The Lone Star trail head parking was closed due to masonry work and a need for repaving, so we had to park at the Keppler Falls parking.
Lone Star started erupting as we were tying up our bikes. So spent fifteen minutes there watching a nice dawn eruption.
The weather for the day was forecast to be unsettled, and it was. Sunny while we watched Lone Star, by the time we got to Grants Pass to fill up the water bottles, it was breezy and partly overcast. Fortunately, the mosquitoes were few, and our New Zealand sandfly repellent works well on them, too.
The bridge being constructed last summer was finished, and as typical of the NPS, it was a three-quarters assed job. The bridge ended about ten yards short, so one transitioned from a nice, steel bridge to slabs of left over planks crossing mud. Whoever planned the project seems to have assumed that a wet area next to bridge would not get worse in one year. Really detracted from the nice work done. (Similar problem at the bridge near site OA-2-- two of the side logs have fallen over the edge next to the new bridge there.)
Speaking of bridges, fording Shoshone Creek where there used to be bridges went well. As annoying as it is to have to take off and put shoes and sock back on, the icy cold water felt good on the feet for the next few hundred yards of hiking.
Arrived in the Shoshone basin to find someone reloading his pack while next to Soap Kettle. I reminded him that he was off trail out there. When he passed by us over in the trees by Minute Man a few minutes later, we wanted to argue that we were off trail too. I pointed out that at least we weren't messing around on the platform of an eruptive feature, which is the whole point of the closure.
As for Minute Man, it was quiet, and the pool well below overflow. As we waited for the rest of our party to arrive, the pool slowly filled and started overflowing. Over on the other side of the creek we were seeing Velvet erupt every ten or eleven minutes. Saw Shield and Gourd start up and then Minute Man started as I was wading across the river.
Was a strange, short period of activity for Minute Man, with about three or four eruptions in the series, then the level of the pool dropped and activity stopped for about another hour.
Over on the west side, spent a bit of time taking video of activity in Velvet, Lion, Small and aborted Knobby eruptions. Bead seemed uncooperative, but of course it erupted right after I returned back over to Minute Man, which was erupting in a full series by then.
Went through the Orion Group, where Union seems unchanged from previous visits. The water level is still well down, but it seemed like it hasn't gotten worse over the years.
To the north, I saw several splashes from Triple Bulger. It looked like #12, just downslope from Shield and Gourd (which were erupting again) had not had one of its floods in several hours, as the formations were dry where there wasn't direct overflow from the incoming waters. Five Crater seemed quiet, too.
The mosquitoes were out a bit more on the trail as we left, but I've experienced much worse. As we dropped down from the pass we heard some thunder in the distance, and felt a few drops, but that was the extent of the weather for the day. At Old Faithful, it appeared they had gotten a shower hard enough to leave puddles.
Walking back I realized that we would probably arrive just after twelve hours since we saw Lone Star. I expected we'd miss it by a bit. So was surprised that it was completely quiet, except for steaming and an occasional jet from a couple of the vents. The book listed eruptions, the last about ten minutes before we arrived, but they sounded like minors. So we waited there and after about half an hour, were rewarded by the second major eruption of the day. It appears that it must've had two minor eruptions preceding the that one, which considerably lengthened out the interval.
It was a pretty dull trip. I ended up not as worn out as I had expected.
