Roadwarners

a Warner family adventure

Day 35. 10.01.19. Nagymama

This website is great because its forcing me to keep track of each day both in writing an in pictures…but it sure is difficult to stay on top of it especially if there is little to no internet connection. We had a little last night so I was up until almost 2am going through pictures, attempting to make sense of the science and update the information from Yellowstone.

We had planned on waking up early this morning to watch the sunrise. 1) because we really wanted to watch a sunrise in the Grand Tetons, but mainly because 2) my grandmother will have passed away a month ago this morning. We knew it was going to be a hard day for my mom and we thought it would be a great day to get up early and watch the sun rise. I’m glad we did, but boy was I tired after going to bed late. It’s not that I’m not a morning person, but to watch the sunrise is always a little harder for me because you have to set your alarm and force yourself awake while its still dark. It also doesn’t help when you wake up and its a solid 28 degrees. But we did it. Set the alarm for 6am, got the kids up, layered on clothes and walked out to the second little peninsula near Colter Bay. It wasn’t the most amazing sunrise, there was still cloud coverage in the sky, but once you motivate and get out there it does always feel good to be awake early.

Sunrise was supposed to be around 7:04, but the clouds weren’t cooperating. My mom busily started collecting rocks and we began building a lovely little rock shrine. This is not an unusual thing for my mom or us to do…rock therapy is definitely a thing in our family. It kept us busy as we were waiting for the sun to peek through. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned in all my posts that going through my grandmother’s death was easily the most spiritual experience I have been through. We started sharing things about my grandmother to each other and then a giant black raven came swooping around from the trees, right over head, and then back into the trees. The sun kept trying to pop through, but whenever we thought it would it would be covered again…but amazingly right around 8:29am when my grandmother had passed away the sun came out and shown on the rocks. But the rocks we were building only, the Tetons at that point were covered in clouds.

Another beautiful moment in the sadness and I’m so happy my mom came out here with us. She’s had genuine smiles this week and although I know her mom is never far from her thoughts at this time, I feel as though she’s been able to step away from the grief she is feeling.

sunrise
rock therapy
just peaking through
heart rock
matchy matchy
the sun finally shone through
amazing how many different shades of green
moss covered trees

Day 34. 09.30.19. Grand Teton National Park. Wyoming.

I’ve been very excited to get to Grand Teton National Park. 6th National Park. The cold came early so a lot in the Teton’s is closed, but they do have 2 campgrounds still open. We stayed in Colter Bay and got there with enough light to ride bikes along the water. So spectacular. The Tetons are jaw dropping.

Vera spotted a beaver down in the water and we hung out and watched her work for quite awhile. Even though you know what beavers do, its a completely different thing to watch it happen in person. This beaver was building its dam underneath the boat ramp. It started swimming away from the boat ramp to the shore on the other side over 100 yards away. I’ve never seen Vera move so fast 🙂 She grabbed her bike and biked along the shore to follow the beaver. Threw her bike down and ran along the shore to watch the beaver climb/walk/waddle up on shore, chew down a branch and then back into the water. The rest of us stayed near the boat ramp and we see the beaver back in the water, Vera back on her bike riding fast back towards us. We were hanging out right near her dam when about a few feet away she slammed her tail against the water and dove down with the branch in her mouth. We hung out for at least 10 minutes waiting for the beaver to surface again. How long can beavers hold their breath? I don’t know, we haven’t looked it up yet. Maybe she hung out in her den for awhile since she knew we were watching her.

We decided to ride our bikes along the peninsula to watch the sunset and scope out a place we were could watch the sunrise the next morning. I like it here. Could stand it to be a few degrees warmer, but also imagining the craziness of people that would be here if that was the case.

