travel
Milford Sound
As we walked back from Ultimate Hikes to the Lovely St. Moritz hotel we stopped at the Real Journeys office to check on our reservation for Milford Sound. We had sort of concluded that if the helicopter return was not going to go, and we could back out at this late time, we would cancel and just enjoy a day of leisure in Queenstown. The Helicopter was not confirmed, we were the only two booked, and they need at least four people booked to fly. But we couldn’t cancel either. – Real Journeys take note, this is a terrible and unfair policy! To charge someone full fare to cancel a flight that is not even confirmed is ridiculous. With the NSF grant deadline about 36 hours away I was ready to cancel anyway and stay in the room to finish up my work on the grant.
The morning came and it was sunny and nice in Queenstown, so I did a bit of grant work and decided I would take my iPad on the bus. After all, I had already seen the first four hours of the trip on our journey to the Routeburn Track! The first bit of luck for the day was that the bus had WiFi! At least until just after Te Anau. So, I had about three hours of time to work on the grant and upload things to the NSF website. By the time we got to Te Anau I was feeling really good and I had all of the stuff for Luther uploaded.
The next bit of good news was that our driver seemed pretty confident that even though the clouds were really low and the fixed wing planes were on hold, the helicopters would still fly. But we still would not know whether we had another four hour bus ride at the end of the boat tour of the sound or whether we would have a nice 45 minute helicopter tour back to Queenstown at the end of the boat ride. We would just have to wait to know for sure. But again, Barry the bus driver was optimistic.
The two hour boat tour of Milford Sound was really great. The boat moved along slowly just a few meters from the sheer mountainside. The walls of the mountain come straight out of the water and soar 5-6 thousand meters over us. You really can’t grasp the scale of it unless you see another boat or some people to give you an idea.
When we made it to the Tasman sea at the end of the sound and looked back we marveled that anyone would ever think to try to bring a ship there! You can’t tell from the oceanside that there is this narrow sound leading back to a nice little spot to land and build a small town. Nevertheless Captain Thomas Cook did follow the sound back and mapped out the area.
The highlight of the boat trip was definitely the final waterfall. The captain took our boat right up to the base of the fall, and we looked straight up at water falling some 52 stories! The height of the IDS tower in Minneapolis, nothing but water falling straight down at you. It is really beautiful.
When we arrived back at Milford the captain announced that we had made it just in time as the weather was about to “turn to custard.” Whatever that meant we were not sure but we were pretty sure that helicopters are not meant to fly in custard. So we walked back to bus 17 steeling ourselves for another four hours on the coach. Fortunately when we arrived at the bus we were met with a big thumbs up from Barry! At least one other couple had upgraded to confirm our helicopter tour back to Queenstown! Now we just had to get out of Milford before the custard formed.
We rode the shuttle to the airport with another couple from our bus and hopped off just in time to see one helicopter take off and another, the color we were looking for, come in for a landing. However… as the pilot got out of our copter and started toward us, a bus pulled up and dropped off another couple. the pilot looked at all of our tickets and got a very perplexed look on his face. the two people he had brought in were booked to go right back, and now there were a total of eight of us for a six passenger ride. After some time, and a lot of anxious looking at the clouds turning to custard it was finally determined that the previous pilot had left prematurely. He would turn around and come back for the final couple to arrive. The rest of us would be on our way. After a very short safety briefing we boarded and took off.
Jane was on one side of the helicopter and I was on the other. She was on the side closest to the mountain. As I kept looking at her side I kept thinking how glad I was on my side. Her side seemed to be just feet from the side of the sheer mountain! One gust of wind and we are goners I thought. But, no worries, these Kiwi Alpine pilots know their stuff. The ride turned out to be (mostly) smooth and really really beautiful. what a treat to fly over some of the mountains we had hiked through in the beautiful sunlight.
Our adventures were not over because the flight home included a short stop on a glacier! Well, more of a big snowbank than a glacier, and really I didn’t think there was any way we could land in the spot we landed. It didn’t look level and the pilot landed just feet from the edge. Did I mention these Alpine pilots are really really good? so we got out and tramped about in the snow for a few minutes, Jane in nothing but sandals! Pictures were taken and we were all in awe of the beauty. But very soon we piled back in the helicopter and took off for the last bit of our journey to Queenstown. We were back by 5:10, a full three hours before the coach was supposed to be back, plus we had an amazing helicopter adventure!
Three Days on the Routeburn Track
Day Zero
We arrived in Queenstown just in time to appreciate the change in temperature. We left the 90 degree weather in Melbourne and arrived to 70 degree weather in Queenstown. It was a very welcome change in both temperature and scenery. It takes about 30 seconds to realize why Peter Jackson decided to film Lord of the Rings here! The steep Mountains and misty low clouds around Lake Wakatipu make you want to break out into some dwarf songs.
We had just enough time to check into the St. Moritz before a short walk down the hill to the Ultimate Hikes center for our pre-hike briefing. Now is a good time to note that Jane and I have. noticed that we are no longer the young couple on the tours we have chosen. Most of the people we have met and toured with so far on this trip have been 20 years younger than us. Life Happens! As we contemplated 3 days of hiking with 30 year olds we were getting a bit nervous. So, we were pretty relieved to see that the vast majority of the 27 people at our briefing were in our age bracket.
There is no bad weather, only bad gear!
If I didn’t take anything else away from the briefing it was this quote. And we were really glad that we had done our homework and invested in some good rain gear and merino wool.
Day One
The first day of the trek kicked by meeting our guides – Jono, Anthony, Sadao, and Jo – then a bus ride leaving Queenstown at 6:30AM. We had a two hour bus ride until our stop morning tea in Te Anau. Every tour in Australia and New Zealand includes a stop for morning tea and scones. Very civilized. We had a couple more hours on the bus after morning tea before we got to the start of the trek in the Fiordland National Park. This first day we had around four hours of trekking (7.5 miles) to get to our first night’s lodging at Lake Mackenzie. The first hour and a half was all up hill pretty steadily, so even though we were geared up for the 50 degree weather and rain we began shedding layers only a few minutes into the hike. With four guides, one was at the front, one at the back and two floated between people in the middle. It didn’t take long for us to stretch out with the back being about an hour behind the front. We were somewhere near the middle.
