<html> <head> <style> .hmmessage P { margin:0px; padding:0px } body.hmmessage { font-size: 10pt; font-family:Verdana } </style> </head> <body class='hmmessage'> THIS POST IS FOR THE PERSONAL USE OF THE SUBSCRIBERS TO THIS LISTSERV AND MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED, EITHER IN PART OR IN WHOLE, FOR ANY PURPOSE, INCLUDING PUBLICATION IN THE SPUT OR ANY OTHER OUTLET.   Yesterday evening (6/19) when I got home from Lone Pine I had to do some housecleaning.  A mouse had found some of the food items in the milk crates on the porch, so I had to move some of the food inside.  Thankfully I slept in this (6/20) morning so it was fully daylight before I started to leave the trailer.  As I was picking up the radios, I noticed a mouse very neatly placed in the center of the small wooden coffee table that MaryBeth brought.  The head was facing the "kitchen" area, the tail lay in a straight line behind it, and the hind legs were splayed at right angles to the body.  Usually when MaryBeth brings a toy for Cocoa Kitty, she tells me, so I suspected that despite the fact it was so neatly placed on the table, it probably wasn't a kitty toy.  Using a paper towel, I carefully picked it up, noting that it was rather soft and there was a wet spot on the side of its throat.  I guess Cocoa decided to earn her keep, unlike one summer when I came home unexpectedly to find her sprawled out on the living room floor with nine, count them, nine, inch long baby mice playing all around her!  She couldn't understand why I was chasing them around with a towel, catching them and throwing them outside.  But the next evening she did show she knew that adult mice were not allowed in the trailer.   It was warm enough that I biked to the north end of the basin at 0600 with just sandals, no socks.  When I returned, Barbara Lasseter and Tara Cross were near the gas station looking at the Myriad Group family of sandhill cranes.   I decided to go to Great Fountain early because the 6/19 afternoon eruption had been fairly weak, but not quite early enough.  As I rounded the corner to turn onto Firehole Lake Drive, I noted a lot of steam from the Great Fountain area.  I had barely parked in the parking lot when Great Fountain (0834ns 6/20) sent up a small burst, then a who-omph large burst followed by a huge wave that emptied out the crater, indicating I had arrived at the beginning of the first burst.  I was talking with Ralph Taylor.  The fourth burst had a blue bubble.  There was a 9 minute pause between the end of the fourth burst and the beginning of the fifth burst.  The fifth burst was quite strong, so I knew Great Fountain would go on the far side of the evening window, but I wanted to get to Pink Cone so I didn't stay to see how many more bursts Great Fountain had.    This morning (6/21), on my way to Pink Cone,  I stopped at Great Fountain to change the prediction board.  Looking at the crater I could tell it had erupted way past the far side of the window.  Some visitors who had seen/heard part of the eruption said it erupted sometime between 1 and 2 am (the prediction was 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.).  Scott stopped by while I was at Pink Cone and he said he would let the Visitor Center know I was predicting the next eruption at 1pm +/- 2 hours.   When I next arrived at Great Fountain at 10:55, overflow had started just a few minutes earlier--it was out the center crater, but not overflowing off the first big terrace yet.  So I used the park service radio to call the Visitor Center to put up a prediction of 12:15 +/- 15 mintues.  Then I decided to swing through Firehole Lake Drive to check on Gemini, which wasn't erupting.  I don't know what time Great Fountain erupted, because I got diverted, which I'll explain in a few paragraphs.   Back to 6/20--I waited for Pink Cone, which erupted at 11:47.    I got Pink Cone again today (6/21) at 0853 (I=21h06m).  I stayed for the duration (105 minutes).  While I was watching the Pink Cone Group I recorded several eruptions of Bead and Box Spring, Labial at 07:19 (6/21), Narcissus (6/21)  at 7:29ns (L) and again at 9:26ns (S).  Pink erupted (6/21) at 9:13 (d ~ 12 minutes).  Ralph told me yesterday (6/20) that a four-legged critter had gotten the monitor at Narcissus over the winter and it appears another critter got the monitor at Pink.   The interesting observation today (6/21) was a closed interval on Labial's Satellite Vents.  I can go for hours, days, even weeks without seeing even one eruption.  This is only the second time I have seen a closed interval.  Both eruptions lastered about 12 minutes and the interval was 2h35m.   While I was at Pink Cone this morning (6/21) I was entertained by half a dozen or so bluebirds.  