Hailey

Day 1
Sunday, August 19, 2001

We made it to camp a little after two. I immediately had lunch because I was really hungry. I meant to have a turkey and cheese sandwich, but I think I got a piece of baloney by mistake. Anyway, it was still good. After lunch Hiruth and I headed out to set up our tent. I don’t know his name but one guy from the camp saw we were having trouble, and so he helped up out. After the tent was set up, Hiruth and I started filling it with all our posssessions. We then separated the odor items from out bags and placed them in the van so wild animals wouldn’t smell them and join us in our camp. After this was done I was explained the rules of the camp and then we went out exploring. The teachers took us on a sightseeing tour. Bill took us out to look for obsidian, I found one small piece. He talked about how soldiers set up camp so people couldn’t hunt the buffalo. We then were told about the story behind the first Yellowstone hotel. Marshall had actually built a home for himself but when a man persuaded him to rent a room out, Marshall got an idea to rent out rooms to all passers-by. Eventually he built a hotel, stable, bathouse, and more. We saw the remains of all those buildings plus a tombstone for the caretaker’s wife who died in labor. The daughter did survive although she died when she was 15 or 16. Nobody knows what happened to the man after that. Somebody always puts a bouquet of flowers by the grave the day the lady died. We were then shown the river area we will be excavating. It is a warm water bed and the first to have this kind of archaeological dig done on it. However, there is a snail problem. So we can’t wear the shoes in the water we wear anywhere else in the park. On the way back we saw four elk. They were really pretty and a lot bigger than I ever expected them to be. Their chestnut color kind of reminded me of my horse, but my horse has a lot more red in her. So now I’m back at camp, I’m sure we’ll be having dinner soon but after that I’m not sure what’s going to happen.

Day 2
Monday, August 20, 2001

Last night I woke up a lot because I was so cold. So tonight I think I’ll were even more layers. I woke up around 7:30 and washed up. Then I had a bowl of Lucky Charms with hot chocolate. It was very good, the hot chocolate warmed me up. About nine we left to head out to the river. Once we got there we set up our transect from which we would be working. This involved walking two ropes across the river except they weren’t long enough so we had to tie another rope onto each of them so they could extend across the river. Next we split into groups of five where one person was recording and the other four were looking through buckets with glass bottoms or scuba masks. In the first transect the only ceramics I found were buried down in the river bed so I couldn’t get them out. After each group had made it to the middle we took the rope furthest downstream and moved it upstream to make a new transect. When we had moved the rope we left the river and had a snack. Then we went back in. Luckily the water wasn’t too cold, but the rocks were slippery and it was kind of hard to keep your balance. While the first transect took us about an hour and a half, the second one moved a little quicker. I found one piece of pottery (ceramics). Once we had reached the middle again we moved downstream rope more upstream. Then we broke to have lunch. For lunch I had a pb&j sandwich, apple and a bag of Doritos with a couple of juice boxes. We all whined about our wet shoes and how tired we were. After this we went back and did three more transects. In the third transect I found an animal bone, but no ceramics. IN the fourth transect I found a couple of pieces of ceramics, and in the fifth and final transect I found numerous ceramics, a couple of which I thought could have been from bowls. By this time we couldn’t stand another transect, so we left to go back to the camp to change into some warmer, less wet clothes. After this, Hiruth and I played cards while waiting for Dr. Bill to return to take us on our sightseeing tour. When he arrived we headed out to view some hot springs. They were really pretty. I think we saw seven or eight. A few were even erupting. I took a lot of pictures. The only bad thing was that they all smelled like rotten hard-boiled eggs. But it was worth it. All in all I worked five hours today. For dinner we’re having hotdogs and brownies. After dinner I imagine we will all be playing some games. Hopefully I won’t be so cold tonight, but we’ll see what happens.

Hailey (r.) gets a hand from Hiruth.

Day 3
Tuesday, August 21, 2001

I slept much better last night, only waking up about two or three times. I eventually arose around seven. After changing I had a bowl of Lucky Charms, Honey Nut Cheerioes and a full glass of hot chocolate. We then headed out to the site. I worked about five to five and a hlaf hours today. We got about four transects done before lunch. Jonelle found a complete pink ketchup bottle that was intact. It is being kept for a collection. We think it was dated around 1880 to 1916, because the color, rose, which is made from manganese. Manganese was made mainly in Germany. They stopped shipping it to America in 1916 because of the war. We also found an intact tin spoon and rim of a pocket watch. For lunch we had hot dogs and fruit. After lunch we did three more transects, where I was the recorder. It was my first time being the reorder. My first and third time weren’t too bad, but the second time I had to write down 46 artifacts. And they were yelled at me really quickly. It was still fun though. After we were done at the site, we went to the Old Faithful Village to take showers Yeah! After that Hiruth and I watched Old Faithful and took lots of pictures, although basically all we saw was steam. After that was over Hiruth and I walked around and came upon a little geyser [illegible] there was a mom and two kids who were counting down and suddenly the thing started spurting upward and outward. Some of the water drops actually made it across the sidewalk and almost hit Hiruth and I. After it was over the water was all sucked back down the hole like a drain. It was really cool. While we were at the village I bought a silver necklace with small balls on it. Soon after Old Faithful finally errupted (it took like four times). We left and went back to camp. Hiruth and I played badminton for the second time ( the first in the morning) until it got windy and the birdie wasn;t going where we wanted it to go. Of course we were always having that problem. For dinner we had chicken and macarroni. It was very good. Today at the site I found some more ceramic fragments. Hopefully tomorrow I can find some glass or something a little different. Well it’s starting to get windy and I’m getting cold, so I’m going to stop writing. Until tomorrow, goodbye.

