An awesome journey from Yellowstone to home, this one has been a long time coming. I first mapped this route out in 2018 and had it planned as my first 100 mile effort, it feels good to come back to it now with so much more experience and fitness and have it go so smoothly.
I saw elk, deer, a moose, mountain goats, wolf prints, grizzly sign of all kind, heard sandhill cranes and a mountain lion, nearly stepped on mice and toads, and generally got to share the range with some of the best critters. Among them, my partner Laura, my sister Maddi, and my friend Zach. The first 50 miles was unsupported, and it was a wild and beautiful start. Sagebrush and pine, fireweed and yarrow. Things got hot and dry around miles 30-40 and I was glad for a brief downpour of rain to cool things off. The rain intensified and the shaking lodgepoles and cracking thunder were enough to drive me to sit in a hollow for 20 minutes or so. The sun finally broke through again and the squall moved on.
Zach met me at Windy Pass with Coca cola. The light was sublime, golden hour breaking gleefully through virga and moody clouds. Sweeping alpine meadows illuminated sidelong by the final archs of the evening sun. We moved quickly through the dark, losing context of the surrounding hills and moving by feel rather than by sight. Then a crescendo from Hyalite basin to the parking lot where Maddi and Laura provided aid at 1am in Hyalite canyon.
Maddi picked up pacing and led me through a small maze of atv trails to the Bozeman Creek drainage, where we blitzed the downhill on Sourdough to meet the road.
Laura joined me for the last section from the road and we enjoyed the slow smokey sunrise over familiar town trails like it was any other weekday run. I was proud of my legs for still having the strength to run, and thankful for Laura's company to keep me turning over. The surreality of having run home from Yellowstone started to hit me at the top of Peet's hill. We finished all together at the Library and walked home. Finishing a big effort like this with family and friends around (a couple doggo's too) and not much fanfare, is relaxing and special every time.
This route really is spectacular, to be able to stay almost entirely on trail from Mammoth Hot Springs all the way home to Bozeman was a dream. It speaks to the incredible wildernesses that border our home here. I hope that by posting this route some folks will find some inspiration to run this route or similar, as it is well deserving of some attention. I will be excited to see if anyone else has run this in a single push and has a faster time to post, I would not be surprised if this is the case. I am quite confident that my time could be shortened by several hours.