We were happy to be in a campground tonight where we were able to plug in. The heat was cranked, Edwin made a yummy dinner while we all took showers in the RV for the first time. Don’t worry, we have showered more than once this last month, but we’ve either back at home, taking showers at friends houses or using the public showers at a campground. The showers were warm and successful. Yay! Only one little hiccup… Vera went in first, all was good. My mom went second and of course the fresh water ran out so my poor mom hung out in the shower while Edwin filled up the fresh water. Then the hot water heater wasn’t working. But Edwin is Edwin and is awesome and doesn’t give up so he got it all back up and running. Can’t tell you how good it felt to take a shower tonight after a few days in Yellowstone. We all sat down to a delicious dinner around the table, happy, tired, and CLEAN 🙂 How simple it can be to feel content.

Grand Teton National Park. #6
first look at the Tetons
it was a pretty big animal, like a large raccoon
the beaver fills the gaps with mud
imagine the size of their chimpers
busy little animals

Day 34. 09.30.19. Yellowstone National Park. Wyoming.

We decided last night that we would drive through Canyon on the way to Yellowstone Lake on our way out of Yellowstone. Edwin and I woke up early so we decided to pull in the side of the RV and drive to Artist’s Point while my mom and the kids were asleep, one of our favorite spots from the first day near Canyon. It was nice to be there without the crowds. I can see why they call it Artist’s Point. It is the most photographed view in Yellowstone. We took a little hike along the South Rim to Ribbon Lake. The morning sun was shining on the canyon and the amount of colors were incredible. Reds, yellows, oranges, greens. Because of the weather we hadn’t spent a lot of time off the main trafficked areas. It was nice to get onto a trail and have a some tranquility in the beauty.

We went back to the Canyon visitor center and the girls completed their science badges. I know I said this yesterday, but I feel like I finally went full circle in my understanding of Yellowstone. They do a really complete job and give so much information. Here’s some more information from the Canyon visitor center as we didn’t realize there was a whole second floor.

lodge pole pine grows everywhere because it can grow in the nutrient poor soil
Native Americans have many stories how animals such as coyotes formed the canyons and rivers

Native Americans used the colors from all the different hydrothermal areas to paint their bodies and the buffalo hides

The Yellowstone caldera is huge…45 miles by 34 miles. Crater Lake which looks huge is tiny in comparison, 6 miles wide

On the way to Lake Yellowstone we stopped by another series of mud pots with cold names like “Black Dragon’s Cauldron”, “Sizzling Basin”, “Grizzly Fumarole”, “Churning Cauldron”, “Sour Lake”, “Dragon’s Mouth Spring”.

lunch and journals

We went to the “big thumb” part of Lake Yellowstone and I was just expecting the lake so don’t know why I was surprised to see the lake with a boardwalk of another series of springs and fumaroles. The lake looked appetizing to go into, but its not allowed. Just as I was saying this to my mom and noticed elk literally frolicking in the lake just 100 yards from us. They looked like dogs jumping around the shallows. And you know when dogs get wet they get crazy hyper, so did this baby elk. It was trying to get its mom to play with him, but she wasn’t having it. They sauntered over grazing along the way and ended up only feet from us.

the water looked nice, swimmable, then we looked right and saw 2 elk frolicking in the shore

They had these super cool springs right near the water and it is said that the Native American’s and also the first mountaineers would go fishing, casting their fishing rod into the lake and then without removing the fish from the rod, dip the pole into the spring to cook the fish and then eat it. Both swimming in the water and fishing/cooking made me wish we could do that too. It started snowing again when we got to the Lake but the somehow the colors in the springs were more vibrant than those inside the basin.

imagine fishing in the lake and then dipping it in the hot water and you could eat it right then
it was nice to see the colors at these springs today…because it was too cold/overcast to see them at the “great Prismatic Spring”

Goodbye Yellowstone. It was a lovely time. Considering the cold snap the Northwest is having we felt like we lucked out with the weather and everything seemed to just work out. Off to the Tetons.

Day 33. 09.29.19. Yellowstone National Park. Wyoming.

