Fear of a Female Planet

Lots of catching up to do. Had a very busy, momentous, and successful trip back East. Saw my old Bridesmaid, Deborah, who I haven't seen in years, saw my dad, saw my brother, saw my old college roommate and his family, was very busy at the History of Science Society meeting with my Graduate and Early Career Caucus responsibilities (and a lot of successful networking with senior scholars - several of whom complimented my mentorship work), saw some Boston friends, and saw my brother's step-sisters' families (we have a confusing family!).

Deborah picked me up at the airport in Burlington and we had a slumber party that night before she drove me down to my dad's the next day:


Me and Dad:


I love New England stone walls:


As the resident Gemini I organize a UW reunion at HSS every year:


After which I headed off to the Graduate and Early Career Caucus opening night mixer at the Harpoon brewery. Here are the GECC officers giving ourselves a pat on the back:


Most humorously was having someone give me their number for the first time in my life. I was reserving a large table at the brewery for our group when someone at an adjacent table started chatting with me. I literally turned around for 1 minute to order my drink and when I turned around he pointed to my phone on the table and said "I put my number in there for you." Flattering - and he was pretty cute - but obvs. I'm taken :)

I had a wonderful time in New Orleans for the American Historical Association annual conference. In addition to some good panels on the history of medicine and networking I saw a lot of this:



And ate a lot of this:



Took a lot of photos of these:



I also paid a visit to Anne Rice:



I also got to meet dlightful!

Hey LJ, I've been reading, just busy trying to get over writer's block - think things have turned a corner though.

In the meantime, I'll be in San Diego Thursday-Saturday for the History of Science Society annual conference. I don't think I know anyone there (and I've been to LA enough to limit that area significantly - yah traffic!), but weather/clothing wise any suggestions? I'll be inside the hotel most days, but want to go to the beach for a run and go to the zoo with a friend.

Newport State Park, Door County, Wisconsin - October 2011.

Fall is in full swing, as we hike the almost 2 miles in to our campsite:



Our campsite was right on the beach and we arrived at sunset:





The next morning:





More foliage:



We hiked out along Lake Michigan:



and picked up some Door County souvenirs on the way home the next day:



10 hours of driving for 20 hours of camping, but totally worth it.

We last saw our intrepid adventurers when they left South Royalton, Vermont for Mount Mansfield. We had seen some flood damage, but most towns truly effected were cut off, but after grabbing lunch in Montpelier (where we saw lots of FEMA people) we drove through Waterbury, Vermont, where you could see how every home had been flooded.

Everything smelt like mud and the pastures where matted down from the flooding:





Vermonters have a way of finding humor in tough times though:



We stopped by the Ben and Jerry's factory!



And got to Underhill State Park just in time to set up our tent before dark and enjoy an awesome fire in the great firepit for our campsite. Underhill is off the grid, small, and super quiet - we loved it!



The next morning around 10:30 we started out. The park didn't have any maps to hand out and the maps they had posted didn't even have all the trails on them. We got two different answers from the ranger (who clearly "knew the score") but we figured out a nice long route that we ended up being super happy with (over 10 miles and over 2100 ft elevation change). We took the CCC Road to Maple Ridge to Rock Garden to the Wampahoofus to the Forehead, across the Ridge, to the Adam's Apple, to Lake of the Clouds, to the Profanity trail and back via the Sunset Ridge trail - all in 9 hours.



Nick likes extreme hiking and initially poo-pooed the elevation of Mount Mansfield, but I knew he'd enjoy the extremes of this hike, starting with the absence of switchbacks:



As a result you quickly get to the alpine zone of the mountain:



The trail was incredibly well marked, which is good, because otherwise we would have thought we were lost. Yes, they want us to go down that:



Looking back up:



So worth it:



The Rock Garden trail in particular was great, although it should have had a small box at the beginning, like the height chart at an amusement park ride, saying "you must be able to fit through this to go on this trail"







And this point Nick was totally in love with Mount Mansfield and we hadn't even reached the top! In this picture he is showing his sad face that they actually DON'T have us going up this rock face:



But that's ok, it doesn't take long to be back scrambling:



For great views:



We stopped for a quick lunch at the Forehead:



Being silly:



The summit was truly in the clouds:





Those white blazes? The Trail...



