Day 100 – 7/31/13 – 27 mi (1785.7)

With a designated campsite 27 miles away, we got serious today.

It turns out we can make good miles by a normal ending time when we revert to standard break times instead of stretching them like we’ve been. The morning started with a 2000′ climb, which wasn’t bad because this is still the horse super-highway and thus nicely graded.

From the top of the ridge I could see the Tetons looming to the southwest. I hiked there last summer with Wired and it was amazing. I’m sad the CDT gets so close but doesn’t go through this range.

The rest of the day was easy walking through meadows and along creeks. Late in the morning, with no signage or ceremony, we entered Yellowstone National Park. We’ve decided a fun challenge is to only refer to the park as Jellystone while in it. This should be great fun when we actually talk to other people. Speaking of Jellystone, can anyone remember the name of the ranger in the Yogi Bear cartoon? It’s driving us nuts!

We got some thunderstorms chasing us in the late afternoon, but never got too wet. Our reserved campsite is a little ways off trail and when we got to an empty one 100′ off trail just a half mile before ours, we decided to cook dinner there. At 8pm, there was still no one there besides us, so we decided they weren’t coming and called it ours. No one but thru-hikers gets into camp this late.

Another quick thunderstorm just as we were finishing dinner ended with a nice rainbow.