I also watched the two adult sandhill cranes for several minutes.  They were calling to each other, but I never saw a chick with them.   After Pink Cone on 6/20, I decided to go into West Yellowstone to restock my reading material.  Jere B. was at the library (LSU won its baseball game, he said "it was a romp").  When Jere saw how high of a stack the 3 books I had chosen made, he asked whether I was checking books out by the title or by the inch.   On the way back from West Yellowstone I stopped at Nez Perce Creek to take pictures of the masses of very pale yellow flowers with a bright orange center on a short stem.  The flowers were two to three inches in diameter, probably White Mules Ear.   The rest of the day (6/20) was a bust as far as geysers go because I decided to go over to Lone Pine since the week Dave Leeking was here, it appeared Lone Pine was doing intervals of 21 hours or less.  When I arrived, it was very windy.  There were large white caps on the Lake.  So, I attributed the lack of bubbles to the blowing wind making it difficult for me to see the bubbles.  Awhile later the wind stopped and the rain started.  Now I could see plenty of ripples on the surface from the raindrops, but I still kept trying to convince myself that Lone Pine must be bubbling.  Then the rain stopped and there was no way I could pretend that Lone Pine was bubbling.  Since it had bubbled for five hours as I was watching it 6/19 before it finally erupted, I decided to give up and go home.   While I was at Lone Pine I watched a black and white woodpecker with a red stripe on the back of its head pounding away with its beak at some downed tree trunks.  I think it was a hairy woodpecker rather than a downy woodpecker because it was drilling away at the tree trunks and its beak appeared to be as large as its head.   I also watched four pelicans flying around over the lake.  I wonder how many pelicans it takes to make a flock.   As I was putting stuff away in the pickup getting ready to leave Lone Pine, I noticed that I had become surrounded by vehicles and traffic was not moving in either the north or southbound lanes.  A bull elk--6 points on each side of its velvety antlers so far--was grazing on the west side of the road.  It took about 15 minutes before I could finally ease into traffic to make my way home.   At least I was able to safely ease my way into traffic.  This morning (6/21) as I was making my way south on the main road to enter Firehole Lake Drive, I noticed a two-vehicle traffic accident.  The parties involved said no one had called for help yet, so I got on the NPS radio.  Shortly after, while I was waiting for NPS personnel to arrive, Brandy and Kristine arrived.  Dennis Young, law enforcement officer from Madison, arrived within minutes.  Brandy grabbed an orange cone and a stop/slow sign, took one of my FRS radios and he went south to stop northbound traffic.  I had a park service radio in one hand, the FRS radio in the other hand, and started coordinating with Brandy to stop/start southbound traffic.  During the process, I noted Great Fountain's steam cloud, but didn't even note the ie time since I knew that Scott and Jere and probably some others were at Great Fountain.   The MVA was almost cleared when a pickup came roaring up toward me while I had southbound traffic stopped.  The driver of the pickup said, "There's a one-vehicle roll-over north of Fountain Flats drive."  So, here I was on the NPS radio again reporting another accident.  Thankfully no one in the roll-over was injured.   As the MVA was finally cleared, Brandy handed me the traffic cones and stop/slow sign that belonged to Dennis Young.  I agreed to head north to deliver them.  As I pulled up, Dennis said he was glad to see me, not because of the cones, but because he needed someone to help stop/start traffic until more law enforcement rangers arrived.  While I was helping direct traffic, I was entertained by a bald eagle circling overhead for a while.  There was also a reported road-rage incident at the scene of the roll-over but because several law enforcement officers were there when part of the incident occurred, I didn't have to get on the radio for that one.   Today (6/21) I did see two Fountain eruptions--0557ie and 1236ie.   The weather today has been a series of showers and storms.  Luckily most of the showers occurred when I was able to stay inside the pickup and not when I was standing in the road directing traffic.   Lynn Stephens           <hr />Microsoft brings you a new way to search the web. <a href='http://www.bing.com?form=MFEHPG&publ=WLHMTAG&crea=TEXT_MFEHPG_Core_tagline_try bing_1x1' target='_new'>Try Bing� now</a></body> </html>