The other side of that:



The Sunset Ridge trail alternated between clouds and clear by the minute:



Finally made it back! Unlike backcountry trips we've done, Mount Mansfield actually wants you to sign back in that you made it!

We left off our third and final night of the trip. Our last day was the shortest of the days: just about 5 1/2 miles out, with the last part meeting back up with where we left. With one car it's hard to anything but a loop, but Yellowstone doesn't have many loops. This was more of what they call a "lollipop."



We took a break under that tree:



We weren't in a rush, so we enjoyed the scenery and I spotted some Elk with my binoculars:



They were too far away to get a picture, but they were on this slope:



We started to encounter people again at this point. In fact, after we branched off for the Buffalo Plateau we didn't encounter another single hiker until near the end of day 3, when we crossed paths with some Germans. The next day we saw some Australians. That was it until we met back up with the Coyote Creek trail. I wish I could capture the looks on these peoples face though, as they thought the 500 ft. descent/ascent they were doing as a short hike was bad enough and then they see our grizzled faces and packs.





Before we began the ascent to the parking lot we came across some horses and their riders, which also meant we dodged horse droppings the whole way up.



Remember the Buffalo Plateau? I DO.



After!



Being a Saturday, we could only hope for a cancellation at a campground but there weren't any. We booked a backcountry site just .5 miles off a road and drove up to Gardiner, MT, where we got a tip about a new fancy hotel that we bargained a two bedroom suite from 295 down to 175 a night.



We were very happy to take showers:



And eat real food:



Our waiter really liked our music choices in the jukebox (mostly Grateful Dead) and when he brought our fried dough appetizer told us it was "chronic." Yeah, he knew the score!



Will, Steve, and I stayed in to enjoy the hotel room and Nick and Jason went out on the town. Our waiter at dinner had told them about some local jam band. They ended up getting rather drunk!



The next morning we ate a massive breakfast (except for Nick, who due to a really bad hangover stuck to toast and fruit!)



We stopped for an early dinner in Cody, where I found a new friend:



And then drove through the night Rapid City to get Steve to the airport to fly back to Boston. We ate at an all night IHOP and then continued on, nonstop, to Madison (oh, well, we stopped in Rochester, MN for Culvers :)

THE END! Hope you enjoyed it!!

The next morning Nick, Will, and I were up for a while before Jason and Steve, so we enjoyed good conversation over breakfast (you can see our bear pole here quite well):



And even read some:



Still a lot of damage from the 1988 fire:



We headed out around 11:30AM and pretty quickly came to a patrol cabin. They maintain the trails and backcountry sites with horses, so we first came upon the corral:



And we took a break (and availed ourselves of their outhouse, which had a seat and toilet paper!)



The closer we got to leaving the park the more the trail resembled a brook:



We stopped again on this ridge to rest and enjoy the view:



I climbed up that hill and enjoyed the view:





We encountered some snow:





And then left Yellowstone Park and entered the Beartooth Wilderness:



We would see tons of animals prints, scat, bones, and tree scrapings, but not an actual animal until the next morning (don't cha want to know, huh?)



Around this point we must have reached our peak elevation and then started heading downhill... with the water...



We stopped in this nice meadow for lunch (my chicken, cheese, and salsa wraps - the boys were huge fans and probably forgave my lagging behind just for this meal):



The first streams we had to cross often had shrubbery, later they would be larger:



Seriously, if this had been within park boundaries, I doubt they would have let us hike it:





Finally! A sign!



