Day 16

The Officers of the Endeavor continue to suffer from declining health.

We all awoke late today as Amy and I were feeling worse and thought rest might help.  We took care of some chores and met up with the Corps of Discovery to conduct a days hike.  We decided upon a hike around the Canyon area of Yellowstone.  It is a huge Canyon area with a large Waterfall that is described as the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  We hiked along the rim at first.  Amy and I were feeling pretty rough.  The hacking cough has drained us of energy the past few days.  Our chests hurt and we experience coughing fits frequently.  Our stamina for the hike wasn't there.  The Endeavors crew broke off and took a different route back.  It was longer than expected and ridden with mosquitos but did pass through some interesting geothermal features.  The end of the trail was in a different spot than the vehicle so I left the others and hikes another mile to the car.  At this point the coughing got worse and I began to cough up some bloody sputum.  Whatever this affliction is, it seems to be nasty.  

Spent for the day, we decided to drive around looking for wildlife.  Of particular interest was the Lamar Valley in the Northeast part of the park.  Wolves can often be sighted here.  Scattered thunderstorms were present all day and I suspect this hampered our wildlife viewing efforts.  We saw no wolves or bears in this area.  Exhausted and I'll we headed back to the campsite.  Hopefully we turn the corner tomorrow.