Stinky Jay

Cleveland, OH to Richmond, VT

2008-09-02T13:32:00.000-07:00

Day 42: Mon 1 Sep: Home.

I wake up to Labor Day morning rest area zoo. The fact that I slept until 10:30am means I'm in the thick of it. The place I'd parked was not off to the edge of the rest area, either, but close to the center. But it really was the darkest spot last night.

This is only my third rest area sleep of the trip. The first one was in Kansas near the Colorado line, the second was in Montana, west of Billings. I like the independent-ness of crashing at rest areas, and some of them (not this one) are set up so that it's easy to get away from the lights. Also, if you crash early (I didn't) you can get up at dawn and just continue driving (like I did in Kansas).

The driving continues. Through Erie, PA, and onto the New York State Thruway, past Buffalo (which was where traffic picked up, and then once I got to the other side, disappeared), Rochester, and Syracuse. And then I trusted the GPS again. I had glanced at the route and noticed it was taking me off the Thruway to hit the Northway. That's fine; there's a shortcut near Schenectedy that we sometimes take, since diving south into Albany isn't necessary.

Alas, I didn't look closely enough. It took me off the Thruway long before Schenectedy and on state roads to eventually get on the Northway at Saratoga Springs. That was 40 miles of slow, wasted, driving. Another data point for Garmin's customer support center, I guess.

I entered Vermont, and took Rte 30 to Middlebury, during which there was another incredible sunset. They even happen here. Thinking about that, and about all the rain folks have said they've gotten, made me realize that I have been gone for 42 days and beautiful weather has followed me for all but perhaps three of them.

I pulled into the driveway with my new car, and parked it in the garage. Home.

The GPS reads 11,656 miles, of which 7.346 were done in this car. That's a lot of bug splat.

St. Paul, MN to Cleveland, OH

2008-09-02T10:04:00.000-07:00

Day 41: Sun 31 Aug: The Voyage Home.

I said goodbye to David and Josh and headed on the road. It's going to be Interstate all the way home (until I get close to Vermont), woohoo! I stopped at a rest area on the Wisconsin-Illinois line for a couple hours to eat, write blog entries, and generally relax. Based on Google Maps, the halfway point home would be I-90 in Ohio somewhere, so my goal for tonight is Ohio.

The GPS wants to take me through Canada (cross at Windsor and then come down from Montreal)! I know this can be done, but I don't think it's much faster. When I add a waypoint of Erie, PA to the route, it gets me home via the route I'd expect, and even though the GPS is set to find the fastest route, in less time (according to the GPS!). I've had a number of these experiences and plan on writing them all up and sending a letter to Garmin. It seems to draw a straight line from where you are to where you want to be, and never chooses a route that deviates too far from that line. Thus, to get from Rapid City, SD to Fargo, ND, it wants you to leave the I-90 in central South Dakota and take state roads north, eventually picking up I-94 to head east again. When I added an intermediate destination of Sioux City, SD, it said, fine, Interstate all the way, and look, you arrive significantly sooner too!

The drive was uneventful, aside from another GPS snafu (told me to take an exit off the I-90 toll road in IL, and then to get back on I-90). I stopped outside Toledo, and then decided I could go further.

I-90 in Cleveland: wow! It makes right angle turns. There are lots of warning signs: rumble strips, flashing lights, signs, more signs, and bigger signs, but it's pretty amazing that it happens at all. I mean, you're going 65mph, and then there's a sign about a severe 30mph curve ahead. I was awake, really!

I made it to a rest area east of Cleveland where I maneuvered the car so that street lights weren't shining in my eyes, pulled a baseball cap down over my face, and fell asleep.

Why twirling?

2008-08-31T20:57:00.000-07:00

Why did I head this day with "Twirling, twirling, and twirling"? Because this is the route I drove today:

View Larger Map

If I had stayed in Sioux Falls last night, and gone directly to St. Paul, it would have only taken me four hours of driving, instead of eleven. Of course, I wouldn't have seen yet another sprawling plains city (Fargo), met the nice guy in the coffee shop, or seen Bemidji or any of northern Minnesota, so I'm glad I did what I did. But on a map, it looks like I was traveling in a circle.

Now that I know how to embed Google Maps, I'm going back to my old postings and adding maps at the end of them.

Brookings, SD to St. Paul, MN

2008-08-31T14:19:00.000-07:00

Day 40: Sat 30 Aug: Twirling, twirling, and twirling.

When I initially left Glacier National Park three days ago, my plan was to take US 2 across the northern plains to Sault Ste. Marie, cross into Canada and come down into upstate New York to go to a Labor Day faerie gathering near Gouverneur. When I looked at that route, I realized I was going to be passing through Bemidji, Minnesota, a friend's home town. I called Chris and told him that and he said to be sure to get a picture of me in front of the statue of Paul Bunyan and Babe, The Blue Ox. Sounded like a plan.

The near accident in Alberta made me leery of driving long distances on two-lane highways (US 2 across all of Montana). The oil change for the Rabbit made stopping in Rapid City a requirement, but also let me see all the parks around there. But I was still planning on going to Sault Ste. Marie via Bemidji. I was going to miss the faerie gathering, and maybe get home on Tuesday instead of Monday, but so be it.

So I drove north to Fargo, where I stopped at another nice local coffee shop, wrote blog entries, and had a great conversation with the staff guy there who will for me be the image of a Fargonian. Then I headed to Bemidji, via Itasca State Park (headwaters of the Mississippi). Northern Minnesota is a lot like Vermont -- the hills are smaller, and there are more lakes and swamps, but there's a lot of greenery.

Just five miles before I got to Bemidji, the GPS odometer (which is the only mileage continuity between the two cars I've used on this trip) rolled over ten thousand. Ten thousand miles I've traveled! More, actually, since I didn't reset the trip meter on the GPS until I had been driving in Vermont about an hour. At the time, my OCD self felt it was a big letdown that it wasn't going to be perfect, but the miles I missed account for less than 1% of the total miles of the trip, so I got over it.

I got the picture I wanted. In the process I learned that Bemidji is another big BNSF railway town, since I saw and heard (mostly heard) the freight trains constantly in the brief time I was there.

I need to mention something else -- apparently Bemidji is the curling capital of the USA. I bet you didn't know that. Don't know what curling is? Think shuffleboard on ice. It seems to be a sport invented for ... insane purposes.

I then drove to Duluth, which is about a day's drive away from Sault Ste. Marie. I got there around 10pm and started looking for hotel rooms. Damn, it's Labor Day Weekend! I wasn't going to be traveling now! I was going to be camping in upstate New York! Indeed, very few hotel rooms were to be found. I found one online, booked it, and headed to the AmericInn (in Proctor, just south of Duluth).

When I got there, the front desk guy panicked. They were full. The reservation system had messed up. But wait, he had a duplicate reservation where someone had canceled one of the rooms, but not the other. He called the potential guests to see if they were coming; they weren't. I got a room!

But ... now I was wondering what the trip through Canada was going to be like -- would I be able to find places to stay? I wasn't going to be on major highways with rest areas to crash at. I'm also getting really tired of non-Interstate highway driving (Fargo to Bemidji, and parts all the way to Duluth, for example). It was going to take me three more days to get home. Maybe I should just give up and go the Chicago route that I had been avoiding because I didn't want to be in non-stop city for days. I don't know.

I turned my computer on and went online and made some friends in St. Paul, two hours away. I could stay there as long as I wanted. I headed to St. Paul, hotel room wasted (sorry), and met David and Josh. Chicago is six hours away. I can be home in two days, Monday night or Tuesday morning. I really want to be home. I mean, when I left Glacier, I thought about how close San Francisco or Vancouver were, and entertained the idea of driving back. But now I was so far east that home really is the only option. I think I may even be missing it some, actually. (How's that for an indefinite admission?).

Custer, SD to Brookings, SD

2008-08-29T22:26:00.002-07:00

Day 39: Fri 29 Aug: A screaming comes across the plains.

I woke up, and checked out. Well, I didn't really check out because there was no one there. I just left my key in the box and left.

I drove to Jewel Cave National Monument, and took the "Scenic Tour". There are elevators down into the cave. It was pretty cool. This cave is either the second or third longest explored system in the world (Mammath Caves being the first). The cave walls are covered in calcite crystals, with some draperies and flowstones. The colors came out a lot better with the flash on the camera than it looked in person. Some of the rooms are enormous -- large enough to fit the entire Visitors Center; one large enough to contain the parking lot. Unfortunately those huge rooms are accessible only via extremely tight passageways, so we didn't see them.

They also offer (like Mammoth Caves) spelunking tours, for the adventurous and non-claustrophobic. In the Visitors Center there's a small tunnel you have to be able to crawl through in order to be able to take the tour -- so you don't get stuck while you're underground.

Then I drove around Custer State Park. The whole area is awash in publicity for National Treasure: Book of Secrets, including the afore linked web site.

But, as you can see from the picture, there's a lot of bare granite poking up, and the parts that aren't bare are covered in ponderosa pine. It's pretty, and interesting (there's a bison herd and pronghorn antelope), but it's not the Rockies.

After driving the "Wildlife Loop" and not seeing any bison (I saw one beside the road elsewhere in the park), traveling behind slow cars, I realized I didn't have a whole lot of time before my 3:30pm appointment at the VW dealer.

I headed off to Crazy Horse Memorial, watched the orientation movie, and then had to leave for Rapid City. I wish I could have stayed there longer.

The oil change was uneventful -- the staff were really friendly. They recommended a locally-owned coffee joint with wifi, which turns out to be a midwest franchise chain (Dunn Brothers Coffee), but they were friendly and had public terminals where I researched my trip to the Badlands. It appears the Visitors Center closes at 5pm this time of year (it was after 5pm). I wasn't sure if the park was open or not, but figured I check and see when I drove by.

There are multiple entrances. I headed to the northeastern entrance, furthest away from Rapid City, but closest to the highway in case it was closed. It wasn't! They have campgrounds and stuff there so, like the other big parks I went to, at some (late) point the gate staff go home, but the park is always open. I drove from east to west, at sunset, through the park. It was beautiful.

The badlands at Petrified Forest National Park are more colorful, but these are interesting in that grass is often growing on the flat tops. There are two levels of grassland, one high, and one low, and the badlands are the transition between the two levels.

It really was beautiful. I found a good spot to watch the sunset, and discovered a setting on the camera that was better for photographing sunsets than the "sunset" setting (which adds a red filter and gives it colors it didn't really have in person). Unfortunately the sun had actually set by then, but I did get some great pictures of the wispy clouds in the sky.

