After recharging our spirits during two nights in Banff, we headed to Yoho National Park for the sweetest kind of backcountry camping....the kind you take a bus to. Lake O’Hara can only be reached on foot or via the Park shuttle bus. There is a 30 site campground there and a posh lodge (~$600 a room). We opted for the $30 campsite, and it was worth it. After getting off the bus, we nabbed a tent site and then were free to dayhike around the amazing lakes and mountains. We went to MacArthur Lake the first afternoon and the views of [View Full Entry]

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Drove through Banff and into Kootenay, admiring the glaciers and mtn insanity. Frontcountry camped near our next trailhead….preparing for 4 nights on the Rockwall trail. Dropped Lauren off at the trailhead in the morning and shuttled the truck to our exit trailhead. My first opportunity to hitchhike in my life. I walked down the road for 10 minutes and 30+ cars and began to think I should have brought some water cause it could be a long walk, but then was rescued by a nice guy (retired statistician) who promptly delivered me to the trail. The trail started up through a [View Full Entry]

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Got on the road to Jasper early and found a delicious bakery and the information center, where we got surprisingly little information. Altered our plans a bit based on some recent trailhead break-ins. Took a shuttle up to the Skyline trailhead and headed up the trail. The first 4-5 miles were up through spruce forest and then we got up on the “skyline,” and the rest of the way was primarily above treeline. The alpine meadows were fantastic and loaded with wildflowers and pudgy marmots. Day 2 was more of the same, with perfect weather and incredible views. By midday we [View Full Entry]

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We caught the ferry to Vancouver Island, and chugged into the harbor at Victoria. Amazingly clean and pretty city - flower baskets hanging from the lampposts, lots of historical buildings, etc. We checked into our teeny tiny hostel room and wandered around the area a bit, finding some really good late night pizza. Next morning headed over to pick our friend Chloe up from the ferry. We found her easily, and once we’d figured out that the defunct-looking baggage claim was indeed defunct, we were off to explore the island! It was rainy, story of our lives for the next few [View Full Entry]

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Caught the ferry to the Olympic peninsula and drove through the drizzle all the way to the Olympic Coast and a park campsite a few miles from the Pacific….and what luck, we saw that our campsite was adjacent to another family with a baby! Back to back nights…what luck. This baby turned out to be a delight, however, as we didn’t hear a peep all night. The campground really emptied out the next morning, and we went for a couple hour stroll along the beach as the sky cleared. Many huge rocks offshore made for a pretty amazing vista, as did [View Full Entry]

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Took Molly’s advice and headed to the Enchantment Lakes region in Washington. The permits are limited so you have to go to a 7am lottery, which forced us to have one of our first mornings waking up to an alarm clock all trip. But we arrived for the lottery and there were just enough permits for everyone wanting to go up that day - hurray! We packed up, and hit the trail in the blazing sun. The town we left from (Leavenworth, a funny Bavarian-themed touristy town) had temperatures predicted to be over 100 that day. We sweat buckets on the [View Full Entry]

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We headed to Seattle and met up with Colleen, a friend of Shane’s from high school. We all cooked up a storm and headed to a 4th of July BBQ. Had much fun with Colleen and friends, and then moved on to a different part of town to watch a great fireworks display. A perfect all-American holiday! Next day we explored around Colleen’s hood of Ballard. Spent quite a while overlooking the locks, as we thought the ship transfer from sea to river would be exciting - after all, hundreds of tourists like us were overlooking the exchange! -- we learned [View Full Entry]

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Toured up to Mt. Rainier National Park, passing Mt. St. Helen’s on the way, which unfortunately was shrouded in clouds so we couldn’t see it. Made it to Rainier and discovered it’s early in the season for them (snow still melting at mid and high elevations) so we had no problem getting a campsite. Immediately saw the impact of the huge November 2006 floods which devastated sections of the trails around the park. The park has tons of rivers, and many bridges are still out. Back at camp, we were fascinated and repulsed by the “toilet sink” - is it [View Full Entry]

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First thing we appreciated about Oregon were the gas prices - first time below $3/gallon all trip! We’d be happy to pay these high prices if the money was going somewhere other than the oil companies pockets…but that’ll take a new administration and some cojones in the halls of Congress. I digress. We headed up the Oregon coast to Sunset Bay State Park. A nice marine mammal overlook with two species of sea lions, seals, and even a gray whale. A botanical garden with a huge variety of roses was another treat. Headed up the coast to South Beach State [View Full Entry]

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First stop on the Redwoods tour was Albee Creek campground in Humboldt Redwoods state park….one of Shane’s favorite campgrounds of the whole trip. Perfect summer weather here in mid-June. We successfully tried a new camping experiment, grilling a pizza on our Weber grill (thanks Devon!)….a welcome treat after a long backpack (and apple pie for dessert!). The next day we did a long 14 mile hike up to the mountain ridge and down into the big Redwood Grove. Passed through lots of mountain meadows and more wildflowers along the way, interspersed with some really giant trees. T [View Full Entry]

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