7-24-08 ...and another thing...

All. Here is a map of our 3-week trip.

7-23-08 One more thing...

Our blog made Yellowstone Newspaper at this link:

http://www.yellowstone-online.com/newspaper.html

Scroll about halfway down and you'll find a link to our blog entry for 7/15/08 in the rightmost column regarding the apple core incident...

Apparently the guy who compiles these things agrees with our assessment.

7-22-08 Peace Out

Up early. Travel day…pending reality setting in.

Wrap-up show…

We thank everyone for reading our blog and offering your comments. We had such a great time on our trip. We’ll never forget our experiences, the interesting people we met and overall incredible sights and sounds along the way. Here are a few interesting (to us of course) items, news and notes from our trip. Enjoy.

Some trip numbers:

1. 3-week duration
2. 3700 miles driven
3. $780 gas
4. 7 states/provinces
5. 4 national parks
6. 2 countries
7. 25 national forests (estimated)
8. 15 state/provincial parks (estimated)
9. 11 incredible mountain bike rides
10. 2 absolutely amazing hikes
11. 1 fly fishing
12. 1 white water rafting
13. 1 horseback ride
14. 19 days of ridiculously perfect weather

Number of times we cursed at the Garmin GPS Lady: 64

Longest stretch of driving: 10 hours Yakima, WA to Stanley, ID

Number of days inclement weather halted an activity: 0.5 (not too bad!!)

Mountain Bike Trail Nods

1. Skookum Flats – Most rainforesty ticky tacky goodness
2. Little Bald Mountain – Best downhill variety
3. Devil’s Gulch – Ultimate long burner climb with best downhill…period
4. Elk Mountain – Best big sub-alpine meadow action
5. Fisher Creek – Most surprising never-ending singletrack fun
6. Bald Mountain – Least climbing and best view (ski lift)
7. Chocolate/Fox – Highest celebrity content (Lance Armstrong at some point)
8. Helena Town Trails – Best unobstructed 360 degree view at top
9. Moonraker – Best Grand Canyon impression
10. Monument 83 – Most historical trail with a boring climb
11. Alice Lake – Best fun rolling

Satellite radio stations accessed:

1. 40% - Howard Stern

2. 35% - News/NPR

3. 15% - Lithium Rock

4. 5% - Weather channels

5. 5% - Miscellaneous

Top illegal activities

1. Mike speeding

2. Chad speeding

3. Smuggling tobacco from U.S. to Canada (2 cigars)

4. Smuggling (inadvertently) bear spray from Canada to U.S.

5. Being closer than 100 yards from grizzly bear

6. Farting (Chad) at campsite during quiet hours

7. Using restrooms in stores where not patrons

8. Accessing other people’s WIFI 23 times

9. Riding (mistakenly) on hiking-only trails

10. Casting our spell of charm on unsuspecting lovely ladies

11. Pretending to charm unsuspecting lovely ladies

12. Talking about work which was a rarity thank goodness

Most purchased items during trip:

1. Ice

2. Water/Gatorade

3. Coffee

Best campsite:

1. Lakeview Campground – Stanley, ID

2. Alice Lake Provincial Park Campground – Squamish, BC

3. Dalles Campground – Emunclaw, WA

Honorable Mentions:

1. Most in-site wildlife: Avalanche Lake Campground – Glacier National Park
2. Scariest grizzly red zone: Bakers Hole Campground – Gallatin National Forest (West Yellowstone) – slept with knife open in tent…no joke
3. Best Bathroom: Two Jack Campground – Banff National Park
4. Shortest Stay: 10 hours – Moose Creek Campground – Helena, MT

Worst campground: Golden Municipal Campground – Golden, BC (it just sounds bad)

Towns with the most character (i.e. not considered Anytown U.S.A.) visited:

1. Banff, AB

2. Ketchum, ID

3. Jackson Hole, WY

Luckiest moments:

1. Leaving the passenger side window down at Glacier National Park trailhead with laptop and GPS on seat for the duration of our 6 hour hike
2. Spill at Little Bald Mountain. Although not mentioned in the blog entry for fear that mother may call the Director of Homeland Security and stop government, Mike was relatively close to tumbling down a 200 foot rock slide…yikes. Lesson learned; don’t clip the inside sloping bank with front tire at a high rate of speed
3. The overall lack of bear mauling
4. ‘Working’ the ‘green’ Fedex employees to knock off a total of $200 in bike shipping costs both to and from.