SNOW! Really? In September?! We dropped what we thought was quite a bit of elevation from Canyon last night and even though we knew it would maybe snow we were still a little surprised to wake up to snow. Now we were really happy that we did the drive to Canyon yesterday, got over the pass, and got out of there as well. Other than the, “this sucks we’ll have to put on chains” and the “we didn’t really come equipped with snow gear” the snow was beautiful. It was fun to tromp around it in the morning and there weren’t many campers up there so it was a beautiful walk along the creek. Then the hilarious camp host came roaring around on his golf cart telling everyone that we had to be out by 9am so off we went.

a river runs through it.
wish i had taken a pic when we arrived at night to see the difference
had to sweep off the snow so we could pull in the side
morning reading. we are warm in the RV thankfully…but it was 23 when we woke up

Our destination was the Old Faithful visitor center to pick up the 2nd “young scientist” booklet Yellowstone offers but somehow missed the turn and ended up in West Yellowstone. Which in the end was fine, because the distances aren’t all that far and we saw so many more animals along the way. Mainly elk and bison, but watching bison cross rivers in the the snow is just really neat and I don’t get bored of it.

they just walk through the freezing streams without a care in the world
just walking along the road
and don’t even lift their head as they walk by

Once we were back on track towards Old Faithful we went by all the springs and mud pots. What a trip the mud pots were. Listening to those bubble and roar is a little scary, but also visually satisfying. The colors in all the springs and bacterial mats are mesmerizing and to see all those colors in one area feels unbelievable. What I didn’t quite realize as we were driving around Yellowstone yesterday and feel like I must’ve known this, but it didn’t really quite sink in until driving around today…is that Yellowstone National Park is an active volcano. You can’t help but imagine the world billions of years ago when there was just algae and bacteria, the beginning signs of life. Not till I saw these today, did I realize how amazing, but also scary Yellowstone is. Yesterday at the visitor center at Canyon focused on Yellowstone being a super volcano, but not till driving around was it all really starting to make sense. I think we were too tired and had so much other inputs at that point last night. Anyway…here’s my educational part of Yellowstone, for those of you who are actually reading this and/or care 🙂

Most of Yellowstone National Park is part of what is known as the Yellowstone Caldera. We are currently sitting a top the MOST ACTIVE hot spot in North America and is considered to be the LARGEST SUPERVOLCANO in the world. It erupted 2.1 million years ago, 1.2 million years ago, and again 640,000 years ago. The latest eruption 640,000 years ago (1000x times greater than the eruption at Mt. St. Helens) is what created the yellowstone caldera as we know it today. It is 45 x 28 miles wide. The caldera is huge! Everything inside this Yellowstone caldera is the National Park. All the beauty and geothermal phenomena are because it is currently an active hot spot. The geysers, the mudpots, the fumaroles, and springs are all because we are above an active volcano. It’s kind of a trip that we are walking and driving ON TOP of an ACTIVE VOLCANO. The magma (called magma below ground, lava above ground) is only 3 miles below the ground in some areas. It is the magma heating up the water that causes all these spectacular things to exist. It is almost a definite that it will erupt again, but it may not be for another few hundred thousand years in the future…hopefully 🙂 Yellowstone is very active and has over 2,500 earthquakes a year.

it’s all science…magma rises because it is LESS DENSE than the surrounding rock

The difference between Geysers, springs, mudpots, and fumaroles…it all depends on the type of rock, level of heat, and the amount of water. GEYSERS, what we think of when we think of Yellowstone, like Old Faithful: The rock under geysers are hard and do not break down under with the heat and water. The water heats up and wants to escape but they have constrictions in their “plumbing” that allow pressure to build, causing an eruption. 2/3 of the world’s geysers are in Yellowstone. HOT SPRINGS, like the “Great Prismatic Spring” that Yellowstone is famous for, is a large pool that amazing electric blue color that turns to green and is bordered with orange/yellow/red/brown. In hot springs, water circulates freely to the surface. The color comes from the minerals; microscopic heat loving bacteria and refracted light. In the blue areas the water is too hot for bacteria to grow. Near the edges thermophiles, heat loving bacteria, make the brown, orange, red, yellow, and green colors. MUD POTS, look like boiling pots of clay. Thermophiles use the hydrogen sulfide gas that rises from the magma chamber and turn the hydrogen sulfide gas into sulfuric acid. The acidic water then dissolves the rock into mud and clay. The thickness of the mud pots vary with precipitation and can change from a soupy consistency to the consistency of boiling thick oatmeal. FUMAROLES are steam vents. They are similar to geysers but there is so little water that it all turns to steam before it reaches the surface and produces a hissing noise. They are the hottest hydrothermal features in the park.