We carried our lunches in with us, and we carried the rubbish out. The National Parks in New Zealand have no rubbish bins to prevent animals from learning to scavenge food. It works well. I don’t think we saw one bit of litter anywhere along the track. We hiked uphill to Howden Hut where we had our lunch stop along with hot tea and coffee made by our guides. We walked out of the rain shortly after lunch and enjoyed a really scenic hike through the afternoon. The highlight of the afternoon was definitely the Earland Falls. Anthony said, make sure you have your inhalers, it will take your breath away. And he was right. As with many of the sites on our trip pictures don’t do justice to the actual scene.
We arrived MacKenzie hut around 4:00 and we were definitely ready to stop for the day. We were met at the entrance by Chris who had hot chocolate (called Milo here down under) and snacks for us. He gave us a quick tour of the lodge and showed us to our room. We were blown away by the accomodations. Ultimate Hikes made some kind deal with the Department of Conservation (DOC) whereby they built new facilities for the park in exchange for getting the concession for guided hikes and the ability to build their own huts on the track. They were so clean and nice. We had our own room with ensuite and shower. There was a clothes washing area, and a huge warm room called the drying room. Then a really nice common area where we could hang out, have a drink, eat our meals and get to know the rest of our group.
For dinner tonight we had entrees of Hummus or Salmon spread with cheese and meat. For our main we had our choice between a New Zealand Rib Eye and Chicken. For desert we had brownies and ice cream. Yes we were “roughing it” all right. It took us a few meals to understand that in Australia and New Zealand they call appetizers “entrees” and the entree is called the “main.”
Unfortunately the first night we also got to watch a helicopter landing. One of our group had fallen on the track and broken her wrist and hurt her leg pretty badly. So, she and her husband were evacuated by helicopter. The rescue team landed on a tiny little pad right next to the hut. Clearly these guys know what they are doing to drop out of the clouds and land right on target.
At 10:00 the generators are shut off until 7:30 the next morning. But that really wasn’t a problem as we were all in bed by 9:30 that first night! I was talking to one of the guides about their arrangement with the DOC and he said that the generator times, along with every detail down to the dishwashing soap and toilet paper was negotiated to have minimal environmental impact on the National Park. Everything at the hut is flown in and out by helicopter once a week.
Day Two
Day two began with sandwich making at 7:45. Amazingly we slept solid until 7:00 when I needed to get up and use the ensuite. A few experimental steps revealed that all the limbs were still working as they should with amazingly little stiffness. Continental breakfast was at 8:15 followed by eggs Benedict at 8:30. At 9:15 we met for a group photo by Lake Mackenzie and then we were off for a good six hours of walking. The beginning was again steadily up hill, then we rounded the mountain onto the rainy and windy side! The distance for today was just 6.9 miles but it was slower going than yesterday! There is no bad weather, only bad gear I repeated to myself. Nevertheless we made it to the hut on Harris Saddle for our rest/lunch stop. After lunch I did the optional climb up Conical Hill while Jane continued on towards the Routeburn Lodge with a few others. After the Harris Saddle and the Conical Hill the rest of the day was down hill which was nice but pretty hard on my calfs.
A couple times today we were rewarded with a glimpse of what a great view we could have on one of the rare clear days. Still it was all beautiful in a Lord of the Rings kind of way. Although I walked by myself most of the afternoon, I enjoyed just going my own pace and enjoying the views.
The second night we stayed at Routeburn lodge. By the way if you’ve been reading Routeburn as “rowt burn” you are doing it wrong, it is “root burn.” This lodge is very similar to the Lake Mackenzie lodge but with a great view of the valley and the Routeburn falls right behind. We were all bit more tired and a lot more wet than we were the day before. So dinner was served a bit earlier. Tonights fare included a delicious Pesto soup as the entree followed by a choice of Salmon or New Zealand lamb chops. By now we had gotten to know a lot of our fellow trekkers pretty well, so before dinner and during dinner conversation was very lively. We have met a surprising number of people from Chicago on this trip and we have really enjoyed getting to know them, especially Dave and Lynn Reiner. We also met lots of nice people from New Zealand including a couple women (Jennifer and Megan) who reminded me of Jane and Shirley if they had New Zealand accents and were to take off on their own adventure. Lots of the people in the group were involved in education including the two women I mentioned and Professor Tiano from Duke University in Singapore.
It was nice to be surrounded by other academics as I was beginning to stress about the impending NSF grant deadline back home. Leaving my co-authors to finish the proposal while I was totally off the grid for 3 days is not the best plan. Of course agreeing to do the grant in the first place when you know the deadline is in the middle of your holiday does not show the best judgement either.
Day Three
I woke up at about 4AM on day three, once again needing to use the ensuite. However my first couple of steps out of bed were so painful I spent the next couple hours in and out of sleep wondering if my muscles would loosen enough for me to walk down the track on my own power. Thankfully day three dawned bright and sunny for the final 5.7 miles of our trek. Once again we started our day with sandwich making followed by continental breakfast and then eggs and bacon. Sadly it took me until day three to get lesson in making a proper cup of Milo from Jono. To anyone who may happen upon this in preparation for a trip to New Zealand here is the procedure: pour a couple tablespoons of cream into your coffee cup, then add six, yes six, spoonfuls of milo and mix it into a paste with the cream. You may have to add more to get the right pasty consistency. Then after you have a good chocolatey paste you can add the hot water.
Today’s walk was the easiest of the three with the route being mostly down hill to the Routeburn flats and then more gentle downhill for the 5.7 mile distance to the end of the route. We had several intermediate stops along the way including an early lunch along the river. By the end of the trek we felt like we had really experienced New Zealand at its best. Great people, great scenery, no crowds, just lots of great natural beauty.
Our final stop of the trek was at the pub in Glenorchy for a schooner of ale and the presentation of our certificates of achievement! Several suggested that this certificate of achievement would make a good addition to my bio for the grant proposal 😜
The Great Ocean Road
Arrival and Trolly Tour
We arrived in Melbourne and took a little dinner tour of the city on a dinner trolly. We thought it would be mediocre food, but a good way to see the city. It turned out that the food was better than expected, and in the end we didn’t see too much of Melbourne. Still fun, and we got to see “The Original Taco Bills”. Those of you who were at Luther in the 80’s will appreciate the Taco Bills excitement.
