Hundreds of miles from the nearest civilization stand four
naked men. Behind them rises an epic eleven
thousand foot mountain and in front stretches a crystal clear lake surrounded
by tall alpine trees. Overhead is a
picturesque unadulterated blue sky dotted with a few white clouds and at their bare
feet a small pool of steaming water bubbles.
The long haired man looks at his watch and exclaims, “it’s about to
blow!” Suddenly the geyser erupts,
expulsing huge jets of boiling water high into the air while the men jump up
and down at its base yelling at the top of their lungs. Welcome to the sixth and a half annual Dan
Hoffman Memorial Hike of Yellowstone National Park.
I had travelled for a couple weeks from India to be there,
but preparation for this moment began eight months earlier when I was making
decisions about when and how long I was going to stay in India. Everything must
be planned around the DHMH. Almost every
year somebody has to do something as drastic as quitting a job or leaving a
country in order to make it. Waking up in
the bed of Ryan’s truck after our late arrival into camp the previous night and
hearing the laughter of my best friends as they sipped steaming coffee in the
cold morning air made it all worth it.
“That means you cannot be on each other’s campsites. Not to
sleep and not even for dinner.” sneered the old lady in the backcountry permit
office as she started the cheesiest bear-awareness video ever created. I exchanged looks with Dan. As usual, many rules would be broken on the
DHMH. Sometimes I think if park rangers
had their way visitors wouldn’t even be allowed in the park.
I pried off my boots and peeled away the sticky socks
underneath before I even sat down. A
refreshing breeze cooled my blistered toes as I dropped my heavy pack and slid
into the sand, pushing them through the pebbles. It was well into the first day and after
seven miles of hiking we had finally reached Heart Lake, an oasis as still as a
photograph and teeming with trout. It
didn’t take long for me to drift off to sleep in the afternoon sun as I waited
for the others to catch up. This is the
life.
I shielded my sunburned eyes as I scanned the distant
horizon. Thirty miles to the south
towered the Grand Teton mountain range, the only thing I could see that
appeared higher than me. It was the
second day and I was standing on the peak of Mt Sheridan, gasping in the thin
air and perspiring from the challenging climb but triumphant in my
accomplishment. Only one of us ended up
with serious altitude sickness and surprisingly, despite everything India had
thrown at me, it wasn’t me. I watched a
hawk soar down below along the cliffs above the snow fields and felt that he
should be envious of my freedom.
A bright white skull lay just under the surface, grinning up
at me eerily. It was surrounded by
hundreds of other animal bones at the bottom of the geyser. The water was a tropical blue and as clear as
glass. White and yellow mineral deposits
contrasted sharply around its edge and a thick stream of vapors and steam
drifted up from its smooth surface. I
dipped my pinky finger quickly and jerked it back out even faster. So hot.
My little off-trail excursion had paid off; there are only a few places
on the planet where these exist and here I had one all to myself. Off in the distance I saw some more steam;
one of these geysers was about to blow!
Standing naked at the edge of a geyser as it erupts and
looking up at the vast quantity of boiling water coming right for you is a
unique experience not soon forgotten. It’s
this kind of adventure that makes campfire instant meals the most delicious and
nourishing delight ever tasted. It’s
these types of experiences that cement friendships and produce deep,
life-changing conversations. It’s these
moments and relationships that money can’t buy that keep us coming year after
year regardless of lower priorities. The
sixth and a half annual Dan Hoffman Memorial Hike of Yellowstone National Park:
another epic success.
