We got up early and booked it to Old Faithful – fearful that we would miss the famous buffet breakfast.  We eventually became separated and I arrived alone and ate the ho-hum breakfast by myself.  It definitely didn’t live up to all the hype.  I later ate at the cafeteria on the other side of Old Faithful which was much better.  Once again I was on my own – not sure where Gaucho went.  For some reason seeing all theses throngs of people makes it all the more lonely to be sitting by myself.

Later on I ran into Mav and his girlfriend and we went to the back country office together to get my itinerary.  His girlfriend is really sweet and they seem very happy together.  They are going to take some time off to tour Yellowstone, so I’m not sure when I will see Mav again.  

My first campsite was only a few miles away so I decided to hang around Old Faithful for a while.  I asked a cleaning lady for a towel at the Old Faithful Inn and took a free shower in the shared bathrooms on the second floor.  I spent a lot of time on the second floor just going through my pack and organizing supplies.  Smiles and her brother were doing the same thing on the table next to me.

I eventually loaded up and hiked the short section from Old Faithful to my campsite at OA1 (the site closest to Lone Star Geyser and next to the Firehole river).  This was my assigned campsite and I’ve camped here before with Pat.  Just before dark, some backpackers decided to camp in my site.  I didn’t really mind sharing my site (it is a huge site), but they made a lot of noise setting up their tent, played music for a while, and kept shining a flashlight at my tent. They actually had a sledgehammer to pound in their tent stakes!  I eventually yelled something to let them know there was a person in the tent and they apologized and quieted down. It’s curious how universally quiet and efficient thru-hikers are when it comes to making camp, and how clueless weekend campers can be.