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July Journal


We're Leaving

 

Rick & Jen will be embarking on a 3-4 month exploration of the National Parks of North America. Touring via car and doing plenty of hiking and camping along the way, we plan to post regular updates and pictures from our adventure on this web site. Want to follow us on our trip? See where we were and where we will be soon!


First Day - July 1, 2003

 

Our trip finally began! We each called our respective parents to say, “we’re on the road!” The ride started around 6:30 p.m., and so we pushed on as far as we could go. So Illinois and Iowa are as eventful as spreading butter on bread. The nicest thing about the drive was seeing the lightening bugs as you whizzed by on the highway. It looked like a little streaky-light show. The light stays particularly long on the windshield. About halfway on our first day of the journey, we realized we had taken the wrong highway. Talk about a wrong start. We weren’t too distraught over it. It just meant a couple hours out of our way. (We were supposed to take 90 instead of 80). That night we stayed at a campground in Jewel, Iowa. It took us a while to find it, double-backing a couple times. We rolled into our site about midnight, set up and headed to bed.


Day 2- July 2, 2003

 

Boy, South Dakota is unbelievably boring to drive through. There is absolutely nothing for miles and miles. If you got stuck on the highway for some reason, you sure have a long walk ahead of you. About the most entertaining thing we saw in this desolate land was near an exit of a small town. It was an enormous statue of a human skeleton holding a leash and walking a dinosaur. Very interesting. Our first stop was the Badlands. The second we stepped out of the car, a wave of heat blasted at us saying “Welcome to South Dakota!” The time spent in the Badlands was nothing more than driving through it and taking a few pictures. We drove on to the Black Hills, SD, stopped in a large town before to pick up groceries and such, and then spent the next couple hours looking for a place to camp. One of the things we purchased was a set of those deer whistles and decided we should put them on when we saw a deer on the side of the roadway. Believe it or not, not even two minutes after putting them on, a deer dashed out right in front of our vehicle. There went $5.00 out the window for us gimmick “suckers”. We entered the Custer State Park in search of a campground and kept finding No Vacancy signs everywhere. At one point we were driving along on a winding, wooded road in the pitch black night, when all of a sudden, a HUGE bison appeared to the left of the roadway. Now, I had never seen a bison before, so I was flabbergasted at the sight. Rick, on the other hand, thought it was a bear and said, “Is that a bear!” Then we got closer and he said, “Oh, it’s just a bison.” My response to that was, “It’s just a bison!!! Oh my god, that thing is huge!” It took me a little while to get over the shock of that and realize that a bison is nothing more than an oversized cow.


Day 3 - July 3, 2003

 

The morning was beautiful, and we set off for our first adventure – spelunking in the Jewel caves! What is that? It’s basically caving, climbing and crawling in extremely tight quarters. Before we entered the cave, we were informed to dress in old, junky clothes because they would most likely be unusable after our caving experience. We stopped back into town for some gloves to use, and then went back to the cave. Before embarking on our journey, we were required to crawl through a simulated space of merely 8 ½” by 24”. Here I thought, oh, they’re just making it super small so that we can be assured we’ll fit into spaces that will be a little bigger than that. Wrong. We had to squeeze through the tiniest of spaces! Plus we had to shimmy across some suspended rocks by pushing our legs on one end, and our butts against the other. Mind you, the drop was at least 10 ft. What an amazing experience though! The Jewel cave is the fourth largest cave in the world. The passages in the cave total over 180 miles. We got a chance to see “balloons”, which look like little bubble gum bubbles stuck to the rocks. Supposedly those are located in only three caves in the world! It was a fantastic experience, and Rick got to place a checkmark on an event he’s wanted to do for a long time


Day 4 - July 4, 2003

 

The morning adventure was visiting the second cave, The Wind Cave. This one was quite different-looking than the Jewel Cave. We decided to take the general tour in a large group, but it was still amazing. No bats in this cave, thank god. We didn’t see any in Jewel Cave either. That wouldn’t have set well with me, I think.

The stories they tell of the people who discover the caves are fascinating. A boy who was 16 years old was the first to enter the Wind Cave. He was obsessed with exploring it, and it was a good thing too because he started mapping a documenting what is now a National Park property. The part of the cave we entered had paved walkways and electric lights, so it obviously wasn’t exactly in its natural state. However, during part of the trip the guide told us that when this boy explored the cave in the late 1800s, all he had to use was a candle. So she lit a candle at that moment and shut off all the lights. Pitch black darkness fell before us, so much that you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. She had everyone stay stop moving to notice the deafening quite of the cave. Kind of eerie. I don’t know if I would have had the guts to explore that place with only a candle in one hand and a ball of string to mark your path in the other.

As we drove along in Wyoming, we came upon an exit for Devil’s Tower which Rick insisted that I should see. It was really awesome! This is a humongous tower of granite that sticks up in the middle of a desolate plain. The top is nearly an acre and a half around, and it extends up something like 900 feet. The sides look as if someone took a hair pick and started scraping all the way around it, from top to bottom. The legend talks about a bear digging its claws into the rock to make it form that way.


