Life is "Grand"!

 As you can imagine, Terry has been doing the heavy lifting in making sure that our adventures  have been documented in this blog.  After our latest chapter, hiking the Grand Canyon, she asked me to take a greater role in writing this entry.  Considering the fact that she finished the 28+ mile hike despite almost passing out twice, how could I say no? (*Terry says this is exaggerated)

What does this mean to the faithful followers of the blog?  This entry will probably be heavy on the hyperbole and light on the facts(what do you expect from me?), and I’m going to write it in first person from my perspective. 

We headed to  Grand Canyon National Park on Wednesday without permits to hike below the rim, so we hit the road at 6:00 in the morning in order to get a good place in line at the back country permit office.  A few first come, first serve permits are offered every day, and if we were able to score one, our plan was to hike 14 miles to the bottom of the canyon at Phantom Ranch (Bright Angel Campground)  on Thursday,  hike 7 miles back up to the Cottonwood Campground on Friday, then hike the remaining 7 miles back to the rim on Saturday.  To make a long story short, our early start earned us the permits that we wanted (were afraid?) to get. We were ready to tackle the North Kaibab Trail.

We went to the north rim, as it was closer to us and we liked the remote nature of it.  The south rim is very busy, more commercial, and a lot farther from us.  The first picture was taken during our Wednesday driving tour of the north rim.  We also visited some old Indian ruins on the north rim. These are the remains of some ancient pueblos used for summer homes.

We spent time on the front porch of the lodge at the north rim, and then enjoyed a great pasta dinner in the dining room. We packed up the gear we would need for the hike and went to bed early in our little cabin.

One LITTLE(?) glitch with that packing of gear? Count the hiking boots in the trunk. One, two, three….three. Hmmm. Perhaps someone would like to hop in and out of the canyon? (That someone would be Glen by the way)  Luckily we had put in our trail sneakers as well as most of the boots. Glen decided he would have to go with shoe choice number two. 

Thursday Morning — up at 4:00 in the morning to get an early start in order to avoid the heat that we knew would be a factor at the bottom of the canyon.  The lower down you go, the hotter the canyon gets, with 100+ degree temperatures projected for Phantom Ranch, our day’s destination.  I was able to take several pictures, even though I was working hard to keep up with Terry on the downslope.  She won’t admit it, but I think she enjoys making me work on the downs.

It’s time to throw in a few facts that will be meaningful to those of you who have done some hiking.  During our 14 mile hike down into the canyon, we lost over one mile of altitude — 5700 feet .  Of course, since our route was an out and back one, we gained that altitude as well.  More details regarding the steepness of the trail later.  For each step of the 28 mile round-trip trek, we carried full packs; none of that wimpy day-pack stuff.  We didn’t take the time to weigh them at the beginning of our hike, but when we weighed them at the end, we found that Terry had been carrying 30 pounds of pack and stuff, and I had been carrying 50 pounds.  I don’t know who decided that we needed all of that stuff, but at times I wasn’t impressed by their decision making.
We handled the first 7 miles of the hike in 3 hours and reached the Cottonwood Campground; the place that we would be camping on our second night of the journey.  At this point, things were going very well.  The fact that we had been traveling downhill meant that it had been a relatively easy hike to that point.  (If any hike is easy when you’re carrying a bunch of extra weight on your backs, that is) 

Another mile into the hike, we actually hit a steep incline.  I noticed that Terry was slowing down a bit, so I called for a drink break.  At that point, I realized that her asthma had kicked in(she hadn’t taken her inhaler because of the downward nature of the trail) and that she was actually close to passing out.  Why hadn’t she called for a break, you might ask?  Apparently she was tougher than she was smart, which means that she was infringing on my usual territory. We took a break, Terry took a couple of puffs off of her inhaler, and  we were ready to continue on down the trail.

We traveled another few miles  down the trail, and even though it was still mid-morning, the temperature started to take its toll.  It’s always a challenge to drink enough water and to keep the electrolyte levels up while hiking, and the downward nature and moderate temperatures early in the hike had lulled us into underestimating our fluid replacement needs.  To put it politely, Terry uses up a lot of fluid when she hikes, and while neither of us had had enough to drink, it hit her harder than it hit me.  On one of our rest breaks, I noticed that she wasn’t sweating much any more. For her, not sweating much means that her body is dangerously close to the condition of heat exhaustion.  We used to use the saying, “No sweat man,” to mean no worries, everything was fine.  In hiking,  this saying means that the body is in the process of shutting down in protest of the exercise and heat combination. 

We had passed beyond the point of no return, as we were closer to our destination than we were to the campground that we had passed through a few miles before.  All of a sudden, our recreational hike started to take on the flavor of an exercise in survival.  We decided to reduce some of the stress on Terry’s system by having me leapfrog with her pack for the next section of the trail.  I carried my pack ahead while Terry rested and hydrated, and when I had traveled a ways down the trail, I dropped my pack and hiked back to Terry.  I then carried Terry’s pack while she hiked along with me.  A mile or so of this procedure along with intense hydration had Terry sweating again, and reduced my elevated stress level back to normal.  Terry insisted on carrying her pack for the final stretch of the hike, and short of wrestling her for it, I knew that I couldn’t keep her from carrying it. 

Phantom Ranch, with the accompanying Bright Angel Campground, was certainly a welcome sight.  We had spent 14 miles and 8+ hours on the trail, and the temperature at the end of our hike was over 100 degrees.   Without guilt, we purchased some souvenirs in the Phantom Ranch store — you can only purchase those items at the bottom of the Grand Canyon — and Terry had some of the “world’s best tasting lemonade”.  We spent the rest of the day hanging out in the stream that passes through the campground, which helped us recover from the stresses of the hike.

We had signed up for the vegetarian chili option for dinner at Phantom ranch. Dinner is served in scheduled time slots, and served family style. We sat at a table with a girl from Switzerland, some young men from the Netherlands, and two Japanese couples. The conversation was lively, and the topics ranged  from our hikes to cycling to lobster.  We learned that it had taken the Japanese couples over 12 hours to make the hike that we had done — talk about a long day on the trail!

A young family from Mississippi had hiked in from the south rim, and we spent quite a bit of time chatting with them about their trip. It turns out that they had recently been in Glacier National Park, and had taken a raft trip there. The guide in their raft was none other than Maddy Brooke…the daughter of the owners of the St. Mary KOA where we worked in Montana! Small world.

