Another Day Off...

WS Day 26 YNP as follows:

The pack made another calf kill near the junction of the Specimen and Cache Creek trails. As is usual, the Druids slept most of the day. Rob and Melissa (my substitute) didn't move all day either. I ended up in Bozeman again, shopping a bit for Christmas but I had to borrow a car to do so as mine is in the shop for a bad bearing and some other routine maintenance. Even I am still a slave to our mechanized world.

Day 27 WS YNP as follows:

Another slow day of wolf watching, in fact we did not see any wolves at all. The Druids were up in the Cache Creek area and the Roses (whom we usually go and watch when nothing else is going on) were hidden as well. Not to mention all of the snow which would have made viewing difficult anyway. Ah, yes. The snow. This weather pattern is shaping up to be the first real snow of Winter Study. All of the other snow fall has been mostly flurries and therefore short lived. This storm has been dumping snow since 8 in the morning. Will it last? Who knows - the forecast called for a 20% chance of snow today and tomorrow. So far, there's about 4 inches of new, fluffy white stuff outside.

Rob and I did manage to collect another kill. This was the elk that was caught up on the ridge leading up to Druid Peak, East of Rose Creek. We hiked roughly half of the way up to the peak and found absolutely nothing. Well, not quite nothing. We did find the rumen pile and elk fur scattered everywhere. No bones were found, and that's the important part. Well, anyhow, the hike itself was wonderful - even with the snowfall, we had an excellent view of the Lamar Valley. Although the snow accumulation on the valley floor is still meager there is plenty of snow up high - the final 300 meters to the kill site was mostly post-holing through knee to waist deep drifts. A good workout!