Left the Mountains for the First Time Since Lone Pine, CA

Frances made me aware that when we exited Wyoming and entered Nebraska, we were out of the mountains for the first time in months.  While the elevation is still high in western NE, we found ourselves on the plains.  Even here in Denver, we are only at the base of the eastern edge of the Rockies. 

It is nice to be with our niece, Sarah and her husband Karl.  They have two delightful kids, and we are eagerly anticipating the arrival of Maggie.  Unfortunately, her flight into Denver today was cancelled.  We had an interesting phone call as to why the current economic model for airline travel just doesn't work very well.   Dealing with an airline is like dealing with the phone company or some other supplier who seems to put your needs and concerns last.  The barrier to entry is too high for any new blood to get into the game, and our desire to consume a lot of low-cost travel, instead of a pleasant travel experience has landed, ha ha, us here.  Capitalism generally does a great job of delivering commodities, technology, and many other goods and services.  It doesn't delivery good campsites, although private camping does offer better toileting options if that is your main interest in selecting a camping spot.  Frankly, airline travel was better when the airlines were regulated, although it was far more expensive.  It is still amazing that so many people get moved so far, so fast each day.  The only folks who enjoy it are those flying private jets, at least I suspect they are enjoying it.

Today I'm trying to re-connect with Ken Talkington, a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer from my 1982-1984 stint in Lesotho.  I haven't seen Ken since our Completion of Service (COS) ceremony in 1984, so we should have a thing or two to talk about.

In Denver I decided to pick up some new camera gear.  I was growing frustrated with my lack of telephoto lens capability, so I got a new body and a 18-300 mm lens.  The next photos should be from that set up.  Still sorting through the 500 page user manual.

Here are a few more shots from my trusty Nikon D-80 which served me for over a decade.  They were taken in Medicine Bow National Forest, near Centennial, WY.  The citing of the bull moose was pretty exciting.  My inability to get a close in shot was the limitation that led me to get the new gear.

Back in the USA, Glacier NP, Lewis and Clark, Stanley, ID, Wendell, ID, Alpine & Lander Wyoming

Thanks to Steve, my tethering capability has been restored.  AT&T moved me back to my old plan, which is more or less the new plan that I moved from, with tethering restored.  I'll spare the details.

After leaving Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada, we crossed into the US near Chief Mountain.  There were two cars crossing over and it took about 5 minutes.  It was one of the easiest border crossings I ever experienced.  We drove until we reached the Eastern Entrance to Glacier National Park, but did not enter the park.  We were still towing the teardrop, which cannot make the trip up to Logan Pass, and we were told that there were no available campsites on the eastern side of the pass.  We stopped to reconsider our plans when we received a text from Monica Martin.  Monica rode in our Coast to Coast bicycle trip in 2015.  Monica is a Canadian, but has a vacation cabin in Whitefish, Montana.  She offered to put us up in her guest cabin, and we said yes.  We caught up with Monica and shared stories from our 8 week bike trip.  She was a very accommodating hostess and we enjoyed Whitefish.

After a night of rest we returned to the Western entrance of the park, without the teardrop.  We drove to Packer's Roost, and hiked about 6 miles up to the granite chalet.  The views were stunning.  See for your self.  We then hiked back down, spent another night with Monica, and moved on.  While the views in Glacier as spectacular, I told Frances, I take vacations to get AWAY from crowds like that.  According to Monica, the last couple of years have seen an explosion in visitation to the park.  We did try one other campsite, Two Medicine on the east side of the park.  It was a beautiful site, with a full, and so-so campground.

We headed toward Missoula on Rt 93, stopping south of Hamilton near where Lewis and Clark crossed the Bitterroot Mountains.  There were lots of sings a la "Lewis and Clark _________  here", and it was cool to be retracing their footsteps.  We entered Idaho and stopped in Salmon at the Sacajawea Museum there.  Not much to see, but she was born near the area, a member of the Shoshone tribe.

South of Salmon we stopped and "boon docked" (free camping on public land, also known as dispersed camping) along the Salmon River.  An eagle had a nest on the cliffs above us.  We saw two eaglets and one mature bald eagle.  Early in the AM, I saw and Elk high up on the hills.

We left our free site, and the car inexplicably ended up in one of my favorite places on earth, Stanley, ID.  We camped on the Yankee Fork of the salmon river, a stream that was trashed by gold mining a few miles upstream of where we camped.  Miles of the stream are strewn with the tailings of the Yankee dredge which was used in the gold mining process.  We had a beautiful campsite at the Hidden Creek campground, which has 5 campsites.  We met fishermen from Georgia, were given 4, stream-fresh rainbow trout from a fisherman from Phoenix, and had a great chat with a couple from Minnesota who, unbelievably, took their first camping trip in Monte Sano State Park, 5 miles from our house.  One more data point for the "small world" thesis.

As hard as it was to leave Stanley,  we were excited to see another member of our cross country bike team, Alan Young.  Alan lives in Wendell, ID.  We had an exciting adventure in Mexico with Alan looking for Tecate, and we also helped him observe his first 'gator in the wild, when we reached Florida.  Alan took us to Shoshone Falls, near Twin Falls, ID.  We also saw Evel Knievel's ramp from when he tried to "jump" the Snake River Canyon.  Alan then cooked us Cornish game hens for dinner and we talked over old times with a bottle or two of wine.  We were glad to meet his wife, Peggy, and hope that she is feeling 100% after being a bit under the weather during our visit.

We visited Soda Springs, ID on our way to Wyoming.  A timer allows an eruption every hour, otherwise the geyser would spew a100-150 foot plume 24/7, 365.

Idaho is an amazingly beautiful state.