While Friday’s hike was “only” 7 miles, it had a solid 1500 foot elevation gain and we were still in recovery mode from the day before.  In order to avoid potential problems with heat, we hit the trail at 5:30.  After 4 hours on the trail we arrived at the Cottonwood Campground, and we quickly set up camp, found shade, and became slugs.  During the day we located a path that lead down to the stream, where people had obviously spent a lot of time and effort in making a nice pool below a small waterfall.  I had been given directions to the pool by another camper who said that I could find my own trail, but “watch out for rattlesnakes”.  Needless to say, we used the common trail.

I had carried a backpack stove with some store bought meals with the intention of cooking a hot supper, but it almost didn’t happen.  The stove fired up okay, but the flame was yellow and intermittent, and it wouldn’t produce enough heat to boil the water.  I hadn’t used the stove(other than making sure that it lit) for a couple of years, so I was at a loss to know what to do.  I was within seconds of throwing up my hands and declaring a Cliff Bar supper,  when I looked up and saw the forlorn expression on Terry’s face.   I took one more look through the stove’s gear and found a tool that I hadn’t noticed before.  This was the magic tool, and after I used it to clean a fixture, the stove worked like a charm.  Spaghetti in a bag never tasted so good.

 Saturday’s hike was going to present some challenges, so we hit the trail at 4:00 in the morning to take most of the heat out of the  equation.  Packing up via headlamp is always fun, and the little mouse that kept wanting to get in Glen’s pack was cute, but not a welcome addition to the pack weight. We left him behind. The hike was 7 miles in length, with an elevation gain of 1000 feet in the first 2 miles.  During the final 5 miles we were climbing over 3000 feet, with an ending elevation of 8200 feet.  This means we were going to battle a combination of fatigue from multiple days on the trail, a serious elevation gain,  and the challenge of exercising at high altitude.  We would also have to hike where the mule rides share the trail. Smelly mule droppings, pee, and sandy trail carved up by hoofprints would add to the fun. For those of you who have encountered any of these challenges, you understand the difficulty of the combination that we were going to encounter.

In a way, Saturday’s hike was a bit anti-climactic.  It was a physical and mental challenge,  but it passed without drama.  Yes, once the sun rose we were treated to some amazing scenery — scenery that we had to earn, which always makes it sweeter.  Yes, we were tired and, at times, just wanted to finish the hike.  We tried to remember to enjoy the journey instead of focusing solely on reaching our destination.   Why do we do things like hike the Grand Canyon?  Maybe it’s the sharing of adventure that makes such an experience so special, maybe it’s being immersed in one of the world’s natural wonders that makes such a journey worth taking, or maybe it’s simply an attempt to answer the question “I wonder if  I can ….”

This last photo is for Ethan D…..we found one in the real size….and are really glad they don’t come in the size of that statue Glen was standing beside. While he was not aggressive in any way, we liked him fine in the one foot range.

Moab~Adventure Begins Here

That nifty title is the slogan you see on the billboards approaching Moab, Utah for miles on miles. Moab is famous for biking, jeeping, and has lots of other outdoor activities such as rafting and hiking. It is full of college students working summer jobs as guides, waiters, etc. in hopes that on their off time they can play.(Kind of like teachers traveling to work part time in campgrounds…..) 🙂

We were excited to visit Moab again for several reasons. 1) We were going to meet up with friends we worked with in Montana     2) We remembered some local restaurants with fondness   3) Arches are just really interesting formations that we don’t have in Maine

The drive from Panguitch to Moab was a bit over 4 hours. We just about melted. The drive is through desert, and we traveled it in the heat of the day. Over 100 degrees heat. Terry is pretty whiney about the fact that our tow car (purchased used and as cheap a model as we could find) has no air conditioning.  While this is ok for driving around Maine, and worked ok in Montana, it isn’t so ok for Utah in the summer– according to her.  Glen considered the hot drive conditioning for Moab itself, as the temperatures were scheduled to be above 100 for several days.  If you can’t drive in the heat, how can you expect to hike in the heat?   Thank goodness we had the cooler with us stocked with ice and drinks. Maybe that is the secret to living through it. 

As we arrived in Moab, we first made efforts to hook up with our friends–James and Zoe, Kim and Lisa. We had a nice chat in the campground with James and Zoe while waiting for Kim to finish up work.  Then we all went out to dinner at the Moab Brewery. That was one of the fondly remembered restaurants. It was a great evening of catching up, sharing new happenings, and reminiscing about our experiences in Montana.   This brewery has FANTASTIC beers on tap, but they don’t bottle any of them.  Glen’s plans to bring some back to Maine to share with the guys at a fall campfire quickly fizzled out, but he did, however, sample several different beers so that he could make a complete report when he returns home. 

A bit off the subject of what we are doing….James is an author, and we just finished reading one of his books,Heckel Casey  It is an interesting read with a classic battle of good vs. evil.  He also has some horror stories if that is more your thing….  look up James Hoch.

The next day was one of fun activities that allowed us to avoid the heat. We started with the highlight of the trip–an airplane flight over Canyonlands and Arches National Parks.  Our friend Kim is a pilot who flies rafters back from trips on the Colorado River, as well as tourists looking to see the national parks from the air. He also has his own plane and had some spare time that day. We had our own private tour of the parks from the air. It was amazing! Glen decided that looking down from 7000 feet while seated in an airplane isn’t as scary as a 1000 foot drop on a hiking trail.   Here are some photos from that tour.

After the great flight, we decided to head up Castle Creek Canyon to a local winery. Wine is hard to find in Utah. You can’t get it in the grocery store. This particular winery was also located at a resort called Red Cliffs Lodge. Here you could ride horses, raft, and do other outdoor activities from a base right on the Colorado River. Because of the location with beautiful red cliffs all around and the river flowing by, many movies have been filmed in the area. There was a small museum dedicated to the films located there and we had fun exploring it.

The dummy of “Thelma” from Thelma and Louise was in the museum along with a lot of old west artifacts, movie posters and photos, costumes, and other memorabilia. Lots of the John Wayne westerns, Indiana Jones, and other movies were filmed in the Moab area. They say one or two movies shoot here every year.  A new movie with Will Smith called After Earth recently finished filming here. And….we got to see lots of the props and sets for the current movie being made there.  There were cool old trains and train cars loaded with ore all loaded on flatbed trucks. We were hoping some director would “discover” us and we would be cast as extras….but alas, it wasn’t meant to be. Terry would have made a fine barmaid, and Glen the shopkeeper that gets killed or some other equally impressive roles. We would have had to call up Rich for some pointers on acting. Oh, well. Some other time perhaps. If only we got to see the stars, at least…  The latest spiderman actor, Andrew Garfield, and Johnny Depp are making a movie version of The Lone Ranger. No luck in that department either. I think that seeing Johnny Depp act as Tonto will be really interesting!  Anyway, the winery and film museum were interesting, and we picked up two bottles of a nice white wine. Then we headed back to town to reserve a spot on an evening boat tour.

