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there is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.

~nelson mandela

zippin' along

thanks zip for posting us on the the blog.

love the chevy chase vacation mention. see us on zip.

and after all my environmental mentions, i'll be pushing hard for a zip recycling programme.

ice, ice baby

spent the last few days driving up and down the icefields parkway. the canadian site quotes it to be the most spectacular journey in the world. part of the northern rockies which make up one of UNESCO's world heritage sites. ended up in jasper national park very very far away from STL.

we hiked up a few glaciers, peaks and the like. while driving on the parkway we saw caribou and two teenage black bears in a berry patch. it was stunning. we had the chance to drive it two different directions at a variety of times of day allowing us to see all different angles of light and perspectives.



the least stunning part of the trip is how much the glacier's have receded. at the actual glacier they have markers that show where the glaciers were every decade to give perspective of recession. at one point they actual went out to the road now it's about a 20 minute hike to the bottom of the glacier. it's very depressing and another reminder to decrease our individual impact on the planet (i.e. not drive across country in an suv). and the folks that say global warming isn't happening need to go check out the ice fields.




















there is really a bear in this photo.














we also found a few things we really LOVE about canada other than the maple leaf:
roots clothing is really doing a lot in their green efforts, check it out.
the cbc has great new music and canadian artists, check it.
and as most of you already know, Sarah's favorite yoga retailer lululemon.

thanks, canada - we'll see you again soon.

feeling queasy in lake louisey

not really, just a little home sick.

we didn't have the same experience in lake louise as Diana and Laura did but it is beautiful - just way too many people (we cut them out of the photo).

XO

Canada eh?

After our stay at Waterton Lakes, Alberta we headed back to pick up the dogs. Took a quick day hike at Logan Pass in Glacier along the Going to the Sun Rd which was nice. Several mountain goats greeted us. When we arrived at the Triple R Kennel, the dogs were pretty excited to see us. Unfortunately TUK never received his pain meds, b/c the broad there said we never left them. A huge ugly battle of the ladies broke out (too bad no mud or jello around. I had my bets on Sarah.) and we left with the only one hurting out of the deal was TUK. They gave us some generic dog pain meds to make it through the trip, but for all we know they could be suppositories. Anyway camped out just south of the Canadian border in a hoostastic park and then travelled north the following day.
The drive along route 93 was gorgeous with huge peaks lining the drive. We passed several resort towns with hot springs and finally made it to Banff NP. We camped Saturday night there in Johnston Canyon ( cool canyon walk to the falls) but did not sleep well due to the freezing cold and Ogi with some GI upset. We were up a couple times in the night to let him out but weary of bears snagging him up for a late night treat. The insomnia led us to Banff city where we are now. Cute little ski town nestled amongst rocky peaks with lots of culture and shopping for Sarah. I had a great Alberta steak and Sarah had the wild BC salmon with maple glaze at the Maple Leaf Grill. We shared a bottle of Cab-Franc out of the Niagra, Ont area which opened up nicely and then passed out cold by 11pm. Today we are well rested and showered and off to Jasper along the icefields parkway and then towards home. Miss you all. XOXO

sd:i hate this photo for obvious reasons.

ps: for some reason dave is know talking with a canadian accent - i think he secretly wishes he was canadian, eh.

tx sux

not sure if it's a sports thing but we think it's more a george bush thing...

love the Prince of Wales

after feasting on a pizza buffet (hiking makes you do things you don't normally do) - gluttonous but oh so good. we decided to get out of the US part of Glacier and headed up to Waterton, Canada.





we decided we to treat ourselves to a hotel and stayed at the prince of wales hotel, built in the early 1920's and not much updating but it's historic and it had a bed.



