Logan Pass, Glacier National Park

Logan Pass is at the top of the 'Going To The Sun' highway. This is the only road that goes through the park, and it's a winner. The views are spectacular, the road is narrow, windy, hilly; it's an "E" ticket ride for sure.

Once at the top you have to fight the crowds to get a parking spot. We actually set the alarm this morning in order to get up early enough to get parked. Then we had to battle with the sheep.

Today we hiked the Highline Trail. It goes for quite a ways, following but high above the highway. We decided to go a total of 8 miles, so at mile 4 we turned around. Speaking of "E" tickets, the crowds here are as bad as Disneyland. It makes sense, since there is such a short window of opportunity. This park is accessible for a really short time due to weather; the road is usually open for only three months a year. The hiking is spectacular though.

We're having a lot of fun so far. One of our biggest problems has turned out to be finding the best wine to pair with our s'mores. We're experimenting again tonight.

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Columbia Falls, Montana

Today is Sunday and the park is still allowing free entry, which is making for a very crowded park. So we decided to make this a "Going to Town" day and get some errands done. Tomorrow things should be back to normal.

We're still surprised at how many campsites are available every day. By afternoon they fill up, but every morning quite a few people leave and there's always spots to be had. We're happy where we are, but later in the week, we expect to head to the east side of the park and stay a few nights also.

Scott, to answer your question, there are no hookups in Apgar campground, but there is water you can fill your tank with. We filled ours to overflowing before we came in and I have to say, towing the trailer, even just 10 miles, with a full load of water makes a big difference in the feel of the truck.

We saw a sign earlier that said at the rate of decline now present, all glaciers in the park will be gone by 2025. So sad. We haven't seen any to brag about yet, just small ones in crevices of the mountains. Nothing like what we saw in Alaska.

Still, the beauty here is breathtaking. And the triple divide is really cool! Here's a little tidbit I found-

In Glacier National Park, there is actually a triple divide because waters potentially can flow into three drainages. The creeks and streams in the southeast section of the park feed into the Birch and Marias Rivers, then the Missouri and the Mississippi and empty into the Gulf of Mexico. The water in the northeast section feeds into the St. Mary River that joins the Saskatchewan River Basin. From there, some of the water flows into Lake Winnipeg, then into the Nelson River which drains into the Hudson Bay. All water west of the divide feeds into the Flathead River, which then flows through Flathead Lake and empties into the Clark Fork which joins the Columbia River to the Pacific. The many streams of Waterton-Glacier make important contributions to the great rivers of the continent. There are few other areas of similar size that generate a volume of water equal to that flowing out of the parks.

Glacier's Triple Divide Peak (8020 ft/2446 m) is a rather rare hydrologic feature. From the summit, water flows to the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and Hudson Bay. The peak can be viewed from the Going-to-the-Sun Road in the Two Dog Flats area, on the east side of the park. Other triple divides (hydrological apexes) are found in Jasper National Park and in Siberia.

I"ll have pictures of that peak for you later in the blog. Unless you want the details of our very interesting laundry day, I've nothing else to contribute right now. Reception is still very spotty and even though I'm showing 4G sometimes, connections are extremely slow.

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Apgar campground, Glacier national Park, Montana

Well Scott, the good news is, there was no problem getting a spot to camp inside the park. On a Friday no less. On the big weekend that the parks are not charging any entry fee- free entrance to all! It gets even better Scott; every site is a pull through, so you could park anywhere you like and not have to back up your castle on wheels. Can you be here tomorrow?

With a little luck we'll be exploring the park with less people starting Monday. Today we drove to Bowman Lake, an out of the way spot which requires 16 miles of gravel road. We expected no one to be there, but ,alas, it was like Disneyland. Beautiful area though.

We're hiking, biking, cooking s'mores, living the good life. We haven't seen any wildlife yet to speak of, but on the hike today, we heard something we couldn't identify. We decided it was a baby of some sort and decided to hightail it out of there before mama came. We saw fresh bear scat on the trail too.

More exploring tomorrow.

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Sundance Campground & RV Park

Tonight we stay just outside the gate of Glacier National Park. Tomorrow we'll see if we can get a spot in Apgar Campground inside the park, as Scott (Airborne99) suggested.