Day 5 - July 5, 2003

 

This day was a travel day, with the destination being Cody, Wyoming home of Rick's most favorite place ever...Sierra Trading Post...where you can find all the camping gear you ever wanted for a low, low price.

We decided that it was best to stick around in Cody because entering the Yellowstone area in the evening and finding a camp spot would be fruitless. Instead, we decided to be hillbillies for a night and camp out in an RV park where all the RVs tower over our car and sit ten feet away from each other. Rick thought we should play the part to the hilt, so after he washed our caving clothes he hung them out to dry on our awning. If that wasn’t enough, he decided it would be best to walk around the campground without a shirt and wearing flip-flops. Oh how entertaining.


Day 6 -- July 6, 2003

 

Day of relaxation in Grand Teton National Park...Yoga, guitar, swimming. We're definitely playing the part of the wayward hippies. All we need is the peace sign in the window.


Day 7 – JULY 7, 2003

 

In our early morning travels to the trailhead, we met a woman who looked to be in her forties who was biking across the U.S. What an amazing endeavor to tackle!

We packed up our gear and headed out into the wild. The hike was constantly uphill. When we finally reached our turn-around point, we had ascended around 2000 ft. in elevation. The scenery was gorgeous, showing off billions of evergreens, grassy clearings and dramatic cliffs. The trail at all times followed the course of a river which sliced between two mountains. All in all, the hike was a beautiful one.

So far, our trip has afforded us many opportunities to see wildlife. We’ve seen bison, deer, bears, moose, and a fox. The list is growing. These National Parks give you tons of opportunities to see wildlife, that’s for sure.

Our hike back out was an exhausting one. We had definitely overdone our first trip. Still, our first hike on our adventures in the west will always remain a memorable one.

The campground afforded us flush toilets only, so we hobbled, sore and exhausted, over to the freezing cold river that flowed behind our campsite to clean up. I can’t help but think that Scott would just love the fishing here. Every time I see a person with a fishing pole, I think of him.

Needless to say, sleep came fast. Thank God for Mom and giving me some “Sore No More”, which has already come in handy a few times. This body aint what she used to be.


Day 8 - July 8, 2003

 

Obviously no backcountry hiking this day, due to our sore bodies. Onward to Yellowstone where we spent most of the day looking at the colorful thermal pools and amazing geysers. Compared to New Zealand, this place is massive. We waited and watched Old Faithful with the hundreds of others. The place was crowded, but not unbearably so.

It’s interesting to see that about a third of Yellowstone has bare treetops due to forest fires from 1988 and 2000. I think I expected much higher mountains there. It was still nothing short of amazing with the ground bubbling, spitting, spewing and oozing everywhere.


DAY 9 – July 9, 2003

 

Another beautiful day! We drove straight to Norris Campground, which is roughly the middle of Yellowstone. By this time we’ve become well aware that you have to get your campsite early or you’re SOL.

Next we drove on to see the beautiful waterfalls! There were crowds of people, but I can understand why. There was Upper Falls and Lower Falls, both of which flow through what is called The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. We drove to a few spots, and then decided to walk the trail around the rim of the canyon, which consisted of a great number of stairs. Some places were so steep, I even got a little nervous going down them. That surely is no place for those with a fear of heights. It was well worth it, though. The views were incredible.

We met a couple, Blake and Sharon, during the day who were staying at the same campground. We invited them for dinner at “our place,” and we spent the evening chatting. I told them I was flipping through a book called “How to survive in the Wilderness,” and came across a paragraph that talked about making Spruce tea out of pine needles. Blake jumped right on board and wanted to try it, so we did. It wasn’t that bad either! Oh, I’m sure my family and friends at home will become even more worried I’m going to live on tree bark now. When you think about it, though, tea is just from plant leaves anyway.


DAY 10 – July 10, 2003

 

HOT HOT HOT DAY!!! Basically, all we did was drive around and look at landscape in the northern part of Yellowstone and practically suffered from heat stroke. Holy Hotness! We tried touring Mammoth hot springs that are so widely known that a picture of it is on the top of the map they give you when you enter the park. It turns out that they’re all practically dried up. We didn’t see anyone to ask why that was.

We drove lots this day and saw a couple waterfalls and lots of bison, deer, elk and a bear. Some of the wildlife here are so used to people, it’s like being in a zoo. Still, it never ceases to amaze me how stupid people can be. They expect that the wild animals are supposed to act like they’re in a zoo. People will walk up so close, never paying any attention to the DOZENS of warnings you get from rangers, brochures and the like. Sometimes you wonder if the people who have been attacked by wild animals were just plain stupid, or if the animal actually made an unprovoked attack.