The evening boat tour was a combination dinner/tour. The dinner was billed as a cowboy Dutch oven dinner, so Glen was looking forward to seeing what kinds of things they would cook up. There were several kinds of BBQ’d meats, a potato/veggie/cheese sidedish, baked beans, corn, rolls, salad, and apple crisp for dessert. At this meal Glen decided a third Dutch oven may be on his wish list so he can cook a main dish, a side dish, and a dessert. Santa??  He also determined that although the food was good, it didn’t hold a candle to his own dutch oven meatloaf or stew recipes. 

We had a nice chat with the people at our table for dinner. It turned out that the gentleman across from us was a scout leader, and the people next to him were also big into scouting. So our dinner conversation consisted of talk about Dutch oven dinners, Boy Scouts and their shenanigans, and camping in general.

The boat ride was after sunset, and they had a light truck that would drive near the river and light up the canyon walls as a narration was playing. It included some geology, some western history, and some music. Because the river was extremely low….the safety tour included the instructions to just hold the PFD over your head and walk to shore as the water was only waist deep at the deepest parts….we could not go as close to some of the areas that were lighted as we normally could have. That made it a bit less dramatic than it may have been. But it was a nice gentle, cool, evening cruise on the Colorado River.

Friday was hiking day!  We rolled out of bed early to beat the desert heat as much as possible. Our planned hike was to Delicate Arch. That is the arch you see on all the Utah T-shirts! (and the license plate) Delicate Arch Hike  We had hiked this before when we visited Arches, and looked forward to a repeat experience. With lots of water and a snack, we set off to have fun. That goal was accomplished, and even though Terry got sand in her shoe and had to stop to apply a band-aid on the hole it carved in her toe….we did it.  Even Glen admitted that the heat really made an easy hike difficult, and we both shook our heads at the people starting the hike at noon with no water bottles in sight.

We then drove to another part of the park to see Double Arch. It is a beautiful sight, and hard to appreciate just how BIG it is until you put people in the photos. Glen once again climbed up into the arch to see over the other side, and Terry once again decided she was not a mountain goat. While going up would be okay, coming down would not be pretty.

The visitor center on the way out was our next stop. We hadn’t stopped on the way in because we were trying to beat the heat. It wasn’t built when we were here in 2006, so we had fun exploring the gift store and watching the interpretive film.  If you visit a park, we highly recommend seeing the film that they have. It is always a learning experience. (and sometimes the only air conditioning around!)

Next we took a side road out of Moab toward Potash to see some ancient Indian writings and some dinosaur footprints (allosaurus) that are within easy walks of the road. They were both really fun to find and the drive along the Colorado River was nice as well. It was downstream from where we had taken the boat tour, so all new scenery for us.

We decided we know why some countries adopted the practice of afternoon siestas. Two of the three days we were there, we would go swimming in the pool in the early afternoon, then retreat to the cabin for a nap, and then get up in time to enjoy the cooler evening and dinner. It really did help us cope with the heat.

Lastly, we went out to dinner one more time with Kim and Lisa to try to say thanks for the airplane tour. It was another evening of laughter and a perfect way to end our time in Moab.

From Smoke-Filled Skies To Death By Chocolate

Smoke filled the air around our campground recently, as just over 8,000 acres of the Dixie National Forest burned. Ashes dropped all over the campground, and the air was hard to breathe. The fire was called the Shingle Fire, and was about 28 miles south of where we are camped. Only one building was burned, and one fireman was slightly injured, so it could have been a lot worse.  It gave us a reason to watch the local news every morning, and Terry figured that if our area was evacuated we could be on the road in less than 10 minutes.  True to form, Glen wasn’t worried at all.  Ignorance really is bliss.

 It is just one of many fires in the west this summer as everything is incredibly dry. The local fireworks for the 4th were cancelled. The fire fighters are working hard, and if we are lucky we may get a bit of rain this week. At the moment, the fire is 90% contained. We didn’t take this photo, but it is the fire and a plane dropping fire retardant on it.

Our work and off days were a bit different this week, so we didn’t go far afield. We took several day trips. First, we went to revisit Capital Reef National Park  We were hoping to hike a narrow trail that was a wagon trail in the days of the wild west, with a “Pioneer Register”. As the wagons came through, many pioneers carved their names on the cliff walls.This trail also has some of the petroglyphs that are found in the park. We had done the trail once before, but wanted to get some photos to share with you. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans. The looming thunderclouds had us rethink the hike as the raindrops started splattering us as we hit the trailhead. Since it is a narrow canyon, and prone to flash flooding, we did the “safe” thing, and just drove out.  This is the “responsible hiker” version of why we bailed on the hike, but the main reason is that Glen was afraid the camera wouldn’t handle rain very well.  The drive out of the canyon is videotaped and posted to Terry’s Facebook page. It is rough…taken on the phone camera, and with no narration. Below are some photos from the park.

 
The brilliant colors of the rock were muted on this cloudy day, but it was still fun.
We visited the little town of Torrey, just outside the park for lunch. The cafe was attached to a motel and gift shop. We loved the little garden entrance, and we actually had the whole restaurant to ourselves.  While that COULD mean the food was iffy….it didn’t.  The food was wonderful, and we felt like we had our own private chef. We explored the gift shop, and found a treasure for the library…..

 When we put this guy on the library counter with a magnifying glass, he will be a big hit.

To travel to Capital Reef from Panguitch, we took one of Utah’s scenic highways–Highway 12. There are many twists and turns on this road as it winds over mountains and plateaus. Glen decided that while the drive was manageable, it wasn’t one that he wanted to drive on a frequent basis.

We traveled through many small towns, national forest lands, and parts of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Glen even found a new friend at the visitor center in Escalante.

The next day we went for a bike ride in Red Canyon. We’ll fill you in more on that local park another time, when we get some photos. It is really pretty and has a great bike trail.

