<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.6001.18294" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial" bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7><FONT id=role_document face=Arial color=#000000 size=2> <DIV>I will try to get you geyser info now that almost everyone is gone now.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Today (10/12/09)</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Fountain 9:39 ie & 15:43 ie</DIV> <DIV>Till 10:16 ie</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Here is my report on the Ferris Fork that I have promised:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>On 09/01/09 we started the day traveling by into the park, we had a chance to catch Great Fountain on the way to the trailhead, so we did of course. It was good to see Lynn, Bill and others before we started our trek.  Bill had informed me that Tera was in Shoshone, and I was hoping to get there before they left, however, we had met them on the trail as we were heading in they were heading out.  We had missed Lone Star by about 1/2 and hour (the time we used at Great Fountain) and since we had somewhat of a late start, we had decided to continue on. We had decided to set up camp at 0G1, before heading down to Shoshone Geyser Basin.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>At Shoshone, we had watched several eruptions of Minute Man and a couple eruptions of Velvet.  With thunderstorms brewing we had decided to walk the 2 1/2 miles back to camp.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>09/02/09- This is the major day of uphill, a 7.3 mile trek up onto and across the plateau with a big drop into the Bechler River Canyon. Along the way we would be treated with views of Twister Falls, Tempe Cascade & Ragged Falls, which is about 500 yards from our camp 9D1. On the plateau before we dropped into the canyon involved almost a mile of wading through ankle to knee deep swamp, thank god for the hot bath later that night at Mr. Bubbles. This is one of my favorite campsites, as it is in the middle of the Ferris Fork Geyser Basin.  The sight it self has you camping on one side of the Gregg Fork, with our bear pole and pit toilet on the other side of the river. Next to the log that you use to cross the river is a huge colorful hot spring bacteria mat cascading down into the river.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The Middle Basin Group of the Ferris Fork Geyser Basin is located at the campsite 9D1 and up stream 100 yards up the Gregg Fork River.  This group has no geysers that I have witnessed, but does have several very colorful springs dropping into the Gregg Fork. Many of these springs are difficult to access because of the steep gorge the Gregg Fork is rushing through.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>09/03/09-  This would be an easy day of checking out the basin, and of course another soak. At first the spur trail travels through several fairly hot springs along a flat area. Below is a list of the geysers and springs of note starting for the trail junction and heading up stream (Ferris Fork).  There are at least 2 dozen hot spring that it did not mention below.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>UPPER BASIN:</DIV> <DIV>1. As trail then begins to climb, there is a very beautiful spring, which I call Zealous, because of it's frequent and heavy boils up to 3 to 4 feet in height. The spring itself has 3 connected pools on top, with the one closest to the river (Ferris Fork), constantly boiling similar to the boiling of Crested Pool or Great Fountain during the meter boil.  The pool would then calm down for a second or two, just to boil up again 1 to 2 feet high, with boils up to 3 to 4 feet high about every 2 to 5 minutes or so.  There are 3 channels of heavy water discharge from this spring, as well as a good amount of rock deposit. The water cascades about 3 vertical meters down into the river, the colors on this spring are an amazing green and peach, as well as orange.  Part way down one of the 3 runoff channels the rock has built a beautiful terrace, a little over a meter in size, which spreads the water out, similar to the terraces at Mammoth.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>2.  This small geyser was a perpetual spouter last summer when I was there, and was dormant this year.  Last year this mound of geyserite, which is about a meter high had a 2 foot long crack which was playing a fan of water about 3-4 feet high and about 3 feet wide.  This year the crack was lined with sulphur crystals and dry.  This spring is located directly across the river from spring #1. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>3.  At the base of spring #2 is a small pool which last year was erupting near perpetually and this year was calm.  I did not see any activity out of spring #2 or 3 on this year's trip.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>4.  New Geyser at Mr. Bubbles.  Last year in late September, about 3 weeks after we were there last year, a new geyser formed about 1 meter above the backside of Mr. Bubbles. Ken who is a backcountry Rangers in the Bechler District, had told me that this new spring was erupting near perpetually at about 4 feet high for several weeks after it had formed.  They were afraid that they would have to close down Mr. Bubbles as it became way too hot because of this new spring and it's meter high waterfall into the waters of Mr. bubbles.  Several visitors had built several new rock walls into the Ferris Fork to create a new place to soak.  This year the park service was in to remove the new walls as this spring is no longer erupting, and Mr. Bubbles became ok again this year to soak in.  This spring has become a frying pan type spring and has a small waterfall similar to Riverside's overflow.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>5.  Dyslectic Spring:  this spring is not a geyser, but a weird spring, which is located just up the faint trail beyond Mr. Bubbles.  There is a hot spring just above this spring with a good over flow, which flows down the hill into Dyslectic Spring.  The bacteria in the runoff is orange turning brown.  Dyslectic Spring is about 2 feet in diameter and is bright blue and hot, with the exception of the cooler water from the spring above creating a small bacteria mat as the cool water flows into the pool.  Here is the weird part, even with the runoff flowing into this spring, there is no outflow beyond Dyslectic Spring, meaning all of this runoff pouring into Dyslectic must be draining into Dyslectic's plumbing system.  Just when I had thought I had seen it all.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>6.  This is the only true geyser I was able to observe.  