June 18, 2014

Today was a rest day to escape from chasing wolves and bears – mostly.

I got up at 5:30 and went out to see what was going on at the bison carcass at the east end of the Lamar Valley. Not much. A pair of courting grizzlies was there, ignoring the carcass. It was cold and spitting rain. I stayed till about 7:30 and then left. I decided then that I would take a break from the wolves and bears.

What I really wanted was a long hot shower. The shower in the trailer will get you clean, but it's not a luxury. You get yourself wet and turn off the water. Then you lather up and rinse off, turning off the water again when you're done. I wanted a luxurious long hot shower and the cold wet weather made that even more appealing. I drove over to Canyon and saw the line for the showers was out the building. So I went down to the Hayden Valley to read and wait. It was 32 degrees and it started snowing – hard. So, back to Canyon and wait inside. An hour later, there was still a line, so I bailed on that. The snow had quit, so I went back over the pass to Roosevelt Lodge to use their shower – no waiting! I should have gone there first.

Then it was back to camp for lunch and a nap.

About 1:30, I woke and drove into Gardiner for some groceries. Sandwich stuff, parsley for the shrimp scampi on tonight's menu, ice and Coke. I was going to look something up on the internet with my computer, but the places I normally got connected had changed and I didn't want to deal with their hassles, so I tried using the phone. It worked! Cool!

Back in the park, I went out to the Lamar Valley for another look, but nothing was happening. I stopped in the Lamar Canyon to photograph at an Osprey nest and caught the male coming in:

Then, it was back to camp for dinner, filling the fresh water tank, draining the waste water tanks and writing these blog entries. Tomorrow it's back to bear and wolf chasing. The reports are that the wolf rendezvous site on the Blacktail Plateau was active today. I'll go out there and stake it out. The weather is supposed to start warming, too.