All in all, it was a day of giving Millie a workout in the mountains and seeing the sights of Yellowstone.


DAY 11 – JULY 11, 2003

 

July 11th was a day of catch-up. With Yellowstone visited and behind us, the next logical stop was to check email, pay bills, make phone calls and update the website. Bozeman, Montana was the place we picked, mostly because it had Montana State University and their library with free email access. We spent a couple hours on the internet and grabbed a sandwich from Alice’s old employer, The Pickle Barrel – yum!

Finding a campground proved to be disastrous. I sent Rick down an alternate road which took us through the town of Anaconda (passing the town of Opportunity). The song by Garth Brooks “Nobody gets off in this town” really rang in my head. It was the kind of town that had a bathtub sitting in the grass on the side of the road.

After much aggravation on finding a place with a shower, we luckily contacted a high school friend of my mom’s (whom I spoke to only when I was five) and drove straight to her spectacular home nestled in the mountains.


DAY 12 – JULY 12, 2003

 

It seemed strange to call up someone you only remember by pictures to ask if you could stay at their place, but Jane’s house was a wonderful oasis for us for the next couple of days.

Rick and I visited the town of Missoula for a while, walking around town in the farmer’s market, art market and moseying in and out of cute little shops. We swam in the Big Blackfoot River – the same one from the movie “A River Runs Through It.”

Jane’s house is such an amazing place. It feels as though there is little to no civilization around her because she owns nearly 15 acres of land. Sitting on the porch afforded a beautiful view of mountains and the rising of the moon. Inside, memorabilia of trips overseas cover the walls in multiple collages, which brought forth interesting tales of encounters abroad.

The whole time we were there, we never lacked for a topic of conversation, which is such a relief when you’re staying with someone you don’t know. A hike behind her house took us to spectacular views of the surrounding area. I can’t even imagine having such a beautiful view from my porch. How different from Chicago!


DAY 13 – JULY 13, 2003

 

This day we hiked up to Squaw Peak – although now it’s changed to Sleeping Woman to make it more politically correct – which is 7000 ft. in elevation. From the trailhead to the peak it was 2.8 miles with 2,200 ft. in elevation. Our choice of routes ended up being just the right amount of everything, from the distance to the amount of exertion to the scenic views.

So far, since we’ve left Chicago, the weather has been absolutely beautiful!


DAY 14 – JULY 14, 2003

 

On the road again! It took the whole morning to get Millie in shape to shove off again, this time heading into the Rocky Mountains and Glacier National Park. (I must pick up a John Denver CD really soon!)

Not much to tell about this day. It was pretty exciting to see the Rocky Mountain range. After driving around an enormous lake, we set up camp in the town of Hungry Horse and relaxed. Ah, the unemployed life!


DAY 15 – JULY 15, 2003

 

Onward to Glacier National Park! In short, Rick and I were at a loss for enough adjectives to describe the glorious terrain in Glacier. Our first order of business was to find a camp site and get a backcountry pass for the following day. Once those two were accomplished, our hiking feet took us to a well-traveled trek on the Avalanche Creek Trail. From the moment we stepped on the path, we followed along a river full of raging gorges and waterfalls. After a half hour of walking, it became apparent that the deer in this park are certainly unafraid of humans. They just stand there, chewing on a tree branch and staring at you as you stare at them. Makes you wonder what they’re thinking. Probably something like, “What’s that idiot doing?”

The end of the trail brought us to a huge lake of glacier water surrounded by rocky-peaked, majestic mountains. It was one of those places where you can’t seem to take enough pictures, hoping that one of them will actually capture the intense beauty you’re staring at. We sat on a large rock set in the water, sat in the sun and stared for at least an hour and the awe-striking beauty we were in the midst of.

Seeing the sites afforded to us on this day, it’s hard to imagine anything could be more beautiful, and we’ve only been gone for 15 days!


DAY 16 – JULY 16, 2003

 

The late night of the 15th and early a.m. of the 16th was a somewhat entertaining one. We finally got nestled in the pop-top part of Millie and were on our third dream when all at once an enormous lightening storm was upon us. Now, Rick and I, unsure of our status in the pop-top during a lightening storm, decided that we would move to the downstairs bedroom, i.e., the back of the van. Well, of course we had all our gear and whatnot piled in the back that needed to be moved to the front of Millie, plus we had to move our sleeping bags, pillows, etc., downstairs, close the pop-top bed, all the while trying to maneuver ourselves in the two inch space provided for our own bodies. Needless to say, it was quite an entertaining circus act to move to the downstairs bedroom.

The beginning of our overnight hike of 5 miles, 1800 ft. in elevation was a beautiful one. Once again, we found ourselves under a clear-blue sky following alongside a river that afforded us many views of waterfalls. Rick did fine, but as for myself, the hike was kicking my butt. I couldn’t understand why I was struggling so much, but it became clear after reaching our destination of Otokomi Lake that I was suffering from a bit of altitude sickness. Got to love my flat-land lungs!