We have made a bit of a Saturday night tradition with the Dutch Oven get-togethers.  This past Saturday, we tackled a bit of a project that the campground owner, Kathy, requested.  She had a cookbook in her store with a recipe called “Aunt Nellie’s Death By Chocolate”.   It just begged to be tried. So….we agreed to cook it and Glen’s famous stew. (This was the first time this summer that he was allowed to use one of his “usual” recipes.) We invited the regulars and another family, the Sondermeyers,  staying at the campground longer than they expected due to vehicle trouble.

Some of you have asked about the Dutch ovens, so we took photos this time.

 
The photo above shows Glen’s Dutch Oven table with two ovens in the process of making chocolate cake layers. There are charcoal briquettes both below the ovens and on top in order to make the cake bake. For something like a stew, you don’t put the charcoal on the top.
 
The cakes are out and cooling. They had parchment paper liners placed in the ovens so they would not stick, and to make clean up a bit easier.

Transferring to our makeshift cake board, and ready to put the chocolate mousse filling between the layers.

With the chocolate mousse….

And with the frosting. 

We kept it in the cooler until after dinner. Then, we added homemade whipped cream and chocolate chips on individual plates as it was served.  It was a really big hit. Thanks, Aunt Nellie!
We had lots of sugary energy to play a few rounds of Uno Spin with the kids from the Sondermeyer family. It was lots of fun.

One of the local attractions in town is a restored movie theater.  It also has a local ice cream shop with homemade ice cream, waffle cones, etc. We visited it yesterday and sampled the goods.  We WILL be back!  We took some photos because it was just a cute, vintage place. And the popcorn smell was heavenly!

 
 
Tomorrow, we are on our way to Moab. We hope to hook up with two couples that we worked with in Montana, get a ride on the Colorado River in a boat, see some arches, and eat (or drink) in some local microbreweries. We may even find one of the local vineyards and see if we can find a wine we like. We will check in again after our Moab adventures. 
Glen and Terry 
 

Balloons, Angels, and The Virgin

Now that we have your attention….. We thought we should update everyone at home on what we have been up to since arriving in Panguitch.

The first weekend we arrived the town of Panguitch (including our campground) was full of people eagerly anticipating  a large balloon festival.  Interestingly, we found that bikers, the kind that travel to Sturgis every year on their Harleys, also travel throughout the west to see hot air balloons take off.

Eagerly anticipating the launch of these balloons, we dragged ourselves out of bed early in the morning on Friday, and walked about 3/4 of a mile to the launch field. Too windy. No balloons. No problem….we will try again tomorrow.

Repeat the early rising, and don our road racing clothes to see if we can fit in a 5K road race. Drive to the field this time, see some balloons beginning to inflate and decide to skip the race to see balloons.  We’ll run dozens of road races in the future, but how many balloon launches will we see?   Walk in and hear that they are just inflating, not launching, still too windy.

 Plan B…run the road race. Back in the car, drive to the high school for the race. We met the local cross-country team coach, and were glad the proceeds from the race were going to support the team. Glen found out that they meet at the high school to run each morning at 7:00 a.m. and is invited to run with them anytime. (So is Terry, but she is too chicken until Glen scouts out the team and sees if there are any slow runners) Small races are fun, and we both left with age group medals.  Altitude isn’t fun to race in. 

We did some socializing with our fellow campground workers and some people we have met in the campground. Glen made some dessert in the dutch oven, and it was a big hit. That evening, the town shut down the main street for “Balloon Glow”. The hot air balloons inflate in the dark, and then pulse the flames at times, making the balloons glow. There were some live bands, lots of glow-in-the-dark toys and jewelry, cotton candy, adult beverages, and more. It was a really unique kind of a street festival.  Glen fought off the urge to join in the karaoke contest.

Would the third early morning be the charm? We decided to give it one last shot at seeing balloons launched. Got up,drove over, waited a bit, saw two balloons inflating, waited some more, and saw no other action. We decided to drive back to the campground and get some more sleep, figuring nothing else was happening. As it turned out, they did launch a few, but didn’t go far because winds were coming in soon. It would have been nice to see 35 or so balloons launch and fly, but the weather just didn’t cooperate.

 After the big balloon festival, things calmed down a bit in the campground, and we had five days off! Planning to take advantage of it, we decided to head to Zion National Park. We have visited here three times before, but it is one of our favorite places, and there were things left undone.

One of the most famous hikes in Zion is called the Angels Landing Trail. It climbs from the canyon floor to the rim and the last 3/4 of a mile is on a very narrow ridge trail. It has chains to hold so you supposedly won’t fall over 1400 feet to the canyon floor. (Although there have been 6 deaths here since 2004) There are warning signs everywhere telling you not to do this trail if it is windy, during thunderstorms, or if it is covered in snow and ice. (DUH!)

For information junkies (like one of us) here is a link to more information on the trail.
Angels Landing Trail

We had previously hiked with our big backpacks and spent the night on Plateau Point with the intent of hiking up Angels Landing on our return to the canyon floor. That time, we only made it to Scout’s Lookout before deciding not to continue that last 3/4 mile on Angels Landing because of crowds, fatigue, and generally chickening out.

This time, we got up at 5:15 in order to beat the predicted 103 degree temperature, and were some of the first people on the trail. We climbed up the trail on some switchbacks called “Walter’s Wiggles” after the man who designed and built them. Dropping Glen’s big pack at Scout’s Lookout (more on that later) we took Terry’s small pack for water and continued on Angels Landing and the first section of chains before we could think about it too much.

All of the literature on this hike contains the warning “don’t attempt if you have a fear of heights.”  In spite of these warnings, we started out onto the ridge.  I guess the warnings were trumped by an old Brewer saying:  “You can always tell a Holyoke, but you can’t tell em much.” 

It was a bit windy, but it wasn’t crowded. We were able to take our time, and focus on the trail. When we stopped, we could look at the view…a little. We both faced some fears along the way. (Terry fears losing her footing and falling,thus walks like a ninety-year-old woman afraid of breaking a bone. Glen fears heights and is afraid of freezing up,thus wants to walk faster than Terry).  Glen put up with the pace on the way out, but on the way back he looked at Terry and said “I’ll see you when we get finished”, and charged back down the ridge.

Completing this hike put us both in a very happy and proud mood. We headed back to Scout’s Lookout and anticipated eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in a location where there is enough clifftop to relax and not worry about falling off.