Geysers: the construction in the rock causes pressure and causes the “eruption” of the geyser
Springs: no constriction so the water is able to flow freely to the top and form a pool
Mud Pots: these are similar to springs but the rock around springs is hard and does not break down.
Fumarole: because of the limited water supply the water rises as steam, but is usually constant

Crazy, right? Again, I though I knew some of this, but this is really the huge added bonus of doing this with our kids. I’m so intent on having them learn about the national parks and not taking this “homeschooling” as a joke that its forcing me to learn and understand more and better about the why then just looking at the beauty of it. It’s really quite fun.

Bacteria growing all over where life is possible
in the super heat bacteria does not grow creating the super blue clear water
more bacteria mats
mud pot, can’t see the mud boiling in the background…but you can hear it
steam coming out everywhere

Anyway after seeing all the mudpots and springs on the way to Old Faithful we finally got what I was really waiting for…the bison traffic jams. They are just so cool and fun. Well at least in the fall when its not already traffic jam 🙂 The herd looked like it was easily a 100 and some were bolting across the road so fast you really are amazed that these large animals can move that fast. We ran into a few other ones to, but often just a solitary buffalo crossing the road and walking right by your car.

After all that, the day was still not over and we finally made it to the Old Faithful visitor center. Picked up the young scientist packet there, saw Old Faithful erupt, watched the educational movies, walked around and read all the exhibits…and by now it was finally all coming together. I was now feeling bummed that we didn’t have more time to learn at the Canyon visitor center which focused on the “supervolcano” aspect.

Here is my PSA of the day…PICK UP YOUR OWN GARBAGE. It was snowing when we went to see Old Faithful erupt and all the benches were wet, so I ran inside and grabbed some toilet paper to dry off the bench so we could sit for a minute. Apparently we weren’t the only ones with that idea…but we may be one of the few that clean up after ourselves…because there were 2 old ladies that their SOLE job was to go around and pick up the left over toilet paper people used to dry off the benches after each Old Faithful eruption. I was disgusted to see these old ladies have to bend over and pick up everyone else’s trash. I’ll have a picture below of the amount she came back with. I asked if I could take a picture and she said “yes, but this is not a proud moment”. THROW YOUR TRASH IN THE GARBAGE PEOPLE.

“not a proud moment” she said

We went to dinner at the Old Faithful Lodge…just because. The dinner was nothing exciting, but glad we went. The lodge is the original lodge and the 85’ fireplace was pretty neat. The girls worked on their junior ranger and scientist packets at these adorable desks in the lodge for another hour after dinner and we closed the visitor center down at 8pm so they could receive their badges.

these cool little desks where they worked on their packets after dinner

No camping at Old Faithful so we drove back to Madison campground near the west side of the park. We barely made it through one round of canasta before we went to bed.

Day 32. 09.28.19 Yellowstone National Park. Wyoming.

The weather is not what we ordered…but we did wake up to some elk right outside the RV this morning…so that was pretty neat. We started off at the Mammoth Hot Springs visitor center and got the kids going on their junior ranger patches. There’s always something interesting to learn when you take the time to read everything inside before you head out into the park. Here are some tidbits…

good morning to the elk

Yellowstone National was the FIRST national park in the United States. It became a national park on March 1, 1982 under President Ulysses S. Grant.

the Yellowstone river flows into the Missouri river. It was also named by the Indians for the yellow bluffs miles away from Yellowstone

Animals that have antlers such as elk, deer, and moose lose their antlers every year. Antlers are one of the fastest growing bones. Even though I knew deer lose their antlers every year, its pretty crazy to think that elk and moose re-grow those giant antlers each year.

