The Plan

Who: Ted, Lance, Ember, Mark

What: Sailing from Lewis lake to Shoshone lake and taking in a backcountry geyser basin.

When: Friday August 2 - Monday Aug 3.

Where: Yellowstone NP.

Transport: Lance will drive with Ted, Renee, and Ember. The Catamaran and the Zuma will be trailered behind. Mark will meet us up at Grant Campground.

Basic Itinerary

Friday August 02:

Leave Missoula for Yellowstone. Google says to leave by 9:20am to get there by 3:30. It’s a 5.5-6 hour drive to Grant Campground in Yellowstone. We will be taking the little boat and the catamaran. I-90 and 287 to West Yellowstone is the most direct route. Mark can leave from Livingston, it looks like a 3 hour drive for him.

Check in with the Grant Village backcountry office. Watch some BC videos on how not to die. Get the boats inspected. BC office closes at 4:30.

Camping in the front country on Friday night. Grant Campground. 2 sites, should be next to each other., Confirmation # zpf2h, and vzmc4.

Saturday August 03:

Drive from Grant campground to Lewis lake. 8.5 miles, or 15 minutes to get there.

Rig the cat, launch the boats, and sail. Cross lewis lake, up the river then across Shoshone lake. Last 1 mile of the river is not paddable (or sailable?), so pulling the boats will be necessary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnfW0spxsEI

Camping will be at a camp called bluff top (8R2) on Shoshone lake. It is accessible via trail or boat. Image is copied from a map. Lewis lake (start) is bottom right.

Sunday August 04:

Hike or sail to Shoshone Geyser basin. Hike is about 8 miles to get there and back, or 5 miles of sailing.

If we want to hike around the loop, it is about 4.5 miles.

I’d say sail and then hike the loop.

Camping is at Bluff top (8R2) for the 2nd night.

Monday August 05:

Pack up camp, reverse course, and sail back to civilization. Drive back home.

Sailing

Lance, Mark, and Renee will be on the Catamaran. Ted and Ember will be on the Zuma. We can change this up too if we want.

Forcast

Currently (7/31) looks good for sailing! Excellent on Saturday and Sunday, slight chance of T-storms on Monday that we need to look out for.

Equipment

Not a ton of room on either boat for gear. Pack only what you need. I was thinking we could tow a pack raft for extra gear as well…..

Catamaran:

• 2 paddles
• Extra shackles
• Sail tape
• Extra line (dyneema)
• PFDs
• Tie wire
• Extra plug
• Pack raft for towing gear?
• Line for towing pack raft

Zuma

• Pull rope
• Bail sponge
• Biners to attach bags
• Paddle(s)

Food

I’m thinking Mountain House meals and the jet boils for the ease of use. Something more substantial for Friday dinner and Saturday breakfast might be good.

Fishing

Fishing permit is 18$ for 3 days. Might be worth having one, fishing should be great on Shoshone. Ember (<15y) can fish for free with an adult. No lead, no barbs. Lewis River system above Lewis Falls, including Lewis and Shoshone lakes and their tributaries—possession of five combined brook, brown or lake trout; only one of which may be a brown trout.

Ted and Ember’s packing list.

• 2 man tent/tarp?
• Sleeping bag + pad x2
• Jet boil/fuel
• Frying pan
• Fishing pole
• Mosquito stuff
• Mosquito stove thing.
• wet suits, waders?
• 4 PFDs (one for mark, and one for Renee)
• Warm Hats
• Green puffy coat (one for Renee too)
• Fleece jacket
• Rain jacket/pants
• Boat shoes(crocs), walking shoes (other crocs).
• Pack towel?
• Mountain house.
• Water Filter

Trip Report

Friday:

• Packed up boats. Loaded Zuma on top of catamaran.
• Left around 9:30.
• Tightened up straps several times on the way, Zuma wanted to slip back.
• Turn off by Cardwell heading south toward Ennis
• Madison River valley was quite scenic.
• Pass Earthquake lake.
• Hebgen lake looks like a good sailing lake.
• Fast food in West Yellowstone, running late…
• New Parks pass at park entrance, 80$. Entrance is literally right outside of West Yellowstone.
• Get to Grant Village. Mark texts that we have 7 minutes until the BC office closes.
• Get there without a moment to spare. BC office staff seem grumpy.
• Get boats checked, stickers applied, fishing licenses, etc. Meet up with Mark
• Get checked into camp site at Grant Village.
• Set up camp, we only needed one site, so returned the 2nd one. Pick up some fire wood.
• Get accused of stealing wood from neighboring site. Apparently the guy left 2 boxes of wood and nothing else at his site. I assume someone thought it was abandoned. Guy was a bit of a tool. “That’s an excuse that thieves would use,” oh jeez.
• Some mosquitos. Try to start my mosquito burner thing. Doesn’t work. :(
• Head up to store to get non lead sinkers, and barbless hooks. Got ice cream too.