The picture to the left was taken with the red, sunset, filter in place.

I had only just started driving by sunset. I had a lot of plains to cross. I drove across all of South Dakota (to Sioux Falls), and up a bit of the east side before stopping for the night at a motel in Brookings, SD (at 4am). I was exhausted.

Billings, MT to Custer, SD

2008-08-29T22:26:00.001-07:00

Day 38: Thu 28 Aug: The high plains go on and on...

Last night, before sleep, I realized that in the next day or two I was going to hit 5,000 miles on the Rabbit, which was oil change time. Since it was new, I wanted to take it to a VW dealer (silly, in hindsight). Well, the VW dealers nearest to my estimated 5,000 mile point were in Rapid City, SD; Sioux Falls, SD; and Fargo, ND. Actually, those are all the VW dealers in the northern plains. Vermont has more VW dealers than both the Dakotas, combined.

I had thought about catching I-94 to Fargo, but 5,000 miles was closer to Rapid City. Also, there are a lot of national parks near Rapid City, so I called the dealership and they had an opening on Friday afternoon. That meant I'd be spending Thursday night there and would have time to visit some of the parks. Cool.

The drive on I-90 from Billings, MT down into northeastern Wyoming and then southwestern South Dakota was a lot of brown hilly grasslands. It was very uneventful. There were some pretty steep hills along the route though.

I visited Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, which, most interestingly for me, recounted the history of the conflict between the US government and the plains Indians in the 1870s.

I went to Devils Tower National Monument. It's very cool. It was gong-show busy (I like Brian's term for very crowded tourist attractions). I did the loop around the tower, which was pretty. You can free-climb the tower, with a permit. I saw some people doing it.

There was also a prairie dog village in the park. Man, are they cute! I could watch them all day. Even better than chickens. They interact with each other, are curious, kiss and tussle and play, and generally act like little dogs while the graze the grass.

From there, I headed on towards Rapid City.

I visited Mount Rushmore National Monument just before sunset. It's pretty, but also gong show busy. And it's the definition of a patriotism park. The granite plaza leading up to the base of the monument and the arena for presentations was a bit over the top.

It was here I started learning more about the geology of the region. The Black Hills of South Dakota are an interesting granite outcrop in an otherwise vast, flat, expanse of sedimentary rock. All the peoples who have come across it have treated it specially. After hundreds and hundreds of miles of flat grassland, coming across a Ponderosa Pine forest must have been a treat. And sculptors like to carve things out of the hills.

Keystone is the town at the center of the Mount Rushmore tourist business and it was so crazy I swore I wouldn't stay there. A park ranger at Devils Tower had recommended that I go to either Jewel Cave or Wind Cave (both caves with interesting formations), but if I had time for only one, that Jewel Cave was prettier. So I ended up staying in Custer, not too far from Jewel Cave. It's the off season now and you can pretty much stay at any hotel for under $50. I found one I liked, a mom and pop rustic-style motel with really large rooms and checked in.

My plan for tomorrow is to get up early enough to do a tour at Jewel Cave, and then Crazy Horse, go to my oil change at 3:30pm in Rapid City, and then head to the Badlands. I'm a bit concerned about when the Badlands are open, since the web site implies that they close at 5pm, and I'm not sure if I'll make it or not, but I'll try.

I stay up too late reading, and then fall right asleep.

Polebridge, MT to Billings, MT

2008-08-28T00:45:00.001-07:00

Day 37: Wed 27 Aug: Montana goes on, and on.

I woke up, broke camp, and then spent some time just sitting at the edge of Bowman Lake, in the quiet. Mist was rolling in from part of the shore, and then a small breeze would blow it back to shore. Back and forth.

A family of loons was in the lake (I assume -- two large birds and one small one who spent a lot of time between the two) and made those eerie sounds loons make.

It was enchanting. I had debated taking a hike -- there were several starting from the lake, ranging from easy to difficult -- but it was so clouded in, and sprinkling, that I decided I'd be better off going to going to Polebridge Mercantile (the only thing in Polebridge -- it's at a bend in the road, and there are no houses anywhere). On the way in yesterday evening, I saw a sign saying (miraculously) that they had wifi. I say miraculously because this is as remote as I've ever seen a store be.

They did, and the place was hopping. It's the dropping off point for all sorts of expeditions and locals, in addition to being a bakery with delicious breakfast sandwiches and sweet rolls. I hung out there for two hours writing blog entries and talking to people.

Two guys came through, visiting from Spokane, who were looking to go to Bowman Lake and were waiting for the weather to get nicer. We talked about routes across Montana. One of them is from the bay area, the other used to live on Plattsburgh Air Force Base! We reminisced for a while and generally had a good time gabbing over coffee. They said that the weather was so bad at Logan Pass that they closed the road! Snow and low visibility. Wow. The weather (here) got (slightly) better, and they headed off. My battery wore down; I didn't want to plug in the spares I had; and the store doesn't have power outlets available. So I called it quits, and decided to head on.

Here's a great picture of the burnt out forest and some of the miles of almost mud season road I had to drive on to get into and out of Polebridge.

I drove back to the Apgar Visitors Center to confirm that, and talk to more people about routes across Montana. I wanted to cross at Sault Ste. Marie, which would have made US 2 the easy way across, but it's two lanes all the way across Montana, and only becomes four, or divided, in North Dakota. After the Alberta experience I wasn't so sure I wanted to be on a two lane highway for that long. I ended up heading south, on the east shore of Flathead Lake (beautiful) to get to I-90.

While driving, I placed some calls to folks who might have suggestions (including a former Montanan), but came up for nought. I ended up side-tripping to Helena to see said former Montanans former hometown and workplace. What a beautiful place Helena is in, and such a pretty town. I hung out there for a while, actually, chatting with folks at the Myrna Loy Center and having dinner at a place the box office guy recommended. I should have taken into account that he was only just going to college, and would send me to cheap chain restaurants. Oh well. The food at Perkins was good and the staff friendly, and it was right at the exit I needed to get on to.

I drove and drove and drove. Eventually I got to a rest area outside of Billings, MT, where I decided to call it a night.

Banff, AB to Polebridge, MT

2008-08-28T00:43:00.000-07:00

Day 36: Tue 26 Aug: Out of the Rockies and back into them again.

It was pouring rain when I left Banff. I had gotten some information on a scenic route to Waterton Lakes National Park from a ranger at Yoho National Park -- she mentioned Kananaskis Country, and gave me routes to drive through it. Basically, it's more of the Rockies. The rain eventually changed to slush (in August!) as I drove over Highwood Pass. It was there that I could see that the snow line was only a little higher than the road.

Once I got down out of the Rockies, I was on the high plains of Alberta, with the Rockies, covered in clouds, constantly to my right. It cleared up over the plains, but the mountains were still shrouded in clouds and mist.

I saw some large wind farms in Alberta, which was cool.

I had a near-fatal mishap, that was terrifyingly stupid. The road (Alberta-22) is two lanes, mostly straight, flat, and has a high speed limit. I was attempting to pass a dump truck filled with dirt (that had already dinged my windshield), in a passing zone, on a curve, on a hill, and I didn't have enough power (or he sped up going down the hill) as an RV came over the top of the hill coming the other way, down the hill towards me. Stupidly, and for unknown reasons, I did not slow down and pull back behind the dump truck. I tried to speed past it. I really don't know who was in control of my brain; certainly not the person who usually is. The near fatal mishap was the three of us passing each other -- the RV way over on their side of the road, the dump truck way over on our side, and me in the middle. Afterwards, I did brake and pull behind the dump truck, and slowed down to just below the speed limit, and let him get far ahead of me. I'm not sure, but I don't think I've passed another car on a two-lane road since (I'm writing this three days, and thousand(s) of miles, later.). Stupid stupid stupid. I'm very glad no one was hurt, the RV was fine in my rear view (didn't go off the highway), and no one stopped. I was afraid that the trucker would call it in or something and the Alberta police would be after me, which, frankly, I deserved. It was stupid and I have no explanation for it.

It took quite a while for the adrenalin to go away, and as a result, I don't have many pictures of what was incredibly beautiful Alberta foothills and sky.

I entered Waterton Lakes National Park, went to the Visitors Centre, and realized that Waterton Lakes is not, really, a mountain park. It's more the lakes in the foothills park. The US side is where the huge mountains are. So I turned around to head to the nearest border crossing.

Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park is interesting in that there are no border crossings within the park. There are also no roads that cross the border in the park. There are hiking trails that cross the international border, but none of them end up in a different country than the one you started in.

Aside from the US border guards wondering where my temporary plates were (California tapes a folded temporary registration to the lower passenger side of the windshield), I was back into the US with no hassles.

And thence to Glacier. Wow. Another mountain park. And it's pretty. And cold. And windy. It turns out there's a significant weather difference between the two sides of the continental divide. I entered the park on the east side, where it was dry and windy. I went up over Logan Pass, where it was very windy and in the 40s. The wind tore the car door out of my grip and slammed it into the next car's side view mirror. No damage to the other car. Mine now has a not insignificant ding (which, since I bottomed out on a speed bump in Jasper, and dinged the windshield from the dump truck, pretty much completes the break-in process on this vehicle. It's no longer new; it's mine.).

Coming down the west side, it's wetter -- temperate rain forest again, with lichen dangling down from the trees and lots of lush green.

The second of these Glacier Park pictures was taken from near the top of the pass, looking down onto one of the U-shaped glacial valleys below. It was beautiful, but too cold and windy to hang out for long.

I decided on the trip down the west side that I wanted to camp in as remote a location as possible, that I could drive to (since I don't have backpacking-style gear). That meant either Bowman Lake or Kintla Lake campgrounds. After taking the 15 mile dirt logging road to Polebridge that was required to get to either of them, I decided I'd had enough of dirt roads where 30mph was going too fast. So it was Bowman Lake, which was about 14 miles less of dirt road.

It was beautiful. I got there after the sun had set, but set up my tent and walked to the lake and just watched it disappear into the dark and mist. I think there were only about six other people at the campground. It was exactly what I had wanted.

I ate dinner (leftovers from the Safeway in Banff), and read some, and went to bed.

Lake Louise, AB to Banff, AB

2008-08-25T19:39:00.000-07:00

Day 35: Mon 25 Aug: I wish it would stop being beautiful so I could take some time to eat and sleep.