Okokomi Lake was a tiny lake made up of snow runoff from the mountains surrounding it. Rick thought it was a great idea to strip down to nothing and skinny-dip in the – this is no exaggeration – freezing cold water. I just dipped my feet in it and my feet were going numb. Man, it was sure a hysterical sight to watch him bring up the courage to finally jump in (after one chickened out attempt) and jump right back out. Oh, if the camera were only close range!!

As for the rest of the evening, from nearly 5:00 on, you’d think it was a beautiful, relaxing one resting at the camp site by the lake. Wrong. There were more mosquitos around us than I have ever seen in my entire life. It was impossible to sit for two minutes without having no less than 50 of the buggers swarming around your body. Obviously the tent was our only saving grace. That was somewhat entertaining in itself, because it was like this: “All right, I’m sending in the sleeping bag now… ready? Here it comes! – zip…pass…zip.” And then Rick took about ten steps back to the starting block and said, "All right, get ready. I'm coming in". I tell you, thank god for tents.


DAY 17 – JULY 17, 2003

 

Needless to say, we high-tailed it out of the camp site to get the hell away from all the damn mosquitoes. The hike out was a quick one because it was all downhill. We gabbed about all sorts of things and kept making much noise so as to make our presence known from any unwanted visitors on the trail.

It wasn’t a hugely eventful day, but finishing a hike around beautiful Glacier National Park, going for yummy ice cream, cooling off in a refreshing lake and having a delicious turkey stew dinner whipped up by your husband is not a bad life indeed.


DAY 18 – JULY 18, 2003

 

This day was scheduled for giving Millie a check-up. We stopped in a VW dealership in a town outside of Glacier called Whitefish. The town was very cute and had some neat shops to wander through. We tried twice to update the website, once at the library and once at a UPS store. Both times turned out to be unproductive, so we vowed to try it the next day when we hit Calgary, Canada and headed to the Laundromat to clean up those smelly hiking clothes.

Rick was pretty entertaining at the VW dealership. They asked him to fill out a work order sheet which instructs you to list your concerns. He proceeded to fill out oil change, check brakes, global warming, you know, stuff that he’s concerned about. The maintenance guys got a kick out of the global warming thing. They even filled out the type-written form with the global warming info, and the guy who checked Millie over even responded to the concern quoting a passage from the Revelations. It was quite humorous.

With Millie all spiffed up, we headed back to our favorite, full-amenities campground, we just cooked dinner and decided to sit at this tiny pond watching all of the people trying to catch fish but to no avail. To add to the aggravation, the owner of the grounds came out with a can of fish food and threw it out onto the pond, and all at once the fish started jumping and swooshing at the top. It was pretty funny to watch the people cast in their lures unable to catch all those visible fish.

Obviously it was a down-time day, but it was good to get Millie a check-up before we headed into Canada, unfamiliar with the type of services they have.


DAY 19 – JULY 19, 2003

 

On to Canada, another travel day. The boarder crossing was in the middle of nowhere and about as scenic as South Dakota. No worries, we passed through with flying colors. Was anyone nervous for us?

Our first stop was in Calgary to update our website. It’s amazing how much Calgary seems like another city of U.S. Everything from Home Depot, Kinkos, Pier 1, and even Hooters was there (of course I had to throw that one in for the guys). I didn’t know what exactly to expect, but it was interesting to see. The only difference I felt was the currency change and the high gas prices. Yipes! We didn’t get a chance to stop in the city of Calgary because it was late, so we vowed to return in the day ahead to visit. The campground we chose for the evening was just outside of Banff territory, just on the fringe of a range of jagged mountains as far as the horizon stretches. It’s going to be amazing, I’m sure of it.


DAY 20 – JULY 20, 2003

 

Today we drove into Banff, Canada. The campground that has electric hook-up is just like parallel parking on rows and rows of streets. It’s a big parking lot, not necessarily the scenic camping we had in mind. Still, it’s only for one night, and supposedly the tent sites are much nicer.

Banff is just full of dramatic rock peaks sticking up everywhere. The drive always doesn’t seem very long when around every corner there’s something more spectacular than the last thing you saw.

We walked around the town of Banff which is actually a town of 7500 permanent residents. We didn’t realize that many people lived in this national park. The parks in the U.S. aren’t nearly that populated with residents. The strip of stores in the town are basically one souvenir shop after another. Once you’ve gone into five, you’ve pretty much seen them all. Of course, interspersed with the shops are restaurants, bars, coffee shops and that sort of thing.

We took a ride up to Lake Louise, which is just breathtaking. There’s a chalet – which I believe translates into expensive – right off the lake staring at the amazing views of peaks and glaciers. There were hundreds of people walking the grounds, as we expected.