P.S. I forgot David found a toy car in the river.

Day 4
Wednesday, August 22, 2001

Today was a very interesting day. I slept in to about eight since we could sleep in today. For breakfast I had a bowl of Lucky Charms and a glass of hot chocolate. After breakfast Hiruth and I played badminton and Egyptian’s Rat’s Crew with John, Willa, Kyle, Wyatt and Kevin. It was fun, I had never played it before, so they had to teach me. We left about 10:30 or 11 to head for our hike. We made our first stop was at the Gibbons Waterfall. It was so pretty. I took two or three pictures. After about five minutes we left and stopped at Norris Geyser Basin. It was cool there were a lot of thermal pools and miniature geysers. There were a lot of trails and one led to the top of a large hill. Below you could see all the colors of the thermal pools and geysers. It was so pretty, and again I took some pictures. After that we went to Beaver Lake picnic grounds and had some lunch. I had a turkey and cheese sandwich, two juice boxes, a bag of Fritos and a bag of Doritos. It was very good.

The trek.

We just sat and talked there for awhile.  Right as we were getting ready to leave, Dr. Bill noticed a nail stuck in one of the beck tires.  So they rushed us off to find Ranger Ann and then rushed over to where our trail began, Howard Etan Trail (who actually had died in a geyser, Willa informed me).  (Never mind, wrong guy.  Well, while most of us started out on this trail, Sarah and Bill went to get the tire fixed.  We were on this trail for about two minutes when we left it and started walking up a steep hill.  It was hell.  I was having a hard time catching my breath in the high altitude.  And I was getting tired quickly.  After that first hill it got a lot easier.  I guess I got in to the flow of things.  Throughout our hike we had to climb up and down very steep hills.  But by the second or third one I was able to keep up with the guys (who were always in front).  We had to climb over dead trees, (which was fun) through little baby pine trees with pointy pine needles, not the soft kind; and over lots of major obsidian particles.  Quite a few of them were twice the size of my hands.  They were really cool.  Our destination on this trail         was to find the dimple, a massive volcanic lava with a gas bubble.  It was supposed to be bigger than 30 m in diameter and filled with obsidian.  Only we never found it.  L  What we did find was a major quarry.  We all joked about how we felt we were on the moon because all the rocks we re a whitish gray.  By this time I was out of water and so were most the other people.  However, whoever had water would share which was very nice.  After the quarry we climbed up another 3 or 4 major steep hills.  But I didn’t really mind these as much, because I was “in the flow”.  The last hill out was the steepest and I slipt and slid a little until a tree caught me.  I wasn’t hurt, just a couple more scratches to add to my collection.  I just laughed about it.  London and I kind of grouped up to walk  together.  We were slipping and climbing over and under trees following this dry creek bed out.  She slipped once and banged her knee so we stopped for a little while until the pain numbed.  My backpack kept getting stuck when we went under the trees with their spiral twigs.  So eventually I had to just throw it in front of me.  We eventually came upon some water but we determined that it was a hot spring because there was nothing living around it and the water was kind of green.  So we just walked beside until we came upon the road.  We stopped there and waited a minute or so for Hiruth, Willa, and Janell.  On the road we turned left and walked for about five minutes going on and off the shoulder to avoid cars.  We eventually saw the van and crossed through some more dead trees.  Once across, Kyle gave each of us a bottle of water, since we probably hadn’t had anything to drink for over an hour.   I gulped down mine and then had about three juice boxes.  We then sat down and tried to clean our cuts while waiting for the others to arrive.  We all demanded showers, so first we returned to camp to get what we needed and then left for Old Faithful Village.  Sara did a little bit of laundry for us while we took a shower. The water stung at my cuts but it still felt good to get clean.  After the shower we walked back to the van and waited for our laundry to dry.  Once it was done, we headed back to camp.  About 8:45 we noticed a buffalo starting to cross the street.  We stopped and Annalies started honking her horn and flashing her lights, at first I thought she was trying to scare the buffalo, but come to find out she was trying to warn a car in the opposite direction.  The car never touched his brakes and only slightly swerved out of the way.  They barely missed the poor buffalo’s head.  He actually had to turn his head to get out of the way.  After the car went by the buffalo finished crossing the street and then some idiots got out of the car to take a picture of it.  Sara started screaming out the window and waving her arms “No, No, No, No.  Very dangerous.  Big”   The stupid people started running back to their car.  We just started laughing and mimicking Sara.  We got back to the camp around nine.  I had some nacho chips for dinner and watched Bill bring up pictures on his computer.  After dinner, Hiruth and I washed dishes and then went to bed.