The Great Ocean Road
The great ocean road was built along the southern coast of Australia in the 30’s by men in the ANZAC (Australia New Zealand Army Corps). These were primarily WWI soldiers who needed work, and time to recover from the war. The statue at the beginning of the road commemorates these men.
Aside from our morning tea, and a lunch stop we made three main stops today: One for a Koala and Parrot viewing, the second for a 30 minute hike in the rain forest and the third at the 12 Apostles. Although the crowds were as thick as the flies the 12 Apostles were really the highlight of the day. Fun fact: The Australian government originally called these “the apostles” since there were only nine of them, but the tourists kept referring to them as the 12 apostles so eventually some marketing person in the government gave in and they renamed the site to the 12 Apostles and it remains that to this day. The name is increasingly less accurate at the moment as one of the 9 came down a few years back. However, in a few thousand years it is likely that the numbers will increase again as erosion along the shore does its work.
Great Barrier Reef (batman)
WOW! we haveve just finished a day on a live aboard dive boat where we did 4 dives and 2 snorkels on the great barrier reef. I saw Nemo, Dory and all the rest, except for Crush! Plus we saw sea slugs, octopus, sharks (not Bruce!!) lobster, and many many more. My ear is a bit plugged up from the four dives, but its worth a few days of having the world sound a little muffled. I haven’t even mentioned that one of the dives was a night dive! We stood on the ship and looked at the reef sharks swimming next to the ship and still jumped in with our “torches.”
Night diving is definitely a bit eerie and I’ll admit I was a bit nervous about that one. It was quite the sensation to be underwater-weightless and in complete darkness except for the light from your own flashlight. We saw a lot of fish that we did not see during the day and of course we saw a bunch of sharks. Not the man-eating kind, just the normal kind that are more afraid of us than we are of them. The most common fish we saw on the night dive was the Giant Trevally. They were not afraid of our lights, and in fact knew just how to take advantage of them. If you held your light on a smaller fish for too long one of these big Trevallys would swoop in and … there would no longer be a smaller fish there. Unfortunately we did not get any pictures during the night dive, but the next morning we did a 6:30AM dive and were rewarded with a glassy sea and crystal clear water for viewing lots of active fish.
The boat we were on was called Reef Encounter and was by far the best diving experience ever! The crew was really knowledgeable and really helpful with novice and rusty divers alike. Our guide for the whole trip was Hugo and and he was fantastic. He was very patient with reminding us of all the details of setting up our gear, and let me descend as slowly as I needed to in order to keep my ears from exploding.
The live aboard boat is really the way to do the great barrier reef as you don’t spend three hours of your day getting out and back from the reef. Rather you can spend most of the first day diving, and again the second day you can start first thing in the morning. We transferred to the boat from shore on a day excursion boat that tied up with our ship to let us off and then pick us up again the next day. We had great company while onboard and because we were a part of the “Top Deck” program we ate our meals on the top deck with just a few other people that we enjoyed getting to know. In addition since things are very informal and everyone is on there to snorkel or dive we only brought our day packs with swimming suits, toiletries and an extra t-shirt. They don’t allow any shoes on board so there was no worrying about extra shoes to wear to dinner either.
When we returned to Cairns it was pouring rain and our guy Hugo offered to escort us off the boat with his umbrella. Sadly it was not an umbrella built for 3 and the wind was blowing so hard that the rain was mostly horizontal anyway, so even the nicest umbrella in the world would not have helped too much. The reception at the Shangri La was super nice when we arrived and immediately gave us towels to dry off with while they checked us in and retrieved the luggage we had stored there while we were on the live aboard.
Hiking the Valley of the Winds
Today we flew three hours and 1.5 timezones out of our way to see a big red rock! I’m not sure where to start unpacking this, the 1.5 timezones or the big red rock. But if you do a bit of research on Australia and the aboriginal people you will quickly learn about Uluru, or Ayer’s Rock. If you are on the right side of the plane you will get a nice view of this huge rock rising up in the middle of hundreds of miles of flatness. The picture above was taken at our outdoor dinner experience called “The Sounds of Silence.” There were about 60 of us out on a sand dune in the desert with a great view of Uluru and its sister called Kata-Tjuta. We were seated at a table with a family from Melbourne and a family from the US. The one son that I sat next to worked at Google as a software engineer, needless to say we had some good conversation that night.
Our plan had been to rent some bikes and ride around Uluru, but unfortunately last week they had massive rainstorms that washed out many of the trails, so they were closed except for one very short walking trail. We visited the head of that trail on the afternoon we arrived but didn’t go very far as the temperatures were over 100 degrees, and no shade in sight! We changed our plan to drive a short distance and hike the Valley of the Winds at Kata-Tjuta.
We got up and out the door by 6AM to make sure that we could hike in the coolest part of the day. They actually will close the hiking trails around 11AM if the temp is forecast to be over 37 Celsius! The hike to this first view point was easy and and a good way to warm up our hiking trail legs. However when we arrived at the first viewpoint the sign told us that the rest of the trail was closed! We, and the four other people that were a few minutes behind us assumed that this was simply a left over from yesterday and they hadn’t changed the sign yet that morning. So, we ignored the sign and pressed on for the Karingana lookout.
What a reward for an excellent little hike!
Although Ayer’s Rock is definitely a bit out of the way it was definitely worth the time and effort to see it. It is considered a sacred place to the Anangu people. Maybe it was the remoteness of the place or the lack of crowds, but you could definitely get a sense that it was a special place.
Happy New year!
Happy New Year!
Celebrating the new year in Australia is definitely something special. Everywhere we went the air in the city smelled like barbecue, and people were queueing to get into the free parks all afternoon. There is definitely a lot of pride by the people of Sydney in their preparations for the big show. We spent a good part of the morning hiking around Bondi beach and the surrounding area. Then we just chilled at the flat for most of the afternoon, watching the families queuing to get the best position to view the fireworks.
