
to the other; creating a string ladder hanging from the ceiling. While I was
doing this, Chris was making a cover to go over the top of the string out of
tape, garbage bags and string. There were some flaws in the making of the
balloon drop but nothing that we weren’t able to work with. Some pieces of the
string I tied were tighter than the others so I had to adjust the sides so that
the string wouldn’t sag.
Finally the string was up and taut. We put the plastic above the spider webbed
design, attached some string to the plastic and did a run through before
putting the balloons on. Two hours later we had the pub decorated with lights,
streamers and a functioning balloon drop. When the time came to pull the string
Chris and I were a little nervous. I stood under the plastic to make sure
nothing would get caught and to make sure no fatal accidents would occur. The
time came as the people started the countdown at 59 seconds. I had a mix of
worry and happiness running through the body. Three. Two. One. Chris yanked the
string and the balloons floated for a brief moment before falling to the floor.
During the time of getting ready Chris had put some stringy pieces of paper,
confetti and other little gizmos in the balloon drop which surprised me. All in
all, it was a great night with great people.
I made several trips out to Lamar
Valley. As that being the only road open it’s one of the easiest things to do.
So I headed out with Chris, Josh and Andrew for a little excursion. We made it
to Lamar without seeing a damn thing. We past Lamar and went further down the
road to Barronette Peak where I had taken my personal favorite picture of the
landscape photo of the road with a hill. I had forgotten the precise location
and will make another attempt in 2014. On the way back we made some did some
crazy photos in the car to kill the uneventful adventure. As we came back into
Lamar Valley, on the left side of the road were some bare
trees with a lot of
ravens sitting on it. If I recall correctly, Josh pointed out that there was a
bald eagle on the tree as well. Josh and I started to take pictures like crazy
and after a minute or two it flew out of the tree, across the road in front of
us, about 15 feet high and flew to a hill side. We pulled the car up a little
more and saw a station wagon taking pictures to our right. As we pulled up we
noticed a golden eagle snacking down on what we were told was a coyote carcass.
The bald eagle flew in and landed about five feet from the golden eagle. At
this point we had just started a jam in the road. Josh was off trying to get
closer, Chris and Andrew were looking through binoculars and I had my tripod
walking up the road. After we got our photos and Chris and Andrew were cold,
(we all were) we hopped back in the Le Baron and headed back home. We all
talked about how crazy it could be out there for the wildlife. We passed that
area and nothing was there. We came back in 30 minutes and the wildlife was on
a feeding frenzy. Just goes to show,
that photography, in my opinion is a lot of luck with very quick skills.
Another trip to Lamar I made was with Rob, (Dr. Bobby Bobby
was his nickname from time to time), and sean. Not much happened on the trip.
We did get to see a nice bull elk with 12-13 points on the rack. Further down
the road there were a lot of people pulled over with scopes out looking at
something in the distance. We pulled over to see what it may have been and to
see if I could snap any pictures. There were two wolves about a mile to two
miles away. The “Wolf Watchers” were nice and let us look in their scopes to
see them. This was my first wild and no captivated wolf experience. When I
looked through it, I said something like, “Wow, look at that. That’s cool!” But
the more and more I think about it, the less interested I was by it. I like to
see things up close and not a mile away. Once in a while I’ll stop to take a
gander but once I see the wolves, then I’m off to hopefully see more wild life.
There were plenty of days where we stop and look in the direction the scopes
were pointed but never saw anything with our naked eye(s). There was one day
that we could hear them howling. That was pretty exciting to hear. There was an
Alfa male and female sitting in some shade just having a blast letting go. I’m
not quite sure what they were howling for or if they were just singing. I’d
like to think that they were signing and just having a nice little snow day. We
thought if we traveled down the road we might be able to get a better look at
the wolves so we stopped by a small pull out that is a campsite in the summer. There
was a white SUV and two people with sound catching instruments that were
pointed in the directions of the wolves. We got out and asked if they could
spot them for us but they tried ignoring us, after trying to ask them a couple
more times, they rudely responded with something about them trying to capture
the noise and we were being too loud. We shrugged it off and continued down the
road. The last thing I’m going to say about those two that were recording
sounds, it’s a park for the enjoyment of the people…at least that’s what it
says on the arch on the way into the park. We were in Lamar where the two
rivers meet up and up on the tree to our left was a giant golden eagle that
some tourists spotted.