Remember the part about dropping Glen’s big pack at Scout’s Lookout before tackling the narrow part of the trail? Well, evidently squirrels like that tendency of hikers. While we were gone, a squirrel decided to eat his(or her) way into the pack in search of treats. In so doing, it chose to chew up the places where the zippers meet to keep the pockets closed. Some fellow hikers chased it away, but too late to save the pack. The peanut butter and jelly sandwich was fine, however. We ate, figured out a way to jury-rig the pack closed for the return hike, and cursed squirrels.

Take a moment and inject some of Glen’s attitude into the situation here.  A squirrel, trying to eat OUR food, managed to find the way to do the most possible damage to the backpack.  The hikers who chased it away were helpful, but they also had those young kid smirks on their faces, the ones that say “I wish something like that would happen to MY dad some day, now THAT would be pay back.”  You know the look.

The hike down was nice, and we shared a sense of accomplishment. It was fun to greet the hikers coming up, and because there were so many of them, we were extra happy that we started early. The chains and skinny trail would not have been so fun with all those people on them. And we beat the heat!

After stopping for an ice cream at Zion Lodge, we went back to the campground where we were tenting for a few nights, and rested with our feet in the river. We read books and stayed in the shade for most of the day.

Treating ourselves to dinner at “The Spotted Dog” was fun. We had eaten there once on a previous visit to Zion, and remembered it fondly. It didn’t disappoint….Glen had wild meatloaf made from bison and elk meat, while Terry had a homemade pasta filled with pear and ricotta cheese. Fine dining, that you can do in casual hiking attire. Not fussy..just fabulous.

The campground we stayed in was on the banks of the Virgin River. There is an outdoor adventure company across the street where you can rent tubes, float down the river, and they will pick you up downstream and bus you back. Our campsite happened to be two sites away from the river access, so we got to see a steady stream of people heading out on their raft adventures. Many people have interesting ideas of what they should wear for bathing suits…and no idea of campground etiquette. They would walk directly on our site, between us and the picnic table, bring a camera, holler to their children playing in the river, and never acknowledge we were there.  Glen wondered what would happen if he walked over to their r.v. sites and trooped around their picnic table a time or two. 

 One of the best conversations we overheard in our time near the river went like this:

 “MOM! DAD! We found a watermelon! It was just laying in the river! Can we keep it? Come see!”

 “What? You found a what in the river?”

 “A watermelon! It must have just grown there? Can we have it?”

 Now, having placed a few watermelons in the lake over the years, and “enhancing” a few watermelon before placing them in said lake, we surely hope the parents said no. Our evil selves might have thought about what would happen if they decided to steal someone else’s watermelon and fed it to the kids….

The Virgin River is the site for another of Zion’s most famous hikes. The trail is called “The Narrows” and is actually in the river. For more information, click the link.
The Narrows

The canyon walls stretch thousands of feet above you on either side, and it winds around giving you limited views of the sky. The sandstone changes colors from orange to brown, to white, and back. It is like being in the bottom of a giant’s sand art bottle. If the river levels are too high, or there is any threat of rain in the area, you shouldn’t do this hike. There is no way out if a flash flood comes roaring down the canyon. Fortunately, water levels are low right now, and the deepest part we were in was just over waist high.

 On our two previous trips, we had never made it as far upstream as the actual “narrows”, and we wouldn’t this time either. That part is close to the trailhead, many miles upstream. We didn’t have a permit, or the desire to camp out overnight on this walk. We walked upstream for two hours,  and found a great little picnic spot. Then, we walked downstream for two hours. That kind of a hike uses muscles we didn’t know we even had. Thank goodness for hiking poles. (Terry still fell in once…and not gracefully) Rocks are slippery when wet.

 It’s always interesting to people-watch on this hike.  Hundreds of people per day start the hike, many of them in flip-flops and whatever clothing they’d worn to the park.  EVERY step you take in the water is a challenge, and a couple of hundred yards into the hike there is a section of belly to chest deep water that you have to walk through — there’s no way around it.  That’s the section that usually sorts out the real hikers from the “I heard that it’s a cool hike” wannabees. 

 After three days of temperatures hovering just over 100, and tenting out sleeping in our backpacking tent on the ground, we opted to leave in the late afternoon and drive back to Panguitch. The RV felt like a castle. Air conditioning, and a Queen sized bed!

Today we washed the car, did the laundry, updated this blog, and are planning the next Dutch oven get together for Saturday. We are doing chili and dessert, others are bringing cornbread, and we are looking forward to sharing a nice evening with friends. We must have done something right, because the campground owners bought us some pie filling, cake mixes, and chocolate chips to keep the desserts coming!  The bag of chocolate chips weighs almost 5 pounds, so unless Terry goes crazy on the next dessert, we’ve got a lot of Dutch oven treats ahead of us.

Musings From the Road

2966 miles on the road will do funny things to you. After only a few miles, you start letting your mind wander and take great pleasure in small things you see out the window. On our cross-country adventure, we decided to collect some of these random thoughts and sights to share with those of you traveling vicariously with us.

First off, it may help you to know our route. http://www.mapquest.com/embed?hk=PuKnub
As you can see, it is a rural route for most of the trip—even if it does travel on Interstate highways.  We plan to take a different route back, as we won’t be meeting up with friends in Colorado on the way home. This route avoids most major cities, and ALL of the east coast toll highways. We paid only an $11.00 toll on the International Bridge in Sault Ste. Marie.

This route allowed for much animal watching. Paul and Kyle…we kept the cow streak alive. (For those who don’t know, on our first cross country trip it became a game to see who could find cows first each day. We NEVER have had a travel day where we didn’t find cows in any trip across the country.) Here is the animal count for this trip (minus the little squished ones we didn’t count, and domestic cows, horses, etc.)

1 eagle
2 herons
5 deer
1 large turtle
1 baby bunny
1 coyote
3 donkeys
1 marmot
3 birds that flew into our camper and died (including a large crow in the upper peninsula of Michigan)
1 eagle eating a deer carcass
1 dead moose
5 dead deer
1 dead badger

We crossed the Mississippi River in Ontario. Yes, we know. There must be more than one Mississippi River. We could have gone swimming in Tea Lake or even Ink Lake. And that led us to look at the town names as we went through them. We went through many towns that shared names with Maine towns, including Madawaska.  But some names were so unique that we imagine they are one-of-a kind. We traveled through Germfask, MI (held our breath). We could have taken an exit to No Name, CO. But some of our favorites were in Nebraska. Anyone want to live in Wahoo, NE?  Wouldn’t it be fun when someone asked you where you were from? You could shout out, “Wahoo!”  Or, you could live in Worms, NE. That could also stimulate some interesting conversation….