When they opened the gates to the park right below our flat at 6:00 it had the feel of a giant family picnic!
Eucalyptus in the Air
One great way to get over jet lag is to just get up in the morning and get going again. Although we only made it until 8:30 last night we did manage to sleep until about 4 AM. Our Blue Mountain tour started at 6:30 AM so we were wide awake and ready to go with no trouble. We had a great guide for a day long tour out into the Blue Mountains outside of Sydney. After a 90 minute drive from Sydney we stopped for Tea and Scones before our visit to Echo point to see the three sisters Meehni, Wimlah and Gunnedoo. Legend has it that their father turned them to stone rather than let them marry three brothers from a rival tribe.
Aboriginal legends in Australia are just as believable as the native american legends in the USA. However if you look closely at the picture you’ll notice there are actually four pillars of stone, the smallest one is their little brother Dave. Made famous a few years back when the locals started a social media campaign to #RememberDave.
There are a lot of great hiking trails in the area, including one which will bring you right over to the three sisters. We were on an easier tour instead of a several mile hike we got in line at Scenic World and rode the gondola across. This gave us a great, if fleeting, view of some waterfalls. From there we took another gondola on a steep descent into the rain forest.
Once you are in the rainforest they have three options: a 10, 20 or 30 minute walk through the forest on a nice safe boardwalk. At the end you can ride up the train (the steepest in the world) to the top. All in all it was very scenic and a nice walk but I think we would have preferred to skip the lines for the ‘rides’ and just walk the trails on our own.
After a very nice lunch of fish and chips we made our way to Featherdale to have our picture taken with a Koala and to feed the Kangaroos. Before we arrived I was calling it the ‘petting zoo’, but in the end it turned out alright. Coming face to face with a real Kangaroo is definitely cool.
In addition Featherdale had lots of really interesting native animals including a Tasmanian Devil – it doesn’t look anything at all like the one from the bugs bunny cartoons. But its jaw muscles are among the strongest in the animal kingdom. We also saw a Cassowary - think a turkey crossed with a Velociraptor. In fact they say it is a holdover from the dinosaurs. They have a hard crown (called a casque) on top of their head which is probably used as a sound box or radar for picking up the low frequency calls these creatures make. The Cassowary an endangered species but almost nobody has heard about them because they are not nearly as cute as the Koalas. They can jump six feet in the air and sprint 30 mph! I would not want to be chased by one.
To round out the day we had a quick tour through Sydney’s Olympic park. Still a very vibrant area to this day. And then a water taxi ride back to the Circle Quay in the heart of Sydney.
Note 1
The picture of me at the top of this post was taken on another little side trip to a place called Lincoln’s Rock. It just demonstrates the importance of perspective when you are framing a photo. I can assure you that I was never in danger of anything more than a broken leg had I managed to somehow slip off that ledge.
Note 2
The title of this post is also an explanation for how/why the Blue Mountains got their name. You can see there is kind of a blue haze in the background. This is because the mountains are full of eucalyptus trees and there is enough eucalyptus oil that evaporates into the air that refraction causes the air to look a little bit bluer. Australians also like to talk about how fresh and clear the air is in the blue mountains, in fact one enterprising Australian apparently even put blue mountain air into cans and sold it in China!
Hello Nemo!
I’m sitting by the window of our flat in Pott’s Point with the view you see in the picture above. (Except its morning now). We are starting to get past the jet lag that comes from being 15 hours ahead of home base with the help of a couple of event filled days that kept us moving and awake. Today we are going to do something more relaxing in advance of the huge new years eve celebration tonight.
The flat that we rented has this spectacular view of the harbor and the city skyline. But it lacks one key ingredient for the three days we happened to be here for. Air Conditioning! The weather in Sydney is very unseasonably warm. When Jane did the research we learned that the average temp is in the high 70’s this time of year, so AC didn’t even cross the mind. Unfortunately our first day here the temp was nearly 100 and yesterday was mid-90’s. So we come home at night to a very warm place to sleep. Luckily even the heat can’t keep us awake come 9-10:00 at night. I slept pretty well through the night last night so I’m hopeful that midnight is an achievable goal. I’m definitely looking forward to wishing everyone a Happy New year when it is only morning of New Years eve in your time zone.
Our first day in Sydney we explored the Botanical Gardens and the area around the Opera House and the bridge. It was miserably hot and we were way out of whack with jet lag, so even now, I’m not sure how clearly I’m remembering everything. We had a nice lunch at a place right on Woolloomooloo bay - yes thats a real name. Lots of things in Australia have the ‘oo’ in their names. This is a combination of Aboriginal pronunciation and the teaching of phonics (Not sure phonics was a thing in the early 1800’s). After our late lunch we walked to the Opera house, we were able to get into the lobby but no further as their was an afternoon performance going on.
At this point we had planned to hike over to the bridge and go up one of the towers. But we nearly cracked in the heat. A short rest and some re-hydration gave us a second wind and so we continued to wander around, eventually making our way to the bridge. We made our way to the top of the tower just 15 minutes before closing and were rewarded with some really spectacular views of the harbor!
By this time it was after 5pm Sydney time and the middle of the night to our bodies. Our feet were tired from walking so we gave in and grabbed a cab back to the flat. We worked really really hard to stay awake until about 8:30. But sleep took us, at least until about 3am!
All the Christmas Presents are Early
We leave the house tomorrow morning and we won’t be back until January 26th. (Note to would be robbers: The house has security and is well watched by neighbors and webcams) Jane and I have been waiting for a JTerm when I’m not teaching so we can do our Australian adventure during their summer, and this is the year!
So, all of our Christmas presents are things for the trip. We didn’t wrap them up and put them under the tree because we leave the 27th and we each got a new roll-aboard for the trip. We had to test-pack and re-pack to make sure we could make it. This is the new travelling ultra-light experiment and I have to say I am pretty excited about it. Once you do a bit of reading and planning it turns out to be pretty easy to travel for four weeks with nothing but a light roll-aboard and a daypack. Yes I’m a regular poster child for Osprey Packs
Its funny that the most difficult decision for me was to decide on the tech that I am bringing. I’ve gone back and forth between Macbook Pro (2016 13 inch edition) Plus iPad mini to 12.9 inch iPad pro plus Kindle Voyager. Amazingly there is only 300 grams difference in weight between the iPad Pro and the new Macbook Pro. However, I’m really excited about the experiment of writing daily blog posts with nothing but the iPad Pro.
