Hiruth

Day 1
Sunday, August 19, 2001

We arrived at our campsite immediately after two. We made our sandwiches. I had one baloney sandwich and some Doritos. After lunch we set up our tents, with help from the teachers.

When all was done, we went on a little sightseeing tour. First we went in search of obsidian. I found two small pieces. Bill talked about how soldiers set up camp so others couldn’t hunt the buffalos. As we crossed the street he talked about how there was a hotel built around the hot springs. I think it was called the Marshall Hotel. Bill also told us that the hot springs are more active now than they were a couple of years ago. We then crossed another street and came upon a stream, where we will be excavating it. We also visited a grave of the caretaker’s wife that died during childbirth, and her daughter died at the age of fifteen from pendicides [appendicitis], no one knows what happened to the man. We also visited remains of a stall where horses were kept. There was a strip of grass that led from the Marshall Hotel down to the trees at the other end of the road. It used to be a pipe that carried hot water.

Hiruth recording a transect.

Day 2
Monday, August 20, 2001

Today we woke up early because it was so cold. After getting dressed I had some Lucky Charms, a muffin and half a cup of hot chocolate. The hot chocolate warmed up my body. Around nine in the morning we headed out to the river to do some underwater archaeological digging. Once we got there, we set up transect lines, which involved walking two ropes from one end of the bank to the other end [i.e., across the river]. We then divided into two groups of five. One person was the recorder. In transect 32-33, I happened to be the recorder so I didn’t find any artifacts. The other kids found a lot of artifacts, I wrote about 11 lines. Once that zone was done we moved one of the ropes, so it ended up being transect 31-32. I switched roles and took one of the buckets with a square glass in the bottom. I went searching for ceramics along with the rest of the group, yet I don’t think I found any. Well, we took a break and ate some lunch. I had a ham sandwich and some juice. Afterwards we went back to work and I found a couple pieces of ceramic that were a part of a bowl and a cup rim. Transect 28-29 is where I found most of my things. I found more ceramics that either belonged to a plate, bowl, or a cup. I also found a glass that might of belonged to a bottle, it was a big piece colored green. That was the last transect we did, and it took us about 5 hours to do it. We cam back to camp around 3 and rested up for a bit. We were waiting for Dr. Hunt so we could go and see the mud paint formation, which is where hot liquidy mud which bubbles.

To pass time, Hailey and I decided to play some card games. We played Speed, which I won, and we also played some gin, which Hailey won. Once Dr. Hunt came we went out to view the mud paint and hot springs.

I took most of my photos at the mud paint. We also went to see some geysers emptying which was a cool site [sight]. The only bad thing is that they smelled like hard boiled eggs gone bad. Now I am home waiting for dinner and looking at Hailey waiting for [me?] to get done so we can play some cards.

Day 3
Tuesday, August 21, 2001

Today I even woke up earlier at like 7 a.m., because Hailey decided to wake me up from a very good dream I was having. It was even colder this morning than it was yesterday morning. I had two Lucky Charms and a cup of hot chocolate. After breakfast Hailey and I packed some things for the one shower we get. At 9:30 we left to go back to the river to do more archaeological finding. We did 3 transects, and I was the recorder for all 3.We found 3 bottles with lettering on them, which was cool. Today we were faster than yesterday, which is a good thing. Right now we are taking a break, and I think we are going to do one more [transect] before we eat lunch. I guess I have to go now since we have to move the ropes.

I found a lot of ceramics. They were either plates, saucers or cups. Some people even found a watch rim, and a spoon. One of the girls found a whole ketchup bottle that was intact. I think that’s going to be placed in a museum. It was dated from like 1880-1916, because of the color, it was rose, and it was made from manganese which was found mainly in Germany. They stopped making it in 1916 because of the war.

Today we accomplished about 7 transects in about 5 ½ hours, which was pretty good. I haven’t fallen in yet. I think we got about 4 transects done before lunch. After we got everything packed up in the van we headed towards the Old Faithful village. We got there around 3 and took a shower!! We had to wait for 30 minutes to get in. Hailey and I went into the gift shop and she bought herself a necklace and I bought a 25¢ postcard and also got a _____ with a horse and person in it. After the gift store we went to the side of Old Faithful and waited 20 minutes before it went off. It was really spectacular. I’m not sure the height, but I think it said 25 ft. We sat at the wrong place because mostly we saw the steam. Old Faithful had like 4 false starts until it finally blew. I took like six pictures of it. It lasted about 1.5-2 minutes and then Hailey and I left to go walk around. We came upon a mom and two kids with a video camera counting down seconds and all of a sudden a little geyser blew. It was really cute but beautiful too, because it spurted across the bridge and would of hit us had we not moved. The pool was all sorts of colors, from green, blue to orange. After the eruption ended (lasted 30 seconds) the water got sucked down the hole. I don’t know the name of it but it started with an AM. . . .

We came back to camp and Hailey and I played some badminton, we aren’t very good. We had chicken breast and mac & cheese for dinner. Yummmy! I also forget to say that David found a small toy car in the river.