I woke up this morning not very rested. I didn't sleep very well on the top bunk, mostly because the room was too warm. I had breakfast at the restaurant associated with the hostel, which had had good food the night before, and had a really good breakfast. Irwin joined me and he talked about working the rigs (oil) in Alberta and how he's just got a job working at one of the resorts in Jasper Park (Tum ti Jaw, or something like that -- I drove by it enough times. It's in a beautiful spot, at the foot of Bow Glacier).

After breakfast, I headed off to the Icefields Centre.

It had rained the night before, which made me glad that I hadn't camped. And it was still sprinkling. And, just because the place wasn't beautiful enough already, there was a rainbow. A rainbow that continued most of the way up Hwy 93. Like the rainbow south of Big Sur, everyone was stopping to take pictures of it. I was no exception. I have dozens of photographs of it, but here's one to give you a taste. It was reflected off the smooth, still, turquoise lake.

Then it was off to the Icefields Centre. In the end, because of the crappy weather, I decided I wouldn't take one of the tours. I had already been on a glacier (at Mount Edith Cavell) and it was getting late in the day (noon) and I really wanted to go for a hike. So I snapped some photographs and talked to a ranger about the Parker Ridge hike.

The Athabaska Glacier is impressive. This is the view from the parking lot at the Icefields Centre.

Hidden beyond that terminal moraine is the rubble field filled with people looking at the glacier. If you look closely at the left, you can see a line of buses riding out onto the ice.

Just a short drive south of the Centre is the pullout for the Parker Ridge trail. I just needed to share this large sign that was at the trailhead.

No, I won't touch any unexploded ordnance, thank you very much.

These are the mortars that they shoot off to set off preventive avalanches.

Although I'd been at a lot of pullouts and trailheads, and had seen literally hundreds of "avalanche zone, do not stop" signs on the highway, this was the first time I saw a sign like this. At first I thought it was a reference to unexploded ordnance from an battle!

This hike was short, but then again, it was 250m of elevation change in a 1.5km hike. This, as it turns out, was the same exact slope of my 6km hike with a 1000m elevation change. Oh well, at least it was shorter.

The weather started getting nice just as I started the hike. The sun poked out for a bit, and it stopped raining.

Some women who had hiked ahead of me snapped this photo for me. That's the Saskatchewan Glacier (which is the origin of the Saskatchewan River) in the background. The trail continued on down the ridge (downstream from the glacier) quite a ways. I followed it for a while, since it was mostly level (going downhill is what was killing my knee; level ground was fine). I stopped in a couple places and just sat and enjoyed the view.

Eventually the weather turned and it got really windy and cold. The wind coming down off the icefield is fierce, and cold. I laid down behind some stunted spruce groves and just watched the sky and the hill. Unfortunately there was no place out of the wind in which I had a view of the glacier, since that's where the wind was coming from.

Oh, I wanted to point out the rocks. They all looked like they had fossil shells, or worm tunnels, in them. The circles were about the size of a dime.

I probably spent a couple hours just hanging out at the top of the ridge. Once I got down, it really started raining. I changed clothes (my motorcycle rainsuit does a good job of keeping the rain off, but not such a good job of letting sweat ventilate out) and shoes, and decided that I'd had my peak experience(s) and that I should start heading south.

They were doing a lot of construction on the Trans-Canada Highway to turn more of it into a caribou- and deer-proof four lane divided highway. The cool thing I noticed are the wildlife bridges! The road goes through underpasses (they look like tunnels made of quonset huts filled over with earth) that have forest above them, so that wildlife can get across the highway. It was pretty cool. I'd never seen anything like that before.

I drove to the town of Banff, which looks like a much bigger version of Jasper designed by the combined marketing departments of Eddie Bauer and L. L. Bean. All the buildings on the main drag were designed to look cabin-y. Even the Louis Vuitton store. I know the city is supposed to be beautiful, and I could make out hints of the mountains surrounding it, but it was very misty, cloudy, and rainy, so it wasn't that beautiful.

I found a cheap hotel, went to Safeway to pick up prepared food (too much, as it turns out, but it keeps) for dinner, wrote up some blog entries and went to bed.

Jasper, AB to Lake Louise, AB

2008-08-25T19:38:00.001-07:00

Day 34: Sun 24 Aug: I really can't believe it. It's all so stunning.

Today my plan was to work my way down 93 (the Icefields Parkway), taking side trips and time to see things. It was incredible. The first roadside stop I made was just a beautiful lookout over a small lake, but along a hillside that had recently burned. I thought it looked pretty, so I wanted to share the picture. For some reason the dead standing trees with the young grassland (or sometimes a young forest) beneath it looks exceptionally pretty to me.

I would see a fair number of landscapes like this, along with roadside pullouts with educational materials explaining the importance of fire to this ecosystem. It wasn't anything we hadn't heard before, but it was interesting to read about their plans for controlled burns on a regular basis.

I first took a side road to go up to Medicine Lake. It's a switchback up a steep, narrow, hanging valley (I was familiar with the concept of these from previous hikes in the Rockies). More pretty, stunning, views of mountains and forests.

Medicine Lake, however, was surprising. It looked like a turquoise blue, partially drained, reservoir. Then I read the information signs.

This lake has no outlet, and yet, every summer, it drains so low that the northern end is mostly just mudflats.

It turns out that the rock below the lake is fractured, and it drains out the bottom! Only in the summer when there's not enough rain or snowmelt to keep it full does it really drain.

Then it was off to Mount Edith Cavell. It was a long twisty road, with a snow-capped mountain in the distance that turned out to be the mountain the road took me to. With Angel Glacier on it, and its remains at the base, including a (turquoise) lake, with small icebergs in it.

There's a huge pile of boulders at the base of the glacier -- moraines. The landscape is really so fractal here that it's hard to judge distances. There are boulders of every size, so it's hard to tell if that's a man-sized rock quite a distance away, or a small rock closer in. It's made even more difficult by the spruce trees repopulating the moraine (since the glacier is retreating, that gives a place for trees to grow where they hadn't been able to, previously). They kind of look the same, regardless of scale -- again, is this a waist-high tree close by, or a 20 foot high tree in the distance? It's hard to tell.

Climbing on all the rocks, it was easy to misjudge distance and get too high or too far away from where you wanted to go. There really was no sense of scale. I was a giant and a fly, at the same time.

On/in the glacier at the base, there were a couple of large ice holes (cave-ins from above that created a tunnel from the top to the stones at the base) and a cave at the base.

There was a breeze of cold air coming out of this cave, and you could hear rushing water deep within the cave. I guessed that the cave went all the way back to the base of the cliff where the waterfalls were. I walked in to take pictures, but couldn't go very far because I had left my flashlight in the car. I thought about hiking back to the parking lot to get it, but decided that it was stupid enough of me to consider going into the treacherous ice cave alone. I saw a more prepared couple go in together (and later, come out), but I decided the wise thing to do was not to explore.

On the walk back to the car I met a couple who had seen me go in, and were glad to see that I had made it out. We joked about how easily I could have become famous, like that child who fell into the crevasse: "A man was killed in 2008 walking into an ice cave. Don't let this happen to you!".

The day went on -- I stopped at a spot where two rivers, of different shades of milky green, merged. I stopped at Athabasca Falls, which were kind of slightly larger version of Huntington Gorge, made extremely accessible to literally b'zillions of tourists.

I travelled further south. Every turn had another incredibly spectacular view. I stopped a lot. I took a lot of pictures. I soaked up the majesty. It was never-ending.

At a spot just north of the Icefields Centre I stopped at a pullout to capture this view. At the pullout were a couple of hikers who were trying to hitchhike back to their car. It took a moment for us all to realize that my French was actually much better than their English. André and Mimi from near Ottawa -- it was also their first time at the park and after I moved a lot of stuff around I was able to fit them in my car. We then shared exclamations and superlatives about how wonderful this park was.

When I mentioned that my legs were still sore from the hike I did at Glacier, they told me about a short hike that gave the best view of any they'd been on -- the Parker Ridge Trail, just south of the Icefields Centre, which goes up a ridge to give a spectacular view of Saskatchewan Glacier. I decided to try and do it tomorrow.

After dropping them off, I headed to the Icefields Centre, which I hadn't been to yet. I toured the museum to learn more about the Columbia Icefields, and glaciers in general. The ranger station had closed, but I got information about ice tours (where they take you on a big-treaded bus up onto the Athabaska Glacier) and decided to try and do one of them first thing in the morning.

And then it was time to figure out where I was going to spend the night. I headed down to Lake Louise Village, thinking it would be about the size of Jasper, when in fact it was quite tiny. I didn't feel like camping again (although it would have been much simpler if I had just left my tent up at Pocahontas). At the Visitors Centre they recommended a hotel (there are no cheap hotels in the parks), or a hostel. I decided to try the hostel.

I got a bed in a dorm room -- two bunk beds. I figured it would be nice to sleep in a bed, and to get a hot shower (yes, I said that -- I wanted a hot shower). I met two of my other roomies (Shawn from Australia, and Irwin from Calgary), and read until I was tired.

Illecillewaet Campground, BC to Jasper, AB

2008-08-25T19:34:00.000-07:00

Day 33: Sat 23 Aug: And I thought yesterday was beautiful.

I broke camp and headed off to Jasper National Park. To get there, I drive through some incredible country. There's a lot of road glued onto the sides of mountains, and road traveling along river valleys with steep, steep, steep, mountains on both sides of you.

Kicking Horse Country, I believe some of it is called.

I entered Yoho National Park (home of the Burgess Shale) and stopped at the Visitors Centre there because it was so beautiful (the town of Field sits at the bottom of the Kicking Horse River valley) and to get some ideas on where to stay for the next couple days. It was there I decided I would stay at the Pocahontas Campground at the north edge of Jasper National Park tonight, and work my way south from there. That campground would be the furthest north I've been in North America (so far).

Plans made, I took some pictures. I knew that the strange colors of the rivers were due to rock flour from glacial melt. In cooler seasons, when the glaciers aren't melting, they run clear, but this time of year, they all have a milky green color that if you saw it in Vermont you wouldn't want to touch the water. I would see a lot of different shades of milky green and turqoise over the next several days.

I got off the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 1) just north of Lake Louise and headed north on 93. And as soon as I did so, I saw ... glaciers. Lots of them. The mountains on the west side of the road are covered in them. I was stopping at every pullout to look more closely and take pictures. And the lakes! They are all an incredible turquoise color. It's strange and beautiful. Eventually it would stop being strange and become pretty normal since I didn't see another non-turquoise lake for days.