I think I have the ideal setup (for a Geek like me) with Working Copy plus a dedicated server for my blog and Jenkins which will detect and automatically rebuild every time I commit a new post! I’ll be Syncing photos from my Sony 𝛂6000 to my iPad and then writing posts with iA Writer. when Working Copy pushes them to my github repository, Jenkins swings into action and runs Pelican to rebuild the static website that is my Blog. (I know because I’m practicing on this post)
We are very excited for this trip and feeling no guilt because Josh is off on a JTerm adventure to Italy and Kaia is, well, married and on her own :-) (sorry Kaia) I’ll be posting about our adventures here regularly, so stay tuned.
Wrapping up the RV Adventure
We are on I-94 heading across North Dakota today, the amount of road construction almost makes us long for Hwy 2 in Montana. Our anticipated day of uninterrupted four lane travel has been marred numerous times already by lane closures that stretch on for 12 miles apiece. We are hoping to make it all the way to Minneapolis today and turn in the RV about 12 hours early. If the going is too slow we can spend one more night on the road and bring it in tomorrow morning, but I think we are all settled in for the final push. Its been a great trip, better than any of us anticipated. We all agreed that there is a lot of appeal to traveling by RV.
The other night around the campfire we were reminiscing about our anniversary adventures:
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5 year - a week in Door County, young new parents.
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10 year - a cruise aboard a Carnival Funship! Once on Carnival is enough, and an infamous catamaran trip.
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15 year - a Mediterranean cruise on Royal Caribbean, exhausting!
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20 year - Cruising the Hawaiian islands on Norwegian, injuries galore, getting saved by a lifeguard, and losing bicycle breaks on the way down the mountain!
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25 year - Alaskan cruise on Princess plus an extended trip to Denali, whales and bears and moose!
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30 year - RV trip to Banff and Glacier, fun and very relaxed. (but scarce wildlife)
That is a quite a list of cool places to visit, and a lot of years of great friendship! None of us had really though about how many cruises the list included, so it was definitely time for a land adventure. Who knows where our next adventure will take us in five years. If we all make it to our 50th anniversary what will we do then? We’ll all be in our early 70’s by then, so chances are slim that we’ll make a return to mountain hiking. But, who knows by the 70 will be the new 50. Whatever the case may be we are lucky to have such great lifelong friends.
So, I’m finishing up this last post of the vacation just 160 miles from Minneapolis. Today has been a wild day of quick stops for gas, Burger King takeout (our first fast food of the trip) and switching drivers at rest stops or an off ramp. We are mostly out of the windy North Dakota, Northwest Minnesota winds, in fact we have a nice tail wind pushing along now.
As I have said many times before travel always changes me, or gives me a new perspective. My world of computer science is pretty clean and indoors. It was great to get out and appreciate the natural world. Its sad to see how the glaciers are receding and I hope we have the will to do something about climate change. On the other hand it was very hopeful to see how people in both Canada and the United States treat the national parks. You can tell that the people who visit have a certain reverence for the parks and what they represent. They are clean and free of litter, people that you meet on the trails are generally smiling and greet you in a friendly way. It definitely makes me want to continue to explore the great things our national parks have to offer.
The Hike to Iceberg Lake
We were just passed Ptarmigan Falls on our way back down when from behind me I heard, “Oh Crap!!” I thought Brian must have hurt himself so I asked “What’s wrong?” He said “I just remembered I have the keys to the RV!” Uh Oh! I thought, Jane and Holly are not going to be too happy when we get back. We had started the hike together that morning going as far as Ptarmigan Falls. At the falls we decided that the guys would continue on to Iceberg Lake, while the women returned to the campsite at their own leisurely pace. Nobody thought about the one and only key to unlock Willard when we parted ways. The rest of the hike we brainstormed ways that Jane and Holly would break in to the RV, we had visions of Jane boosting Holly through the front screen window, or failing that to recruit one of the small neighbor kids for that duty. Alternatively we figured they were just over at the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn cooling off and using the free WiFi. It turned out that they did use the WiFi, but we found them in good spirits lounging in the shade outside the RV waiting for us.
Although the hike out to Iceberg Lake and back was a good 10.2 miles and our longest of the trip, it was definitely worth the effort. Iceberg lake is part of a cirque. What is a cirque you ask? It is a half-open steep-sided hollow at the head of a valley or on a mountainside, formed by glacial erosion. Think of a giant ice cream scoop digging out half a mountain and you get the idea. The image doesn’t really capture it, but gives you an idea.
Our trip to Iceberg Lake was entertaining due mostly to two little boys hiking ahead of us. Boundless energy and a total willingness to get wet at every opportunity. At one point we caught up with them at a small stream where one of them was dunking his sweaty little head into the rushing water. His father, of course, was egging him on and taking pictures of the thing. Instant brain freeze was all we could think about. A while later they caught up with us at Iceberg Lake, which really does have icebergs floating around. One of them was just close enough to shore to be really really tempting for these two. The shoes were off and they were hopping from rock to rock determined to get to the little iceberg and claim in for their kingdom. The water was cold, REALLY COLD, so they were not willing to wade in above their ankles or for more than just a few seconds. We left before they claimed the berg, but we were convinced it was just a matter of time before one of them got completely soaked! We did catch this picture of a young brit who had brought his swimtrunks along on the hike for the purpose of getting in the lake.
Slow Down You're Movin too Fast
“Slow Down!” Ok, this was not delivered in the sing-songy spirit of the Simon and Garfunkel hit by the same name. Despite the fact that I was only going 15 miles per hour, apparently it was uncomfortable to those in the back. I’m not surprised as it was not a great, no, not even a good road. It was a crappy road 12 miles long to get back to the Many Glacier campground. A place that I had heard in my head the entire trip as the “Mini-Glacier Campground” was imagining something on the order of a snow cone. Tonight was to be our first RV night “boondocking it” No electrical, no water, no sewer. We switched into full conservation mode. The worst thing was we were also in a no generator zone so we couldn’t even make coffee in the morning. It really wasn’t that bad as we just walked over the the store with our travel mugs and got some.
