Heidi reverting to her animalistic ways to conquer a steep hill
Last Saturday afternoon (3/28/09), Heidi and I embarked on an epic adventure which tested both our strength and our character. At 8:00 am we rented snow shoes from the BYU Idaho's Outdoor Center and we drove to Yellowstone's West Entrance. As you can imagine, the park was completely blanketed in snow. In fact, the West Entrance was closed for the winter. We talked to a park ranger and a winter tour guide, who informed us of a snow trail that is groomed all winter long. The Riverside trail follows the Madison River right into the park. It was nice not sharing the park with the millions of visitors which flock there during the summer months. The only somewhat pleasant event occurred when I needed to use the facilities. Since this was not quite possible, I wandered off trail about 20 feet to a nearby tree. We hadn't seen any hikers for over an hour by this point, and I felt confident I could relieve myself without any trouble. However just to be safe I posted Heidi about 30 feet down trail on lookout. Ironically, about 20 seconds later a cross country skier came by and waved to me with a smile on his face as I frantically tried to zip my jeans back up. Heidi said that she had forgotten that she was running lookout, and was mezmorized, watching the guy ski down the trail. We were out on the trail for just over 4 hours, and believe we travelled between 4 and 5 miles. Snowshoeing is difficult! It was about 25 degrees F outside, and the snow was flurrying most of the time.
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