And then I got to the Columbia Icefields Centre. I couldn't believe it! There's a glacier that comes down to the road! You can hike to the lip of the glacier, and people were climbing all over it (heedless of the warnings about how as recently as a couple years ago, a kid died after falling into a crevasse at the lip). The glacier doesn't actually come down to the road any more -- it did earlier this century, but they are all retreating, and it's a short hike to it now. But it's there. You can see it from the road. Even with my (very) sore legs, I hiked over the terminal moraine (several of them) to get to the lip to see it. It's the Athabasca Glacier, the source of the Athabasca River, whose waters eventually drain into the Arctic Ocean.

Incredible.

I kept driving, and stopping, and looking. There are large stretches of forest recovering from fires; and large stretches infested with Pine Bark Beetle. The Pine Bark Beetle is a natural part of the ecosystem, and only affects weakened and old trees. Unfortunately, due to decades of fire suppression (a policy since reversed), most of the forests are very old. Also, it is more usually found further south, since it is kept in check by severe winters, but climate change has extended its range further north.

I made it to the town of Jasper, which is a railway town turned tourist destination. It had a fun, funky, feel, with a huge mix of visitors (from backpackers to high end tourists, locals and far-flung foreign itinerant summer labor). I ate dinner there at a Korean place, and then headed even further north to the campground. There are some hot springs just 15km from the campground, but they are fully-developed, and hanging out in a bathing suit in a hot swimming pool with a lot of people (Gong Show, Brian and his friends called it) would have been a let-down after the great hot spring experiences of a couple days ago. So I didn't go. I set up my tent, and crashed.

Illecillewaet Glacier, BC

2008-08-22T18:38:00.001-07:00

Day 32: Fri 22 Aug: Oh My Effing God.

Today I hiked the Perley Rock trail to the edge of the Illecillewaet Glacier. I knew it was going to be a bit above me (it's rated "most difficult"), but I figured if I allowed enough time, I'd be fine.

Perley Rock is the third hump from the right in the above photograph. I ended up hiking not to its top, but behind it, to the glacier.

The first thing I should say is that when everything is in meters and kilometers, it all seems so much more doable than it does when you convert it to feet and miles. The trail starts at Illecillewaet Campground, which is at 1,200m. Twelve hundred meters doesn't seem so high, but it's about 4,000 feet, which is high enough to feel. The trail goes for 5.6km (3.5 miles), and you come back the same way, so 7 miles total. And you top out at (get ready) 2,400m (about 8,000 feet). My sea-level lungs were challenged, needless to say. As was every muscle in my body from my hips on down.

For the steeper portions near the top (probably about a third of the trail), all I did was count 100 steps, and stop and rest until I caught my breath. Sometimes I could only go 50 steps. Whatever I could manage. Pacing myself wasn't helping; it didn't really matter how slowly I took my steps, I would still need a rest to catch my breath. It was also made more difficult by the will-breaking magnitude of some of the peaks I was under. I couldn't really tell where the trail was going, except up, and some of the peaks I was under were so enormous that I didn't think I would be able to get to the top. It helped when some hikers coming down said I was only an hour away. An hour? The way I felt I should have been there already.

The trail got a bit confusing when it went over snow. The trail ended at a snowfield that had some very old footprints in it, but no fresh ones. I knew there were people ahead of me, so they must have gone somewhere, but it took me a while to figure it out. I wandered around following footprints (scrapes, really) in the muddy scree for a while. It turns out that they had gone above the snowfield to the base of the cliff it started at and hiked the narrow gap there.

But it was worth it. Oh man, it was so worth it. The view going up was intense, but going up over the last ridge there was the vast expanse of glacier in front of me, including some meltponds and a lake. Incredible. There was a family at the top, and they took a picture of me against the icefields, one of the few pictures on this trip with me in it. I need to learn how to use the face auto-detect mode of the camera at some point. I was just in awe, in every direction, but mostly to the glacier side, since I'd been staring at incredible mountain vistas the whole way up.

The white icefield (Illecillewaet Névé) beyond the glacier just goes on for miles. And it goes up several hundred more meters.

The weather was perfect -- mostly sunny. It started to turn more to cloudy, which made me find a wind-sheltered place to hang out, lay down, and stare up at the sky. Eventually I needed to head back down, since my plan was to be off the mountain by 5pm.

The trip down was fast, but grueling. My right knee was really feeling it, as were the soles of my feet. I didn't have the best footwear. I need to remember that when I go hiking, I should wear my thick polypro socks with these boots, because otherwise my feet slide around too much. The toe that I had smashed in SF actually did fine. It's still a bit sore if I stub or jam it, but I've got no problems pushing off with it.

In this picture looking down, you can see the Asulkan Brook. I'm not sure where this particular stream ends up, but I know I'm close to the headwaters of the Columbia River. Rivers from the mountain parks flow to the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic oceans. Way off in the distance, down at the bottom, you can see a stretch of Highway 1. It was a long way down, and I took this picture when I was already about a third of the way down.

I finally made it back to the campground, where I decided that my aching feet would be better served by spending the night here than driving anywhere. When I checked in, they asked for where I was from, and when I said Vermont, the campground attendant said he was from Montréal, and loved skiing at Jay Peak -- that is, until he took a job at Banff. We all agree that once you've skiied the West, there's no going back to the East.

I set up my too-huge tent (we've fit two queen-sized air mattresses and four people in this tent), and sat down and wrote this. I'm going to sign off, read a bit, and then go to bed.

I say that, but it's 7pm, and the sun is setting against the mountains and the clouds and mountains look incredible. Man, can it get any more beautiful?

Nakusp, BC to Rogers Pass, BC

2008-08-21T18:59:00.001-07:00

Day 31: Thu 21 Aug: I enter the Mountain Parks.

I woke up very late this morning. We had breakfast mostly-in-bed as Sean took our various snack-y purchases and combined them into makeshift sandwiches of cheese and sausage. We all ended up napping after breakfast, after which Brian and I got up and hot spring'd again. Check out time arrived sooner than we were ready for, and we quickly packed. I should have taken a picture of the inside of the cabin -- with the sofa bed out, and the other bed, we couldn't open the door all the way. It was the definition of cozy with all four of us in there.

Last night I noticed on a map, and Brian confirmed, that we were a long ways from Nelson, and very close to my next destination. Since I had all my stuff with me, Brian offered to catch a ride back home with Sean and Melissa, so I could just continue on. We said our goodbyes and headed out.

It was still rainy/misty/cloudy, but I got some better pictures of the lake and headed off.

These lakes are miles and miles long, and very narrow. Many of them have free ferries across them, and this one is no different. In fact, the highway ends at the ferry dock, and picks up again across the lake.

The scenery here is incredible. I keep saying that, but it continues to be true. Some of these lakes remind me of the Vermont road that goes by Greensboro. They have steep mountains and no beaches and sometimes lots of camps.

I drove to Revelstoke, BC. It is a Canadian Pacific Railway town (currently in the midst of Railroad Days) with a frigging intense beautiful mountain looking over the whole city. It's also a big lumber town -- the whole place smells like wood.

I forgot to mention that there are so many logging trucks and wood chip trucks on these highways that there is always tree bark in the road. You don't want to tailgate these guys.

I hung out in a bakery with wifi (Modern Bake Shop and Cafe) for a while planning my next step. Brian had mentioned that there was a hotel at the top of Rogers Pass (in Glacier Park) that I should stay at. I tried to find it online, but couldn't, but figured I would see it when I passed it. Glacier Park was only 30 minutes away.

I ended up finding it no problem. I checked out the Visitors Centre, bought my Canada National Parks Pass (since I plan on camping for several nights in Banff/Jasper, it was cheaper to buy an annual pass), bought some maps (including an intense wall-sized topo of the parks), and got some advice on a good day hike that would get me to a glacier. Then I watched Simpsons and South Park and went to sleep.

Nelson, BC to Nakusp, BC

2008-08-21T18:03:00.000-07:00

Day 30: Wed 20 Aug: Hot springs!

I was actually crashing on a family visit of Brian's. His brother and sister-in-law were visiting from Brooklyn and had been touring around the area for a few days. The plan for today was to hang out, tour the area hot springs, and spend the night in a cabin with our own private hot spring. Since it was a misty, coudy, rainy day, it worked out perfectly.

Wow. First off, the driving was incredible. We went through South Slocan, Winlaw, Slocan, New Denver, and Nakusp. Most of these towns are lakeside, each lake just a gash in the mountains filled with water. And the mountains are steep. Brian kept pointing out that we couldn't even see the magnitude of the mountains -- the mist and clouds were hiding the even higher mountains behind and above the ones we were seeing.

As we passed through Winlaw, Brian briefed me on the marijuana economy of the area. "Probably one out of every three houses here (Winlaw) is a home-grower." I had already been told that you don't ask people what they do here, because they'll make stuff up. (I try not to do that anyway, because Miss Manners says you shouldn't.) That there are so many home-growers (who make a decent living without spending a lot of time doing it) means that there is a lot of volunteer labor for things like maintaining trails and hot springs and the arts, etc. The fact that the whole region is just so damn hard to get to means the people who live here all chose to live here, and so the place has a totally positive vibe. Anyhow, just an aside.

We bought some food, met up with Brian's brother and sister-in-law and went to St. Leon Hot Springs. That name makes it sound like a place you could find on a map, but actually it's a hot spring on a hillside above the St. Leon Creek that you get to by logging road (Google Maps has it as St. Leon Creek Rd), parking, and then hiking down a substantial hillside under cedars, fir, and spruce.

It was beautiful. We all agreed that what Vermont is really missing is a good hot spring in the woods.

This hot spring was a network of plastic pipes stuck into seeps on the hillside draining into pools made of rock and cement. You could juggle the pipes around to try and get a reasonable temperature. The main pool was hot tub (104º) temperature. There was a hotter one that I didn't go into. It was raining through the trees, and cloudy, and other people came and went in two, threes, and fives. It was wonderful. We were there, in the sulfurous water, for four hours.

From there we trekked to dinner. The nearest food was at Halcyon Hot Springs, a fully-developed hot spring resort. Not necessarily ideal (resort restaurant), but it was late, we were tired, and the other alternatives were quite a ways away. We ate at the restaurant with a view of the lake and their hot springs (which just looked like a series of hotel swimming pools) and were glad that we had done it the way we had.

After dinner, we drove to Coyote Hot Springs, a primitive hot springs resort. The four of us stayed in a cabin with a sofa bed, with a private pool filled with hot spring (sulfur, again) water. The pool was meant for lounging and sitting, not swimming, which was perfect. One half was about two feet deep and the other half about three or four feet deep. I took the picture to the right the next day, in daylight, as we were leaving. They had already drained the pool in preparation for the next guests.