Best place to drop a deuce after a tough ride: Bald Mountain Resort, Ketchum, ID – marble countertops, granite stone, gold fixtures, massive heavy door, nice tile work, good horsepower and flush action on the toilet and a sweaty, dirty, stinky mountain biker.

Best pre-trip purchase:

Mike: Headlamp

Chad: Hiking Shoes

Most surprising state:

Mike: Idaho – didn’t see a single potato; had no idea Idaho was so beautiful

Chad: Idaho for similar reasons

Item we wish we packed more of:

Mike: White socks

Chad: Biking socks

Worst pre-trip purchase:

Mike: Campsite chair

Chad: Not buying biking sunglasses

Packed item not used:

Mike: Rock climbing gear

Chad: Swimsuit

Random fact learned on trip which now seems obvious:

Mike: 2/3 of Washington is desert

Chad: Chad knows everything

Things that will never occur following this trip:

Mike: Eat another chewy granola bar…ever!

Chad: Try on another pair of sunglasses

Peace out!!!

7-21-08 Broadway

Up early. Its break down day…shit. Get out the bike boxes, wrenches, bubble wrap and start breaking bikes down. They did us well. Need to figure out what to do with our crap we accumulated. Here comes Santa. Gave extra propane and new cooler to lady and two kids at adjacent campsite. Gave toilet paper, paper plates, plastic cups and can of soup to gentleman two sites away…who didn’t actually want them but said ‘ehhh…the old lady will collect anything’. Pillows…well it was a toss up between the garbage and Johns Hopkins Biomedical Research Facility. During wholesale giveaways, we were offered a free tent…we declined. Load up the minivan and headed south towards Vancouver. Stopped by a waterfall in Squamish on the way out…took our last vacation pics. How sad.

1 hour wait at the border crossing. Finally back in the U.S. Heading south, first stop is Fedex/Kinkos in Bellingham, WA to ship our bikes back home. Young kid working the desk is a biker himself…nice kid, lots of energy…good for Fedex. Gives us a discount, inadvertently by not measuring the size of Mike’s bike bag which exceeds max size, on the cost of shipping…we used some misdirection by chatting it up about biking…should have been a lawyer…dam it.

Back on the road in search for a hotel. This turned out to be nightmare. Who figures every hotel on the west coast would be booked on a Monday night? Stopped at 5 hotels in Renton, WA and 4 in Kent, WA that were all full...it was Howard Johnson time. It was around this time that Chad wanted to deliberately drive the Knightrider minivan into some large boulders in frustrating fashion to the sounds of GPS Garmin Lady echoing ‘Re-Calculating’ over and over and over again…we didn’t like Renton, WA.

Showered up, trimmed the noise hair and shipped out to Seattle for some eats. Saw the Space Needle for the first time and Safeco Field where, interestingly enough the Red Sox were playing. Settled on the Broadway Grill on Broadway Street. The street was a child born out of Central Sq. Cambridge and Newbury St. Boston. Excellent burgers and hoppy local brews. We’re tired. Time for bed.

7-20-08 The Squam

Up at 7:00am. Cereal breakfast. On the road to Vancouver to meet Bryce, Chad’s friend, for lunch. Garmin takes us through the crack district of Vancouver…sweet! Tempted to pick up some kilos but exchange rates not in our favor. Arrive at Byrce’s apartment where large heating fans operating after previous evening waterfall event from apartment above. Got some grub with Bryce at the waterfront…a short 10 min walk where Bryce gave us all the secrets to picking up women…they all involve tea. Checked out a beach volleyball tournament, took some pics and retreated back to Kit for destination; Squamish, BC. Stopped at a well crafted wooden visitor center. Got some information on rides and camping. Mike was drooling at rock climbing potential. Got to Alice Lake Campground…a very nice place…where host let us know a bear has been frequenting the area…no worries host lady, we sleep with knifes and bear spray.

Squamish=Mountaineering MECCA. Big mountain festival going on. Have to come back here soon. Massive rock climbing activity…big slabby faces. Alert to J-Niner nation: Must return for rock climbing goodness!