We started out yesterday with our rental car and headed back up to Logan’s pass. One day ago it was shrouded in clouds, fog, and rain. But today the skies were sunny with just a few puffy clouds to make things interesting. What a difference a day makes. The sunshine gives Glacier a whole different look. I can’t even say better because despite the overcast weather of the day before it was still really cool. But, once we got to Logan’s pass we were set to make the hike to hidden lake. A hike in the snow!! Its June 26 and we are hiking in the snow! Layers People! We started with a lot of layers and ended up with short sleeves!
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Today was, by far, the nicest day of our trip so far, with clear skies and highs in the mid 70’s! We started out in shorts and short sleeves today. The plan was to make today an easy day, saving our energy for tomorrow’s hike to Iceberg Lake (or Ptarmigan Falls). Instead we did 7.2 miles around Swiftcurrent, Josephine and Grinnell lakes. The thing about hiking is that you always feel fine when you make the bad decision that takes you just a little bit further than your feet would like to go!
In keeping with the theme of this post, it is also clear that I am not a good person to lead the hikers. My stride is too long and my pace is too fast. “Slow Down!”
Tie Your RV Down
As we got in the car to head over to the hot tub at the KOA in St. Mary’s Montana, I pointed to the rope tied to the rear view mirror of the RV and the picnic table. I said it looks like we tied the RV to the picnic table to keep it from blowing away! Ha, imagine a picnic table holding back a 32 foot Winnebago in a 25 mph wind!? But 20 - 25 mph winds are what you get in St. Marys, just east of the continental divide. We had a lot of wind all day yesterday and today as we drove from Banff to Glacier. This area is known for its wind and highway 22 even had signs with warning lights for RVs and trucks for days when the wind is gusting and dangerous! Thankfully it was not bad for us at the time we drove that stretch.
Now, we are in a KOA campground, a source of some discontent amongst the group. however it has a hot tub, pool, and laundry facilities. These are all good things after a week of traveling together. Plus they also rent cars that you can take on the road to the sun. This is good as our RV would never be allowed to attempt the journey. The roads are indeed very narrow, and the rocks overhang on one side and would definitely tear off parts of the RV!
This morning we got up and were on our way by about 8:00 on the “road to the sun”. The main problem was that the sun was not cooperating! When we got to Logan’s pass we could barely see in front of the car because we were right in the middle of the clouds. But, we kept on going and in the end we were rewarded, not with sunshine, but with “lord of the rings” mystical beauty. The above photo is from MacDonald’s Lodge. Although the national park is called glacier, it could more appropriately be called waterfall national park at this point!
After MacDonald’s Lodge we took the Avalanche Lake hike! Wow, was this pretty, even in the dripping rain the sites along the way and once we got to the lake were well worth the hike!
After the hike we headed back the other direction on the road to the sun and by this time the clouds had lifted enough for us to really enjoy the scenery!
Of course no trip to Glacier, in June, would be complete without photos of the giant snowdrifts-cum-glaciers that we humans plow out of the way for the tourists!
And finally, no trip to Glacier would be complete without a picture of Goose Island!
Taking a Break on a Rainy Afternoon
“A clean underwear!” came the shout from the bedroom of the RV. “Thanks Holly, you just provided me with the opening line for today’s blog.” After a morning of touring the sites on the road to Jasper, we are back in the RV, having lost our will to hike in the rain. In the gloom and rain of the day I would say that the Columbia Ice sheet and all of the surrounding glaciers was actually a little depressing. You just can’t help but see how much they have shrunk over the years, and we overheard people talking. “When I was here 20 years ago, this glacier came right up to the road.” Now the glacier in question is a good kilometer back from the road.
So, as we are taking this downtime to shower and cleanup a bit in preparation for our move south tomorrow, I’m taking a few minutes this afternoon to catch up a little. There is only so much you can write about all of this mountain beauty. On the other hand it seems as though just when we think we’ve seen the most beautiful site, something new comes along and surprises us. so I’m just going to include some pictures today with a minimum amount of commentary. I think they speak for themselves.
The photo at the top is from Bow Lake, right off the highway. But everything was so still it was crazy beautiful.
This one may trip you up a bit. It is a closeup of the mountain reflection, but the stones in the foreground are not a reflection. It looks kind of weird without the perspective of the real landscape!
This is Peyto Lake, just a short hike off the highway, it is well worth the stop!
Sunwapta Falls was another really short hike off the highway, with spectacular falls. The power of the water never ceases to amaze. I was messing around with shutter speeds to get the effect you see in this photo.
We hiked around Emerald lake, I think you can guess how it got its name. Emerald Lake is in Yoho national park in British Columbia. If I had written this post yesterday I would have titled it “Yoho, Yoho a Pirates Life for Me!”
Another beautiful waterfall, next to a spot you could easily drive by and dismiss. But well worth the stop.
Here’s another which gives you a better view of its bridge like qualities.
Wardrobe Malfunction at the Hot Springs
Happy Anniversary! Jane and I have been married 30 years today. People will say that is quite an accomplishment these days, I just can’t believe that 30 years have gone by so quickly. We have two amazing children that have grown into wonderful young adults. Yes, one of them is older than we were when we got married. We have had 30 years of incredible adventures, we have seen a pretty good fraction of the world, and are looking forward to seeing lots more of it. I’ve had a pretty great career doing what I love. I couldn’t have done any of it without Jane. Thanks honey!
We started today at Moraine Lake, its smaller than Lake Louise, and when you walk up to the waters edge you might think, meh, not as blue as Louise either. But if you climb up the rocks near the waters edge you don’t have to go very far before you realize its just a matter of perspective. Of course climbing the rocks was part of the fun, but once we got to the top we realized there was a much easier way to get there! After absorbing the view for a while we made our way down (the easy way) and did a short walk along the lake shore. The sun started to come out, so we made our way back up and you can see how different the colors are in the sunlight!
