3 Highlights:
1. Entering Yellowstone
2. Swimming at Summit Lake
3. Meeting five fellow hikers
Daily Summary:
• Distance hiked: 30 km
• Starting point: Moose Creek Plateau
• Ending point: Summit Lake
• Weather conditions: Mixed
Daily Reflections (challenges, insights, musings):
Another long water carry day—because what’s a day on the trail without lugging around a few extra liters of liquid gold? The water I did find was brown and came from a small pond that looked like it had seen better days. Early on, I ran into three NOBOs (northbound hikers), including Beaver and Iceman, who were cool guys. They mentioned a Swedish NOBO couple had just passed by, but no sign of them.
I had the unique pleasure of hiking through three states today—Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. Three states in one day sounds impressive, but really, it was more like a quick jaunt across borders.
I arrived at camp early, and to my surprise, there were actually other people around. A rare sight! I spotted three SOBOs (southbound hikers) bathing in the lake when I arrived—Chuchu from Germany, Topo from Nice, France, and Flamingo. Chuchu and Topo are a couple on sabbatical, with very flexible jobs (Topo’s a web developer, of course). Flamingo is an expert at bear hangs and has hiked quite a bit.
Later, High Profile showed up, an ex-military IT developer now working for the Space Force, of all things. Keys a fellow hiker brought him a coke from Old Faithful 16 km away. Very nice gesture.
It’s nice not to be alone at camp tonight. Two more SOBOs showed up late, around 9:12 PM, and are setting up camp now. It feels good to have some company as the night settles in.
