Day 60 Mile 862-880

Island Park to Howard Springs

In the morning I stopped in and had a cinnamon roll at the office and general store of the Buffalo Run Campground. The gentleman who ran the place was very strongly assuring me that I need a lot of guts to walk through Yellowstone what with all the bears and buffalo. I appreciated his concern and told him I would approach the park with all due diligence. I pass rivers and Eagles and love how green the area is after my long stretches of high desert. As I start climbing Targhee Pass and moving ever closer to Montana I see the perfect white billow up over the hill in the precise direction of West Yellowstone. I figure its too white to be smoke and must be water vapor but it just kept pluming up like a mushroom cloud. I met Steve, a retired school teacher and fly fisher who informs me that it is indeed a fire and that it was very close to the city of West Yellowstone and that they are starting to fight to contain it. Every summer while Steve was a school teacher, him and his wife would travel in an F-150 w/ camper all around the parks and natural areas of this great region. He now has a cabin south of Yellowstone. The place where I am camping out for the night is called Howard Springs and it is just a little rest stop with a beautiful fountain and lots of trees. Steve told me the story of how General Howard chased the Nez Pierce Indians from this point as Chief Joseph led his tribe to Canada. Howard caught them as they fled just three miles before they escaped and made them return to reservation. Steve also told me about Collin Powell’s wife doing inner city nurturing work and how they find it more needed than running for president and how the trickle up can be affective. Steve says “God knows its needed”.