From Moraine Lake we headed down the Bow River Parkway towards Banff. Supposedly the wildlife is more plentiful along the parkway that the four lane freeway. There are so many places you could stop and hike or stop and view the scenery that we really had to pick and choose. Our main stop on the way down was at Johnston Canyon. We hiked our way up to the lower falls and were rewarded with some really great views. I’m always amazed at the power of these streams and waterfalls. You can really appreciate the power of water over the centuries as you see how this deep narrow canyon was formed by the water.
By now it was lunch time and we headed for downtown Banff. Our first goal was for lunch, with a strong subgoal of finding a place where we could watch the USA versus Argentina soccer match later. We found ourselves at Park Distillery. They had the Euro on TV, but unfortunately they did not get FS1. Apparently with Canada not part of the Copa FS1 is not a priority in Banff, as this became a real theme as we went from place to place. First everyone assured us they got soccer, but when I clarified that we wanted the Copa America tournament, not the Euro things went downhill. After receiving multiple assurances that the Bear Street tavern did indeed get the Copa, we decided we were safe and could be about our business.
Our next stop of the day was the Banff Hot Springs. I will admit this seemed a bit cheesy to me, but after a few days of hiking who can resist a nice hot soak. You can rent everything you need at the Banff Hot Springs, including historical bathing suits. Holly should have done this as she forgot a critical part of her top back in the RV. Leaving her with a slightly thin top. Despite my reservations, and the fact the Hot Springs really were nothing more than a a big swimming pool full of hot mineral water the soak felt great, and we all got an extra shower! The quote of the day, was in the car on the way to the Banff Hotel when Holly was having further wardrobe problems and was heard to say “I can’t find them!”
After a short tour of the Banff Hotel, we headed back downtown for some shopping and wandering around town. Basically wasting time until the game started. At 6:30 we headed over to the Bear Street Tavern to take up our seats and wait for the game to start, only to be told that it would be an hour and a half wait for a table with no guarantee of seeing a TV. Horrors! Fine then, off we go to the Pump and Tap tavern. Described by the hostess of the Park Distillery as “a dive bar”. But being that it was an English pub they did get the game. In fact the owner had purchased a package just this week to ensure that they would get the Copa. No credit cards accepted, no table service, but lots of TVs and some decent beer. They had a very short menu with a number of deep fried options.
Just before halftime we got a text from Bear Street that our table was available. Brian went to investigate. Site lines to the TV? Copa available? As it turned out there was a view of the TV, but they did not have the package that allowed them to see the Copa. We were at the only place in town that carried the game. As time wore on, more and more USA fans filed in to watch the game. Then Messi kicked that wondrous free kick to put Argentina up 2 - 0 and all we could do was be impressed at how good the guy is. Right after halftime Argentina went up 3 - 0 and our stomachs said we should find some good food, so we made our table available to more diehard USA fans and headed down the street to the Coyote Cafe.
We didn’t arrive back at the RV until after 9:30 which meant that it was a 12 hour day of touring and enjoying the sites around Banff.
We are older than we think
Sitting in our campsite in Banff, my feet are up, I have a Gin & Tonic next to me, the campfire is started, the sun is still high in the sky, it’s 18:00. My iPhone tells me that I have taken 35,196 steps and gone 14.6 miles today! I believe the G&T is well earned. We are thinking of ordering pizza from Temple Pizza at the Fairmont hotel on Lake Louise because NOBODY WANTS TO GET OUT OF THEIR CHAIR!!
The first thing to say, is that today is totally a gift! The forecast was calling for rain but today was absolutely beautiful! Sunny and nice all day long. We had a perfect view of the mountains and everything else around Lake Louise today.
The day started out cool, with temps down to 35 overnight. Its OK, as Willard has a furnace to keep us nice and comfortable. But we all totally overdressed for the hike today, as I think it got well above the advertised high of 67 degrees. We thought this was our warmup hike of only 10K round trip. So Brian and I said we would ride our bikes up the road to Lake Louise. According to our best information it was only supposed to be 200 meters of elevation over 4 kilometers of distance. A slope of only 1/20. Someone Lied! it was 4k of straight up hill, lets just say we were warmed up by the time we got to the lake!
We took the obligatory, but still totally beautiful, pictures at the the Chateau and then we headed out for our hike to the Tea House in the Six Glaciers Plain. Six is definitely and overstatement, and if anyone thinks that global warming is a “hoax” they are idiots. If you think global warming is a hoax, I’m sorry if I’ve offended you, but science is not a matter of opinion. Science is based on observation and analysis and the evidence shows that the glaciers are MUCH SMALLER than they were 100 years ago. Why would glaciers be smaller? Higher average temperatures.
Anyway, the hike was still beautiful, and Brian even managed to see a chunk of glacier break off and fall off the cliff. The rest of us heard it, but by then it was too late!
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Arrival in Banff
It was difficult to get out of bed this morning. The rain was making rainy sounds on the roof and there was a chill in the air. Windows were cracked open an it was only in the 40’s outside. Someone had to get up and start the coffee. Also, it seemed like a great time to try the heater. I’m not sure it had been used before as it had that new furnace smell to it as it warmed up our little home. This got everyone out of bed and eating breakfast. It is Father’s day today. I’ve had electronic wishes from both Kaia and Josh.
Even in the rain our departure was pretty easy. Unplug, retract, and go. It was rainy and windy as we left the campsite, the rain ended pretty quickly but the wind hounded us all the way past Calgary. We had quite the experience of refueling at the Costco gas station! We pulled off Highway 1 expecting an easy (and cheap) experience only to find the lines 6 cars deep. Thankfully there was a nice guy directing traffic who got us over to the line for the end pump. It could have been a real disaster trying to make the turn out of the station if we didn’t have the extra room. We are finding that we are limited to $150 worth of gas which seems to be about half a tank!! We can go from 1/4 to 3/4 on a $150 charge.
Outside of Calgary we left the plains of Alberta and climbed into the beautiful Canadian Rockies! We are really getting the hang of setting up camp. Less than five minutes today. We’ll have to move our campsite by about 30 feet tomorrow as we are camped next to the site we have reserved for the next few days. After a quick lunch in the RV we decided to take a bike ride to the Village for some ice and then hike along the Bow River. As you can see the scenery is pretty nice!