My last post was before we had our anniversary dinner at Beverly's. I have to say, it was better than expected. Sue thinks it may have been our best dinner ever. All of the food was fantastic; we paired the appetizer with champagne, the entree with Louie D. Private Reserve Pinot Noir, coffee with our souffle's, and a 1995 vintage port to settle everything in.

When you order a plain cup of coffee, they bring a tray of goodies with it; Rock candy sweetener, cinnamon sticks, whipped cream, 1/2 & 1/2, biscotti, crumbled chocolate, and of course, packets of sweetener.

After we had our souffles, our waiter remembered it was our anniversary dinner and brought us the 'celebration' dessert- Raspberry cotton candy cake with vanilla ice cream and a candle hidden inside.

OK, the dinner was great! Two desserts!

The next day we drove to Lake Pend Oreille ( pronounced pon duh ray) for a couple nights of camping in a beautiful setting. We went for a bike ride through the woods, and Susie did very well keeping the tires on the ground. This is the largest lake in Idaho, with over 148 square miles of area. It's 43 miles long and 6 miles wide in one spot.

The town of Sandpoint was disappointing. We remembered it as a small artist colony from our honeymoon trip, but now it's just clothes shops,empty store fronts and restaurants. Even the microbrew, MickDuff's, was substandard. We give it a thumbs down.

So- tomorrow, Glacier!! WOOHOO.

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Coeur d'Alene ID

I'm sure some of you knew this, but we didn't- there was an Ironman Triathlon here this weekend. Lot's of people in town. We missed the festivities by a day. Today we went downtown and checked out the area. It has grown considerably since we were last here. Sue saw a moose downtown and we were able to get a picture off.

They have a considerable amount of artwork around town. Some of it's awesome; some of it thought provoking. All of it interesting.

Twenty four years ago Sue and I got married and of course our honeymoon was the same place most everyone goes; Coeur d'Alene! Back then we rented a motor home and spent a week exploring the area campsites. On the last night we were wandering around town and decided to splurge on dinner at a restaurant and we stumbled into Beverly's. It was the first fine dining experience we'd had together and it was definitely one of the top three meals we've ever had. Tonight we're going back for an early anniversary. We have high expectations.

This is the last town we'll be in for several weeks, as we're driving north on I 95 and taking a right on highway 2 just before we hit Canada. We're only about a four hour drive from Glacier Park right now, but we're taking the slow scenic route. Should be there in a week. We're finally getting into the camping portion of the trip, so it's possible we won't be connected all the time. I'm just warning you blog junkies in advance.

I'll post when I can.

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US Route 395

Have you ever driven on the 395 on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada's?

We've been there a number of times, but I never realized I could drive that same highway all the way to Canada. And if I drive south from where I am right now, the 395 will end about 5 miles from Levi's house. Remember Levi? This is me and the little guy on my scooter.

We're camping tonight on the 395 in Washington State. There are no towns here, and even though we are literally 500 feet from the freeway (50 ' from the train tracks) we drove down a gravel road in a giant circle to get here. When I say giant, I mean it's probably farther than Brian would ride his mountain bike in one stretch. Yeah! That's how far it was!

We do have a beautiful view of Sprague lake though. Also, there is only a couple of other rigs here, so it's quite private.

Quiet? Not so much. So far we've had three trains an hour go by, and there is a road crossing getting to the lake, so they have to blow their horns. Now if Jenny was here, that'd be no problem, as I've seen her sleep a few feet from the tracks in El Capitan State Park by Santa Barbara. We'll be sure to channel our inner Jenny tonight and get a really sound sleep.



P.S. Mike, we didn't get to Pendleton OR as it was out of the way by 100 miles and we decided we'd done enough clothes shopping for a while. Wait- do they sell hats?

Life is good on the road with Sue!!

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828 NW Oak, Redmond, OR.

This is the address of the house we've owned for the last 10 years. I'd show you a picture, but we were lucky to escape in just an hour.

Sue had never seen the house, so we decided to drive by for a look. Well, the new owner was outside and we talked to him for a sec; next thing you know we were taking a tour. He's what you might call a long winded talker. We learned all about his family, the drug addled kids, his old high school friend, how he met his wife, well, I could go on, but why? Yes, he was very nice, but we felt lucky to get out after only the third goodbye. So no pic.

We're just up the road a piece, not far from where I stayed 2 years ago on the Cycle Oregon adventure. There's a beautiful canyon with a river at the bottom just a few feet from our campsite.