Dominated a couple of trails at Alice Lake and Garibaldi Provincial Parks. Mike busted another link in his chain…he is so powerful! The trails were densely compacted earth, almost like pavement. We discovered they just finished up a big competition during the past week. It was fun but frankly our legs were hurtin’ a bit from the 3 weeks. We tried to finish it out strong. We stumbled upon a clan of downhill mountain biker goddesses….they were ‘strong’ women. Suffice it to say, if it came down to it, they would likely kick our asses in a drinking contest. Beautiful, scantily clad women riding mountain bikes come around less frequently than Hailey’s Comet.

Back to campsite for shower and make-up. Out to the Howe Sound Brewing Company for steaks and beer in downtown Squamish. For a city with so much outdoor activity, the city centre was a bit disappointing. Chad and Mike briefly discussed the socio-economic differences of Ketchum, ID and Squamish, BC…two seemingly similar areas with regard to outdoor activity. We settled on Ski Resort revenue as main difference. Clearly it was not the most exciting conversation we’ve had on the trip. Back to camp. Mike puts beat-down on Chad in Rummy 500. Sleep.

7-19-08 Practice

Work of a bear...at the start of our ride.

7-19-08 Monument 83

Good night sleep. Ate breakfast and hit the road for some riding. No concrete plan but heard of some good places to ride in southeast BC from various people including but not limited to man at bike shop in Banff, AB, woman at Visitor Center in Golden, BC, woman at Visitor Center in Princeton, BC. Canada is big on advertising its outdoor activities and mountain biking is one of the headliners. We have a book specifically dedicated to mountain biking in southeast BC. Drive is interesting. We’re moving west from the Canadian Rockies/Kootenay Mountains on our way to an area near the North Cascades of Washington (staying in Canada)…so we’re in a valley of sorts with rolling hills and dry terrain…reminds me a bit of Colorado. Passing Okanogan Lake to our left…its impressively large at about 100km long. Tons of people…appears to be a big vacation hotspot. Actually woman at first BC Visitor Center said people from Alberta flock to British Columbia for summer vacations. There are more fruit stands than you can shake a stick at…stop at Bear’s Fruit Stand and bought some peaches and plums. After about 3 hours of driving we arrive at the E.C. Manning Provincial Park and get a spot at Mule Deer Campground. Gear up and drive 4km to the trailhead.

We decided to do Monument 83 trail. Its an out-and-back with a terminus at the U.S.-Canada border. According to the book, the first half of the trail fairly gradual and then steep climb for the second half. Started at elevation 1200m going to elevation 2000m. Our legs definitely feeling the effects of the trip. My legs were past the burning stage and on to the just plain hurting. I popped a link in my chain and had to stop for 10 mins to fix. Then we forgot to feed the chain through the front derailleur and wasted another 10mins. Good rest though… The whole climb was in the trees until the very end where the trees broke and we stumble upon the actual monument no. 83, a silver colored spire. This was one of my favorite surprises on the trip. The monument does denote a survey point of the border between U.S and Canada so we effectively crossed the border without our passports. One thing I did not know was that there is a swath about 20’ wide cut in the trees along the entire border…at least what we could see with our eyes. You can see in the pictures. There was also a 4-story wooden lookout tower on the U.S. side that we climbed to the top. Our comfort level was low at the top… On the Canadian side there was a hut open to anyone passing through. On the inside there markings from many of the past travelers…notes, initials, and dates all the way back to the late 1800’s. About 10 yards outside the hut was grave and headstone made from wood with a name that we could make out as Pasayten Pete who apparently was shot by Leanord or Lionel or someone in 1926. On the U.S. side there was an old sign that called the forest beyond the Pasayten Wilderness. Interesting… Next stop we’re going to do some Google action.

The ride down was fun and fast. It has been customary in bear country that the lead rider cough or whistles around corners as to not surprise the bears. We were also in cougar country…we did our homework and read just about every safety tip ever written. If you stumble upon a bear talk in a low calming voice as you walk slowly backwards facing the bear but without eye contact. If you are unfortunate to be stuck between the bear and her cubs and she attacks, curl up a ball protecting internal organs and cover face and neck with arms and don’t fight back. Bear spray is a last resort. If you stumble upon a cougar, look as large and as intimidating as possible and if it attacks fight back with all your might…no joke. I’ve had a lot of coffee this morning…

Back to campsite for soup, hotdogs, and chips. Yum.