On our way back from Lake Louise, Rick stopped to take a photo and we were asked by a couple if we could give them a ride back to their car. Rick graciously agreed, seeing that it was not going in our direction. We’ve had to hitchhike ourselves in Zion, Utah once – that’s what we were supposed to do in order to descend a canyon – so we know how it feels to just need a quick lift. It turned out that the girl, Jade, worked for the park and gave us many great hikes to try out, which we intend to do.


DAY 21 – JULY 21, 2003

 

Another hot day in the national parks. It has been consistently in the high nineties every day in Canada, and Glacier and Yellowstone were pretty much the same. It’s been pretty dry too. Only one night of rain to date.

Today we took a day hike up a very strenuous mountain, Sulfur Mountain, which is in the town of Banff and a very well-tread trail. The trailhead sign indicated a minimum of two hours to hike the 2.2 miles, 2200 ft. of elevation, but Rick and I miraculously did it in an hour and 15 minutes. Obviously we’re getting stronger. Everything in Canada is measured in kilometers or meters, so the conversion has been entertaining. I’ve really never been good with numbers.

We met a couple at the peak who were from Holland. We chatted about travels, which seems to be the obvious topic to talk about. They told us they never could understand why Americans use the phrase “going Dutch,” because they don’t really do that in Holland. It was really something I never thought of.

Deciding on the easy way down, we rode the scenic gondola instead of walking. It was free if you walked up, and we figured we’d earned it.

As far as the rest of the day goes, I was wiped out. That hour and 15 minutes of “stronger” hiking took every last ounce of energy in me for the rest of the day. The most we did for the remainder of the day was go out to eat, which is my favorite kind of pastime. Seeing it was our first dining out since leaving Chicago, we stuffed ourselves to the limit and settled in for coffee and a book.


Day 22 – JULY 22, 2003

 

We headed into the Lake Louise area, still in Banff, to camp and hike. The campground had an electric fence surrounding the whole tenting area to keep bears and other wildlife from entering the camp area. I read an article which stated that the past couple of years have been especially bad with bear activity in the campground which caused them to look into either closing the campground, moving it, or putting up an electric fence. So far it has worked wonderfully. Would they tell us if it wasn’t?

We decided to hike along the well-hiked Trail of the Six Glaciers above Lake Louise. It afforded us a bird’s eye view of the lovely lake with the chalet and an amazing yellow crane next to the lake. (Oh, the lovely construction.) Near the top of the trail was a quaint little log tea house that served sandwiches and soup. The people who work up there stay there every week for the whole summer. It takes them an hour to hike up – it took us two. They only come back down on the weekends. It would be neat to work there for about a week, but much longer than that and I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to take it. I’d probably start chanting “All work and no play makes Jen a dull girl.”

The hike to the very top to get to the glacier area was so amazing. We hiked along a path no wider than two feet with huge drop-offs on either side. That only stretched about 30 yards. Still, I couldn’t help but think of all my family and friends who get squeamish about heights.

On the hike down, we met two girls, Carolyn and Leann from Australia. We chatted for a while and then invited them over to “our place” for dinner. They graciously accepted (silly girls) and came over for some spaghetti and beer. They both were in Canada on extended trips, both intending to stay up to 12 months abroad. After a few months away from home, Leann decided it’s been enough time away from home and is going back soon (something about a boy, I think) and Carolyn is just moving where her feet will take her. They buy this round-the-world plane ticket, which sound like it’s very common for Aussies to do. It’s not a bad deal either. As long as you don’t backtrack, you can fly anywhere you want on the one ticket costing less than $2500!!! Hmmmm, we’ll have to think about that one!

It’s always fun to chat with people who live in other countries because you get to compare ways of life. At one point I was asking them if they like certain ingredients I was going to put in the sauce, and I asked, “Do you like green pepper?” They sort of looked at me funny and then realized what I was saying and said, “We call them capsicums. When we use the word pepper, it usually means it’s hot.”’ Mosquitoes are Mossies. Anyway, it was a splendid evening of chatting and eating.


DAY 23 – JULY 23, 2003

 

This was an overnight backpack trip toward the Skokie area. It’s definitely not like the Skokie at home! We had to hike up a strenuous dirt road, which many try to hitch a ride from people who have special passes to drive it. We decided on walking, which was basically the most arduous part of the hike. Once we hit the trailhead it was easy hiking all the way to the camp site.

In backcountry campgrounds, there are usually a small number of sites (like about 5 to 8). To help keep animals away from the area, you have to eat at least 100 feet away from the tenting area and hang your food on these poles they provide that’s 200 feet from the tenting area. Their hanging system is much more advanced than in the U.S., but seeing they have the biggest population of grizzlies in the Northern continent, that’s good.

A girl named Arien was camping near us, and stopped by to let us know she was along and going to hike to a peak. Obviously she was being a somewhat responsible hiker by letting someone know where she was if she didn’t return, unlike that guy who cut his arm off to escape from a boulder.