We listened to random radio stations from all over the country and played over 500 songs on the ipod. Our sing-along skills are all honed up now, so we will be all set if we see a karaoke contest in the area.  Come to think of it, there IS a karaoke contest in town this coming weekend.

Billboards and advertisements provided another form of entertainment. Besides being the focal point for playing the alphabet game….which lasted from the middle of Nebraska until about 60 miles from our campground in Utah…..Darn Q and Z….they also were quite amusing at times. We found out that Renfrew, Ontario was the birthplace of the NHA/NHL.  One for a butcher shop (we think) in Minnesota had the slogan, “You Never Sausage A Place”. One was advertising Dick Farms….. (we didn’t stop).  And a billboard for some brand of motorcycle encouraged you to “Throw Your Leg Over An Italian in Sudbury”.   This particular billboard also pictured a very attractive young lady, who we can assume is making the aforementioned statement.  Maybe it is good that Maine doesn’t have billboards.

While driving and seeing sights, we want you to know that many of you were in our thoughts as well. We know we will leave most of you out, so if you don’t see your name listed, you can imagine we thought of you as well. It is PROBABLY true! No pouting allowed.

Carl- We kept passing and getting passed by the big tractor trailers hauling support crew for Nascar

Vaughn- We needed you to tell us about the crops we were passing. And we knew which sections of mountain roads you would have needed to close your eyes on. 

Kyle, Emily, and Celia- We passed a shop that made tipis just after we passed a shop that made life-sized metal horse sculptures. We figured we could be the grandparents of the century if we had a horse and a tipi in the backyard! (But we didn’t stop)

David B.-The Canadian sign for information will forever make me say, “Information, HUH?” when I see it.

Paul- Dad commented every time we went through interesting rock formations that he needed you around to tell him about them. Mom said you would have been under the table playing video games and not seen any of them.

Martha and Ed- We kept thinking about our trip to Niagara with you and how Dad really liked the campground with the waterfalls. We are hoping to be able to have an opportunity sometime to travel with you and your new fifth wheel. We checked out all kinds of rvs on our way out. Fun to compare them.

Georgia- We wanted to bring you a metal horse sculpture, too. (Sorry, too big) You’ll just have to be happy with your riding lessons. Have fun.

Janet- The billboards were for you. 🙂

John- The wildlife count was for you. Especially the squished ones.

Marge- Every time we stopped for lunch or supper on the road and ate in the camper, we remembered our trip to PEI where you agreed to camp….but only if we ate out. No cooking allowed. Some meals we were really wishing you were here to enforce that rule. 🙂 Cold sandwiches lost their allure really quickly, but ONE of us didn’t want to waste any time sitting down for a real meal.

Alyssa, Ryan, Ashleigh, Jenna, Tyler, Matthew, David G., Naomi, Katie, Jenny, Karen, Gordon, Mackie, Linda, Jon, Amy, Lori, Denise, Kevin….sorry. No specifics come to mind right now. But we love you all.

We managed to plan one of our longest travel days when the west was having a record heat day. Picture the air conditioner in your car trying to cool off a 30 foot rv. Then make the temperature over 100 degrees. (109 was the hottest point) Picture us melting in the seats, drinking bottle after bottle of water and Gatorade. Then ask us why we didn’t just run the generator and turn on the big rooftop air conditioner. Well…..when we FINALLY thought of it, we did. And it worked for about 30 minutes. Then stopped. Generator flashed error messages. We melted again. Only after reading several manuals did we figure out that we needed to turn the circuit breaker for the AC off and on again, even though it wasn’t actually tripped. Some strange mechanical reason why…. would have been nice to know it before we melted. Ah….those lessons learned the hard way tend to stick though, so maybe it was meant to happen.

We really enjoyed meeting up with Doug and Kirsten Thompson,  Kirsten’s sister Megan, and Megan’s husband Tom. We connected with them in Grand Junction, CO and went out for breakfast and a quick chance to catch up. We shared some laughs, some hugs, and some well-wishes. We are really glad we had a chance to catch them while they were home in the USA. Friendships make the world a better place to be.

Today we are settled in our new campground home, meeting our fellow workers and the owners, and getting the local procedures learned. We went grocery shopping, and are doing laundry. We will find out later what the schedule will look like and when we might get away for some adventures.

First up…this weekend in Panguitch there is a big hot air balloon rally.  The balloons will be launching from a field directly adjacent to our campground, so we’ll get a front row seat!   Should be lots of fun. We’ll update you again when something exciting has happened. Take care, everyone!

Glen and Terry

Here we go again!!!

We are in the final packing stages before our next adventure. Utah….here we come!

Where in Utah, you ask? How about Panguitch?  Never heard of it? That’s okay. Over the next few weeks we’ll fill you in on all the pertinent information. First up, how to pronounce it. Think pang…like a hunger pang, and witch…like our school mascot. Put them together, and voila!

We are heading to work part-time at the Panguitch KOA and play the rest of the time in some of the most splendid scenery we have ever seen. We visited Utah the first time on our epic cross-country journey with the kids.  Then, we came back to explore more when the boys went to the National Boy Scout Jamboree. Trip number three came with Kyle when Paul went overseas with People to People. So, this is Utah trip number four—-the extended version.

We hope to see more of this.

Panguitch is closest to Bryce Canyon National Park, but we are planning side trips to Zion, Arches, Grand Canyon, and more. No definite plans yet. (We like to wing it!) The backpacks are stowed, the tent is ready, and hiking boots are already packed.

For those new to this blog, welcome. For those who have checked it out in the past, welcome back. This is the easiest way for us to stay in contact with our family and friends from home. You may hear references to people or events that are unfamiliar to you. Feel free to post comments and questions…we will be checking in and would love to hear from you.

 Since we haven’t posted for a year, here is the quick version of major life events since last May. We are proud grandparents to a beautiful little girl named Celia. Celia was born last July and has us wrapped around her little finger. Kyle and Emily are doing an amazing job raising their daughter while attending college. Kyle and Emily are engaged and recently moved into a new apartment. Paul is currently away at a geology field camp and is looking forward to a new geology job this summer. Two more courses, and he will be graduating with a Geology degree from UMaine next December. Terry completed her first marathon last October. Glen qualified for and competed in the Boston Marathon this past April on a blazing hot day. We are both planning to run another marathon in September. We are about to complete the first year in our new school and are excited to be heading off on an adventure. (Last summer was spent unpacking and organizing our school library) There. Not quite the typical Christmas card insert letter, but close! Hahaha

So, if you have never been to Utah, enjoy reading about other people’s vacations, or want to see if we survive this latest adventure with all our fingers and toes, buckle up….. we are counting down the days. The rv will be packed and parked outside the school this coming Friday. As soon as we are done at school, we are rolling!