We thought we were close and it was rapidly getting dark, but we just kept descending this beautiful wildflower covered slope:



Until we finally came to the Hellroaring Creek and there was a campsite just over the river with a bear pole (we were on our own in the Beartooth Wilderness, but the ranger told us that there would probably be some makeshift sites if we kept an eye out).



We set up camp for the night and went to bed exhausted.

---

Next up: Hellroaring Creek

We left off on the morning of our hike to Observation Peak (9397 ft).

First we had to fill up on water. This was probably the worst water we had to filter the whole trip - pretty still and shallow (yes, that is an animal bone in the foreground - the pelvis of something...)



We didn't want to carry all of our gear up to the Peak since we had to come back the same way anyway, so we piled it on this rock and covered it with a tarp (a good idea because it did rain - well sleet at the summit - while we were gone). I like this picture because it seems like a lot of stuff at first and then you realize it is three tents, five sleeping bags and five camp pads (with a pillow and jet boil thrown in for fun), which is most of our gear on a given trip.



Looking back at Cascade Lake:



We stopped at this pass for a break and adding layers. The wind was howling something fierce.



Steve took a picture for us:



Pretty soon we encountered snow:



This was the beginning of the final push to the top. The trail sort of ended and we had to choose to go over the top of the snow (to the left) or along the bottom (the right). We chose the right.



The larger tree pictured here shifted about a foot downslope when I crawled under the log in front of it!



We reached the corner of the snowbank and encountered this, written by another hiker:



But actually, we could make it around, and onwards and upward:



This was Grebbe Lake, another hike we could have taken past Cascade but the guidebook said it was lousy with mosquitos, so we passed.



Looking back down at the climb so far:



There was a patrol cabin at the top:



We only got about 5 minutes of the view before the clouds descended and it started sleeting.



We look so happy for people so cold:



We took the route over the snowbank on the way back:



Everything seemed so green on the way down (and you can see some thermal activity in the background too!)



Cascade Lake again:



We stopped for a break to take off the cold weather gear and throw around a frisbee:



I took out my binoculars and scanned for wildlife:



So green:



A lot of times I fell behind - older and much shorter than the boys. Just climbing over obstructions took me longer. Unless I could go under...



Almost back to the van we spotted this carcass:



After:



We lucked out with a cancellation and got this pretty sweet car camping site for the night, where we could plan the next adventure:



And clean up a little:



We decided that night to do something none of us had ever done before - a three night, four day backcountry trip. We wrote down some options and planned on going to the ranger station the next morning...

to be continued!

We got to Yellowstone around 11PM and stayed at a car camping site that I was able to reserve the week before:



After getting up we went to the backcountry office and planned our first two trips (backcountry is free of charge as long as you don't reserve anything more than 48 hours in advance - you also can only book by mail or in person). Due to a late spring, pretty much all four corners of the park were closed due to snow melt and unfordable rivers. In addition, the recent bear attack had shut down that area of the park. To acclimate to the elevation we chose a one night trip out to Firehole Falls via Mystic Falls. It began at a thermal area, where we took our before picture (We always took before and after pictures).





Mystic Falls:



You can see Old Faithful erupting in the distance:



We're still so clean...



The area was still recovering from the 1986 fire so there was a lot of new growth, which, combined with the late spring meant lots of mosquitos.



The campsite was right next to this waterfall. Some fly fishermen came over that night and the next morning to fish near it:



The tent site was up a hill overlooking the falls:



While the food and fire area was at the bottom of the hill (note the bear pole - unlike Joshua Tree you have to use designated sites due to the need for bear poles. All items with an odor have to go in them - food, chapstick, sunscreen, the even suggest you put your water bottles in them):



We hiked back out, pretty much the same way we came in:



There was quite a bit of this:



The Little Firehole River:



After!



Beehive Geyser!



We got back to the van pretty early and spent the afternoon checking out Old Faithful, enjoying some cold beverages and then heading out that same evening for our next adventure...

Jason just emailed us some of his photos from the trip - ( here are some of my favorites: )