Shoshone Geyser Basin, Yellowstonne 2022, 2nd half

[Pringles]

Days 4 and 5.

We ate breakfast, and then packed up to head back toward one of the sites near Lonestar Geyser. I’d been at the site before, and was nervous about it. The thermals are close, and I was concerned about where we were going to put all our tents. But we’d figure it out.



Another stream crossing.



Near our campsite, we were passed by a couple of strings of mules.





I’m glad I’m not a mule. I hate hiking close to a bunch of other hikers. I like to go my own pace. I like to see what I want to see.

When we got to camp, we were surprised by mules. The people doing the trail work a mile or so ahead, were doing staging with the mules.





Our enjoyment of the site was cut short by a rain storm. I had requested a weather report from my InReach, and I laughed as it said that there was a 100% chance of rain—15 minutes ago. Ha!

Plop. Plop. Plop, plop, plop…. . It rained fairly hard, and for about two hours. When it finally stopped, we got out of our tents and ate our final supper together.



In the morning, there was a beautiful foggy mist over the thermal area beside camp.







We hiked past the same thermals we had hiked by on our way to the geyser basin.



Once at the trailhead, we headed to the Old Faithful area to see Old Faithful.



And… I found ice cream! Note to self—even out of focus ice cream tastes pretty good.

 

[Ugly]

Nice reports! and that shot of the sun rising through the mist is especially great!

 

[Pringles]

Thank you, Ugly. (How did you get your trail name?)

 

[Ugly]

Thank you, Ugly. (How did you get your trail name?)

Haha, they probably would call me that on the trail too...

Here is a short sidetrack:
It's a nickname from college. I shattered my cheekbone and cracked my skull and spent a few weeks waiting for the swelling to go down, then had surgery and then many more weeks after that recovering. Then months and years doing exercises looking in a mirror to get rid of the "droop" from having damaged the main nerves on that side of the face. (I still am numb and tingly all these years later if I stop and think about it, or touch it)

So basically I looked like TwoFace for a couple months. My real name, Ryan is pretty popular, so everyone took to calling me Ugly, and it stuck.
I had a really excellent plastic surgeon who glued me back together and patched me all back up. If you met me, you won't even see any scars.

TwoFace... when I had the scrapes still on my face, swelling, and drooping it perhaps looked more like I had a stroke, but the comic is probably not far away from what I looked like! My friends would get a kick out of me sitting on the bus with my bad side hidden by looking out the window, and watching the reaction of someone when I turned and started talking to them.
I was high on pain killers, so I only have a hazy memory of all that.

 

[Pringles]

Wow. That’s quite a story. I guess if you’re ok with it… but I will try to remember to call you Ryan.