Day 4
Wednesday, August 22, 2001

Today was an adventurous day. After eating breakfast Hailey and I played some badminton and after that we went to see the waterfall which was called the Gibbons Waterfall. It was a cool sight to see. We stopped there for about 5 minutes. Afterwards we went on a tour of the Norris Geyser Basin. Where we went on a big tour and saw all different types [of] thermal pods and geysers. Some of the pools were aqua colored all the way down to the bottom. I also saw some thermal pods that were orange. They were really pretty. After that we decided to have lunch at Beaver Lake. I had a ham sandwich and 2 bags of chips. We found out that the tire to the van was flat because there was a nail in one of the back tires. So while Sarah and Bill went to get the flat fixed, the rest of us got to go on a 5-6 mile hike. Which was very interesting to say the least. The trail we were supposed to go on was the Howard Eton trail. We were on that for like 2 minutes then she led us up the mountain. The first hill was hard, but it was nothing compared to the rest of them. There were some dead trees that we had to climb over. I got scratched a couple of times on that hill. I think we were up about 7,000 ft. We hiked up some more and took a short break. We were trying to find the dimple which was supposed to be a massive volcanic lava which is believed to have had a gad bubble. It is 50m in diameter. It would have been cool to see, except that we didn’t find it because there was no map of it. We went up some more hills, and I got scratched some more, but the sight was beautiful, and so were all the obsidian pieces. Over the second or third hill that we climbed we saw something that the leader Ann didn’t see, it was a hill covered with grayish rocks all over. When we climbed on top of that, we saw dead geysers, which meant there was no liquid, just the outline of the geyser, but you could still smell the minerals. We climbed up another hill, which was even harder because there were a whole bunch of dead trees and there were baby spruce trees growing which scratched my legs as I went along. The last part of it was all down hill down a gorge. It was really steep and I kept slipping and sliding all over the place. There were so many dead trees that fell and we had to climb over them. Towards the end of the "trail" we saw a little stream of the thermal pool and it was steaming. There were a couple of other stops that were steaming too. I was with Janelle and Willa, because the whole group was split up and the guide was behind us. So, we pretty much had to find our own way. When we found the highway we had to walk a little further to the vans, and I put some medicine on all of my cuts. What lovely legs I have now. We went back to camp and got things ready because we were going to take a shower. I took a quick shower, and there weren’t many people waiting in line. I didn’t feel like eating much so I just had some nacho chips and after that Hailey and I went to bed. I do have to say that now, after we did the hike, I feel good about myself, and it really was a spectacular sight up there to look at the mountains, and how far we climbed up. We reached about 8,000 ft and it took us about 4 hours to finish it all. I was very thirsty, and I drank like 3 juice boxes and a bottle of water. But luckily my legs aren’t sore. We went in a big loop on the hike we also saw a lake called Lake of the Woods, after the second hill.

On the way back to camp from the showers we saw a buffalo crossing the road in the dark at like 8:30-9 p.m. There was this one car that was speeding and might not have seen it and it came dangerously close to hitting the buffalo. Annalies was honking at the car and flashing her lights, but the other car didn’t even slow down, it just swerved around the buffalo. There were some tourists who wanted to take pictures, and Sarah was waving her hands telling them to stop and saying "no, no, no, very dangerous, very big." It was funny.

Day 5
Thursday, August 23, 2001

Well my legs didn’t really hurt that much today. The cuts hurt when I went into the water, they stung a little bit, but that was all. We only did 5 transects today, I guess everyone was sore and tied from last night. We found lots of ceramics, I found about 11 pieces in one spot. Willa found a piece of ceramic that had a stamp on it and M. J. found a horse shoe that was embedded in a rock. She also fractured her collarbone and had to go the clinic along with Jonelle who had a tooth problem. We came back to camp after going to the site and decided that 8 or [so] of us were going to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, which was a pretty sight because the rocks were pale yellow, and the water was a beautiful aqua color. We hiked down the canyon on a trail about 600 ft down or 3/8 of a mile, going down was easy, but going up was a whole other story. The water fall was beautiful. We reached the bottom of the trail and saw the top of the waterfall as it fell to the bottom. There was steam coming from the fall. At like 9 o’clock we went down to this little thing where they were having a show about all the different types of birds. I wasn’t paying much attention. I did see the Little Dipper and the Big Dipper. I also saw two shooting stars.

Dennis Aig of Hunter Neil Productions supervises a documentary shot.

Day 6
Friday, August 24, 2001

Well, I really didn’t do much today. The camera crew woke me up at like 5:30 a.m. because they were loud with everything they did. We went out to the site for the last time while the crew was filming us. It was really cold outside and I was freezing. My cold got worse last night and I’m losing my voice. We did 3 transects before lunch. Afterwards we just went along the shoreline and I was the recorder. I found a modern bottle neck and a bottle base. After we did the site, we came back to camp and packed. Hailey and I played some badminton and cards. Then we went to Old Faithful to take a shower. Now we’re getting ready to eat some steak. Santa came to visit us today because here in Yellowstone it’s Christmas in July. The story behind that is people got stranded here because of a blizzard and decided to celebrate Christmas.