The storm focused its fury on the region far to the south, probably over Two Ocean Plateau, as the light faded from the sky. I love the way, in Wyoming's crystal clear autumn skies, that you can see a storm in its full glory. This one looked like a nuclear explosion, spreading out for miles from the funnel-shaped base as the setting sun painted the western wall of the storm. Most of the sky overhead had cleared with the onset of evening, but high winds and snow were forecast for the Heart Lake region later that night.
Later that night - for now, I was more than content to kick back by a blazing fire as the full moon popped up over Chicken Ridge over on the east side of Heart Lake. The fires that roared through this area years ago had left behind huge quantities of dry firewood, and for the first time in all of the many years that I'd been coming to Yellowstone, I enjoyed a hearty campfire. I sat up that night until the wee hours of morning, writing in my journal by firelight, snuggled up close to the blaze to dodge the chill. At times, the sheer beauty of the wild tableau spread out on the palette of Heart Lake made me put down my pen and wander down to the lakeshore to sit in the chilly night air again, trying to burn the memory of the wildness into permanence. I remember well the lapping of small waves against the shoreline, how the wind rustled through the pines on the hillside above me, and how the cry of a coyote heading out for the evening hunt sounded as it reached across from the peninsula on the eastern shore of Heart Lake.
From my journal that night:
"This is the first trip that I've ever built a campfire on inside Yellowstone. Tons of dry firewood, an excellent fire ring, and a superb view out over Heart Lake beneath the full moon. Mt. Sheridan is right behind me, bathed in the light of the moon. I suppose that the two bear that I spotted earlier are still quartering back and forth across the slopes of the mountains, engaging in a ceaseless search for calories before winter arrives in the high country of Yellowstone. Camp is very clean with Sheridan Creek running right beside the food area. Excellent water in the stream, right off the snowbanks atop Mt. Sheridan.
Spooky place too. I think that I have thousands of acres of wild country to myself tonight, here on the western shore of Heart Lake. All of the other sites were supposed to have been reserved, but evidently the threat of bad weather moving in kept the other parties from showing up. There were several patches of snow on the trail between here and Paycheck Pass on the other side of the cabin, and the only human tracks that I saw were my own and those of the hotpotter on Witch Creek.
This whole area burned back in 1988 and there are a few stands of lodgepole pine still standing in the ravines along the western shore. It appears that each of the camps are located in one of the stands of timber. This whole region is prime Griz habitat and evidently a lot of them are in here. I never got a really good look at the two bears on the slope above camp - they were probably a good mile higher up Mt. Sheridan. However, judging by the huge piles of fresh scat that I passed on the way in, and the fact that the bears are staying out in the open meadows near timberline for so long, I'm guessing that they are Grizzlies. When I'm in Griz territory, I always feel that it's a lot safer to assume that any bear that I see is a Griz until I can make a positive ID. I'd rather be safe than really, really sorry. On the opposite side of the lake, up near Outlet Lake on the Trail Creek trail, a large area has been closed to travel because of a bear hanging out near the campsite at Outlet Lake. Amazingly, there is absolutely no sign of bear at all in this camp - knock on wood! I saw lots of scat and some tracks on the trail as I hiked in today. The lack of sign in camp is a testament to the cleanliness of the site. That's reassuring. In the site, 8J6, that I stayed at on the eastern side of Heart Lake, a big Griz had raked one of the trees supporting the food pole, leaving deep claw marks as a sobering reminder of its presence.
I was in such a hurry to get here today, along with so distracted by the presence of the wandering bear above the main trail, that I managed to miss the turnoff to camp up where the trail crosses Sheridan Creek. I went on down the lake for over a mile, heading south towards the Snake, through some really spooky terrain, before realizing my mistake. That's careless - can't afford to be careless here, that's for sure. It was hard to spot the camp, and I ended up just walking through the tall grass beside Sheridan Creek until I spotted the red blaze marking the site.
It's one of the prettiest sites that I've ever stayed at, but spooky none-the-less. This is a strange addiction that I have.
I'm writing by firelight, so this is even messier than usual, and that's pretty danged bad. My right hand is still burning from the exposure to the pepper spray yesterday.
The fire is great - a real Paul-style blaze. I'm surrounded by wet swampy grassland, so there is little danger of wildfire. That's unusual - it usually seems to be extremely dry when I'm in Yellowstone.
The full moon is rising over Chicken Ridge on the other side of the lake. Yellowstone Lake is on the other side of Chicken Ridge. The Continental Divide runs along the top of the ridge, with water on the Yellowstone River side heading towards the Atlantic and the water over here on the Heart Lake side heading towards the Pacific. Researchers believe that at one time that the Yellowstone also drained into the Snake watershed, and hence on to the Pacific, but over time the drainage shifted eastward and the Yellowstone River flowed north to the Missouri.
Just took photos of the fire and the moon path on the lake. Hope that it turns out. It's so damned beautiful! I heard a loon earlier. That's as much a part of the wilderness as the Griz and the wolf."