Contrary to above, horned animals, like pronghorn sheep and bighorn sheep, keep their horns for life. If one breaks, the broken part does NOT grow back. Both males and females grow horns. Similar to your fingernails, horns, hooves, and claws are all made of keratin but horns have a bony core and are rock hard. Fun fact, to guess the age of a bighorn ram, you can count the rings on its horns similar to tree rings.

i didn’t know before today you can count the rings on a big horn sheep similar to tree rings.

Yellowstone National Park helped save the bison. Once there was an estimated 30-60 million bison in North America. By 1901 there were less than 50 in Yellowstone. In 1902 Congress funded a restoration program, bought and moved 21 genetically pure bison to the Lamar Valley. Now there are around 4,500 in Yellowstone National Park.

bison skulls. it’s pretty appalling what man does to another species. bison was almost extinct after once over 40 million ran around our states. in some ways we know better…but look what we are doing to our oceans

We decided to do a ranger led walk up through the Mammoth terraces but somehow weren’t at the correct meeting spot. We finally caught up with them 1/2 way through but only stayed for about 15 minutes. It was raining, we were freezing, and I don’t think he could’ve talked any slower or without enthusiasm. But we read enough that we understood the geology of what was going on. The terraces are really pretty and intricate. The soil here is primarily limestone. Limestone is essentially old sea floor bed, a lot of calcium carbonate that came from old sea shells, coral, etc… This is soft rock and the the heat from below the earth dissolves the “soft” limestone and is re-deposited above the surface as travertine. Because the rock is soft, no pressure really builds up and the water flows up freely and the process is fairly quick. Back in the day there was a gentlemen that would sell “souvenirs” to tourists. He would have them pick something out like a comb, fork or horseshoe. He would leave them in mammoth hot springs for a period of 5 days and when the tourist would return at the end of their trip, the souvenir would be covered in travertine.

the terraces at mammoth hot springs

We then drove to Lamar Valley where we got to see the bison roaming the valley. I think the bison in Yellowstone are my favorite thing to see. They are so big, so many, and I just like watching them move. There were no bison traffic jams as I remember from my time here 15 years ago, but watching them down in the valley, there’s something majestic about them.

We heard that today would be raining, but that most likely tomorrow would be snowing. Edwin did buy chains for the RV but was also hoping that would be a “just in case” and not actually have to use them so we decided to continue driving to Canyon which is one of the more treacherous and high in elevation drives. On the way you drive by the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. The rock formations are super neat along the road too. It’s also where we saw a black bear sleeping in a crook of a tree. It was quite the drive. We rose above 8000 feet and was happy it was not snowing. But there was snow at the top of Dunraven Pass so I jumped out to get a picture of the summit, threw some snowballs at the car windows, and grabbed some snow to make a coke slurpee. We got to the Canyon visitor center just before closing and picked up a “Scientist in Training” booklet that is offered both at the Canyon and Old Faithful visitor lodge. We drove to Artist Point at Lower Falls and was blown away. Even in the rain the colors were amazing. We did not have enough time here but it was starting to get dark…and it was STILL RAINING.

the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone
the super cool columnar faulting among the grand canyon
really happy it wasn’t snowing over the pass like it was earlier. did stop for a quick snowball and made some coke slurpees
my iphone does not do this justice. artists point is the most photographed point within Yellowstone
the yellows, greens, reds are dynamic
upper falls

No camping at Canyon so we drove down to Norris campground and were happy we got there. Had an amazing spot right next to this beautiful winding creek and decided it was the night to show my mom and the girls A River Runs Through It. We watched the first “happy hour” before we turned it off and went to bed.

Day 31. 09.27.19. Yellowstone National Park

Made it Yellowstone. 4th national park. It’s nice today but might be snowing the next few days. But did already see some elk and pronghorn sheep, even if they were just around the visitor center.

oOh also in Wyoming. 5th state.

5th state
my mom’s 1st time at Yellowstone
the elk just hang out by the visitor center
petrified wood
nighttime journaling
war with mini cards
ready for bed

Day 31. 09.27.19. Museum of the Rockies. Bozeman, Montana.