Terry and Glen

P.S.  For all the new people here….if you click on a picture, it should then enlarge so you can really see it. Enjoy!

Marathon : Maine and Virginia

We haven’t gone away for any hiking adventures since we returned from Montana, but we have traveled a bit for our running. I thought it might be fun to update you on that aspect of our lives as it looks like that is the most active we will be for awhile.

First, we stayed in Maine but traveled to Portland for an overnight in October of 2010. This was the race that was motivation for summer training in Montana…..the Maine marathon for Glen, and the half marathon for Terry. Leading up to the race we were both fighting some injury issues, but we toed the line with only a few jitters.

We went with friends from school, took the kids, and made it a weekend. The kids stayed at a hotel, we took the camper and camped right at the start/finish, and we enjoyed some great pre-race pizza at Portland Pie with Kristen S. and her family. Kristen teaches with Glen, and was part of the original group of people we signed up with. She had a great race, and we hope to do more things like this with people from school.

Kyle, Emily, and Paul volunteered to work a water stop. That was fun knowing that we would see them on the course both on the way out and on the way back. The course starts and finishes on Portland’s Back Bay. It then is an out-and-back course traveling into Falmouth. Course map Caitlynn Wilson also was playing support crew and biked out to ride part of the course with Glen.

Glen ran a great race and qualified for the Boston Marathon with a time of 3:19:50. Terry was excited to finish her first run of 13.1 miles in 2:22:53 while fighting hip bursitis caused by tight ileotibial bands. (Physical therapy soon to follow would fix her up)

In one of the greatest computer jams of all time, Glen missed the chance to register for the Boston Marathon for 2011. So, we were on to plan B. We decided to travel to Virginia Beach to do the Yuengling Shamrock Marathon(Glen) and half marathon(Terry). Shamrock Marathon

In order to escape the Maine winter for a nice long weekend at the beach in March, there was much training in the cold and snow to be done. Unless your name is Terry. Then there was much training on the treadmill to be done.

We had a great time at this race. It is done very professionally, and it was a blast to be around that many runners for a weekend. The whole town is seemingly geared up for the race weekend. We found some great restaurants to eat at, ran the boardwalk along Virginia Beach, shopped in the little shops, and explored the runners expo. We stayed in a condo right near the finish line.

Race day dawned as a cold, windy day. The half marathon starts before sunrise, so there was much shivering prior to the race start! The half started an hour before the marathon, so Glen came to the start and took Terry’s warm clothes back to the hotel before going to his race. It is nice to have a support crew!

Despite the strong winds, the course was a fun one, and we both enjoyed the race. Our times were respectable, but we were both a little disappointed. Glen ran a 3:21. Terry ran a 2:12:54–ten minutes faster than Portland.

It would be fun to come here again with some friends. The finish line party was awesome. Free beer, Irish stew, live music, and right on the beach.

Now we are back home and training again for the next round. Glen is hoping to better his time in order to have a chance to enter Boston on the first day of registration. He is training to run the Quebec City Marathon on August 28th. Terry has taken the jump and registered for the full marathon at the Maine Marathon in Portland, October 2nd. Let’s hope for a fun summer of training with some races and camping thrown in.

Grinnell Glacier Hike

We were pleased when we heard that the Grinnell Glacier trail had been reopened. It was shut down previously for bear activity. This was where Jack Hanna (TV nature guy…) had to use pepper spray on a young grizzly. We had been wanting to do this hike, but thought it was not going to happen. We actually had tried once, but arrived at the boat dock to threatening weather. We waited and came back another day. It still wasn’t amazing weather, but we had purchased the boat tickets and decided to go for it.

The first part of the hike was two quick boat rides. We took the hiker shuttle boats across Swiftcurrent Lake and Lake Josephine. This allowed us to join in the ranger led hike to Grinnell Glacier. We thought that with all the bear activity here, it would be a safe way to go. The ranger’s name was Monica, and we had heard her give a talk on the geology of glacier once already this summer. She was a young, recent college graduate and we enjoyed her presentation very much.

This is a look at Lake Josephine and the boat dock where we started after we had climbed just a bit up to the ridge where we would do most of the miles. We had a large group of people on the hike, and since the abilities were very scattered, the pace was slow and “stop and go”. Whenever Monica stopped for a bit she gave information about the plants, animals, or geology of Glacier. We learned a lot, but after awhile we got tired of being with all the people. This was especially true because the lady directly ahead of us was someone that would stop dead in her tracks with no warning to look at a plant, pick a berry, etc. I almost crashed into her several times.

When the group decided to stop for a 15 minute snack break, we decided to continue on our own. It was cold, and we didn’t feel the need to stop for that long since the pace had been really slow.
Above is an attempt to show the sun breaking through the clouds. It didn’t come out as nicely as we hoped, but the sun was like a spotlight moving over the forested sections. It was pretty cool.
In this photo above, you can see where we are headed. The large snow area at the top is Salamander Glacier. Just below it, (hidden) is Grinnell Glacier. We will be going above that waterfall and almost to the rock wall below Salamander Glacier. The waterfall is Grinnell Falls.
This is a view of Grinnell Lake. It lies beneath Grinnell Falls, which flow from Grinnell Glacier. Have you noticed how everything is named Grinnell? Well, it was all named after George Bird Grinnell. He was an environmentalist that explored the area and was instrumental in getting the area named a national park.
Just in case you were tired of mountain photos, here is one of trees. Glen did try his hand at photos of many things this summer. 🙂
After we left the group at the snack break, we approached this waterfall. We knew that we had to go through it. We aren’t sure that everyone on the hike was thrilled about this, and even we had some questions: “Just how wet are we going to get?” So here is our time-lapse sequence of Terry going through the falls.
Planning the route…..
Beginning through…..but careful not to go fast enough to slip over the left edge.
Deciding that the water was COLD and going a bit faster……
Mostly through. The right half of the body is now wet. That doesn’t show up in the photos, but trust me….it was wet and cold. And knowing we have to come back through it doesn’t help.
A closer view of where we are heading. Now you can see parts of Grinnell Glacier.
And….now the area below the glacier that is melting into a small lake above the waterfall.
You can see the lake, the glacier to the left, and Salamander Glacier above. Glen says the salamander is peeing…..boys will be boys!
Anyone for a swim?
Glen posing by the beautiful view. Raingear is now on as it has started to sprinkle. We head back to the picnic area just a bit down the trail from here, eat lunch, and then head back. We met the ranger led group again just as we finished up lunch and were ready to head out.