After taking a look at it, we made our way down the road for 30 seconds before
we spotted three Big Horned Sheep climbing the rocks. Like many times before,
we made out to Barronette Peak where I got to retake the picture of the road
and hill. We continued to go all the way out to Cooke City. On the way back into
the park, we took our picture in front of the Yellowstone entrance sign. As an
employee I had not taken a picture in front of any of the entrance signs until
that day. Good memories. We made it to Little America and saw a Yellowstone
Association bus pulled over. We thought if they pulled over something might be
going on. We were informed of an old wolf den at the tree line. As young lads
that we were, we ventured off and followed their snow show trail in our
sneakers, post holing ever few steps. At last we made it to the den. If I knew
that it was a small hole under a tree, I would have just said screw this. We
were also informed on the other side of the road a bison was killed by a pack
of wolves. So I told that guys I was going to check it out and they followed.
The snow was pink with scat, fur, intestines and wolf prints all over. We
examined the kill sight for about 5 minutes and made it to the car before the
sun went down.
Through Act 4 you will read a lot
about Lamar Valley. Like I have stated before, it was an easy way to see
wildlife and stay warm. Another trip with Dr. Bobby Bob and Chris was made to
Lamar. Within a minute of leave Mammoth we passed a coyote 15 feet off the
road. Rob put his Taurus in reverse and pulled of the road a bit. We got out of
the car and started snapping pictures. I got relatively close to this canine.
He was snacking on some leftovers of a carcass of an elk. There were also two
magpies trying to get a fixing as well. I was hoping to get a picture of the
coyote eating with the hot springs in the background but it ended up blurry
unfortunately. I did however, manage to get some great close ups of the coyote
in a defensive mood against the magpies, but a couple pictures later, he was
still defensive with the magpies behind him. I now come to a realization that I
was the one too close. The coyote was full and moved on and crossed the road
behind us. I felt like it was going to be a good day to see some wildlife.
We made it about a mile from the
Petrified Tree before we saw some bison and a lot of cars pulled over. We made
the stop and looked at the mass amounts of bison. That day was the most bison I
had seen in winter by far. The herds of bison were insane that day. Usually we
see them in Lamar but I guess the wolves were on a rampage over there. We
realized that the bison were in the opposite direction of the scopes of the
Wolf Watchers. We once again, got to take a look through the scopes and saw the
same alpha male and female. This time they were up on hill just sun bathing. I
managed to snap some photos but all you can really see are two little
triangles. If I snapped this photo without knowing what I was there, it would
look like a horrible landscape photo.
The Saddest Day of Winter
My old roommate, Jason got himself
in a little bit of trouble. There was one person this winter where it was his
first season. This asshole got the job through Jason who had worked in the park
for 10 or so years prior to this winter. Jason knew of the guy back home in
Missouri and figured he needed a job, sure, why not? So in mid-January, this
guy ordered some “drugs” from somewhere over the internet. This drug was to
mimic acid and make you hallucinate. I guess it’s legal to sell because it’s
for pets and says not for human consumption…which makes me say to myself, why
consume it? Either way this guy has a party in Jason’s room, with Jason’s
consent, and they all started doing this drug. This guy is not the smartest
already, but the next day started talking about how it was great and all that.