After setting up the tent, we went exploring and saw some of the most unbelievably stunning views. This spot definitely hit the top of my charts on beautiful places I’ve seen. It seems, though, that words could never be enough to describe the beauty of a place. Funny, though, that those spots for me always seem to have a circle of mountains with a lake or river running through it.

The glacier rivers a so amazingly cold, you can stand to put your feet in only for a few seconds! It’s like melting a bucket of ice and trying to swim in it! All told, we hiked about 8 miles this day with elevation gain somewhere between 1200 to 1800 ft (there’s that darn conversion again).


Day 24 – JULY 24, 2003

 

The hike out was an easy one, all downhill. An Aussie, Simon, caught up with us most likely because he needed a ride into town. He was pretty gabby though, and we talked, once again, of travels around the world.

The next destination was to Yoho National Park, the immediate neighbor to Banff. We took a nice, cold shower at camp (no hot water and no potable water!!) and drove to find a laundry facility to clean those ripe clothes of ours. The parks in Canada all connect, so it becomes difficult to find any large-size town. We ended up driving about 30 miles to the town of Golden to do some “housekeeping.”

On the way back to camp, we picked up a backcountry pass from the Information Center, and the rest of the day was preparing to go for a two-night stay in the mountains!


DAY 25 – JULY 25, 2003

 

Today was the start of an amazing backcountry camping trip for us. We headed up toward Takakaw Falls. The road up to it was amazing. It literally was a zigzag of a road where at one point you had to literally turn the car 360 degrees in one turn. I couldn’t believe there were HUGE busses taking those corners because not only is it a zigzag, but it’s driving along a steep side of a mountain.

Takakaw Falls is just a short walk from the parking lot, so we went up to take some pictures, which turned out to be a few out of A TON of pictures Rick took of the falls. We put on our backpacks full of gear and headed up the mountain. The terrain was quite steep for the first three miles or so, so our pace had to be an easy one. Once we cleared the tree line, the trail went even higher into a rocky section that stretched another couple of miles. What an impressive area. You could see Takakaw Falls now from eye level, then below you. Rick thought it looked so different from each angle we saw it that he literally took 15 pictures of the same falls.

As far as the rest of the scenery, everywhere you looked you could see a glacier. At one point we could count ten of them. The peaks of the mountains all around us stood proud, while the valley below was lush with evergreens and rivers. We had to maneuver ourselves across small glacier rivers, stood in some snow and climbed up and down for 4 hours altogether. It was a fantastic place to be, not to mention a perfect temperature outside.

We were amazed at the amount of older folks hiking the trail. One couple we stopped to chat with had full packs on, had been out camping and hiking for a couple days and they must have been in their upper sixties. Rick looked at me and said, “That will be us when we’re in our sixties too.” It was really neat to see so many people of ALL ages out climbing these challenging mountains. By the end of the day, we had hiked 6.6 miles and about 2100 ft. in elevation.

We camped out in Little Yoho, which was a nice place to camp. About a mile from camp we passed a big group of guys, and come to find out that they were camping at the same places we were for the next two days.

Rick and I ate our pasta salad for dinner, all the while smelling the delicious aroma coming from the picnic table of the Canadian bunch. I guess when you have nine guys together, you can pack in a lot of fixings for food.

The campgrounds in the backcountry of Canada are really nice. They have a pristine tenting area, miniature picnic tables where you eat your meals, poles with hooks to hang your food overnight or when not in use, and even an outhouse that is relatively clean.

We walked around after dinner and stopped to chat with a guy soaking his feet. He turned out to be a mountain guide who has done a bunch of mountaineering. It was fun to get his opinion about hiking Denali in Alaska and other areas of the world.

The day was a terrific one, and we were happy that we took Jade’s advice (the woman whom we gave a ride) on some great hikes to do. She was absolutely right on the money.


DAY 26 – JULY 26, 2003

 

Another glorious day in Yoho National Park! We got a later start after dillydallying around camp. For the first half hour or so it was all downhill, but then we hit the junction of the Whaleback trail. HOLY BANNANAS, talk about steep! It was probably a mile straight up. I was sucking air so bad. Having a full pack on didn’t help either, although I did unload a lot of pasta the night before.

When we reached the peak, we caught up to the nine men we kept seeing. They turned out to be just the neatest bunch of men. Their group was called “Shut Up And Hike” – Henry, Jeff (the master chef), Larry, Steve, Rick, Darrell, Dave, Mike, and Bevan. They all knew each other from church, and every year they go on a hiking trip together. On the peak, they offered us an Eat More. Rick and I looked at them puzzled and said, “A What?” Turns out it’s chocolate-flavored caramel with peanuts in it. YUM. We need some of those in the U.S.

The guys went on, but we caught up to them at the next beautiful site, which was at the top of Twin Falls. We climbed around for a bit and then just sat and watched the fiercely cascading waters plummeting over the cliff beyond our sight. It was so amazing.