We entered Wyoming and camped along the Snake River near Alpine.  It was basically a rest day.  The river is beautiful there, but the campground was basic roadside camping in bear country.  We then went through a beautiful town of Pinedale, near the Bridger Wilderness Area.  We passed by, but I'm reading of a spot, Cirque de Towers which is almost universally rated as a back country area of stunning beauty.  It would take a backpacking trip to get back there, and we didn't have time for that this week.  (We have to be in Denver next Friday to see Maggie and other family).

Based on suggestions by the folks from Minnesota, we made our way to Canyon Sinks near Lander WY, which is where I sit and type.  A nice area, very big with ATV riders.  Once you get off the paved route, you find dispersed camping all over the place.  I had a nice bike ride up the switchbacks to the end of the pavement this morning.  We are now in town for some WiFi and other stuff.

We will talk this afternoon about the next few days as we make our way to Denver.  We may drop in with Rose and Murph, staff members of the Coast to Coast tours.

We are both stunned that our six month trip only has about six weeks left to go.  Too short!  We may have to ask for an extension.

Some photos of the trip segment.

Blogus Interruptus

I had hoped to post a update today.  Prior to entering Canada, I contacted AT&T about a data plan for Canada.  I was told that I could move to an unlimited data plan that included data, voice and text for Canada.  In addition, the plan was a $10 upper from my 16 GB plan, but by paying on line, I'd get a $10 discount.  Turns out AT&T had no service in any part of Canada that we visited.  Today I learned that I lost my ability to use my phone as a hotspot, hence no update.  Theoretically, I still have a few days to change back.

Revelstoke, Gem Number 3

Like all of our gems, we came upon Revelstoke by a complete "stoke" of luck.  While camping in the Okanagen valley,  Frances chatted it up with our neighbors, who turned out to be from Seattle.  (He works for Mr. Softie).  We were talking about our plans for Jasper and Banff, but expressed our concern for the crowds.  He suggested we try Revelstoke.  What?  Where?  It took us about 3 days to remember the name of the place.   Since we typically need a lot so supporting evidence before darting off on a lark, this was good enough for us.  He said that they had just been there and that the crowds were small.  While we liked the orchards and lakes of the Okanagen, the crowds on highway 97 were just too much.  In addition, the Provincial Parks in these busy areas are just not quite our style.  They are a bit like the Oregon coast, i.e. periodic patrols by the campground staff selling wood, emplacing lawn sprinklers, etc.   We also had to plan around the upcoming Canada Day.  With all national parks free this year in honor of Canada's 150th year of "somethingness", we knew we couldn't just roll the dice and show up at some park on 30 June and be able to get a spot.

Revelstoke is an old railroad town that may have a few souvenir shops, but it still have the feel of a small, local town.  Skiing and mountain biking are very big, but the people we met moved here to do those activities, and didn't just pop in for the weekend.  The Columbia River and the famous Big Eddy run right through town.  I did enjoy, Big Eddy Street, Big Eddy Pub, Big Eddy Market, etc.  I'm totally coming away with a Big Eddy T shirt.  The folks who work at the tourist bureau have gotten to know us pretty well, and have given us some great advice.  Every town in Canada that we have been through has a tourist office that is staffed with folks to provide recommendations, and hand out maps, etc.    Typically you find these offices right on the edge of town, and by some puzzling process, they seem to be always on the side of town that we are entering?  I guess traffic flows mostly South to North for tourists by car?

We stayed for six nights at Martha Creek Provincial Park, snagging the last spot in that park on 23 June.  This is a nice park on the Columbia River, which is wide at the park due to Revelstoke Dam.  There is great cycling along the river on a newly surfaced road that is a 150 KM dead end at Mica Dam.  There is logging traffic on the road, but we managed to do our riding on weekends and holidays, and never had to share the road with loggers.  Given the low level of traffic in general on Route 23, I think the riding would have been fine even if the trucks were running. 

We left Martha Creek on about the 27th and did a two day excursion to Banff and Jasper.  In this 5 hour drive we went through 5 national parks.   We traversed Revelstoke, Glacier, Yoho, Banff and Jasper National Parks.  I was glad that they were free, as entrance into National Parks in Canada is much pricier that the US.  I think when Maggie and I went skiing over a decade ago, it was about $70 to get in to Banff.  The parks were all beautiful and filled with snow.  Unlike US National Parks, many Canadian national parks don't have camping in the park.  For sure, many do, but some are back country that had been set aside for hiking and fishing/hunting and don't have a lot of added infrastructure such as water, toilers, etc. 

All of the things that we saw on our two day trip to Jasper were stunning.  The Icefield Parkway between Banff and Jasper is everything it is claimed to be.  This includes drivers stopping the the middle of the road to take pictures.  So the crowds were a bit of a turn off for us.  We we got back to Revelstoke, we moved to Wadey Recreation Area, 7 KM up river.  We had used up our 7 days at Martha Creek.   We both heaved a big sigh of relief to be back in a small, mostly quiet campground.  The next day we did a bike ride toward Mica Dam.  Today we hiked up the road to Mount Revelstoke.  There is a road to the summit, which is unusual, but they blocked it off 6 KM from the end due to snow. So we walked the last bit.  Tomorrow, I'm going to cycle up.  The bike ride will be about 20 KM up.  It was a beautiful day for a walk.

We are departing on the 4th of July heading south on  Route 23, which will include a short ferry ride as we move toward Nelson.  Our bartender yesterday suggested a visit.  To be honest, It is still difficult for us to comprehend the size of British Columbia.  It is bigger that CA, OR, and WA combined.  The only thing I've learned is that we are barely scratching the surface.  But Revelstoke, is a keeper, and would be a good place to establish a base for more exploration of this beautiful place.