It is located up just upstream from #5, and across the river. This geyser is located in the riverbed and is likely underwater during the spring runoff. I could tell it was a geyser because of the fresh trail of sinter in the runoff channel across the rocks. As I was watching the two perpetual spouters right next to it, after about 40 minutes of sitting there, I was treated to an eruption about 4 to 5 feet high with a duration of 1 minute, 32 seconds.  I decided  would wait for another eruption, after all, this year I am spending the day in this basin, after last year's mistake of not having enough time. With an interval of 3 hours, 42 minutes, I did get a second eruption, about 3 feet high and lasting about 52 seconds. After the second eruption I would retire to Mr. Bubbles for some more R & R as we are 14 miles into our journey.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>7.  This is a small perpetual spouter, also in the riverbed about 3 feet from #6.  This spouter is in a small pool about 1 foot in diameter and splashes about 1 foot high.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>8.  This is a small spray of water about a foot in every direction located about 1 1/2 feet from #7 and is about 1 foot from the river.  This is likely a fumarole spraying river water from just below the rocks.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Because our campsite 9D1 has a one night limit, we would pack up camp and move 1 mile downstream to 9B9, which is located at the base of a huge water fall, Albright Falls. Between 9D1 and 9B9 is the lower basin of the Ferris Fork Geyser Basin. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The Lower Basin is along the Bechler River just downstream of the campsite 9D1 and the confluence of the Gregg Fork, Ferris Fork and Phillip's Fork. This group has no geysers that I have noticed, however, the springs stretch almost the entire mile between the two campsites and had several large hot springs, many with extremely thick bacteria mats feeling up off of the floor of the pools. The Lower Basin does not have near the heat of the Middle or Upper Basins. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>After setting up camp at 9B9, we would have to walk a mile down stream to get way from the thermal water, and we would have refill our water jugs in a very cold freshwater spring.  This trek involved fording the Bechler River twice to get to and from best tasting water of the trip (along with the spring Tera showed me a few years ago near 0G1, which we also used to refill our water).  Good water across the plateau is limited, and didn't taste nearly as good as the water from OG1 or the spring downstream from 9B9.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>09/04/09:  Day 4, would be another fairly easy one, which began by hiking one more time up to Mr. Bubbles for a final look at all three basins.  After about 3 hour we walked the 2 miles (from Mr. Bubbles) back to 9B9 to pack up camp and begin the journey downstream into the Bechler River Canyon.  We would have to ford the river twice on our way to our next campsite 9B5.  Along the way we would refill our water bottles at the same spring as before.  There are a couple of small cascades just up stream and downstream of our second ford, and just before our campsite we were treated with the large drop of Iris Falls on the Bechler River. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>After setting up camp, we walked the 1/4 mile downstream to double drop of Commnade Falls on the Bechler River.  Between Iris and the double drop of Commnade Falls the Bechler River drops at least 300 feet within a mile. Our campsite was in the middle of these drops.  This would also be the first night we are alllowed to have a fire.  Oh well, it was the last night and we were exhausted, so we ate and went to bed, no fire.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>09/04/09:  Day 5, the final day, also the longest day.  We would pack up early and begin the drop to the mouth of the Canyon. Along the way we would run into a park trail crew, who was doing a great job on the trail, which had been swampy since 9D1 from dozens of cold and warm water springs crossing the trail. This crew of four had dug out a boulder about 3 X 4 feet in diameter which I remember last year was a 3 foot drop on the trail.  It took them 2 days to get it out. At one point they had thought they may have to blow it out. Ken had told me a lady last year fell off of this rock nearly ripping her leg off at the knee. I remember this drop last year and was warning the rest of my group about it, however, the trail crew was able to remove the rock a couple of days before we go there.  I can imagine how the horses negotiated this obstacle. I will not miss that rock, there was just no way around it.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The first 2 miles we were treated with plumb, ripe raspberries, salmon berries and strawberries, with the occasional huckleberry.  What a treat after 4 days of freeze dried meals (which really are pretty good).</DIV> <DIV>Once we arrived in the Bechler Meadows, we had a great view of ouzel falls on the opposite wall of the canyon.  At this point all three of us were separated by about 100 yards each, with me in my traditional position of last place.  We had seen some fresh black bear scat complete with a berry on top of it, and it wasn't 200 yards later I saw a small black bear about 20 feet off of the trail.  Both of my hiking partners walked within 20 feet of the bear without knowing it.  I would not of seen the bear either it had not stepped out of the tall brush as I was walking by.  I yelled bear to let the others know that there is a bear in the area, this of course scared the bear and he bolted as fast as he could into the trees.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>We would have our last ford in the Bechler Meadows, where we also decided to heat up another meal before heading out.  It seemed like we ran into at least 20 people, including Katy Duffy who were on the way to Dunanda Falls. After 3 days of seeing only 4 people, it was becoming evident we were nearing civilization, if you can call the Bechler Ranger Station civilization. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>After arriving back to the car we have calculated that we have travel a total of 40+ miles on foot, with about 28 miles with a pack. I'm already looking forward to next year when I do it all over again. I think I may have Steve Eide talked into going. I'm thinking about a second extra day in the Ferris Fork Geyser Basin, after all how often do you have a geyser basin to yourself?  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Jim</DIV> <DIV>YTG</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Excuse the typos, it's late.</DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>