Day 5
Thursday, August 23, 2001

I woke up around 6:30, but then fell asleep again until about 7.  I didn’t have any breakfast this morning other than a cup of hot chocolate.  I had to write in my journal this morning because I didn’t have time last night.  I finished writing yesterday’s journal right before we were going to leave around 9.  Today we did 3 transects before lunch.  I found my first piece of glass, it was brown.  I was happy.  Other than that all I fund was ceramic fragments of plates, bowls, saucers, and so on.  For lunch I had a ham and lettuce sandwich, mixed fruit, lemonade, a couple Oreos, and a juice box.  It was very good.  It started to get really cold during lunch so we only did two more transects afterwards.  I was the recorder for both.  In the first one I only wrote down like three things, but in the second one I recorded like fifty-five, some were in groups of 13 or 18!  There were a lot of things that were embedded in the ground, like a horse shoe, lots of nails, and lots of ceramic with some pink décor.  It was kind of fun hearing about everything they were finding.  After we finished at the site, we had to take down our new signs that we had put up for the first time.  It actually attracted a lot of people.  They were taking pictures of us and videotaping us.  We must have been pretty exciting, because they stuck around for quite awhile.  It was kind of humerous to watch them.  Hiruth said the people were trying to look in her bucket.  Anyway, after we took down the signs we headed back to camp.  We played Egyptian Rat’s crew for a little while and then about 8 of us decided to go to Yellowstone’s Grand Canyon while others went back to Old Faithful Village.  Two people  MJ and Janelle, had to go to a clinic because MJ might have broken her collarbone and Janelle’s wisdom tooth was pussing and bleeding.  I went with the people to the canyon.  It was so pretty.  We went on a couple pathways to see the river and waterfalls.  We eventually made it to this long path that wove it’s way down a large hill, and eventually wound it’s way to the top of a large waterfall.  It was amazing.  I took a couple of pictures.  The walk down wasn’t too bad, but going back up we had to rest a couple times.  On the ride back in the van I finished my “Seabiscuit:  An American Legend” book.  It was really good.  When we got back to camp, Pam gave us some nacho chips to munch and then we had leftovers.  I had chicken, rice, coca-cola, and some more nacho chips.  Now I’m going to call my parents and then maybe play some badmitton.  Oh yeah.  Some camera crew people showed up and are going to videotape us tonight and tomorrow.  We’ll be on NE TV for almost an hour.  Oh, I also worked for about 5 hours again today.  Too bad I can’t get volunteer credit for this.  Oh well.

 Day 6
Friday, August 24, 2001

Last night we went to this presentation about birds.   It was a little interesting but mainly boring.  The audience was crazy but seriously funny.  This woman kept screamin “Amen” at about everything the ranger said, and she had a strange laugh.  Then these kids in the back started mimicking the ranger’s bird calls.  Overall I was looking for the constellations in the sky.  I found the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper.  It was pretty cool.  Anyhow, I woke up this morning at 4:30 and then again at 7.  Today was our last day at the river.  I did a little snorkeling which was fun until I started to get cold.  Actually, the first transect of the day I used goggles and found this really cool brown ribbed glass bottle base.  But in the second transect I got annoyed with the goggles and started doing some snorkeling.  I wasn’t cold in the second transect but in the third transect the wind started picking up and the sun went behind a cloud.  So basically, I got cold very quickly.  Amazingly enough I never found anything using the snorkel but it was still a lot of fun to use.  After the third transect we broke for lunch.  I had a ham and lettuce sandwich, lemonade, cookies, banana and juice box.  It was all very good as usual!  After lunch I was still freezing so Sara had me get dressed and simply record for the rest of the time.  Instead of doing transects, we split into three groups.  One went through the middle of the river and searched for whatever they could find.  Kyle found another whole bottle that was intact.  The other two groups took opposite sides of the bank, moving toward each other.  They only searched he 0-5 m. area.  My group found a whole lot of glass and ceramic fragments.  The other group didn’t find as much.  After our two groups met, the third one was called back in.  We had finally finished.  I worked about 5 to 5 ½ hours again today.  The reason we stopped doing specific transects was because we had reached some rapids and the artifacts wouldn’t have stayed in there for long, they most likely would have been pushed towards the bank or further downstream.  After we left the site, we headed back to camp to pack, then we went to Old Faithful Village to get one more shower.  Then we went back to camp and a few of us played Egyptian Rat’s crew and other card games.  Hiruth and I also played badmitton.  For dinner we had steak, mine was medium well done.  It was very good.  Along with the steak I had some of their fabulous fruit salad and sweet potatoes.  We filled out some thank you notes for the cooks and then Hiruth and I looked at the stars while the guys continued to play Egyptian Rat’s crew and a few others went to see a documentary on fish.  Then we went to bed.  I almost froze because I was wearing what I’d be wearing on the plane tomorrow, which was a lot less layers.   PS—Film crew taped us all day long and Santa came.