So the rangers got a small hearing about it and started an investigation. A
couple days later they were both banned from the park for 3 years and $800
dollars in fines, or something close to that. Jason was charged for conspiracy
of aiding and abetting of a criminal. So Jason and this guy go to Bozeman to
the Royal Inn and stayed there for a while, searching for a job or what have
you. We visited and took Jason out for some burgers and beer and it was just
like old times. We tried to convince Jason to just leave this behind and go
back to Missouri but Jason wasn’t all about that. A week or two go by and this
guy suggested to Jason that he order some more drugs and sell them on the
corner. I guess Jason cracked and went off on this guy saying how he destroyed
his life and just left. Jason currently runs a kitchen down in Missouri and
spends time with his family and niece. We still talk from time to time.
Boy Who Cried Wolf
Jody, Chris
and I made a trip out to Roosevelt. Upon passing Lava Creek Jody swore that he
saw a wolf. We parked the car at the Wraith Falls pull out and cross the street
and started looking. I saw a lot of bison but that was about it. Finally after
10 minutes looking I saw a canine in the distance. I pulled out my camera and
had a hard time finding the canine with my zoom. After five minutes of zooming
in and out in a frantic pace, I had spotted the coyote…That was by far the most
effort I had put in all season to see a coyote. Yet it still be cool, I was
wearing sneakers in two to three feet of snow with my jeans. It was a tad too
much for me to handle for a coyote. Chris and I did make some jokes for a while
after that saying we spotted a wolf, oh wait, it was a bison.
Only in My Yard
I was walking back from work one day
to find that a small heard of bison had found Mammoth again. I changed my
clothes and grabbed my tripod and camera. I made it to the east side of Aspen
dorm and realized I forgot my SD card. I ran back to my room and head back. Now
that I was set I started clicking the camera. The bison would use their horns
and their big foreheads with a shaking of their heads to clear the snow. They
would then take a step forward and start snacking on the grass. Move a little
more and do the same thing. There was about a foot or so of snow on the ground
at the time. To the northern part of the heard there were two very young bison
who had started banging horns together. I was outside for about an hour or so
before they made their way up the hill to Old Gardiner Road.
I’ve Fallen and Can’t Get Up
Maddie, Stephania and I convinced
Dennis to go skiing. I’m sure he felt it the next day or he had taken a lot of
Ibuprofen the next day. We went up to the terraces and went the easy route
again. If we were to have taken the other route; I’m sure I would have hit a tree.
None the less, Dennis borrowed a Jeep from a coworker that was down in Old
Faithful. It didn’t have back seats so I rode in the trunk part and Maddie got
shotgun because she was “better looking” according to Dennis. So Maddie and I
took some pictures and did some skiing while we waited for the other two to
comeback.
Once the other two arrived we
started the trail. The first part of the trail is all uphill where you need to
do one of three things: Keep a pace so you don’t go backwards and fall, penguin
walk or side step up the top part of the hill. We all had our own way of doing
it but regardless; Dennis fell a couple times going up. The trail flattens out
and has a slight decline where you can pick up some speed if you don’t fall.
Dennis made it down the first hill real well. We had high hopes for him and the
rest of the downhill parts. We forgot to knock on wood. So after going up
another hill Maddie and I went down and waited for the other two. We waited and
waited. We’re still not sure what took so long.
Dennis made it two feet and fell. Repeat, repeat and repeat. After
laughing with him and everyone else I went up and tried to give him some
pointers but failed in doing so.
I got a small parking lot where we
met with some friends. We talked for a while and then someone mentioned how
Dennis was doing. So Jevin made his way up the hill with Tyler. Meanwhile I was
setting up the camera on Maddie’s tripod for a group photo with everyone.
Dennis made it down and said that it was a blast. We snapped a couple of photos
and continued the trek. We made it to the end with everyone in one piece. Chris
had just showed up and went for an adventure with Jevin. I got a ride back with
Tyler and Marriah in Bobby’s car so I wouldn’t have to squeeze in a trunk
again.