• Drive to West Thumb to check out the pools there.

• Drive back to Grant Village. Eat dinner. Jiffy pop as well.
• ‘Phantom Explorer’ talk is going on at 9pm at the amphitheater. Ember wants to see it.
• Walk along the lake towards the amphitheater. Cool ‘barrier island’ type sand bars.
• Get to amphitheater a couple minutes after the program started. Ranger is a good storyteller.
• Program ends, we walk back. Suspension bridges are cool. A loop and B loop camp sites are all aglow. F loop where we were staying, was sleepy.
• Start campfire, chill out. Sleep.

Saturday:

• Breakfast.
• Finish packing up things into dry bags. Final decisions on what to bring or leave. Leave the mosquito burner thing, and the mosquito netting jacket and head cover.
• Drive the 8 miles down to Lewis lake.
• Rig up boats in boat parking area. Not lots of room, but we managed. Record time in boat rigging.
• Trying to figure out out to haul gear on the Cat was a time sink. We made a spiderweb type area in front of the tramp where we could pack a line of bags across.
• Drove down and launched the boats. Everything ready to go.
• Ember, Lance, and Mark sailed the Catamaran. I took the Zuma. We left around 1pm.
• Good winds across Lewis. A bit gusty, but we made great time. Cat was very fast even loaded down.
• Almost a straight shot over to the mouth of the river. I had a couple tacks in the Zuma to get lined up.
• Cat ahead of me on the river. Guy in lawnchair at the mouth didn’t think it was the best idea to take such a big boat up there. He only canoed as far as he could, and turned around.
• Shifty winds on the river. Nalgene bottle was tied onto deck, but swung overboard on a tack. The weight of it broke the loop. I circled back around and picked it up as it was bobbing there. The Zuma is quite agile on the river.
• Winds shifting between upwind and downwind, an lulls. Made a couple paddles in the lulls, but not much.
• Sharp 90 degree left turn in the river. Quite narrow. Large rocks on the right, Looks like a good jumping spot.
• River widens out again. Cat up ahead. Mark jumps out and starts pulling. Big, sandy, and shallow on river right. I sail past. Dagger boards are up on the Cat.
• River is getting quite shallow. Beach the Zuma on a sandbar to wait for the catamaran.
• Attempt to start to sail again, but the current is matching the wind. I go nowhere. Time to pull. There looks to be about 1 to 1.5 miles of river left.
• Pulling is easy where it is shallow, but when it is deep, it is a slog.
• I can pull while on the shoreline somewhat, as long as there are no trees for the mast to hit.
• Pass the cat, they have more weight to pull. It’s a bit rocky now. I tie up and go back to help with the cat.
• Only Lance is with the cat now. Mark and Ember headed to the trail. It was too shallow for Ember to ride on the boat.
• Pull with Lance through these parts. We didn’t have to unload any gear, fortunately. I suggested taking down the mainsail because it didn’t seem to be helping.
• Continue to pull up the river. Getting close. It gets wider and deeper again.
• Shoshone lake. We made it. Some people in kayaks eating lunch at the mouth. We parked the boats down from them a bit, and did the same. Time was around 4pm.
• We got back on the boats to sail across Shoshone. Time was 4:30.
• Great winds. Head wind, but tons of it. Cat was flying. Zuma was flying. Full use of the hiking strap and human ballast was used.
• People camped along the right (east) shoreline. We passed, going fast.
• We have the whole lake to ourselves. Any canoes or kayaks would be sticking to the shoreline due to the waves. We didn’t see any sign of anybody past the beginning of the lake.
• Cat looks like it is waiting for me by the narrows. I pass on the right side of the lake.
• Cat seems to have a bit of a hard time getting going. Tacking was hard with all the weight in the boat.
• Spotted the point where the camp was located (8R2). As I got nearer, I could see the marker that denoted where to land the boats. It synced up well with the map on the GPS.
• Wind is starting to die down for the evening, time to get to camp!