The hotel's main lobby has huge three-story high windows looking out on to the lake and the glaciers. just amazing. That night we played a mean game of scrabble while listening to another guest play on the piano - it was all very rockwellian.

backcountry

From missoula we drove through the smoky haze up highway 2 towards glacier. Our first stop was the backcountry office in apgar hoping to hook-up a pass for a few days. We’d heard mix reviews that all backcountry passes were taken for the season and some said they had a bunch. So as karma would have it the two people in front of us turned in their pass because they were unable to use it – too bad for them, lucky for us. So within a few moments we were preparing to go. Our route would take us twenty miles from gunsight trail head to sperry trail, our elevation would increase over 3000 ft (in the course of a day) to a peak of 6900 ft over two nights and three days.

I (sarah) was nervous and apprehensive as it had been a while since I’d backcountried and yoga doesn’t really work the same muscles. This manifested into a fight over how many cans of tuna one needs for three days in the woods. After one last night with the pups we stayed in the hungry horse rec area on the edge of the reservoir. Dined on black bean tortillas while the dogs rolled in every disgusting berry patch they could find. We organized for the trip and passed out and dreamt of bear attacks.

Woke up early to buy our bearspray and drop the dogs off at camp. Triple R Kennels is fantastic, much nicer than good old Kennelwood at home. They offered to teach the boys how to pheasant hunt if we left them for a few weeks. I then let them know that they are vegetarian. A huge area for the dogs to play with their twenty new friends which consist of a mix of labs and a few Burmese Mt. Dogs. Although we (ok maybe just me) had tears in our eyes the dogs didn’t even notice when we left.

DAY 1 BACKCOUNTRY

Great new thing in GNP is the shuttle it allows you to drop in one spot and pick up in another so you don’t have to retrace your steps. Still need to work a few kinks out but they’ll get there we suffered one of the kinks which is not enough room so the two of us and our huge packs had to sit in the emergency steps… so by the time we arrived at our destination we were quite nauseous.

Our packs were stuffed – dave claims his packed weighed 90lbs and I am sure mine was about 150lbs. Whatever, the real number they were extremely heavy way too much tuna.

The first day was relatively flat with up and down of only 500ft through a lot of brush and swag. Apparently the way to keep a bear away is to make a lot of noise – so we made up lots of new songs and solved the world’s problems. We were walking through a lot of huckleberry bushes which are very tasty but the perfect spot for a bear.

We made it to camp and started to set up for our first night. First, we had to hang our food, anything that has a scent, which is everything, to keep the bears at bay. I knew there were bears but I wasn’t sure how serious… until we were hanging up our bear bags and a huge black bear walked through the food prep area. I did everything you are not supposed to do – I panicked. Dave hung up the bags really quickly and in the process lost his wedding band (or so we thought). We ran (again, they tell you to stay still and calm) back toward the woods to watch the bear and his HUGE head check out the food prep area and then saunter back into the bush. No one has hurt and only one guy got a photo.

With one bear sighting under our belt I felt a little more confident and really never needed to see a bear again that close. And felt if karma really does work in a continuous circle we would not be attacked in our sleep.

We had a great first dinner with a group of guys from the Springfield, MO area - go figure. Everyone spent most of the evening looking for Dave’s wedding ring.

We watched a gorgeous sunset over gunsight lake, which is a glacier fed lake, crystal clear and very deep. Tucked in around 9p before the sun even fully set.

DAY TWO BACKCOUNTRY

If I only knew this day was going to be as hard as it was I may have stayed in my sleeping bag. Today was the pinnacle, peak or what you will of this hike. We went up 3000 ft in elevation and down another 1500 – amazing views but a hard day.

It’s days like this that make you question why you do this. Why is it fun to carry 50lbs on your back while shuffling up a mt. eating cold tuna for dinner? Why? Why did we decide to do this? Then you turn to blame – who’s idea was this? Who can I blame this bloody curse that has been brought upon us?

But then you get to the summit and realize why you’ve gone through the pain. It’s amazing. It’s just us, a few marmots, ground squirrels and us. We feel like we are on the top of the world. No one around, no cars, no city sounds, just us on the top of this mountain – that’s why we do this hiking thang. Huge waterfalls barreling down the sides of the canyons, wildflowers that have no place growing are in abundance, glaciers sliding down the mountain peaks.