Brian and I hung out in the water until quite late. We eventually crawled into our sleeping bags on the sofa bed and passed out.

Vancouver, BC to Nelson, BC

2008-08-21T16:45:00.000-07:00

Day 29: Tue 19 Aug: Another day, another half dozen ecosystems.

Mario made a delicious breakfast to send me on my way. I'm sad that I couldn't stay longer, but look forward to my return. This trip has been more about breadth than depth, but I've now got a pretty good list of places I'd like to spend more extended time in.

Mario gave me a route out of town that would avoid late rush hour traffic. Remember what I said about there not being any freeways in Vancouver? I imagine it diversifies the routes people take to get to and from their work, since many different paths are mostly the same. His instructions worked great, and I didn't hit any traffic on my way out. I did have an incident when I shifted into the second rightmost lane on a bridge in preparation for getting off in two exits, only to discover that the right two lanes were exit-only. The taxi driver who I cut off (twice) seemed remarkably forgiving.

As Brian's brother and sister-in-law put it: "Canada: a kinder, gentler, United States."

I made my way down CA-1 along the Fraser Valley to Hope. It says something about the mountains I was coming upon that there was a huge, electronic, sign detailing which of the four major routes through the mountains were open.

It was cloudy and drizzly most of the way, which seemed odd, since the landscape looked very Californian: conifers and dead (oops, I mean golden) grass. It's not supposed to rain in August in California. Or Oregon. Or Washington (outside of the coastal rain forest). Or, as it turns out, central British Columbia. Everyone said it was weird.

The mountains here are steep. I mean, really steep. Like, just pushed up from the ocean floor and not enough time has passed for any significant erosion steep. Landslide steep. And indeed, I drove by a memorial for the Hope Slide. Let's just say that the road I drove on was 30 meters higher than the road I would have driven on before January 9, 1965. The picture to the left is of some of the rockfall from that slide.

As I would later learn from Brian, avalanches and landslides occur with amazingly lethal regularity. The highways I would drive on for the next several days all contained gates at irregular intervals to block traffic during avalanche remediation. It's very weird to be driving on a high-speed (although not divided) highway and pass through a railroad gate-arm with no railroad crossing.

I drove along a long stretch of the Similkameen River, which is the irrigation source for acres and acres of orchards. Cherries, peaches, apples, grapes, berries, you name it. Some of the twons I drove through were non-stop fruit-stand strip-malls. The picture to the right is of the mountain above Keremeos, one of these orchard towns.

Gas prices in Canada have not gone up as much as in the US, and with the exchange rate the way it is, Canadian gasoline really isn't that much more expensive than that in the US.

I eventually made it to Nelson, to Brian's house. Nelson is a pretty crunchy, hippie, outdoorsy, town. It's very beautiful. It is on the south shore of the long, thin, west branch of Kootenay Lake. It seems like every town here has its own hydropower dam, advertised when you get into each town. Nelson as well. The mountainsides are steep, and although Nelson is laid out on a grid, that grid has some weirdnesses due to the steepness of the hill streets.

Brian's housemate Lauren (Loren?) let me in. Ollie (Brian's dog) remembered me (and probably will never forget the snowy night he managed to score a roast off of our grill). I quickly met a couple Shambala-ian drop-bys, including a guy from Montpelier, VT (one of several Montpelierites I would meet in Nelson) who runs The Vermont Hemp Trade Initiative. He's been traveling across Canada picking up hemp products to sell in California, and since I was coming from where he was going, and vice versa, we talked a bit about the must-sees and the can-skips.

The Shambalians eventually moved on. Another house guest (name forgotten) arrived from climbing in the Bugaboos. He's connected to everyone else at the house through NOLS, and had been doing some serious (to me) climbing. Brian eventually arrived home and we all had a delicious, vegan, rice-bowl dinner with great conversation.

It had been a long day, and bed was very welcome.

Vancouver, BC

2008-08-21T13:45:00.000-07:00

Day 26: Sat 16 Aug through Day 28: Mon 18 Aug: Vancouver! Vancouver is a great city, and Mario a wonderful host.

I'm writing this almost a week later, and know I am leaving things out. Sorry.

On Saturday, Mario took me on a walking tour of Sunset Beach (I forgot my camera, so no pics, sorry. Look it up in Google Earth.), and also some barhopping. I got to meet some of his friends, and generally have a good time walking around and getting oriented.

At one of the bars I got into a very heated discussion about the US health care system with a German (I think) and a Bush refugee (American ex-pat, from Minneapolis, living in Seattle, marrying a Canadian). Even though they couldn't have been preaching to a more receptive choir, it didn't seem that they had any solutions other than leave. I mean, I know our health-care system as a heavy consumer, as an advocate for an even heavier consumer, as an employer who provides insurance to his employees, as an employee, and as a business who helps providers get paid from our totally brain-dead system. It just seemed to provide a way for everyone to do some bashing without thinking about it. I mean, really, how do you implement a single-payor system in a country where socialism is a dirty word? Anyhow, it was refreshing to get into a semi-intelligent political discussion in a gay bar.

One of the things that makes Vancouver special, as a large city, is that there are no downtown freeways. It's all surface streets. This makes it eminently walkable, and bicyclable. Just think of all the places you can't go in Boston, New York, San Francisco, because you can't cross the freeways, or don't want to be near them. Not so in Vancouver. There are crosswalks everywhere.

Oh, and bicyclists beware, the police enforce traffic laws on bicyclists. We saw a guy getting a ticket for riding on a city street without a helmet.

In the evening, we went to Stanley Park, the huge park at the northern edge of the peninsula. It's the large parks that make the cities, I've come to see. Balboa Park in San Diego, Central Park in NYC, The Common in Boston, Golden Gate Park in SF, and Stanley Park in Vancouver. They are each different, in terms of size, accessibility, separateness, etc, but they definitely lend and reflect the character of the cities they are in.

We arrived just in time for sunset, and what an incredible sunset it was. Everywhere you look in this city, there is ocean and mountains. It's great.

We took a nap, and then went clubbing at Club 816: The World. Good house music, with a local DJ, that lasted into the morning.

Sunday, we laid low, since we didn't get to bed until around 8am. We went to beer bust at Pumpjacks in the afternoon.

Monday, Mario worked in the morning, but was able to solve the Apache/ PHP/ SSL problem (well, the Apache/PHP part) that had been bothering him since Friday, and was able to take the afternoon off. I had woken up late, and then struggled with the wireless in his condo (it had been working flawlessly, but was suddenly unable to connect... It went on for over an hour before I just gave up, and by then it was so close to lunch time that I didn't want to leave to go exploring because I knew he was coming home for lunch), so it wasn't the greatest of mornings. That turned around when he got home.

We had a late breakfast, and then went for a walk around downtown Vancouver -- to the cruise ship dock, around the marinas, and back home. Vancouver is in the middle of a massive construction boom, partly because of the 2010 Winter Olympics, but only partly. Business is booming, and condo high-rises and office buildings are going up everywhere. The convention center by the cruise ship dock is in the middle of an intense renovation, and there are construction cranes everywhere.

Just in case you didn't know how long it was until the 2010 Winter Olympics, there's a sign in the city centre telling you.

Aberdeen, WA to Vancouver, BC

2008-08-17T13:12:00.000-07:00

Day 25: Fri 15 Aug: twenty hours, twenty ecosystems. Oh, and beauty.

Woke up in the motel and did some real trip planning for this day. Originally I had planned on spending three nights at Olympic National Park, but I spent an extra day in SF, and an extra day in Portland (neither of which I regret), and wanted to be in Vancouver for the weekend. So I had a day to get from Aberdeen, to Hoh Rain Forest, to however it was I was going to get to Vancouver.

The drive was great; this was the first time I went through severely logged (clearcut) areas. It's very weird. Since they are, basically, farms, they face all the issues that farmers who plow do in losing their topsoil. I saw some farming in Oregon that seemed to have no care for the fact that they were kicking up dust clouds for miles. I don't know how much erosion occurs in some of those clear-cut slopes; unlike some other ecosystems I have driven through, there seems to be a very healthy amount of underbrush that might help in holding the soil together once it's become tree-less. It was a horror that old growth forest got cut down for this, but once that happens, it's the same as having plowed up the prairie.

Is there anywhere in Washington State where you do not have an incredible view of a glacier-topped mountain in the distance? Mt. St. Helens; Mt. Adams; Mt. Rainier; Mt. Olympus; Mount Baker; Glacier Peak?

Hoh Rain Forest was cool; but August is the dry season, and there were lots of tourists. I did a short hike and got some great moss pictures. The Sitka Spruce, which grows only in these coastal rain forests, gets particularly enormous here. That's my backpack at the base of the trunk.

Then the driving schedule set in. I had originally planned on taking the Port Angeles ferry to Victoria, and then another ferry from either Victoria or Nanaimo to Vancouver. When I invesigated the schedules, I was only going to be able to make the last Port Angeles ferry, and my brief glance at the other schedules made it appear that I wouldn't be able to get to Vancouver that evening. In a more intense look at the schedules, and also knowing what my real arrival time turned out to be (10pm, instead of, say 4pm), I probably could have made it totally via ferry.

So I raced for Port Townsend to catch the ferry there to another place in Washington from which I would be able to get on I-5N. On a sign approaching Port Townsend, it said to call 511 because reservations were required. Oops. I was not ready for that. I called, and they do have a limited number of standby's available, first-come first-served. They're running on only one ferry, at half-schedule, etc, so reservations were strongly requested. I missed making it onto the first ferry, but was the first standby onto the second.

Got on I-5N north of Seattle and south of Bellingham, and saw an incredible sunset. What I've finally realized is that these particular sunsets I comment on are not everyday events. The locals talk about them with reverence and awe. "This is the land of beautiful sunsets, but today's was prime."

They actually have signs on the highway telling you the border wait times at the various crossings, so I went off I-5 to save twenty minutes of waiting. They were, of course, surprised that I was visiting from Vermont, only had a vague knowledge of where I was going to go in Canada, and was driving a newly bought California car. So I got sent to immigration, which just ended up being them using my IDs to run a background check, and I was sent on my way. No search! That was nice.

I arrived at Mario's at around 10:30pm. I showered, got settled in, and dragged out for some Vancouver night life, which was fun. Mario lives on the 20th floor of a building with great views of the harbor/bay, and right walking or biking distance to everywhere. I can understand why he likes it here so much.

Portland, OR to Aberdeen, WA

2008-08-14T23:12:00.000-07:00

Day 24: Thu 14 Aug: More beauty.