Super Bowl Sunday
I was lucky enough to have Sunday
and Monday off. I think I may have been the only one. I was excited for the
Super Bowl not because I had a team in the final game but because it was
chatted up by people. Since Mammoth is the only place that has cable in their
pub, I was told people come down from Old Faithful and get transient rooms and
come down and party. That was not the case.
On the other hand, people from Gardiner did get rooms so they would
drink and drive. I did help Jim, who has his own traditions with the Super Bowl
which entailed grilled whole chicken and a lot of different type so sausage in
his own special sauce. Now when I say helped, this is what I did. Jim cracked
open 6 beers that he brought from Texas and had me drink about a quarter of
each. It was a rather warm day and a coat, to my opinion was not needed. I
walked around and grabbed my camera and snapped some photos waiting for some
others to join in on the fun. I helped Frank set up the projector and some
people started to walk in finally. We did have Squares going for the scores. A
certain type of gambling that is allowed by the bosses but the only type and
the only time. I ended up butting in $30 and winning about $125. Food and
Beverage also supplied some chicken wings and other food throughout the game.
Before the game started the pub ended up being pretty busy. By halftime
the pub was packed. I
saw people in the pub that I’ve never seen in there before. During halftime the
pub raffled off some prizes, I wasn’t lucky enough to get a prize, but I’ll
leave my luck to viewing the wildlife. After the game the pub was put back to
its original setup and games of pool started along with the jukebox. I would
also say that some shenanigans were going on as well. Like in summer they have
the employee appreciation party, in winter it’s the Super Bowl. Good times had
by all.
Back to Lamar
The season was coming to an end but
that didn’t change the fact about Lamar being the best place to see wildlife. I
made two more trips out to Lamar. One with Maddie and one with Dennis. Maddie
and I heard of four moose in the pebble creek area so we went out and found
nothing. We did manage to see a nice hole in the clouds with a ring of light
casting down on the South end of Lamar.
The Final Cross Country Experience
Black Tail Plateau Road is a six
mile one way road in the summer but in the winter it’s a long cross country
trail. Jeremy, his friend from home, Frank, Mike and I made the drive out
there. The trail starts off with a steep hill winding and curving and flattens
out but with a slight incline. Jeremy’s friend fell first on this trip. We made
it about 2 or 3 miles before being exhausted from battling the hills. So as we
rested from the uphill battle, Mike was dared to jump face first in the snow on
the side of the road. It was guessed that there was anywhere from a foot to
three feet of snow. So he jumped and spread his arms and legs and landed face
first in the snow that ended up being close to three feet. Jeremy did his
Wookie call for amusement. We all started talking about how the animals were
freaking out about the sound they just heard and wondered what animal was
emitting the sound. After that Frank trekked up a giant hill with his skies but
only made it halfway due to the height of the snow. He skied down 10 feet
before falling. Jeremy’ friend made it a little past franks mark and tried
running down before tumbling down. I made it a point that the view from the top
of the hill had to be amazing. I put my camera in my waterproof case, zipped it
up and made my way up. I followed the traveled path of the two to make it
easier. Once I got past the highest point traveled, the snow started to get
worse. I could barely move my legs in the snow. It was up to the crotch region
on me. Once I got to the very top I almost lost my breath from two things: The
amount of work it took to get up there and the view. I snapped a couple
pictures after catching my breath and snapped some of the guys down the hill. I
tucked the camera back in the case and walked a little further up the top of
the hill. I had enough room to gain some momentum before hitting the high snow.
As I ran I started to step deeper and deeper into snow back to the point where
I would have to either kick three feet of snow up to get my leg another step or
whip my
legs back and swing
them to the side as if I were running track. Once that got tiring I started to
do front flips down the hill. I think I recall making half a dozen before
reaching the bottom. Once I regained a normal breathing pattern we started to
head back towards the car. Thankfully most of it was all downhill.
That was the last of the adventures.