The only sad realization is that despite not having city noises this place is being heavily affected by the way we treat our environment. The glaciers used to come down to the pass (our summit) now they only make it a few hundred feet down the side of the mountain. The National Parks guys predict in a few years there won’t be anything left. Makes you think about how much we drive our cars.

We ponder on the summit for almost an hour thinking we have so much time and down really is easier. Then reality sets in and we start down the seemingly unending switchbacks towards that night’s camp. After fifteen switchbacks I stopped counting and started focusing on the pain in my feet, toes, hammies, you name-it it hurt. After several hours of going down, yelling for bears and working through the burn we found camp.

Sperry camp site is on the edge of this huge rock overlooking Lake McDonald (our final destination). Actually it was about 3500ft above our final destination. We ate as much food as we could to lighten the packs. We dined on the rocks with two nice couples from the east coast and Ann Arbor, MI. That night was FREEZING but thanks to our great bags we were nice and warm.

DAY 3

Could repeat the first line from the last entry but you get the idea.

Ends up I have a broken toe and ripped another toenail off – so gross, sorry to even write that but it gives you a hint at the nightmare of a day we are embarking on.

Today was only 6 miles, all down. So with the toe situation every step slammed my toes into the end of my boot it was very painful. We were tired, snappy, hated our food and generally irritated that we didn’t have an escalator or wings to get us down the mountain. The six miles took us way longer than it should have about 4 hrs in total. Beautiful scenery that turned into dense tall pines and lots of hikers doing day trips… happy to be done we found our car around 3 that afternoon with the next mission of finding a place to stay that night.

wi-fi is so American or least it's not Canadian

eh! from banff, canada.

we can't believe it has been a week since we have blogged - so much to tell. it's been difficult because wi-fi is not as readily available here in CA as it is in the lower 48 where you can get it at every rest stop. so here are several blogs on the latest blue moments...

Montanas like it HOT, HOT, HOT

Some of you may have heard that there are a few fires out here... not sure if it's made national press yet. I think when you declare a state of emergency you usually make it to CNN fairly quickly.

Our plans were to head through Seeley Lake to Glacier and camp in Seeley last night. As we were driving up 90 towards Missoula there was a distinct haze that didn't feel like cloud cover or really anything we had experienced before. So once we started to see signs on road saying FIRE AHEAD we realized the haze was smoke.

A few years ago we may have continued driving but we checked the exact area we were headed to and it is the biggest fire in the West so we decided to stay in Missoula - never knew how much I loved the Holiday Inn until last night. This place is packed with smoke-jumpers from all over the US, people that have been evacuated from their homes, about 20 different dogs and us. So we've enjoyed the local fare at the IronHorse and tasted the local beer. And I have showered twice just to make up for lost time.

Today we are going to head up to Glacier and see about camping. The fires in Glacier are minimal and apparently fires in these parts are just part of the joys of summer. We're safe and happy - so parents no need to worry.

By the way here are some pics over the last couple days....

jackalope tales

it's been an amazing couple of days. completely checked out of electricity and communication. we just arrived in bozeman, MT and are enjoy a nice organic coffee and smoothie at the bozeman food co-op.

since we left the blog we've crossed a few state lines, mountain ranges and time zones. so from when we last wrote... we headed into the badlands which felt like a smaller version of the canyonlands. interesting, very touristy. stopped for lunch at the famous wall drug. dave had hot beef for lunch. we managed to spend no more than 30 minutes and got the hell out.

headed to mt. rushmore amongst the millions of harley riders headed to their mecca (sturgis). drove thru some tight tunnels (one lane, one car) along the needles highway to sylvan lake, SD to set up camp and let the dogs run free. dave has done most of the driving (surprise) and made it through several steep grade, rock falling, windy roads at a quick pace. hiked around sylvan lake, the dogs went swimming and enjoyed being outside. bean, pepper,onion mash burrito for dinner-delicious!