I woke up late, and hung out with Michael and Eric. Michael was getting packed to fly to Arcata for the weekend (where he used to live, and from whence I had just driven), while I did some route planning. Michael and Eric had recently gotten back from a two week visit to the northern Rockies, including Glacier National Park and Banff and Vancouver (all of which are on my itinerary), and Michael gave me some good tips on places to go in Glacier. Right around noon, I headed off.

Thank you guys! It was great seeing you again.

My plan was to get to Olympic National Park, or nearby, today. That plan got waylaid when I decided that I really shouldn't miss Mount St. Helens. I'm glad I went. It's a bit of an out-of-the-way drive, but the scenery is intense. It also ties together a lot of the stuff I've already seen in other parks: the Painted Desert and petrified logs in Petrified Forest National Park, the volcanic terrain in northern Arizona, etc. Here it all was, in one place, and it happened less than thirty years ago.

I went to the Johnston Ridge Observatory, on the north side of the mountain, which is the side that blew up (and out). The geology of the region is a result of the independent series of events that happened when the volcano erupted: the north side of the mountain collapsed in the largest landslide in recorded history; the release of the pressure of the mountain caused the underlying high-gas-content magma to explode, vertically, and laterally in a pyroclastic flow; the heat of the magmas melted all the snow and glaciers which then flooded downslope; finally there was the ashfall. At least, that's what I remember. And afterwards, the heat from the rock would sometimes boil the river or lake water it had buried, which would cause mini-explosions and craters up to a quarter-mile across.

I should point out that when you look at these pictures of the caldera, that before the eruption, Mount St. Helens had a pointy peak, like Mt. Hood. It's really dramatic in the before and ftare pictures, but from these pictures here, just imagine the cone of the mountain continuing up to a point. It's all gone, distributed across the surrounding landscape.

The Observatory has a great movie, and really informative exhibits. It was hard not to tear up when reading the first-person accounts of the people who lived through it, and hearing the last words of people who didn't live through it.

Thirty years later, parts of it still look like the moon. The blast knocked down trees, or, further away, seared them standing. That is in evidence all around the area. The colors were much like the Painted Desert, and for much the same reason, I imagine.

I didn't leave the park until about 6pm. There was no way I was going to make it to an Olympic National Park campground before they closed, so I decided to stop in the biggest town on the way there, which, on the map, looked like Aberdeen. So here I am. Aberdeen is a lumber town. Driving in to town, there's a lumber yard on the river that just goes on forever, with huge stacks of dimensional lumber.

I went online looking for cheap places to stay, was scared by some reviews, and ended up staying at "America's Best Value Inn". Sheesh, what a name. Since the mom and pop Mexican/Salvadorean restaurant across the street was already closed, I got dinner at Mazatlan, a more chain-y Mexican restaurant. I had the Tacos Al Carbon, which were really good.

Portland, OR

2008-08-14T22:51:00.000-07:00

Day 23: Wed 13 Aug: Another beautiful day.

In my over-scheduled first four week plan of this trip, I was to leave San Francisco on Sunday, spend only one day in Portland, and three nights in Olympic National Park. I spent an extra day in SF, and, now, an extra day in Portland. Michael said, "Stay! Don't you want to go skinny dipping at Rooster Rock?". I'm glad I did.

East of Portland, off I-84, is Rooster Rock State Park. It's three miles of sandy beaches along the Columbia River, some of which are officially designated clothing optional. Michael called around, and a group of seven of us ended up caravanning there.

On the way there, I saw Mt. St. Helens to the north, and Mt. Hood to the east. With views like that, why would you want to live anywhere else?

The beach was beautiful. One the hike there, we picked blackberries, the Oregon state weed. The river was not too cold, the sun was hot, and the view immense. The Columbia River valley formed in a catastrophic event a million years ago called the Missoula Floods, and the geology of the region is striking. We had fun swimming and playing on the beach. There's a mile-long sand bar in the middle of the river that was too far for me to swim too, but the river was low enough that downstream you could walk onto it. "Sand bar" is a misnomer, because it is an island with deer, beaver, and a full-fledged forest on it. The downstream sandy section is a dune about fifty feet high. Xzom, Saguda, and I walked around the island. It was bigger than it looked. It was a classic "three hour tour". The upstream end of the island was blanketed by rushes and grasses. The rushes weren't so bad to walk through, but the grass nicked my legs enough that when we got back to beach, the cold water felt really good. By the time we got back, the sun had set (beautifully, in the west, in the downstream channel), everyone had packed up and was waiting for us on the beach. It was a fun adventure.

Even the locals said the day, and the sunset, were spectacular.

We headed off back to Portland for dinner at the Laughing Planet, which was really good. The outdoor seating in the back made for a good time.

Michael, Eric, and I headed back home, where we watched a little bit of the Olympics (synchronized men's diving!). I didn't last too long before I had to crash.

Arcata, CA to Portland, OR

2008-08-14T21:57:00.000-07:00

Day 22: Tue 12 Aug: The beauty continues...

Woke up, checked out of my motel, and looked for breakfast. The place the desk clerk recommended was closed on Tuesdays, as was the bagel joint across the street, so I headed to the plaza and had a really good breakfast at the Big Blue Cafe. Arcata is the home of Humboldt State University (part of the Cal State system), and it has a very lefty, hippie, crunchy, bent. On the way in the night before, one of the "adopt-a-highway" signs was sponsored by HSU NORML.

US 101 here is also a bicycle route. That means, among other things, that when there is a narrow bridge on the highway, there are special lights that flash to notify you that there is a bicyclist on the bridge. The lights flash because there are buttons for bicyclist to push, and/or sensors in the pavement that detects them when they ride over them. Anyhow, it was something I'd never seen before. And yes, one time the lights were flashing and there were no bicyclists.

After that late start, I headed up the coast. US 101 goes through a stretch of Redwood National Park. It's a beautiful ride. I saw a herd of elk. On this part of the trip, I wasn't sure whether I wanted to stay on US 101 through Oregon, and then go up the Columbia River to Portland, or whether to take US 199 to I-5. OCD-me wanted to stay on 101. Driving-me didn't want to stop and make a decision. The Garmin GPS does not always find the fastest route, even when it is set to. From Brookings, it said to stay on US 101. When I said I wanted to go to Portland via Crescent City, CA (thirty minutes to the south), it gave me another route, with an estimated arrival time thirty minutes earlier than the "direct" one. I would really like a GPS tied to Google Maps/Earth. Anyhow my indecision took me as far as Brookings, OR, where 101 was under major construction, and resembled a never-ending strip mall, so I turned around and headed south to take the US 199/I-5 route. I'm glad I did, because I stopped at a visitor's center in Redwood National Park, got directions to one of the redwood groves (Stout Grove) and visited it.

I've been to the redwoods before, and they are pretty to drive by and all (I've driven by plenty on this trip), but I keep forgetting what it actually feels like to be walking in the midst of them. Again, like most of the majestic scenery on this trip, it doesn't photograph well. But walking among the giants is a trip.

As much as I disliked the child-pandering Ewoks of The Empire Strikes Back, when I was driving through the forest, that's all I could think of.

US 199 to Grants Pass is another twisty-turny road up and down mountains with challenges akin to Hwy 1. There was a lot of road work getting it in better shape. I continue to have fun with the Rabbit. On I-5, I was enjoying taking the 55mph turns at 70. There's so much up and down, and so much tractor-trailer traffic (that slows down to 40mph on the hills), that everyone was jockeying for position.

Central Oregon is the Willamette River Valley: I crossed the river multiple times, the last time being at the Ross Island Bridge in Portland. The GPS took me on a weird route to get to the bridge from I-5. Later, I confirmed that this was the optimal/only way to get to the bridge. It involves exiting off of I-5, making a couple sharp turns, traveling on a residential neighborhood street for half a block, and then quickly merging onto another mega-lane road. The people living in that neighborhood must not like it one bit.

I pulled up right in front of Michael and Eric's house at around 8:00pm, where Michael was watering their plants. They have pretty intense plantings, including an apple tree that is currently bearing fruit. It looks a bit prehistoric, the way the plants encircle the house. The fact that there are little toy dinosaurs everywhere just heightens the effect. The neighborhood is residential, but a short walk from restaurants, grocery store, and has a nice mix of commerical and residential. We went for sushi for dinner, and headed home. I was confused as to whether I had met Eric before; I hadn't, as it turns out.

San Francisco, CA to Arcata, CA

2008-08-11T22:32:00.000-07:00

Day 21: Mon 11 Aug: So much beauty.

I left SF much later than I had intended to, even though I got up much earlier than I had wanted. Last night the only parking spot I could find had street cleaning from 8am to 10am on Monday. So I got up early and moved the car. And then, once everyone had gone to work, moved it again to right near the apartment. I did laundry, packed the car, and had a very hearty lunch at Toast. I followed the GPS's instructions for getting to the Golden Gate Bridge, and it took me on an unusual, but very pretty, route practically over Twin Peaks.

The Golden Gate Bridge was fogged in on the SF side. It made it look like the roadway just disappeared into whiteness.

Highway 1. The parts where I was stuck behind a slow car who wouldn't pull over were tedious, but other than that, it's an amazing road. I didn't stop much simply because I didn't want to have to pass the slowpokes more than once. The road itself is an engineering marvel. I wonder how much California has to spend every year to keep it glued onto the constantly eroding, and occasionally burning, hillsides? It certainly doesn't seem cost-effective, although I'm very glad they do it.

I love the Rabbit. I made a lot of use of the Sport gear (for power going up, and some slowness going down), and the Tiptronic (engine braking) today.

The towns along Highway 1 remind me of Vermont villages. They are small; there's not much around; and they each have their own character.

I drove through fog and sun and fog and redwoods and pines and redwoods. I drove up and down and up and around and down (every river, stream, arroyo, gulch, or gully seemed to require a descent to sea level to get over). I finally arrived in Arcata at 8:30pm.

And so here I sit, in the Fairwinds Motel, signing off before bed.

San Francisco, CA

2008-08-11T21:12:00.000-07:00

Day 16: Wed 6 Aug through Day 20: Sun 10 Aug. A consolidated entry for my San Francisco visit.

I was in SF for five days, and managed to fill them pretty chock full.