There was a week of work after that which really meant a week of cleaning and
packing up the rooms. There were a few of us who signed up for post season; one
more month of work. Post season was different but fun in its own way. The
majority of people worked in reservations, otherwise there were some from
payroll and all the upper management. My post season kept me in the EDR along
with five others in addition to Chef Missy, EDR Manager Jerry, and F&B
Manager Natalie.
For Saint Patrick’s Day, Missy made
Corned Beef and Cabbage from scratch. She said it was the only way to have it.
I helped prep for it but not much. I don’t recall hearing one complaint about
the meal, but the amount of compliments was almost unheard of. It lasted maybe
3 days and people were okay with that leftover. That night we found a
designated driver and went down to Gardiner to visit our bartender friend and
had a couple drinks for the occasion.
During the regular season I was late
twice and they both happened to be on Missy’s morning shifts letting her open
by herself. During the post season I was late once and that was on Easter. We
did three days of prep for Easter brunch and I slept in on accident. I’m not
sure what happened but it wasn’t a pretty sight. I’ve been late to work in
other places but maybe by five or ten minutes. When I was late working in the
EDR I was nearly two hours late every time.
With the 8 of us working in the EDR
it was like a close family. We worked, ate and recreated together. In post
season, Rob, Sean an I would work out in the Gym after work every other day.
Rob and I would also go out past Gardiner and shoot off his guns. We would
collect apples every meal and when we had enough to shoot, that’s when we would
go. Sometimes we would just go into the EDR and ransack the fruit bowl; when I
say sometimes, I mean most of the time. It wouldn’t just be Bobby and me. He
would invite others and Sean, Missy and Jerry would join in on the fun once and
a blue moon. With the snow melting, we couldn’t go too far up the muddy road or
even take the car back there so we would have to walk like ninjas around
melting puddles of ice and what not.
With the final days of our season
coming to an end Jeremy and I walked up Old Gardiner Road for one last journey
with the addition of Disc Golf. We made our own course as we played. Once we
neared the end of the road we were too tired to throw a disc. We continued the
walk and to our surprise there were two pronghorn 200 feet away. As we got
closer one of them kept the distance and
the other, we named him Jimmy, kept eating grass not caring about us. We
weren’t sure if he was sick or injured but we did know this was going to be the
closest we would get to a pronghorn. We were about 10 feet from it when we
walked on the road. We kept looking at him and taking pictures while it just
kept eating grass. I looked around a couple times to see if this was some crazy
ambush or something as if a bear had said “I’m eating you or the people walking
down the road, the choice is yours…” But nothing happened and we made it to
Gardiner for some beers where we met up with Jevin who was staying at his
uncles house until the summer season started up.
Towards the end of the final week I
was working an early shift and my friends Andrew and Craig were talking about
driving out to Lamar to see a fresh elk carcass that happened last night. They
helped me convince Missy to let me go early so I ran and changed clothes and we
set out for the most amazing car ride of our lives. We drive out of Mammoth and
there were bison everywhere after the bridge. A mile past Lava Creek we saw two
pronghorn, one male and one female bucking their antlers against one another.
We made it Roosevelt and had seen some more bison of course along with the
occasional elk. A couple minutes before Little America we saw a large group of
Big Horned Sheep. Some were eating grass, others playing and some were either
playing with or getting chased by a Bison. It was quite a bit to see from 20
feet away. Maybe 10 seconds after driving away from that we had a tourist spot
a bald eagle in a tree. So then we make it to the South end of Lamar Valley
where the two rivers meet up and there was an elk carcass that was hauled off
further from the road by the park rangers. We thought we were too late as
nothing was on the carcass. To our surprise, a wolf and coyote had just given
up on the meat and were heading further south. There were the wolf watchers and
a lot of photographers who pointed out where they were. It took me almost a
full year to see a wolf without a scope. This was an experience that I would
never forget. We saw they were heading towards the road about 500 feet away so
we hoped in the car and drove over. I missed what I thought would have been a
great shot of the wolf crossing the river. The wolf crossed the street 50 feet
in front of the car. I was behind the car with my camera snapping photos at the
rate of the camera and not the rate of my mind processing all of it. To recap
we saw a wolf, a coyote, bison, elk, pronghorn, bald eagle, big
horned sheep and we thought we were done for the day. We drove
out to pebble creek and saw a sand hill crane in the distance. We started to
drive back to Mammoth boasting about the two hour drive we had. We were a mile
from the Petrified Tree when a black truck had a scope out looking across the
valley over Nancy’s hole. We got out and asked what he saw and responded with a
Black Bear. We saw the black bear through some binoculars and my camera and
figured if we drove a couple miles up the road we could get out walk a little
and get a better view considering that the bear was on a whole separate
mountain, so we did. By the time we got to where we thought we could see the
bear, we had lost it. Right before we were going to turn around, one of us
spotted it and we added it to our list for the day. 20 Minutes outside of
Mammoth are the Black Tail Lakes.