8.3
our first night in the tent (the rei taj held up) we endured a heavy rain fall with all of us packed in hoping for the best. the morning came (not soon enough) and it kept on raining. so we went for hike and it finally stopped raining... we hiked up a trail to devil's tower in custer state park in the black hills. steep 1.5 miles up to a beautiful view of cloud. we were pretty high up so once you got to the top you were surrounded by a mist of clouds reminiscent of Ireland. it was very peaceful, perfect meditation spot.

we hiked back down meeting several folks from all over the US. we were both happily surprised by the geography and people in SD - not what we were expecting.

from there we headed to crazy horse in the hopes it would be a little more complete than the last time we had both seen it (about 20 years ago). felt like not much had been done but a lot more tourist attractions had been added. it was, in a way sad, felt like the original mission of the artist had somehow been downgraded by the tourism...

long beautiful drive ahead through wyoming into the bighorn mountain range where buffalo jerky was easily obtained by a man in a wheelchair on the side of a mountain. we climbed about 4000 ft in elevation amongst gorgeous peaks and pines at the pass and then down a 10% grade to the valley which brought us to Cody, WY. We ran into some guy from Midland, MI who sold us Moose Drool (good shit). Somehow knows Dad but I think it's b/c he put him in jail.

We prayed for a campsite as we drove through an amazing campsite and landed one at Buffalo Bill SP right before a major thunderstorm came through. Lighting almost struck us, I swear. By this time Dave reports he should have changed his underwear (it's been over 4 days at this point). The storm was beautiful once I calmed down enough to enjoy it. It was so close that if you looked at it would be blind for a few minutes... once it cleared and we finished our dinner in the car we crashed.

8.4
tend to wake up around 5a here in the mountains so we were on the road by about 7a. we were only 20 or so miles from Yellowstone so headed into the park with the thought of driving the top loop. not more than 5 minutes of entering the park we were stuck in traffic - yellowstone in the summer. at least there is a lot to see. the contrasts in yellowstone are really the most amazing thing - the devastation from the 1988 fire is still evident yet there is new growth of evergreens; the tall peaks contrast with the bubbling marshmallow-like thermal pools juxtaposed with the geysers. it's amazing, if you haven't been you should go just maybe go in september or june. most of the traffic stops were due to bison herds - hundreds of them (some we thought may charge the car especially with Ogi barking at them in the back). We saw the grand canyon and falls of yellowstone river which were beautiful with the contrasts of color. Then rushed out of the park and tourists through Gardiner, MT to arrive upon a drunk guy who flipped his car. Paramedics were there instantly and didn't need our help. Despite Sarah's protest for a hot shower we opted for Daley Lake, a small lake nestled under Emigrant peak in the "paradise valley". Low and behold paradise valley consistent of us, swimmer's itch, and hoosiers. We actually met some really great people who love the simpler life. Ted (60-something and stricken with a brain tumor ), Barbara (57) , and button (dog) just bought an RV and drove up from Livingston to camp. Great people. Our night turned out to be great despite Tuks 4am vomiting in the tent.

8.5 (today)
Pancake and sausage breakfast courtesy of the neighbors. Tuk stopped shitting his brains out and we are currently at the Food Co-op in Bozeman recharging batteries and in desperate need of a bath not consisting of wet wipes. I left my underwear in Yellowstone for the bears to feast on. We'll stock up here and head north to somewhere with a shower hopefully in the Lolo mountains just south of glacier.

XOXOX

day one: hummer of a day

we actually stayed on track and made it to south dakota and are staying in chamberlain tonight - apparently a staging zone for Sturgis (which starts next week). Drove 750 miles, crossed the Missouri river 4 times and crossed 4 state lines. Beautiful day with only one "flash flood" like rain storm.

after a great meal at 1/2 pints (thanks, doug!) we packed like crazy and woke up at 6a to squish everything in the car. our cruise director was not so happy with our early departure.

had our first hike...

the drive was long but interesting. we shared the road and our meal at the local (only) tavern with hundreds of bikers on their way to mecca (sturgis).

tomorrow we head west to WALL DRUG and other pieces of Americana.

and the funniest photo of day: