2025 CDT - Day 1

2025 CDT, Day 1 - Mack’s Inn, Blue Alternate Route Mile 4.0

Madison River, Yellowstone National Park

The morning was cool with good cloud cover. Perfect hiking weather, at least for now. I had put all the coffee supplies out and ready the night before so I had a planned routine when the alarm went off a 0445. At home I had installed a new stove ignition system on the stove that uses the Tab electrical system rather than a match or lighting tool. Click,click, click - Whoosh! Flame! Coffee water going. We had dropped the trailer the night before so were on the move further up the rough dirt road without the hop-along trailer in tow. 5 minutes later we located the forest road-trail intersection and Runningbird was on her way with the first light of morning.

Back to the trailer and hooking it back up, a thru-hiker going Northbound came down the road and asked if I had any extra water. Being a good trail angel I filled two water bottles for “Mountain Goat” and ended up giving her a ride out to the highway. When was from Taiwan and comes here just to hike. She hikes by herself and had already completed the PCT a couple years ago. Got fuel in town and headed north then east into Yellowstone. The line into the park was backed up about a quarter mile but was moving along quickly. Surprising considering the 4th of July weekend. Just love that National Parks Lifetime Senior Pass!

Cruising around all the little steam shoots and colored pools brought back memories of visiting here twenty years ago with Stefan when he was so young. I skirted around the traffic of Old Faithful Village and did the speed limit all the way south past Grant’s Village. I figured if anyone wanted to go faster they should be in one of the nation’s most visited national parks on the 4th holiday. I found my way to Lewis Lake Campground and to the site I had reserved just a few days prior (was I lucky or what?) and easily positioned the TAB and got settled. I visited the 4 rangers in the office for a while and noted their comments about the aggressive Grizzly bears. I was also a bit bummed to find there is no cell reception here so I couldn’t follow Peggy’s progress. Driving the twenty minutes back to Grant’s Village I was able to top off with fuel and then, parking in front of the General Store, I was able to get sporadic AT&T reception.

Seeing that she was on schedule I returned to the outskirts of Old Faithful Village and a trailhead parking lot we had agreed to meet at. As this first day was going to be just a day hike she had hiked with just her fanny pack and thus had made the 27-mile trek in good time. She said the hike was uneventful, she got rained on a bit, and only had trouble navigating the mass of people in the village while trying to follow her trail app around all the streets, cars, and parking lots. Still, she was exhausted after sitting in the truck for the 13-hour drive the day before and getting only minimal sleep the proceeding nights. At our campsite she situated her backpack for the next days, made a salad for us, and I grilled Impossible burgers. The skeeters were out and sleeping was a bit tough as I tried to retrain Beau to sleep on the floor rather than on the bed with us as he has in past years. He’s such a bed hog!