The Black Tail Lakes are what I
would consider a death trap for Bison or any animal I suppose. But while
driving back there were cars all up and down the road looking over to the
lakes. We hopped out and saw a Bison swimming; in place. The lakes are so muddy
in one particular spot that when the bison’s try walking through it, it acts
like quick sand and keeps them there until they give up and drown, or a bear
walks by. We watched the helpless animal for a little while contemplating if we
could save it but left to go eat some dinner. We went to the EDR for a quick
dinner and headed back out to the death trap. The bison had drowned about a
half hour after we left.
The End (The Final Chapter)
The final days were upon us and I
hadn’t decided what I was going to do. Rob had joked with me to come out to
California for a little while and two days before we were free I decided to
join him on the adventure. With knowing each other for about a year and not
really having any fights or what not, it was a nice little vacation. I met his
aunt and cousins and some of his friends.
We made it down to Venice beach
where I could have stayed all day and have the chance to take it in. On the
other hand I was with three locals so I know where they were coming from. There
were a lot of art forms out there from pictures to sand sculptures to music
that rented out spaces on the sidewalk. We watched a girl swallow a sword
outside the freak show but continued on down the path. Once we made it to the
end turned around and headed back towards the car. I did convince the guys to
watch the skateboarders at the park. It was a rather huge park with a wide
variety of people and ages. One of the best we saw while there was an 11 year
old boy with long blond hair who didn’t show fear when making his tricks. He’ll
be big in the skate industry I said with Rob and friends agreeing. After 20
minutes of that is when we headed for the car. We parked on a side street a
couple blocks from the beach. We all forgot the street and the way to go. We
were walking over canals left and right and managed to find one that looked a
little different than the others and made it back to the car. Rob had pointed
out so places in Venice that they had filmed American History X which I watched
for the first time a week before going to California.
P.S
The winter was filled with great
fans and great experiences that will be remember for a life time. Throughout
this act I mentioned the word “LUCK” and various forms of the word. Luck is
something that I was born with. But while reading this notice how I wasn’t
lucky enough to see a bear or other animals outside my window besides elk or
bison? The fact of the matter is, Yellowstone, no matter the working
conditions, the hours worked, the drama that unfolded in three months, the better
times were away from work. The memorable experiences were made by going out and
doing something rather than sitting inside and being a couch bum. Luck in
Yellowstone is not something that happens; it’s something that is made by doing
and not dreaming. Luck for me isn’t a word I would associate with gambling,
those are odds. In conclusion the winter
season was something that I was glad to be a part of and would not have changed
any part of it. I did write this act 7 months after the season and left out a
couple of experiences that I will write about in future acts. Lastly, I will
say that working with a group of people living together is a way of living that
I enjoy. With living and working with so many people, it allows for people to
be active and do things they wouldn’t have the opportunity to do if, for
example they lived in Wisconsin. Until the next act, I’ll catch you on the flip
side.
MacKeag, Employee Dining Room Server December 2012-April 2013, Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone sounds wonderful - Lucky you!
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