On Wednesday I met up with Joe and Jerry for lunch at Chow at Church, and then we wandered around the Castro trying to burn off all the calories. That evening, on the way to Jerry's for dinner, I had a major brain fart on the J-Church. I lost track of where I was, thought I was turned around, and got off much too early (at 16th and Church). I was reading a book, it was dark, and in my mind, I had gotten on at 16th and Church, not at 29th and Church. The trip over the Dolores Park hill with the high walls made me think I was actually where the train goes underground, and when I next paid attention we were above ground, and I couldn't understand how that could be. A year or so ago I took a J-Church inbound that turned into an N-Judah outbound, and that's what I thought had happened. Dinner was spicy wings and an episode of Project Runway. I had never seen it before, and I can see how it's fun to watch in a group setting.

Thursday I did my traditional SF tour: I took the N-Judah train out to the ocean, wandered through the park, then along the beach, up to Cliff House, the old Sutro Baths, and the 38 Geary back home. I spent a long time on the beach. There was a guy doing something I don't know the name for it. Parafoil-waterboarding? No, unfortunately, waterboarding means something different now. Anyhow, look at the picture. He's strapped into something very similar to a snowboard, and rigged to the parafoil. Climbing around the Sutro Baths I whacked my left foot against some rebar hard enough to tear a hole in my shoe and make me see stars. My left big toe had no visible damage, but it hurt. I decided to limp to the bus directly, without walking on all the cliff trails. I hung out that evening with Bruce and Marcus, and got addicted to another television series, Heroes. I know, I'm a bit late to the game, but hey.

Friday I went to West Sacramento to visit Russ. He's lived there for years, but he's always come into the City when I've been in town; this time I came to him. We had Indian food for lunch and then went to Auburn Ravine for the day. It's a swimming hole on the American River and is quite beautiful. Very cold water. Cliffs and water deep enough to jump off of them into. A long, steep, hike down into the ravine. It was a really great way to spend the day. Also, since the weather in SF has been the typical cold, misty, foggy, cloudy, summer weather, it was great to get off the upper peninsula and into some sun. It was 30º warmer in the Central Valley: 80s/90s instead of 50s/60s. I got back to SF in time to hang out at 440 in the Castro with Mutt afterwards. We got bored/tired/hungry and ended up leaving to grab food at Bagdad Cafe.

Saturday morning I went to the Chihuly exhibit at the de Young with Scott and Scott. We got there just as the museum opened, which, although it was a bit painful getting up that early on a Saturday, meant our time-group was the only one in the exhibit. Afterwards we went to Park Chow for breakfast. Scott has mentioned a Skechers outlet on 22nd and Mission, and since I needed new shoes (having torn one up on Thursday, for which my toe was now very black and blue), I went there. Man, what a nice shoe store! I ended up with three pairs (it was buy one, get second at half price, any purchase over $65 gets you a free pair of crocs). Yes, I was the last person in Vermont to own a pair of Merrills, and now I'm the last person to get a pair of crocs.

The rest of Saturday was a series of softball world series benefit beer busts. Mutt's team, the SF Inferno, and another team, the F-Liners were both having fundraisers to send themselves to Seattle for the world series. The SF Inferno had the afternoon beer bust at the Lone Star, where I had a lot of fun catching up with the usual cast of characters (Scott, Bruce and Marcus, Paul and John). Then it was a benefit drag show (my first drag show in SF, ever!) at Buck Tavern for the F-Liners. After that (10pm? We started at 3pm.) we met up with Eric at Home for a comfort food dinner. Eric kept touting how much I'd like the new apartment he's moved into, but wouldn't say why "I can't describe it; you just have to see it", so after dinner, Mutt went home (it was pretty late) and I walked with Eric to his apartment. On the way there, noticing where we were walking, I commented that he must live pretty close to our mutual friends Carl and Jeff, who I had wanted to see this visit but didn't think I'd have the time for it, so I didn't call them. Well, eventually we turned onto Carl and Jeff's block, and stopped in front of their house. Eric rents a room from them. It was a fun surprise. They were both up, Eric having prepped them ahead of time, and we stayed up pretty late catching up. I walked home at 1:30am to Church and Market, and was waiting outside The Transfer to take the J-Church Owl, when a guy who was getting on the N-Juday Owl mentioned that I could call 311 any time to find out information about the lines. I called it, and discovered that there is no J-Church Owl. So I took a cab home, with a detour to an ATM.

Sunday was hanging with Mark and John and Kyle and Kimberly in Mountain View. We had fun in the park; I got to see where Mark works (Linden Labs), and generally got to be part of the family for the day. This was my first time meeting Kimberly (who is 20 months old). Kyle is 6, and really tall. Mark says that if Kyle's height percentile keeps up, by the time he's 13, he will be taller than Mark. John made a delicious polenta with tomato garlic sauce for dinner. Yummmm. They showed off a project of theirs, Context Free. If you're a geek, you should check it out. It's a deceptively simple language that generates incredibly interesting, and complex, images. It's open source, and there's a community behind it, and Mark and John published a book about it: Community of Variation. I played with it some while I was there, but when I got home that night, Mutt and I played with it some more. It's very cool and we both stayed up way too late playing with it.

And that was my time in SF.

San Luis Obispo, CA to San Francisco, CA

2008-08-06T08:48:00.000-07:00

Day 15: Tue 5 Aug: What a day.

I slept in (there's not really much within walking distance, other than motels and car dealerships). VW service called at 11am to say, "If you were thinking of replacing this car, now's the time." I blew out a spark plug, where "blew out" means "forcibly ejected from the cylinder head". Since that particular spark plug had already been crossthreaded in (previous repair), there wasn't enough metal to make threads to thread it in. To fix, it was going to need a new cylinder head. It really was time.

So, I was the perfect customer. I was trapped, and wanted to be out of there as soon as possible. I had plenty of other options -- but honestly, I had been avoiding replacing the Beetle because I really hate the whole car buying experience, and here was the opportunity to get it all over with in a matter of hours. Decision paralysis? Not possible when you're limited to the cars on the lot.

I looked at a Rabbit, a couple Beetles, and a GTI, test driving the first two, and decided on the Rabbit. My frugal gene was overjoyed, since it cost as much as my Beetle did, ten years ago, with so much more. It took a while to get the paperwork all straightened out (not having a checkbook or the Beetle's title with me required a number of phone calls, emails, and faxes -- thank you Dan!) but I managed to get out of there by 4pm.

It's a 2.5 liter, 5 cylinder, 6-speed automatic Tiptronic, and man can it go!

I stopped in Morro Bay, just to see what it was like because that was where I was to have spent the night, and several other people have raved about it. It's definitely a beautiful spot, not the least because there's a big honking mountain just plunked down at the end of the beach.

I drove up the coast. This is definitely the most beautiful stretch of Highway 1 so far. The new car handles great on the curves. I stopped a lot (for me) to take pictures and enjoy the views. I stopped in San Simeon at Hearst Castle, but just missed the last tour, so walked through the museum in the Visitor's Center. I stopped at Point Piedra Blanca because there were a lot of cars there, only to discover the cause: elephant seals! The males come ashore in July and August to molt. From about there through Big Sur the sun was setting. It was a beautiful double sunset as the sun first dropped below a thick layer of low clouds, and then poked out below them for its last gasp before dropping below the horizon.

To top it off, it rained! In August! Just a little, but enough for there to be a complete big honking rainbow opposite the sun as it was setting. I swear, every person on Highway 1 had pulled over for this sunset.

Once the sun had set, I realized that it wasn't going to be much fun doing Highway 1 in the dark, and so decided on a faster route to San Francisco. I drove 1 to Santa Cruz and did the 17, 85, 280 route to the city. Again, I'm loving this car.

It took me about twenty minutes to find a parking space near Mutt's house, and by 10:30pm I was settled in.

Garden Grove, CA to San Luis Obispo, CA

2008-08-04T19:50:00.000-07:00

Day 14: Mon 4 Aug: Today was supposed to end in Morro Bay, CA. Read on...

Participated in the gradual household awakening this morning, and enjoyed being part of the family. Robert and Michael: Hugh sends a big thank you for the lemons and especially for the chocolate chip cookies. I helped Kurt take Chloë to the vet for bloodwork (both cats are ancient -- seventeen years?). It was useful to have an extra pair of hands. Once we got back, it was time for the road.

Thank you guys. I look forward to doing it again, soon, with more time, at your new place.

I took the big highway to Hermosa Beach where I picked up Highway 1 (Pacific Coast Highway). My goal in California was to do Hwy 1 from south to north. After seeing what it looked like (and its non-existence in sections) I decided that I would just do it, mostly. It was a pretty drive -- past sand beaches, beside the steep mountains Californians call hills. It's summer, so it is a bit cloudy on the coast, and the grass is all dead (golden), but it was a beautiful drive. I went by Vandenburg Air Force base, and a lot of small little beach towns.

Approaching San Luis Obispo on US 101, all of a sudden the Beetle started bucking. I got the car to the right shoulder safely (the shoulder is pretty narrow, by the way -- I was off the road, but still straddling the rumble strip). After sitting a bit, I tried starting the engine. The car bucked (even though it was in neutral). So much for my theory that I blew out a tire. I got out, opened the hood, and started the engine. It looks like one of my engine mounts might have broken. Something is making the engine try to shake loose of the car.

Called AAA, and since I'm calling from an 802 number, was routed to New England AAA, but they forwarded me to SoCal AAA. The tow truck was there in a jiffy, and took me to the VW dealer (Kimball Motors) in San Luis Obispo. The service department was still open, so I talked to the guys for a bit. Everyone loves that I've been just driving around for the last two weeks.

The dealership is next door to a Motel 6. How convenient. It is from a room in said Motel 6 I write. I'll find out tomorrow what the damage will be. And if it's too much (I haven't decided what too much is), I may just buy a new one.

Now to find some food. Look's like it's going to be Margie's Diner, since it's closest and was well recommended by the VW service folks.

San Diego, CA to Garden Grove, CA

2008-08-04T18:55:00.000-07:00

Day 13: Sun 3 Aug: It was up and at it early, with a nice breakfast and then to the road. Robert and Michael sent me on my way with fresh lemons and homemade chocolate chip cookies to share with my next hosts, since my previous hosts had given us some delicious organic peaches that we had eaten with breakfast.

Thanks guys! It was great seeing you on your home turf.

Nothing too exciting about the drive from San Diego to Garden Grove. It's pretty much one continuous city down here. Oh, two things to mention: Garden Grove uses an old-English style font for their overhead street signs, and Hugh, Mark, and Kurt live in a part of town called 'Little Saigon'. Most of the store signage is in Vietnamese.

Man, it was good seeing these guys again. And also Chloë and Bubbles (the cats). It had been a really long time. We weren't quite sure -- maybe since 1999? Way too long.

