Headed out at dawn for Grand, but first it was a quick, slippery, foggy walk down to the Cage as there hadn't been any reports from down there. Arrived to find it pretty much unchanged, with no evidence of any Hot Period or even strong Southwest Vents activity.
The wait for Grand continued to be foggy, so much so that I didn't bother to set up the camera. For an hour and a half, got a series of Turban eruptions. I did leave for a bit to go down to Penta to see a fairly powerful steam-phase eruption. The Grand eruption had two bursts.
2026-Sep-21 : 08:27:04 T2Q 08:26:29 Turban -0m35s 08:26:48 Vent Ovfl -0m16s 08:27:01 Boop -0m03s 08:27:04 B1 --- d=08m59s 08:29:46 Vent 2m42s 08:36:03 P1 8m59s d=21s 08:36:24 B2 9m20s d=36s 08:37:00 P2 9m56s 08:37:46 V&T Quit 10m42s ΣB=09m35s ΣD=09m56s * * * * * 07:07:45 d=04m17s 07:26:15 Int: 18m30s d=03m38s 07:46:49 Int: 20m34s d=04m11s 08:06:34 Int: 19m45s d=03m44s 08:38:31ns West Triplet Turban: 19m55s
It was still foggy for the next hour-and-a-half wait in the Cage, when suddenly the fog cleared and it was time to strip off several layers of clothing. During the wait there were several Mastiff surges, but nothing more.
Finally, there was a Mastiff surge when suddenly Bijou shut down. That turned into a Hot Period. Feather wasn't tall, but it lasted 1-1/2 minutes, and water was seen in Cave.
That meant there was probably several hours before another event, and time to head in and eat and get other things done.
Instead of going to the cage, I headed for Grand. From Castle, it was obvious that Rift was in eruption. That eruption continued for about 45 minutes. Right after that, we got another eruption of Oblong. It was huge, with bursts higher than the dead tree visible from Grand.
We finally got the One Burst Grand eruption after a 2-1/2 hour wait.
2026-Sep-21 : 17:02:59 G1Q 17:02:45 Vent Ovfl -0m13s 17:02:56 Boop -0m03s 17:02:59 B1 --- d=11m22s 17:03:02 Turban 0m02s 17:05:42 Vent 2m43s 17:14:21 P1 11m22s 17:15:05 V&T Quit 12m05s ΣD=11m22s * * * * * 14:40:17 14:58:49 Int: 18m32s d=03m06s 15:16:26 Int: 17m37s d=03m54s 15:35:12 Int: 18m46s d=04m01s 15:54:42 Int: 19m30s d=03m49s 16:12:22 Int: 17m40s d=03m47s 16:29:35 Int: 17m13s d=03m16s 16:45:36 Int: 16m00s d=03m10s Grand: 17m23s
From there, it was back to the Bijou Cage at around 17:00. Fortunately, had come out to Grand prepared to wait there until well into the dark. The moon illuminated the platform nicely, once it did get dark. Ended up waiting for five hours seeing nothing but periodic Mastiff surges, that resulted in no other activity.
Finally, Bijou paused before a surge was seen. This pause lasted almost five minutes. The Southwest vents finally started to erupt and pour out water, the first real activity seen since the Hot Period eleven hours earlier. And with that, it was time to head in.