• Volcanic rocks at the waterline on the beach, pretty rough on the bottom of the boat. I cleared out an area for the cat. Time is 6:10pm.

• Landed the cat, they had a blast, but hard maneuvering with all the weight. Waves would hit the dry bags up front and splash over the top. Ember is cold. Lots of water in the pontoons, I need to fix the port holes. Also the tiller extension came loose from the cross bar, the nut worked itself loose from the bolt and was gone. Spare bolt in the repair kit had different threads. I just tied a loop of dyneema to reconnect it.

• Unload, I help Ember out of her wetsuit, and into some dry clothes. She warms up quick.
• Mosquitos. Lots of them. We are up on the bluff, but the wind has died, and they are tenacious.
• Set up tent, change clothes, and get some dinner. Mountain house for the ease. Ember has the Chili mac, and beef stroganoff for myself. Ember really liked the beef stroganoff, but didn’t want to trade. Stubborn.
• Set up Noah’s tarp since we had it.
• Tapped a tree for some cabernet.
• Mark went for a swim, and for some fly fishing.
• Left the rain fly off of the tent to watch the stars.
• Played a card game in the tent away from the mosquitos. Love letter. Cheesy backstory, but the game was pretty fun. Ember had a blast.
• Emerged from the tent to check out the stars when it was dark. Mosquitoes had gone to bed. No light pollution at all!
• Wolves barking on both sides of the camp. I’m a bit uneasy with it.
• Some flashing of lights in the sky. Like lighting, but there are no clouds about. No idea what that was.
• Big shooting star!
• Sleepy time. Get in sleeping bags. 4 people in a 4 person tent. Cozy.
• Ember has my thermarest and new 20 degree bag. She is cozy. I have a zrest and my old 15 degree bag. I am also fine, but I think the thermarest would have been more comfortable.
• Wake up to something brushing past my head. My head is touching the tent wall, and something (racoon, marmot, ??) must have walked right up against the tent. A little bit freaky.
• Some noises from the tarp/dry bag area. Nothing to be concerned about.

Sunday:

• Sleep in a bit. Mark is up.
• Breakfast: biscuits and gravy from Mountain house; quite tasty. Instant coffee, yum.
• Mosquitos aren’t as bad out on the point of the bluff. Must be the wind.
• Morning wind seems to blow a bit to the west, while the afternoon wind seems to blow to the east, with a lull in the middle when they are fighting each other.
• Ember wants to sleep all day. She is pretty tired from yesterday, but that is also her MO.
• We rouse her to get some food before we hop back on the boats and head to the geyser basin.
• I think we leave around noon, but I am uncertain..
• Sailing is upwind and a bit slow when it lulls. Ember and I are on the Zuma.
• Some dark clouds are off to the north east, and seem to be building a bit. Not much motion on them.
• Boat landing is well marked.
• Ember and I make it there just before the cat. Apparently they did some fishing, and had a fish on, but lost it when it broke the line as they were putting it on a stringer. Lake trout.
• Shallow water at the beach. I hop out to walk the boat the rest of the way in, but it is super muddy, and I sink into the mud. Walking is quite difficult, and if I didn’t have to boat to lean on, I would have probably fallen.
• Make it to shore. Cat too. A gentleman hikes up. He was hiking down from Lone Star Geyser and wondering if there were anymore thermal things down in these parts. We said yes, though we had not been to them yet. He proceeded to take a break.
• Some bear boxes by the landing. We were able to put some food in there that mark brought.
• Geyser basin is cool! Literally no one is around.

• Past the Geyser basin, we hop in the creek to cool off. A couple of Continental Divide hikers stop and chat for a few. They are the only other people we see at the geyser basin.
• We turn around and head back to the boats.
• The other guy is just finishing up lunch. We get to chatting. He is from France. As we part, he says, “Is there a saying in English that means ‘good winds’ or travels, or something like that?” After thinking for a bit, Lance says, “Yes. it is Bon Voyage!” We all laugh, load the boats, and bid him farewell.
• Sailing back is fast. Downwind. Clouds still building to the northeast. Lance, Ember, and myself take the cat, Marks sails the Zuma. Mark having fun spinning donuts.
• Back to camp. People standing on Beach. Wave. We land, they have taken off.
• Less mosquitoes this evening, more wind.
• Eat dinner. Played some BS with cards.
• Rain. Thought it was just pass quickly, but it poured for all evening. Glad we put the tarp up, and rain fly on the tent.
• Water under the tent but we were dry inside.