The Museum of the Rockies (MOR) houses the largest collection of dinosaur fossils in the country. A lot of dinosaur remnants were/are found in the state of Montana. The size of these animals in immense. Ready to show the girls the original Jurassic Park tonight 🙂

The have a T-Rex that still has its lower rib bones, one of the only ones that kept them during fossilization.

They also have the first and only evidence of a female t-Rex. When they sliced the femur bone there was still some soft tissue inside. They analyzed it and it was identical to that of a bird during ovulation. Thus, they house the first and only B-Rex named “Catherine”.

In the back of the skull of the Triceratops is a “ball joint” for a better lack of description. It is still the most spherical shape found in nature up to this date. The ability it gave this animal to move and rotate its head is unbelievable. Pics below.

Then we quickly walked through the Genghis Khan exhibit who ruled from 1206-1227. The Magyars supposedly came over from Mongolia and were also known to be great horseman. Genghis Khan ushered in many new aspects into culture that are still carried on today. Such as, religious freedom / one nation under many Gods, national parks/preserves, ground beef, forks (which were until then considered to be effeminate), coal, and a-meritocracy. Even now they say 1 in 16 males share the same Y chromosome as Genghis Khan.

Day 31. 09.27.19. Missouri Headwaters State Park. Montana.

Who thinks the start of the Missouri River starts in Missouri? Well it doesn’t. It starts in Montana, in what was known as old “Gallatin City I & II” of the mid 1800s.

“The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri River and such principal stream of it, as, by it’s course & communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean…may offer the most direct & practible water communication across this continent…” from Thomas Jefferson’s instructions to Meriwether Lewis, July 4, 1803.

Here 3 Rivers flow into what is the beginning of the Might Missouri River. The Gallatin river was named and Lewis and Clark named the other 2 the Jefferson River and the Madison River. The Madison River flows into the Jefferson River and then the Gallatin River runs into that as it forms the beginning of the Missouri River.

This was also the site of Colter’s Run. I’ll just put a picture of the story so I don’t have to copy it 🙂

rain and snow falling on 580,000 square miles flow into the Missouri and is done if the best farmland in the world
the Missouri flows into the Mississippi and then eventually into the Gulf of Mexico. if you floated down now it would take ~ 2 1/2 months to make it to the gulf of Mexico…
left: 90 million years ago, montana was a shallow sea bed
middle: 70 million years ago the continental divide was formed and the missouri flowed into Hudson Bay
right: 2 million years ago the ice age firced the river to flow south
why we sea the sea bed up in the rocks above
headwaters of the mighty Missouri with limestone in the background
the place to be, not quite the Claremont…only a 1 room hotel
one of the only 3 buildings left of the once bustling Gallitin City
the business card of the 60+ park employee who told us where to go see the headwaters
yes there was a back to the card

Day 31. 09.27.19. Butte, Montana

Right past the Fairmont Hot Springs is the town of Butte. There is always something to see anywhere. The highlight of Butte was a the “Our Lady of the Rockies” statue, which happens to be the 4th largest statue in the United States. The Statue of Liberty is only the 2nd tallest. The tallest is in Puerto Rico, the “Birth of the New World” (a Christopher Columbus and his ship). The 3rd largest is in Florida of a “Pegasus and Dragon”. Yes Chloe, we will go see and take pictures for you :). And this Lady of the Rockies is the 4th. We did not take the tour to go up, but Edwin did take a picture through binoculars just so we could show it off.

The other highlight that Butte has to offer is the one of the first and largest Superfund sites in America, the Berkeley Pit. It is 1 mile long by 1/2 mile wide and 1,780’ deep. It was a large copper and silver mine in the mid 1800s. It was closed on Earth Day in 1982 and the pit is filling with water but it is heavily laden with metals. They are working hard to divert the water before the it reaches the water table (which is supposed to happen in 2020) because then it will contaminate all the drinking water in Butte and the surrounding area, the Clark-Fork River. Pretty awful. We were there before 9 when you could go to the viewing platform so of course we just went up the hill to look over. Edwin could see the “lake” but I couldn’t so I climbed the fence until Edwin yelled at me to get do-win because he could hear the alarm sounding in the distance from me climbing up there. There’s a pic below of Edwin helping me down so I didn’t get hurt from the fence up top. Edwin was not so happy. Vera ran back to the RV scared the police were going to come. I just wanted a look…. 👀 🙂

