Lightning's Gone

In 2008, Jean came to live with me and brought with her Princess, Boo, Lightning, and Pebbles.  Of those four cats, only Princess still lives now.  When Lightning and Princess were here at the house, they didn't get along together, and there were some terrible cat wars.  Lightning would pee in corners in response, and it made for some interesting times.  Jean had a condo in Belgrade and took Princess there so that she didn't have to compete with any other cats, and Lightning lived peaceably at my house ever since.  Still, Lightning would occasionally pee in a corner for no reason, even if I was right there to deal with her.

Lightning always had minor health problems.  Jean adopted her as a kitten in poor health.  She had lost her meow as a kitten somehow and only squeaked when she wanted attention.  Even while I had her, she had problems tearing, and also with eczima.  In January the veterinarian diagnosed her with kidney disease.  At the time, I took her there for a bladder infection.

Generally she got along really well with other cats in the house and only wanted a peaceable life.

I couldn't allow her inside my bedroom at night because she would nuzzle me until I fed her wet cat food, even though there was dry cat food everywhere in the house.  I wanted my sleep, so I closed the door.  She clawed and squeaked at the door until her demands were met.  I wanted my sleep, so I put her in the garage at night.  She didn't like this, and evidenced this to me on a few occasions, but I got my sleep.  She reminded me of another cat:

She and I weren't terribly close since she basically only asked for my attention when she wanted wet cat food.  She could be annoying about it too.

Regardless, I felt pretty bad for her when her kidney disease was getting the best of her recently.  Her behavior changed a bit.  She started peeing in the bathtub, and would hover over the water bowl without drinking from it.  At some point she stopped eating, and I could tell that she wasn't feeling very well.  On September 28, I took her to the vet to be euthanized because after I got home from working at Super 8, I found that she was in great discomfort and was seriously dehydrated.  On the drive to Livingston, she didn't even get agitated, and it takes an hour to drive from Gardiner there.  She mostly stayed quiet.  I felt more bad for her in her condition than anything else, and I was glad that the vet could make a quick end of it.  She wasn't terribly old—maybe 10.

Everyone I know has been really nice about Lightning's death, and I appreciate it very much.  It's good to know that people care for their animals and are sensitive to others who own them also.

Lightning basks in the sun.

Lightning rolled in some catnip.

Lightning takes a nap with Thunder as a kitten.

There are some remarkable similarities here.

Lightning didn't go outside very often, and this was pretty far from the house for her.

Lightning sits on the outdoor swinging chair.

Hiking, and Hiking, and Hiking Some More

I have never hiked for so far ever before.  Will I ever be the same?  September 14 a friend and I hiked on the Fairy Falls Trail from the Fairy Falls trailhead to Biscuit Basin in Yellowstone Park, and then hiked on the road back to our vehicle.  It was kind of a stormy day, so we were glad to have our rain gear with us.  Personally, I was still dealing with the residual effects of the long hike we had the week before up Sheep Mountain.

Along the trail, we saw Grand Prismatic Spring from above on the hill next to it, Fairy Falls, Imperial Geyser, and Mystic Falls.  Previously, I had used the closer trails from the road to see all these features.  If you don't remember about my adventures then, you should read Adventures in Wonderland (Part 1) and Adventures in Wonderland (Part 2).  I've been to the area several times, but because MySpace hasn't created a way for me to access those blogs, I can't post links to those adventures at this time.

Outside of what I've previously seen in the area, the Fairy Falls Trail was loaded with obsidian rocks and boulders.  There are a couple kinds of obsidian forms (not counting colors) in the Yellowstone area.  There are shards of it which were perfect for making arrowheads by the native population ages ago, and there are chips of it.  These chips resemble a broken windshield.  Many of the boulders along the Fairy Falls area are made of these kinds of chips.

Obsidian rocks along Fairy Falls Trail

Little Firehole Meadows

Little Firehole River

We finally arrived back at our vehicle after dark, even though we tried to start in the morning.  Unfortunately, driving time to this location was a little while and made for a longer day.  While we walked along the road, bull elk bugling could be heard nearby.  At my house, I often hear the same sounds.  In all, we hiked for about 8.25 hours.

Making Tracks on Sheep Mountain

I've hiked to the top of Electric Peak a couple times since I've lived in Gardiner, but I hadn't hiked to the top of Sheep Mountain yet.  They have similar altitudes: Electric Peak is 10,969 feet above sea level, and Sheep Mountain is 10,547.  They're both mountains that neighbor me in quite the literal sense.  Both mountains used to be volcanoes at some point in ancient history.  Electric Peak is definitely the favorite mountain to hike in this area for many people, but no one realizes that Sheep Mountain is just about as challenging.

On September 7, Jaret, Tony, and I hiked to the top of Sheep Mountain.  We started about 9:50 am and got back to the car about 8:30 pm that evening and hiked about 9 miles.  That sounds like a slow hike, but you have to remember that we were climbing about 4,500 feet in altitude to get to the top.

We hadn't hiked for more than ten minutes before we were surprised by a bull snake.  Everyone jumped out of the way since it was pretty angry.  Fortunately these guys aren't poisonous, but I still didn't feel like getting bitten by it.

A bull snake coils and hisses at us.

The trail meandered along Little Trail Creek, crossing it at least five times on our way up to the summit.  Sometimes we could go across on rocks, and other times we had to carefully cross downed logs.

Little Trail Creek

Tony and Wayne cross a log across the creek.

Sheep Mountain's forest is really beautiful, surpassing that of much of Yellowstone because it didn't get burned.  However, there is extensive pine beetle kill in the area, but it looks like the worst of it is over.

Jaret hikes through the thick forest on Sheep Mountain.

Once we got close to the top, we were able to see for a really long way.  Nearby was Monitor Peak, Ash Mountain, Emigrant Peak, and Electric Peak.  In the distance we could Index and Pilot Peaks, all the way at Cooke City.  We couldn't see the Tetons from our vantage point, but maybe on some days it might be possible.

Ash Mountain

Cutoff Mountain, Index Peak, and Piolot Peak

Mammoth Hot Springs

Emigrant Peak

At the top of the mountain, we could see down into the crater of the volcano at Five Lakes.  It wasn't as apparent from the top of the mountain as it was after I looked at Google Earth that Sheep Mountain used to be a volcano.  From where we were, we simply saw ridge lines around us.

Five Lakes

Jaret and Tony relax at the top of Sheep Mountain.

The way back down the mountain was quite the adventure.  I saw that we were about to get rained on very soon, and so we tried to hump it back to the bottom.  We were suddenly hailed on.  It felt like we were losing at paintball since the hail was about pea-sized.  Strangely, the hail lasted for at least fifteen minutes, which is pretty long for a hailstorm in this part of the country.

We continued to hike down the mountain as carefully as we could since everything was now wet.  We went down the steep side of ridge through a rock bed as gingerly as possible, and got back down to Little Trail Creek.  From there we were able to keep a fast pace back to the truck, making it there just about at dark.

We were all a bit sore from the hike that day as it was a very strenuous hike, but we felt very accomplished.  Jaret had come from Livingston to hike, but he didn't feel up to going back to Livingston that night, so he stayed at my place until the next day.

It was an amazing hike, and I'd enjoy doing it again.  I want to take advantage of everything around me, and the reasonably good weather to do it in.  It generally means that everything gets crammed into each summer, but what summers!