We were able to hop on the first boat when we returned to the dock, and the only wildlife we saw was a bighorn sheep. We were glad to have done this hike, and would say it has good “bang for the buck”. It isn’t overly steep or long, and has good payoff. We know now why it is a popular hike. If you wanted safety in numbers, the ranger led hike is a great option.

We only did one more hike while we were there, so the blog updates are almost done.

Short, but sweet

We were running out of longer hikes in the park, and decided that we might want to try some of the hikes that were commonly done by people that visited our campground. We had a lot of people looking for short, easy hikes to get out and explore a bit of the park without having to be in great shape. So, we tackled two of the more popular hikes.

First, we hiked to Avalanche Lake. This trail goes beside a creek and hikes into a lake where you can see some tall waterfalls coming down the hillside from the glacier above. It is a very busy trail. That was one of the first things we noticed and have to say it is a different kind of experience. It reminded us of Yosemite where things were just so packed with people that it didn’t feel like hiking.

With that said, it was an opportunity to see some pretty things without a long hike. It did have rolling hills and was certainly challenging for some.
This is the lake at the end of the hike. It was an overcast day, and in fact did rain on us before we got back to the car, so no brilliant blue sky or water in the photos. It was a nice place to have a picnic lunch, dip the toes, and drink in some scenery. There was a ranger there telling of the days when the glacier above would have been visible there and how he used to go ice climbing there.
A closer look at one of the waterfalls.

An even closer look at the water in Avalanche Creek.
Another popular hike in the park is to the Hidden Lake Overlook. We had tried to put this in the itinerary when we were visiting with Kyle, but parking issues prevented us from accomplishing it at that time. The hike begins at Logan Pass, and takes you through an alpine meadow to an overlook of a hidden alpine lake.
Along the way, we were treated to some mountain goat action. We also had to make our way through some snow even though it was August! We had waited and waited for the snow to melt out and didn’t have time to wait any longer. When we first arrived in June, people were heading up this with skis and snowboards to then ski/board back down.
Above is the payoff. The hidden lake. You can’t see this from the “Going to the Sun Road” or from the visitor’s center at Logan Pass. But, with a short 3 mile round trip walk, what a treat. There isn’t a lot of elevation gain, and much of it is actually on a wooden boardwalk. Along the way you pass through wildflower meadows and are surrounded by mountains. This is certainly a great hike for people of all ages and fitness levels.

Pitamaken-Dawson Loop: Or…our new favorite hike of all time!

We have a new winner! This week we tackled a hike that we have been looking at for awhile. It is a long one, and we kept debating whether we wanted to try to get a backcountry permit and take the big packs to stay overnight part of the way in, or just take day packs and make a long day of it. We finally opted to just do it as a day hike. What’s wrong with a few more miles, anyways? Glen will always vote for a longer trail if it lightens the pack.
This hike is listed as a “backpackers must-do” hike in our book, and we had heard good things from our Glacier friends. They are all right! The trail is called the Pitamaken-Dawson Loop. It is 17.6 miles.(When we started the hike we thought that it was going to be just over 15, but we missed something when we were reading the description.) It starts at lake level, circles the back side of a mountain, travels past an alpine lake, climbs the side of a mountain, crosses a ridgeline, circles the back of another mountain, more ridge, around a third mountain, and then descends into a valley and back along the lake.

This is a look up at one of the mountains. We will actually be heading behind it later.

Above, is looking down on Oldman Lake where we would have spent the night if we tried to get a backcountry permit. We have climbed up some switchbacks from there to Pitamaken Pass. When we get up there, we not only see this view of where we came from, but we see another valley on the right hand side of us with two lakes. We can also see where we are headed. In that photo, we will be going behind the mountain on the right, across the ridgeline, and behind the mountain on the left around to a valley where we descend.
This is the view from the ridge on Pitamaken Pass of the two lakes on the right side of us as we could also see Oldman Lake on the left of us.
Terry could not resist this “boot shot” from the top of Pitamaken Pass. Needless to say, Glen didn’t get anywhere near the edge — personal growth only goes so far.

After we came over Pitamaken pass we saw a whole herd of bighorns, and climbed up a slope and over a snow field to get behind that mountain you saw earlier on the right side of the photo. This was the view we were treated to on the backside, as another whole valley opened up below us.
This was our lunch spot, and it was so windy we thought we would lose our hats. Hence, hat hair in the photo. Another hiker was so kind as to take this for us as we munched our pepperoni, cheese, Triscuits, and Gatorade. You can see the view behind us, and it was equally as beautiful in front of us.
This photo shows the view in front of us at lunch.
When we finally came around Dawson Pass and could see this view, we could see our ending point…at the far end of that lake. We still had lots of miles to go to make it there, but what a phenomenal hike. We have never had a hike with so much of it above treeline, with so many different viewpoints.
It WAS a LOOONG hike. However, we are glad we did it with light packs. We also know that if we were ever to have anyone ask about overnight stays, that our advice would be to get one or two nights at Oldman Lake. Hike there, drop the gear, take light packs up and over Pitamaken and around to Dawson, then go back to Oldman Lake and out the same way. The Dawson Pass side is steep, you can see all the view from the top, and no way would we do this in reverse order. Pitamaken has nice gradual switchbacks. 🙂 We didn’t really enjoy the part where we came down from Dawson into the lake level. It was a bit hard on the knees!
If you time things correctly, you can cut about 2 miles off this hike by taking the boat across Two Medicine Lake. We didn’t time things correctly. They run boats at 3:00 and at 5:00. We reached the boat area about 3:10. So, we opted to walk out rather than wait 2 hours for a boat.
We are slowly reaching the end of our “must do” list here, and that is probably a good thing. Many trails are being closed for bear activity. We wanted to hike to Grinnell Glacier, but doubt we can now. I don’t know if you all heard the story of Jack Hanna and the grizzlies that resulted in him spraying a young griz….but it was all the rage here. Jack Hanna Article Jack Hanna actually stayed here at the KOA and he very kindly gave me an autographed copy of one of his books when he heard I was a 4th grade teacher.