really?
still didn’t figure out why it was named the Berkeley Pit
we would have gone to the viewing platform had it been open
you can see the mining
can see the the lake in the pit
thanks for getting me down
it’s on private land built after his wife survived cancer
we weren’t about to take a bus up there but here’s the view from near the Berkeley Pit

Day 30. 09.26.19. Missoula Smokejumpers. Montana.

It was a cold rainy day in the Northwest so there wasn’t much outdoor exploring which is what led us to a cool and unexpected discovery…the Missoula Smokejumpers. It was closed for the season but there was a number to call “after hours”. We did. They said they’d be there in a minute outside the visitor center. We though we were just going to be let into the tiny “museum” but instead we got a tour of the entire training facility. It was pretty awesome! Thanks Clint.

I think the coolest thing was walking into what you could tell was a seasoned smokejumper named Boyd Burtch. You could tell he was Native American and looked straight out of the movies. He was drawing and sewing a prototype for a rope holder that smokejumpers carry. I didn’t quite understand it even after asking a few questions…but by the end the tour it all made sense and realized that Boyd really was a BA double S like I originally thought.

“They’re all men” Isabella said. Not so much a surprise as to the job of smokejumping…but that they were the ones sewing, cutting, measuring, and really making all of their own equipment, bags, etc… The parachutes are made by a different company, but they make ALL their own gear in the off season. There are currently 5 female smokejumpers out of 70 who work during the season.

They jump with about 110lbs worth of gear. The plane sends down another cardboard box that carries their water, food, sleeping bag, axe, and any other gear they may need for the next few days to weeks fighting the fire. In their pack they carry an extra parachute. They wear a helmet with a front guard and do have a spare parachute. The other important thing they carry is 150ft of rope so that if they do land in a tree they are able to tie a harness one-handed and repel themselves down a tree. This is when we realized that this is what Boyd was working on. A new prototype to carry the 150’ rope so that it doesn’t all fall down into a big jumble in the bottom of their large ankle pocket.

Of course I asked what is the competition smokejumpers go for and it is the number of jumps, but really the number of fire jumps. This again is where Boyd’s name came up…he is currently the oldest smokejumper on the team and has racked up over 150 fire jumps. 162 to be exact. He is due to retire in a year. Mandatory retirement age for a smokejumper is 57.

We had lunch at the Highlander Brewery. Great nachos, ok pizza. But they did have a tip jar to buy a beer for a smokejumper…so we added to the bin.

We continued on and slept at the RV park next to Fairmont Hot Springs, which was a super nice resort with a large indoor pool and large hot tub and then a large outdoor pool with hot tub. The outdoor hot hot tub had about 50 people and still was not full. They also have a large 3 story water slide which unfortunately out of service and opening back up for the weekend.

Missoula Smokejumpers
Boyd Burtch working on a new prototype for holding rope
everyone learns to pack a chute. once you’ve done 20 perfectly you jump with your own chute on the 21st. after that you pack them and grab whichever chute is on the shelf
big workshop with sewing machines and tables for folding parachutes
these cardboard boxes are sent down to the smokejumpers after they land
that big leg pouch on the left is what holds the rope they need in case they get caught in a tree and need to repel down. This is what Boyd is working on so that the rope doesn’t fall into a bunch on the bottom of the pouch.
Boyd Burtch has 162 fire jumps but they only count by 50s. All the gold are retired, silver are current. There were 3 at the 200 fire jump level and I believe only 1 or 2 at the 250 mark
Boyd progressed since we left him 45 min ago
the orange/yellow rope on the bottom right is part of his 150’ of line
vera said she would never do something like that
the smokejumpers are U.S. government employees
at Highlander Brewery
Fairmont Hot Springs. Open 24 hours for guests

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