On Thursday we finally got a chance to go explore around the park with some of our new friends from our dorm. Sam had the day off from training so we decided to go on a short day hike. Leaving our dorm around 12:30 we headed towards Old Faithful to find a trail called DeLacy Creek. After locating the trail head we soon realized this was not going to be an ordinary, easy to find the trail type of hike. The entire area was covered in at least two feet of snow, and much more in some places. So with 5 of our new dorm mates, we just decided to start walking in hopes that we would eventually find the lake that the trail supposedly lead to. There wasn't a big worry about getting lost since we could easily follow our tracks back to the road. Meandering through this area where we were walking was a creek, sometimes visible beneath the snow, so we decided after a few close calls of nearly falling through feet of snow into the creek, that we would stick to the edge of the treeline. It will be so interesting to come back to this trail later in the summer and see what we were actually walking on.
To our right was usually a 30 yard open space which most of us thought contained the creek, or even a larger pond, which also influenced our decision to stay within the treeline seeing as no one wanted to find themselves falling into water and getting hypothermia. Beyond the open area was the treeline for the ridge opposite us. After continuing along this way for about an hour, taking our time because we often fell into patches where the snow wasn't as sturdy and found ourselves up to our ankles, knees, or even waist on a few occasions. We were also careful because it would have been very easy to sprain an ankle in these conditions. We spotted no wildlife or signs of wildlife in this area, except for a single marmot (similar to a wild ferret).
After awhile we decided to cross to the other ridge and go up to see if we could potentially acquire a view of the lake which we were ultimately seeking. Talk about taking your breath away. We had to jump across the creek before coming to the base of the ridge which was hilarious in itself. You had to place your feet and jump to a certain spot or it was certain you were going to sink in a bit. We all made it luckily, with Sam being the last one across and having to do a tuck and roll at the end. The climb up the ridge was pretty tough. It was steep, but also covered in snow, and by this time even my waterproof boots were getting wet. It was rough going for about 15 minutes but we then made it to the top. I would like to say that the view was spectacular, but all around was obscured by lodgepole pines. We hiked in the same direction we had followed before across the top of the ridge for about another half hour, but still found no end in sight. It was getting later in the afternoon so we made a group decision that the hike had still been fun and successful even though we hadn't reached our destination. Perhaps later in the season once the snow melts we can hike this trail again and laugh at how far off course we really were.
Once we started the hike back, and made it down the ridge which we had climbed up, it started snowing once again. It was beautiful to see and spirits were high from everyone in the group despite us now having cold toes and being mostly wet up to our knees. We made it back following our trail of footprints, and it seemed so easy. The hike down always seems to take less time and seem easier doesn't it? Once back to the car we headed back for some hot food and met back at the dorm to celebrate our successful day with shots of Jaegarmeister to warm the body.
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