[Geysers] Fan & Mortar August 15 12:40

[Lynn Stephens]

THIS POST IS FOR THE PERSONAL USE OF THE SUBSCRIBERS TO THIS LISTSERV AND MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED, FORWARDED, OR PUBLISHED, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, INCLUDING PUBLICATION IN THE SPUT.

 

Fan & Mortar erupted this afternoon at 12:40 p.m. after a double River Vent pause.  I was on my way out of the Park at 6:30 a.m.  As I passed Black Sand Basin I noted the cones blocking off access to it, which I expected since I had heard rumors that Obama would have lunch there if the weather cooperated.  As I passed Biscuit Basin, I noted no barriers and no orange cones.  There were orange cones stacked beside the trail to Artemisia but none across the trail.  By the time my brain processed the information, I was already past the turn into Biscuit Basin so I had to continue down the road a short distance to pull a U-turn.

 

I walked in to Artemisia.  When I heard Steve Eide report other geysers at 7 am, I asked about the Fan & Mortar markers and he replied they were still in place, so I continued on to F&M figuring that the worst that would happen is that the Secret Service would shoe me out.  (As I was walking past Baby Daisy area, a jogger came past me and said, "You're not going to like this."  I replied, "You mean you're not going to let me go on up the trail" thinking she might be Secret Service.  She replied, "That's not it.  I've been making a lot of noise to scare away the wildlife so you're probably not going to see any."  I told her that actually made me happy because I didn't like running into bison or bears either.

 

Fan & Mortar had a double River Vent pause with plenty of Main Vent splashing that started at 07:52.  Water levels, particularly in High Vent, held for a long time, but it didn't quite have enough energy to erupt.  Not knowing that Ben had seen Artemisia at 1911ie on August 14, I decided to go back up to Artemisia.

 

The Secret Service moved everyone off Geyser Hill and blocked the trails to Geyser Hill at Sawmill and from Castle over toward Grand, but they never bothered us in the northern part of the basin.  There were almost no visitors in that portion of the basin this morning.  I commented to Dirk Andersen (Sam Holbrook's great-nephew) that between the raw, cool weather and the lack of visitors, it seemed like a late October or early November day.

 

At 10:04 the first helicopter arrived.  I flew various designs around the Upper Geyser Basin, scoping things out.  On one pass I was standing up to look at possible steam from Atomizer when the ship realized I was out there.  It circled back, about 30 feet above my head, pulled a very tight circle so it could thoroughly check me out.  I was glad I had taken off my camaflouge poncho as I was walking up to Artemisia and wasn't wearing it when they circled over me.  I think there were 6 helicopters total that came in with Obama's entourage.

 

At 11:31 Dirk called splashing in Main Vent.  Since that was only 4 hours after the preceding event cycle, I immediately packed up and headed back to F&M.  Dirk had stopped two bicyclists out for a ride to keep him company and help him watch for water in Main Vent.  Ben Hoppe has his story to tell about getting his bike out into the basin.  Two international visitors also happened to be in the area.  Kyle and David also came riding up on their bikes.  After F&M had gone into a lock, David rode his bike up toward Grotto and tried to get a family to turn around, but possibly the language barrier prevented him from communicating what was going to happen.  Anyway, there were 9 of us there for the eruption at 12:40.  The wind blew the water column straight toward the benches and the boardwalk area between Spiteful and the benches, so most of us went to the picnic bench side to get a beautiful back-lit view of the eruption.  I hadn't taken my camera so I just enjoyed the sight of the eruption, which threw out many large rocks.  Dirk was especially excited because it was his first eruption of F&M and he got to call it.  Duration of the water was 49 minutes.

 

Robert and Nancy Bower came down for part of the eruption.  After the eruption ended, the three of us were talking when we got to see an osprey dive into the Firehole and catch a fish.  At first we thought the osprey had flown out of sight, but it circled over toward Riverside, then landed in a dead snag east of Fan & Mortar.  We could see the fish flopping and dangling.  Then we got to watch the osprey taking bites out of the fish.  I had commented that we had an osprey fly by during the 7:30 events cycle, but it didn't have a fish.  I guess the Fan & Mortar eruption osprey with a fish was just delayed a little while today.

 

Lynn Stephens

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