Subject: progress or retrogress reports on convocations previously crowed<br/>
Date: Jul 31, 2000 @ 21:55<br/>
Author: michael donner (michael donner &lt;m@...&gt;)<br/>
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<div id="ygrps-yiv-384581899">gentlebounders<br/>
<br/>
1  happily the chdefr or basle tlingit & award & prize were promoted last week<br/>
for the gcebe is alive & well & likely to visit this point in short order<br/>
perhaps even in the same swoop as the atchde triarea<br/>
so 3 cheers for gcebe & chdefr & us all<br/>
<br/>
2  at the same time i continue to enjoy regular visits to friggumses chowdifer<br/>
a real crows nest & frog mess here also<br/>
on the southern slope of the ctmany massif<br/>
where i am undisputed fool on the hill<br/>
oft visited lately by a rare & shy lesser yellowlegs<br/>
while still hoping for more human visitors<br/>
& expanding the invitation now to include a guided tour to any or many a<br/>
ctmany tripunctuary delight<br/>
& stretching it also  to any time youd like or can  until about mid august<br/>
so 3 toots for ctmany again too<br/>
<br/>
&3  about mid august<br/>
at which point jane & i are expecting the heat wave to end in the west so<br/>
we can then make our way to the other also still earnestly hoped for<br/>
rendezvous at idmtwy<br/>
<br/>
& about that<br/>
i just learned one cant legally land a helicopter anywhere in yellowstone park<br/>
because of an old antipoaching regulation<br/>
& i havent found anyone willing to break this law  even without a gun<br/>
so the previously touted multiphibious sault at idmtwy is very probably<br/>
cancelled for that reason<br/>
<br/>
& i do apologize for my clearly excessive exuberance in this matter<br/>
<br/>
& besides<br/>
no one had come forth with the unicycle or webcam anyway<br/>
<br/>
so we will just have to do this one the old fashioned way<br/>
by earning it<br/>
on foot<br/>
& perhaps just the 1 or 2 of us after all<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
still i do offer it to you all from the start<br/>
any way you may like to enjoy it<br/>
<br/>
the topo sucks kb but is worth the trip imho<br/>
if not now  then eventually  at<br/>
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.angelfire.com/md2/polystate3/idmtwytopo.JPG#">http://www.angelfire.com/md2/polystate3/idmtwytopo.JPG#</a><br/>
<br/>
& jacks book pages 5a&b are even more comprehensive as overview<br/>
<br/>
jack as well as gregg & others have of course already been here<br/>
<br/>
the location is 8 or 9 miles west of old faithful geyser & a few thousand<br/>
feet above it on the continental divide & all approximately or precisely<br/>
within a grizzly country of population 350 i believe<br/>
<br/>
in fact idmtwy may well be unequalled for brute difficulty among the entire<br/>
fleet of the 65 american allstars<br/>
<br/>
more sobering than idnvor  which is 62 miles off the pavement<br/>
<br/>
more challenging than idorwa  situated in hells canyon at major whitewater<br/>
<br/>
more elusive even than some possibly still virgin water nymphs like ilmiwi<br/>
or mimnwi over 30 miles out in the great lakes<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
& man  this will be our  4th  try at idmtwy<br/>
my most gaping american dry hole<br/>
if you can dig that<br/>
<br/>
  haha<br/>
  thats nothing<br/>
  idnvor took me 7 tries<br/>
  hahaha<br/>
<br/>
anyway it looks like we have trimmed the footwork here down to a total of<br/>
about 21 high & mostly steep miles round trip<br/>
<br/>
  possibly a bit less  depending on which gate is locked<br/>
<br/>
  this i got from jacks book & can confirm from my own recall<br/>
<br/>
the point begs to be done hit & run in a single day tho<br/>
or you have to eat subfreezing nights & baggage<br/>
<br/>
i am still working on ways to ease or finesse it still further tho<br/>
<br/>
previously jane & i have reached to within about 700 feet of the target here<br/>
a perhaps lamentable near miss<br/>
except<br/>
i am glad we have postponed the pleasure  the better to share it<br/>
<br/>
i am still wishing others will come or take some part<br/>
as there is so much interesting stuff here<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
like for example<br/>
will it be possible to get the targhee national forest ranger to give up<br/>
the key to the gate so as to obviate all but the hardest 8 of these<br/>