We passed through Bend this morning. A popular spot for cycling, Bend has over 300 miles  of mountain bike trails and is the home to the Cascade Cycling Classic, the nation's longest running stage race for road bicycle racing. Bend was recently named the top mountain bike city in Mountain Bike Action magazine. 

So what did we do? We went shopping! No hats, but I ended up getting more items than Sue. The Columbia Outfitters store was having a terrific sale, and Susie forgot to bring her hiking shirts. Problem solved.

Speaking of solving problems, I was able to fix the water heater. It was so silly I'm not going to share, but from here on out, hot showers. So, no, we're not turning back early.

Pop quiz- How many breweries are there in Bend? You heard it here first - 22! We missed one darn it. No, I mean we went to one; Worthy Brewing. Sue said it was the best fish and chips she's ever had. It was so good she fainted! Really. She has low blood pressure and sometimes it just happens. No she's not pregnant, she's fine. 

Mike said to be sure to go to Pendleton OR on our trip, so that's where we'll head tomorrow. Honestly though, I think we already blew our clothing budget for the month. We'll probably end up camping in Washington tomorrow.

More about that later.

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To Hell and Back

In more ways than one.

Hell #1

First I'd like to say we are having severe difficulties with getting online. So If we seem to be ignoring you.... well, we may be, but it's most likely our internet connection.


Hell #2

We are also having problems with our water heater. It started while we were in Lassen and we were forced to take cold showers- YUCK!! Fortunately, I have some tools with me and diagnosed a bad gas valve. Fortunately, there was an RV parts house in Redding with my unit in stock. Fortunately, the mechanic on duty found the same problem and replaced the valve for us, and sure enough, it works again.

We are now 30 miles north of Klamath Falls, OR. Unfortunately the water heater isn't working. WAH!

Hell #3

Bumpass Hell to be exact. Don't blame me for this- I didn't name the place. It is actually a lovely hike in Lassen which terminates in a spot full of steam vents, bubbling boiling mud pools, and fumaroles. Here's a picture of Bumpass himself.

My back was still in spasms but it was a fairly easy hike and well worth it. Plus my Susie carried the heavier pack. Not to mention, now the spasms have subsided. Here's what a pool of boiling mud looks like-

Lassen was nice, but we couldn't stay as long as we wanted without hot water for a shower. I know Peggy would agree with us on this one. We're spoiled Glampers now. Although, when Hell looks like this, it'd be nice to stay awhile.

So, we're on our way to Bend tomorrow to see if we can get the heater fixed. With a little luck, we'll have better internet in the future also. I'll let you know.

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Chico, Ca., USA, Earth

Not a bad place to spend an afternoon. It reminded us a lot of SLO. The downtown area anyway.

One difference is that the university is right dowtown, meaning there is a lot of student traffic; pedestrian and cycling. I've never seen so many bike racks in one area. Here's the style at Sierra Nevada Brewing-

They even have a repair station at the brewery-

Speaking of which, what a beautiful facility. It makes Firestone look like a garage brewing operation. The beer was yummy too. If you're ever in the area Gordon, we highly recommend it.

Unfortunately I tweaked my back something wicked about an hour before we left our house yesterday, and I can barely walk. So we didn't explore too much. One thing Chico is known for is beautiful murals. Just walking down the street you'll run into anything.

Or anybody. Sue ran into the Beatles and walked with them for a while.

 I know, big whoop, right. The Beatles are sooo past their time, right Jenny?

Tomorrow is Lassen, so I'm icing my back anticipating some wonderful hiking.

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On the Road Again

Yes folks, it's true.

We have once again hit the road in search of galactic cinnamon rolls, trails, micro brew pubs, mountains, trees, rivers, perhaps a grizzly or two, maybe even a new hat! If we find any worthy hats, you can bet we'll post them here first.

So far, so good. We drove to Milpitas and met the boys for lunch. No cinnamon rolls, but the baklava was to die for. Day one and my weight loss plan is going great- only one dessert.

For two nights we stay in a small town called Corning; just off the I 5. 1 night, full hookups (which means we can use the a/c- it's 104 outside right now at 5:30) for only $28!!

Tomorrow we're off to see Chico. OK, so this may not be the highlight of the trip, but I moved to California 46 years ago and have never been to Chico. I hear the Sierra Nevada Brewery is worth the trip alone. I'll report on that tomorrow.

Cheers!