The Worlds Largest Buffalo
This morning we left the Pratt’s at 8:00, right on schedule. I took my first shift in the cockpit. This thing drives pretty nicely except when the wind gets gusty. Then you feel like you are constantly overcorrecting one way or the other. As we buzzed along I94 through North Dakota, we realized that we were not really in the spirit of things. No large balls of twine, no giant ears of corn! Of course, there’s an app for that! “Road Trippers” to the rescue! In no time at all we learned that Jamestown had the worlds largest buffalo monument. After a quick stop at Cenex to top off our tank (38 gallons for about half a tank), we ended up on a really bad gravel road that brought us into the frontier village from the wrong direction. Oh well, we got there.
Now we are headed towards Bizmark for lunch and maybe a glimpse of the worlds largest Holstein! Wait, how much giant bovine statuary can we see in one day?! We shall see… the Holstein is reportedly some 40 feet tall and 50 feet long.
Picking up the story a bit later, we have crossed the border into Canada! A relatively painless and friendly process. When the border guard asked if we would be staying in Canada long term, we told her it depended on the outcome of the election. She smiled and said she was hearing that a lot. Its 4:30 now, and we have another hour to go before we get to Weyburn for the night. We are not making quite as fast progress as we thought but its been a pretty easy day except for the gusty winds. I’ve taken my second shift driving, and it was definitely much better heading into the wind than having it directly across this big beast.
There is not much scenery yet, just a lot of wide open spaces and oil wells. At one point we saw big big numbers on the side of the hills outlined in stone. I suspected it was UFO markings – the infamous “area 15”, Brian thought they were targets for bombing practice from the Air Force base. Holly looked it up on Google and learned that it was a local high school tradition to spell out their graduation year in rock on one of the local hills.
We crossed into the mountain time zone just before we got to Weyburn, Saskatchewan for the night, which meant that we were right on schedule for happy hour. I like this RV style of camping, it took us less than 10 minutes to level up, connect the electricity and the water. We rolled out the canopy and set up our soccer chairs poured drinks, and by 5:15 we were relaxing and enjoying our campsite.
For dinner we took the bikes into town, and ended up at Boston Pizza. Jane and Holly both ordered a Bloody Caesar (like a Bloody Mary but Canadian). The waitress offered “fishbowl size” little did we know that they would actually be served in a fish bowl!
We are on the road this morning having successfully navigated the dumping station! More on that later.
Packing up and Heading Out
Mobile blogging! Her is my view as I write this post.
Where to start? We awoke this morning and split our preparatory duties. The women went to Costco, the men took Tucker back home and picked up the rest of the knutson’s belongings. By 1:00 we had two SUVs FULL Of stuff to put in our 32 foot Winnebago, henceforth known as Willard.
We arrived at Rent and Travel just before 2:00, our appointed time to take possession of Willard. After about 30 minutes (only) of introduction and education (which we recorded for later reference) we began the 90 minute process of moving in. Food, lawn games, photography equipment, adult beverages, hiking gear, clothing, bedding, adult beverages, grilling equipment. All the comforts of home for the next 15 days and 2,800 miles. It was hot sweaty work, but we are all packed up and on the road. Jane, of course, is taking the first shift of driving this giant beast. Brian is riding shotgun and Holly and I are trying out RV travel in the back. I’m sitting at the kitchen table writing as we go. I just saw the sign that says Morehead 198 that is our destination for the evening.
We’ll be parking at the home of our friends Dave and Carol Pratt tonight. Dave just texted us that he was going to get some beer and put some ribs on the grill to slow cook for us. We should be in Morehead by around 7:30 for our practice night of leveling, setting up, and trying things out without a lot of neighboring campers watching us mess around.
Prelude to a Recreational Vehicle
In preparation for our big RV adventure Brian, Holly, Jane and I all attended the Minnesota United FC match tonight. The match was played against Sporting KC as part of the open tournament, similar to the FA cup in England. We arrived early to check out the food trucks and the atmosphere around the stadium that the regulars refer to as the Nessi (National Sports Center NSC, get it?).
As we were enjoying our Bahn Mi sandwiches and a nice Summit EPA a dude dressed as a blue dinosaur/shark with a megaphone came to stand beside us. He proceeded to start heckling the Sporting KC keeper and his coach, as they were going through their pregame drills. We thought it was a bit odd that he sounded pretty normal when he was chatting with other people (obviously he’s a regular at the games) but his heckling voice had a definite Scottish brogue to it. As the Sporting KC players were taking their shots on goal we noticed that the last of the shots were all going over the bar and getting increasingly close to this guy (and us). The final shot was right on target as it hit him right in the megaphone. Later we learned that he was sort of a mascot called Nessi. Apparently the Loch Ness monster must look like a blue dino. It all makes sense now, even the Scottish accent.
The first half of the game was a bit boring to be honest. The ref seemed content to let pretty much everything go with nothing but a stern talking to, the Loons had no shots on goal, no corners and no points.
Things picked up a lot in the second half, including the referees use of the yellow card. There should have been a red as on of the KC players attacked a MUFC player from behind. Then KC scored first on a very dubious handball in the box. I hate it when a player goes down and they call a handball on that player when the ball hits the arm on the ground. Sacrifice your face and let yourself fall on your nose so you don’t get a handball. Benny Fielhaber took the PK and made it 1 - nil for KC. Suddenly the game came to life. The Loons definitely started to get more of the ball and went on the attack much more often. KC seemed to get more and more aggressive with their tackles as the guys in green let them play while punishing the Minnesotans for even the most minor of infractions. Eventually their evil ways caught up with them and Minnesota was awarded a PK for a really vicious tackle in the box. 1-1, game on.
Regular time ended in a draw so we went to overtime. KC seemed to find another gear and I had the sense that it was only a matter of time until they scored and put the game away. Which they did only to have the goal ruled out for offsides. A few minutes later they came back and scored again. Minnesota tried desperately to get back in it, but never really got a shot on target to level things out.