John

Day One
August 19, 2001

Arrived in Yellowstone 1:30.  --- waves of noise in the forest caused by wind.  However, it sounds spooky.

Put the tent together-great job! 

-- tonight. 

Really dry here. 

Introduced to site-I’m excited.  

Oh yeah-fires I guess happen here all the time-the lodge pole trees need fire to reproduce.  The pinecones are so hard they need fire to crack them open.  About half the park is burnt-But all the baby trees are everywhere-they look like grass from a distance.

Lunchtime. Left to right: Becky, Kyle, John, Wyatt, Hailey, Hiruth and Kevin.

Day Two
August 20, 2001

First day at the site today. 

Good food. 

We did 5 transects today.  We mostly found pieces of white wear.  However, we did find some glass. 

The buckets are optimal and the goggles are less. 

It was wonderful weather.  Oh yeah, I’m writing in the dark. 

We (We…We…We… )checked out all the geysers.  They were really awesome.  Fiery pits of hell.  Sulfur.  Bubbles.  Mud.  Heat.  The dead trees everywhere look like a graveyard or battle zone.  I love it.

Day Three
August 21, 2001

Today was a much more successful day at the river.  One run we got over 50 artifacts.  Found whole bottle, pocket watch ring, spoon!; toy car.  It’s so cold in the morning:  varying hot/cold breeze/no breeze.  My back’s getting tired from bending over.  But, overall it’s really not bad. 

Saw Old Faithful today-my speech is so drab.  Climbed to a peak & saw it.  It was impressive but perhaps a bad idea watching from afar. 

The geysers are (springs) are amazing.  Kevins’s funny.  Lundon and Janelle are cool.  Kyle is hilarious in an innocent way.  He’s so active.  Cool. 

My sleeping bag is so small.  Arg.  I dunno.  I’m kind of speechless.  This is such a great trip.

Day Four
August 22, 2001

The best day yet by far.   We got to sleep in & muck around the campsite ‘til 11.  We went to the lower geyser basin and saw some cool geysers/springs.  Saw this one that unpredictably goes off-last time-like 5 years ago-up to 400 ft high!  (size of capitol).  Oh, then we went on this hike.  We went – for on the trail w/ our guide & she said where we’re going there are no paths.  Oh my god, we began up the first hill-‘bout 1 mi. til top.  We climbed all over dead trees-sometimes going hundred of feet until touching the ground.  There were dead tress everywhere & a whole generation of new ones that bit your legs ‘til they were raw.  Me and Kyle took it to the house-we’re in good shape and barely anyone could keep up.  That was the coolest part-the guide let us do whatever we wanted-when we balanced precariously on dead trees 10 ft off the ground, when we ran downhill with sharp sticks, rocks, and so many shards of obsidian so thick you couldn’t see the ground.

Day Five
August 23, 2001

I am sick of not being home.  Cold in the morning.  Hot & Bright in the afternoon.  Cold at night.  We’re having leftovers tonight.  I don’t have any clean clothes left.  I cut my finger twice in the river. 

Ok I’m done.  I was like 350 points ahead of Kevin in Rummy.  We’re in the thousands.  Oh!  I saw the Yellowstone Grand Canyon.  It was ummm really big.  There was this big H₂O fall that was really cool.  Like 350 ft high.  At night I saw this show on birds.  End.

Day Six
August 24, 2001

 I just got done with my shower.  I feel really clean.  I know 3^rd one.  The film crew got here last night.  They filmed us all day.  Weird.  Oh! The guy that is filming us did the Horse Whisperer & The River Runs Through It.  Wow!  Also, it was the last day in the field.  The higher up the river we went, the deeper & murkier it got.  We were at the top.  There is this prevaling breed of snail that has taken over a lot of rivers & stuff so…I had to throw away my shoes.  The last!!!! night in a tent.  It hasn’t rained yet.  I got all the way in the river today, well almost.