Monday:

• Decided to get an early start in case Tstorms hit in the afternoon (20% chance when we left, but we were unable to get an updated weather report on the radio…).
• Wake up at 6:30. Mark up 1st, I’m up 20 minutes later.
• Mark spies a big fish in the water from up on the bluff, grabs rod. He scrambles down the bluff, and tries to catch it. I act as spotter from the top of the bluff, telling him where to cast. Multiple fish in the water. Don’t seem to want Mark’s fly.
• I give it a go with the spinner. No luck though.
• Lance is up. We start to pack up things and put things in the sun to dry.
• Ember only gets up when told that we weren’t going to have enough time for old Faithful if we were late.
• Mark loads the boats while we finish packing up. Seems a lot lighter on the way out even though the only difference was food.
• Lance, Ember and myself sail the cat. Mark is in the Zuma.
• Head wind, but we are making decent time until after the narrows.
• Some canoers by the shore, we yell and wave.
• Wind dies a little while later. Morning winds and afternoon ones are canceling each other out… we paddle a bit.
• We round the corner and make it to the river’s mouth. Get a bit of lunch.
• Wind on the lake is starting to pick up. I’m not sure if we made much time leaving early.
• Drop the sails and float the boats down stream.
• Much easier going with the current than going against it.
• We can sit on a pontoon, float a bit, then jump off and point the boat to the deep sections (for a time anyways).
• Eventually we get to the shallow parts and we all have to get off the boat.
• The Zuma proves agile on the river again. Mark is in the lead. Sitting on the bow, with the paddle.
• After the shallow section, the river gets deeper and we can no longer walk it. Also the current slows so that there is no discernable flow. We do some paddling. I am worried about the afternoon T Storms. Dark clouds to the north…
• We get to the a wide part of the river, and put the mainsail up. Mark has disappeared around the corner ahead of us.
• Sailing is good, but the winds are fickle.
• Dodging rocks and downed trees while maintaining proper sail trim is daunting.
• People are up on that jumping rock. We have a steady wind, perform a few daft jibes, and look like pros as we pass them. Winds dies soon after and we start paddling again.
• Finally make it to Lewis lake. We take a break. Ember and I swap to the Zuma. Mark and Lance are on the cat.
• Wind is a bit shifty on Lewis, but it is plentiful. We make pretty much a straight shot over to the boat ramp. Mainly a beam to downwind trajectory.
• Cat gets there 1st.
• Lance grabs the truck, and we load up quickly.
• We go back to the boat area and drop the masts, and clean up our gear.
• Water is still cold in the cooler. There is one beer to split as well. Hard to believe we made it with no issues.
• We say goodbye to Mark, he heads towards Miles City. We head north and west to Old Faithful.
• Catamaran mast has slipped back, and we lost our styrofoam. We tie a couple more rachet straps on it, and pad it with the garbage dry bag (which is still there, I need to empty it).
• Double scoops of ice cream for me and Ember. Ember gets chocolate and chocolate. I love that kid. Lance gets a single scoop.
• We wander a bit, we have a little time before old Faithful goes off. We can’t go in the visitor’s center with ice cream, so we walk along a trail circling the geyser.
• We sit and wait the last couple minutes for old faithful. Estimate was for 7:05, but there was a 15 minutes window on each side.
• Small eruption at 7:00. Was that it? Ember is impatient and thinks that is it and wants to go. Everybody else is waiting, so we do as well.
• 7:05, it goes off. Good size, duration was longer than I remember 20 years ago, but who knows… Next due to go off at 8:40 or so. We don’t wait to see it again.
• We head out. Minor traffic jam as there is a solitary bison on the side of the road.
• Grab some quick food in in West Yellowstone. Air up a trailer tire. Of course it is the one I put on backwards, so that the valve is on the inside, not the outside of the tire. I have to fix that…
• Driving back to Missoula. I sleep so that I can be rested to drive 2nd shift. Ember doesn’t sleep in cars well, she stays up the whole time.
• 2nd shift doesn’t happen, Lance drives it on through, said he couldn’t sleep anyway because he is hopped up of gas station coffee.
• Back in Missoula. Drop the boats, Ember and Myself off at my house. I get a few wet things unpacked. Lance heads home.
• We made it!