As Rick and I put on our packs, a woman named Eileen (68 yrs. old) appeared, claiming she had lost her group and been wandering around looking for the chalet for the past 3 hours. As we accompanied her in the direction we all needed to go, she asked us questions and told us tales. Apparently three hours prior, she ran into a young couple and the man was visibly hung-over, dehydrated and holding wet shoes in his hands while walking barefoot. She graciously gave him all of her water, not knowing she was going to be lost for the next four hours. Nearly halfway down toward the chalet, here comes about ten ladies frantically searching for Eileen and giving us sighs of relief and thanks for helping here. It was actually pretty amusing to us, but for a 68-year-old woman with no map and directionally challenged, it was a bit scary. (The trails were pretty well-marked, so you could really find your way without a map.)

Once we unpacked, we hiked back up a bit to get a look at the falls from below, which was once again breathtaking. When we got back to camp, Rick once again jumped into the freezing cold river all the while yelling at the top of his lungs over the coldness. He was scaring the neighbors.

We scoffed down our Ramen noodles at the picnic tables on the “beach” of the river, all the while drooling over the feast Jeff was cooking up. To our luck they graciously offered us to have dessert with them, which was a freshly made brownie with pudding on top. Yum yum.

As we were enjoying the beautiful weather and scenery, I looked up to see a huge moose with a baby moose walk right up to the river and cross it, not minding us humans one bit. It was a spectacular sight to see.

Another wonderful day in the backcountry, and even no mosquitos!!!


DAY 27 – JULY 27, 2003

 

The hike out was a quick one because once again, we were on a quest to find a good, close campground with SHOWERS. Lake Louise Campsite with the electric fence became our choice once again, due to the convenience of location as well as showers. After airing out our clothes and cleaning ourselves, we drove back to Banff to update the website AND GO OUT TO DINNER!!!! Yea!!! This time we chose Greek food, which was a smorgasbord of deliciousness. It was another catch-up day, but a well-needed one.


DAY 28 – JULY 28, 2003

 

In the Canadian Rockies there are four National Parks Connected to each other, and two more just outside a bit. We started in Banff, which is quite large, then drove west to the small park of Yoho, then we went back through the north end of Banff to go through Jasper National Park, which is the biggest of them all. So this day we’re on to Jasper! The town of Jasper is situated in the north central end of Jasper National Park. The drive to the town of Jasper is about 180 miles from Lake Louise in Banff, so we got up at a reasonable time to drive up and find camp. There is one major road that travels through Jasper Ntl. Park, Skyline Drive 93, and we drove it all the way to Wapiti Campground.

I’m not quite sure what happened, if we angered the camp entrance ranger or what, but she set us square in the middle of a whole colony of the Clampets from Beverly. Rick was pretty sure we drove into a junkyard with vehicles that you were amazed could actually drive anywhere, clothes and appliances strewn about at each campsite and even food utensils and coolers were lying about (which the park admonishes you NOT to do because of bears). We sat and ate our lunch with the biggest crows you ever saw cawing at us and ready to practically attack our food in front of us. People drove or walked by us staring at us from the minute they saw us until the minute their necks could no longer turn, not once cracking a smile or saying hello.

Needless to say, we decided enough of this for the afternoon, and went to check out the town of Jasper. Town was considerably smaller than Banff and, quite frankly, not as clean and nice. Still, I had to browse through all the tourist shops because I’m a girl and I have my needs. I conned Rick into giving me two hours, but after an hour and 15 minutes, I was really looking for Rick. I think he was too busy looking in all the camping stores.

At one point when we arrived in town, we stopped in the Visitor Center to check out Backcountry hikes. We had heard rave reviews about the Skyline Trail from one of the Canada guys, but as with the Iceline Trail, most people book their trip three months in advance. Figuring we had already struck gold with getting on the Iceline at the last minute, we didn’t suppose we’d get on the Skyline, but to our surprise we were wrong. Somebody had just cancelled their trip just before we walked in the door, and so an open spot was there for our taking. Of course, we took it, which meant in two days we were to be walking another one of the BEST HIKES in Canada. (Both Iceline and Skyline were rated the best hikes by National Geographic Traveler!)

The rest of the day was shopping, doing laundry and then preparing for the hike in two days as we sat in the campfire-permeated air. The smell was great, but oh, those hillbillies!


DAY 29 – JULY 29, 2003

 

So in another National Park a couple valleys away there was an enormous forest fire occurring and upon our wake-up in camp, we were surprised to find that the smoke was so thick near town and a good portion of the area surrounding it that you could only see the silhouette of the mountains! We figured we’d try our luck at another campground LITERALLY right across the street from Wapiti Junkyard – did I say junkyard? I meant campground. Anyway, to our amazement, Whistlers Campground was beautifully normal. There were even some elk walking around the entrance to greet us.