probably 21 demanding miles<br/>
i mean  for just any tumbleweed bounders who happen to blow thru<br/>
<br/>
that would indeed be government at its finest<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
phone rings<br/>
brief interlude<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
& sure enough the forest ranger has just phoned me back from idaho<br/>
  at government expense tho i offered to pay<br/>
with the news that the key will be there for us at the island park ranger<br/>
station thankyousir<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
or<br/>
for another question  but one i forgot to ask<br/>
how successful has the locked gate policy actually been in its express<br/>
purpose of restoring habitat necessary to attract grizzlies back to the area<br/>
<br/>
& is pepper spray the right stuff<br/>
  & end of that story<br/>
    as i suspect<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
& does anyone know anything about webcams<br/>
<br/>
i certainly dont<br/>
<br/>
like can anyone here receive such a feed yet<br/>
or would anyone even like to go  so to say  remote pointing in this way<br/>
or what would that take to happen<br/>
duh<br/>
etc<br/>
etc<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
or perhaps you have a query or a point in this too<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
but to return to the above topo<br/>
<br/>
whichever gate is presently locked<br/>
its position is slightly off the map at top left corner<br/>
<br/>
but you can see the formerly public access road  fs 066  entering the frame<br/>
at upper left & then descending southeast to black canyon aka thirsty creek<br/>
<br/>
that is where i will park & climb up from<br/>
now that i can get the gate key<br/>
<br/>
it is also the jumpoff point on the route jack & gregg followed<br/>
tho they appear to have had to walk down to it<br/>
<br/>
in 2 of our earlier tries  jane & i scrambled a short distance directly up<br/>
from the locked gate to the part of the continental divide that runs just<br/>
past it & so we walked the divide as it were right onto the upper left<br/>
corner of the map<br/>
<br/>
we did this offroad maneuver so as not to have to descend & reascend<br/>
& we were in fact able to follow the ridge all the way to the vicinity of<br/>
the tripoint<br/>
but the whole stretch is such a tangle of fire damaged trunks & stumps that<br/>
i cant recommend this route<br/>
especially after having seen the obvious improvements of the combined route<br/>
066 descent & thirsty creek ascent  & vice versa<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
the coolest thing about this united states government map tho is that it<br/>
clearly shows the tripoint & the trijunction of the 3 interstate boundaries<br/>
at the wrong place<br/>
<br/>
in fact the entire idmt interstate boundary is wrong on this map<br/>
& only the wyoming boundary is correctly depicted<br/>
<br/>
the idmt boundary should follow  instead of the zigzagging black lines  the<br/>
heavy dashed brown continental divide line that snakes across & alongside<br/>
them all the way to or from the wyoming boundary<br/>
<br/>
& as you can see<br/>
this difference produces a slightly different tripoint location<br/>
the true one being in fact 700 feet farther south than indicated<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
indeed the reason we missed the tripoint on our 3rd try is that i believed<br/>
the government rather than brian<br/>
who tried to tell me on the phone the morning before that he had just seen<br/>
jacks book for the first time<br/>
  which i had til then not even heard of<br/>
&  brian continued  it clearly says & shows  etc etc<br/>
<br/>
but for some reason<br/>
probably giddiness of altitude<br/>
i just went with the government<br/>
thinking i would reach the same place<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
so there you have the preliminary picture<br/>
<br/>
imagine moose & many elk drinking at those 2 high ponds shown at lower<br/>
right & upper left<br/>
long hazy alpine vistas in all directions<br/>
a land halfway back from devastation 12 years ago<br/>
<br/>
over 100 degrees there today  i see on the weather channel<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
we can afford to wait<br/>
but i am already excited<br/>
<br/>
m</div>