We had lunch at a good sushi joint and then they took me on a tour of their new house in Long Beach (where they will be moving in several weeks). It's in the midst of being renovated, but has a lot of cool features and a great floor plan. We stopped at the Home Depot on top of the hill for a great view of the Port of Long Beach and also an oil well in the parking lot. The oil wells pre-date the development aroud here and so the buildings seem to have grown up around them. It's an interesting look. Then we met up with their friends Warren and Rob and headed off to see The Dark Knight, in IMAX. The line for people who already had tickets was all the way around the building when we got there, but we still got decent seats.

The Dark Knight is really, really, dark. Heath Ledger did a great job as the Joker. It was disturbing. During parts of the movie, I felt like I felt when I watched Se7en, which set my personal standard for 'disturbing'. Hugh (Hugh couldn't come with us), you'll really like it.

Afterwards we all went to Johnny Rebs', a BBQ joint. Good food and great service. I guess this particular one had had a kitchen fire not too long ago and preserved some of the singed décor. Anyhow, good conversation and good food. They go together like ... well, like good conversation and good food.

In the sprawling city that is greater LA, I discovered that the natives talk about roads and traffic the way we Vermonters talk about the weather. In Vermont, the roads and traffic don't change, but the weather does. In LA, it's very much the opposite.

Went back to Garden Grove, hung out, caught up, and went to bed.

Idyllwild, CA to San Diego, CA

2008-08-04T17:52:00.000-07:00

Day 12: Sat 2 Aug: Woke this morning with Scott and Doug and the dogs, Lucy and Stevie. What a beautiful location! Doug, morning person that he is, headed off to the store while Scott and I had breakfast at Café Aroma. I got scrambled eggs with penne and prosciutto, which was really good. Scott gave me a tour of the gym (Mile High Fitness) and grocery (Mountain Harvest Market). To help me on my way, they sent me off with some organic groceries so I could eat healthy peanut butter and jelly sandwiches while on the road. Thank you for the hospitality and best of wishes for continued success on the store expansion, guys.

Then I was off to San Diego. After carefully planning my route with Doug, I went the wrong way on Rte. 74 and went through Hemet, which I was trying to avoid. Oh well. In Hemet I saw homes for sale 'Bank Repo!' and closer to San Diego saw lots and lots of subdivisions with units for sale, with a sign outside each subdivision promoting one leg of an "open house tour". "Five Model Homes" said one sign. I'm not sure why having more than one was important. All of this is in, basically, almost-desert, and a long commute from anywhere.

I made it to Robert and Michael's and found a parking space right in front of their building. Since I said I wanted to see the ocean, and Mexico, they took me to Cabrillo National Monument, which commemorates the European discovery of San Diego harbor. In addition to the pictured monument, there are great views of San Diego, and we could see all the way down to Tijuana. There was also an historic lighthouse, with an interesting exhibit on how the lighthouse-keepers used to live. There's a catchment basin in front of the lighthouse to catch rain that feeds into a cistern. Although I knew vaguely what the lenses they used in lighthouses were, it didn't dawn on me until I saw the exhibit that they were fresnel lenses, made in pieces out of glass and then wired together.

We left the park as it was closing, and headed down to Balboa Park. I had never been there before and suffice it to say that it really is a wonderful thing to have in the city: a park filled with museums and botanical gardens. It makes for a great people-watching hangout space. Even though the buildings were all closed when we were there, there's plenty to see just outside: an awesome cactus garden, for example.

When we got home, Robert made a delicious pesto (from basil grown in their front window) ravioli. One of the great things about their apartment is that just down the hall is a balcony that overlooks the street and downtown. There was a Padres game that night, and afterwards (not necessarily related) there were fireworks we could see from their front window. We hung out, had great conversation, swapped YouTube video favorites, and went to bed.

Another really nice day. I'm loving this trip.

Winslow, AZ to Idyllwild, CA

2008-08-02T07:43:00.000-07:00

Day 11: Friday, August 1: I woke up, made some PB&J sandwiches for the road, had hotel continental breakfast, and headed out to Meteor Crater. It's so close to the highway that you can see the crater rim from the road (although you wouldn't know that's what it was unless you had been there). It looks exactly like the pictures. The museum is actually pretty good. I did not do the guided rim tour, as by then I really needed to be on the road. I did stop at the gift and rock shop. I've seen rock shops advertised across this entire trip and I'd resisted entering one until now. Man, I had forgotten how much I like rock shops. I did pick up a couple things.

Then the long drive. I left Meteor Crater at 10:30am and headed west on I-40. The big honking mountain that the sun had set directly over the night before is actually an old volcano: Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument. I didn't stop.

I had a small incident at the agricultural inspection station. Right after I passed through it, my car started overheating (the temperature idiot light came on). I pulled off at the next exit, stopped, and turned off the engine. After it cooled down a bit, I started it again and got going. It happened again. It dawned on me that it probably had something to do with running the air conditioning in the 120º heat. So, I stopped using the A/C.

I decided to wait until Needles, CA to refuel, which was stupid because gas prices were a lot higher in CA than AZ. It was so hot in Needles that they had wrapped a towel around the metal door handle of the gas station so you wouldn't burn yourself.

And then I drove through the Mojave Desert, without A/C. It was not too uncomfortable, actually, since I had plenty of water and the sweat evaporated instantly. I saw baby joshua trees and ocotillo, which was cool. Once I hit I-10, I decided my A/C restriction was stupid, and was probably more a result of my having been running the A/C while the car was idling in the heat, so I turned it back on. I haven't had any issues since.

I did actually measure the temperature using a small digital thermometer I had brought. It stopped working once it read 122.6º. No wonder everything in the car was hot to the touch. My iPod, in the shade, burnt my fingers when I touched it.

So, the desert was intense.

The view coming down into the Palm Springs area from the desert was incredible -- another instance of a flat plain with a massive mountain range behind it (Colorado Springs and Albuquerque being two others).

Got gas in Banning before the climb up the mountain, and made it to Scott and Doug's at 6:20pm. It was great catching up and spending some time with them in the midst of the chaos of expanding their store, Mountain Harvest Market. I got to see an incredible sunset off their deck, which, on a clearer day, has a view to the ocean 45 miles away.

Albuquerque, NM to Winslow, AZ

2008-07-31T22:14:00.000-07:00

Day 10: Thu 31 Jul: I'm writing from a Days Inn in Winslow, Arizona.

I left Stu and Mark's this morning at around 10:30am. My main goal today was to see Petrified Forest National Park. While leaving Albuquerque on I-40W, I saw signs for Petroglyph National Monument, so I made a short detour.

As always, the park rangers and volunteers were incredibly friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable.

I did the Boca Negra Canyon section.

The petroglyphs were pretty neat, although after a while it was `seen one, seen them all'. Their specific history is that they are made on basalt, which darkens as it weathers (oxidizes). Centuries ago the ancestors of the current pueblo peoples picked or chipped the weathering away and so exposed lighter basalt. The ages range widely. Some are very old (500 CE); some date to the height of the pueblo era (1200 to 1400 CE); some to Spanish shepherds (Catholic crosses); and some very recent (graffiti).

The geology of this region is unlike anything in the East. 150,000 years ago the Albuquerque volcanoes were active, and overlaid the area with lava (basalt). As the basaltic caprock eroded away, it created canyons exposing the river deposits undreneath. This particular canyon is strewn with basalt boulders falling down a hillside to the sandy low ground.

Then it was back on the road. Western I-40 has some great volcanic terrain. Lava everywhere. I didn't have time to get to El Malpais National Monument, but it would be worth a trip.

Finally I got to Petrified Forest National Park. All I can say is Wow. I went from north to south. I first saw incredible vistas of the Painted Desert. Incredibly colorful badlands. It's even a wilderness area, so you can get a permit for overnight camping, which would be intense. Definitely something to consider, if you're up for some high altitude desert (a gallon of water a day, at least) backpacking.

Further along the road I saw another pueblo (as cool as they are, I think I've finally seen enough of them), more petroglyphs, and finally some petrified wood.

The petrified wood is buried in specific layers, which, as they erode out, exposes the logs. As the hillsides erode further, the logs fall down the hillside. It's very cool looking.

The best part, for me, was the Blue Mesa side road, and hiking trail. The trail takes you down into the badlands, where you can see it all up close. It was like being on the moon. Since the ground is all clay (from volcanic ashfall), there is practically no vegetation. And since I was down in a valley, there was no wind. No birdsong. Absolute and utter quiet. Stunning colors (manganese gives it the purple color), and sections of petrified logs strewn about.

It was about a mile hike, and although it was pretty level at the bottom, the hike int and out of the canyon showed that I'm still not acclimated to being a mile above sea level. It wasn't as bad as the three mile hike on the top of Sandia Mountain yesterday, though.

There's more (specifically, Crystal Forest, where most of the logs are), and lots more photographs.

I finally left the park at what I thought was closing (7pm), but I had forgotten that Arizona stays on Mountain Standard Time and so was effectively on Pacific Daylight Time. So it was only 6pm, which gave me more time to make it to Flagstaff or Sedona for the night.

While I was heading to Flagstaff I passed many trains on the Santa Fe line, each of them miles long, where every railcar held two containers, double-decker style. That's an immense amount of shipping.

Past Winslow, I saw sign for Meteor Crater, which I definitely don't want to miss. Since it was already too late to see it, I decided to go back to Winslow to spend the night so I can catch it first thing in the morning. Thus, this Days Inn.

Tomorrow, the crater, and then to Idyllwild, California.

Albuequerque, NM

2008-07-31T09:00:00.000-07:00

Day 9: Wed 30 Jul: Woke up this morning and got Mark on his way to work. Had coffee and gabbed with Stu. I always enjoy our attempts at solving the world's (or, today, New Mexico's) problems. We focus on health-care and harm-reduction activism, and our experiences (personal and professional) complement each other well. And the coffee just gets us going.

We ate take out from Flying Star Cafe which was really good.

In the afternoon, I headed up to Sandia Mountain. Albuquerque is at about 5,000 feet; Sandia Mountain goes up to 10,600 feet. It was a fun, switchbacked drive. It's all part of Cibola National Forest. At the top of the mountain there are incredible views. I decided to hike a trail along the ridge down to the top of the ski area (on one side) and tramway (on the other). It was three miles round trip, through forest with some pretty mountaintop meadows. Coming back, I could feel the altitude. I had to stop a couple times to catch my breath, and I was sweating like a pig, but it felt good. I had plenty of water and was guzzling it, which made all the difference.

I headed back to Stu and Mark's, we had dinner, hung out, watched some TV, and went to bed.