Back in the town of Jasper, we stopped back in the ranger’s station to find out the deal with the smoke and if it would affect our hike. She told us that it was pretty unusual for the smoke to be in Jasper because winds usually blow it in the opposite direction. She assured us that it was merely an unusual shift in wind and that even where the hike started, Maligne Lake, it was clear.

We decided to drive up to Mt. Edith Cavelle, the tallest mountain in Jasper, and unfortunately we weren’t able to see much because of the smoke. Instead of a fruitless day hike, we stopped and ate lunch and had a good laugh at watching a fly doing the backstroke in Rick’s sandwich mustard. Mostly what made it funny was Rick’s facial expression and commenting about “Oh, that’s nice, why don’t you just bathe in my mustard.”

We had to see for ourselves if Maligne Lake was truly clear of smoke, so we drove a good half hour away to see. On our way up, we stopped to look at a black bear eating berries and her cub prancing proudly across the roadway. Oh, how cute they are from the CAR!

Maligne Lake turned out to be relatively clear of smoke, so we happily headed back to our normal campsite and prepared for the next day.


DAY 30 – JULY 30, 2003

 

And so starts the three-night, four-day, 27.9 mile trip. We parked the car at the end of the trail and caught a bus (that we paid for the day before) that took us to the trailhead. The bus driver was quite a character, but we did meet a couple from New York. They were the typical city folks out for a great adventure (such as ourselves), but they decided on the Skyline Trail as their first backcountry experience. That’s quite a hike for your first time, especially since they were camping out only two nights and traveling 27.9 miles with a rigorous elevation gain of over 4000 ft. total. They sure had all the prime camping gear, though, that even Rick was drooling over.

Of course, the packs were quite heavy, but we trudged on up the path and made pretty good time. It took us roughly 3 ½ hours to travel 7.6 miles with a continuous incline of the path. Obviously we’re getting stronger.

We passed by a Ranger checking park passes. Apparently they travel from the opposite direction of most of the traffic and make sure everyone in the backcountry has a pass to be there. There’s only so many designated sites at each camp (like 8 to 10) and you only can camp there if you have a pass. Funny though, the next day we ran across a European couple sneaking their way along the trail – those illegal ones!!

Most of the trail this day was wooded and ascended up, but soon we reached an open valley, then crossed Little Shovel Pass, and descended into a river-cut valley and thousands of beautifully colored flowers – from yellow to burnt red to light purple to pink. It has been wonderful to see so many beautiful flowers in bloom on all of the trails we’ve traveled. It sure adds an extra beauty to the environment – lots of bugs too, though.

We arrived at Snowbowl Campground late afternoon to eat and set up camp. A few tents were already there, though we didn’t get to meet the people in them until the following day.

I should mention, though, that the backcountry toilets aren’t quite as sophisticated as the ones in Banff and Yoho. These ones in jasper are a big, green, plastic toilet set in the woods with no enclosure around it. So, as you might expect, you’re sitting right out in the open elements with all the bugs and animals. They usually have a nice view, though, and even comfy arm rests. Okay, so it’s no Four Seasons Hotel.


DAY 31 – JULY 31, 2003 (End of One Month!)

 

After being inspired by all the wonderful food prepared by the Canadian men, we made a delicious egg, green & red pepper and salsa burrito for breakfast. YUM! (See, we don’t eat bark when we’re in the woods!) We did have to improvise, though, by boiling the eggs because we forgot our frying pan. It tasted the same anyway.

Most of our campground neighbors had left, all but the New York couple (who we were not to see again the rest of the hike) and a couple from Virginia, Kim (a man in his fifties) and Jenny (a woman also near her fifties). We chatted with Kim and Jenny and found that we were camping in the same places for the next two nights, so we quickly established a cordial friendship.

Once on the trail, we assumed we’d have a relatively easy hike to the next site, due to it being only 4.5 miles. It still turned out to be an air-sucking day because our up and down travel was roughly 800 ft. in total. When we reached Big Shovel Pass (nearly the highest point of the day), we stared ahead to see our next day’s ascent up, The Notch. It sure looked intimidating. When we reached the junction where to the left was our camp and to the right was The Notch, we realized that we had to descend a little over a half a mile straight down. What that meant was the next morning, we had to travel back up to the junction and up, over The Notch, a total of a mere 1.6 miles with an elevation gain of 1600 ft. YIPES! Basically, it sounded like we would be traveling straight up for a mile and a half.

We decided to ignore our next day’s rigorous way and relax at Curator Camp. I have to say, I ate the best peanut butter and jelly sandwich I ever had. It’s amazing how good something tastes after a day of working out. The rest of the day was spent chatting with some of our camp mates: a guy from Canada named Clint, who liked to overpack by carrying needless items such as a machete and a sling shot; two young nannies from Slovakia working in Vancouver named Lenka and Andrea; and Kim and Jenny from Virginia. Jenny joked that Kim was going to divorce her (even though they weren’t married and have only been dating 2 ½ months) because this was his first backcountry hike and a tough one at that.


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