Are Things Improving? Not Yet

** If Not Interested in Hike Report, Skip This **
We got up to the “Ditch” on July 6 and the trip was challenging in a few ways. (The Ditch is an open water ditch 1000 feet above the Kawuneeche Valley that has a service road and serves as an access to the hiking in the Neversummer Mountains.) The first challenge was not great, it just required that we took off our shoes to cross a flooded area along the Colorado River near the start of the Red Mountain Trail. The water was cold but not too deep. Proceeding up the trail, we encountered a lot of blow down higher up. Due to the heavy snow fall, the trail crews are weeks behind in getting up to many of the higher trails. We met one other hiker coming down who informed us that he turned back at a bridge that was treacherous. We eventually got to the bridge and saw that it had collapsed to a V shape. This was in an area called Hell’s Hip Pocket and Porcupine Creek was raging below it, falling in would be real bad. I went first (Kathy let me) and made it across somehow. She followed and then we were both safe on the other side. We were not sure we wanted to go back over it again on the way back though. A few days later, our friends Lee and Sally went over the bridge both ways and proved it could be done.

After making it up to the ditch, we walked looking for an access point to Mt Cumulus as we had heard that a couple had climbed it a few days earlier. We found a foot bridge going across the ditch and went over to find a thick area of trees and underbrush. We knew there would be no trail. Hmm, this would require going through lots of rough terrain to get above tree line. We weren’t planning to do this anyway but were somewhat taken aback to see how tough the journey was for anyone venturing up Cumulus. There are no trails going up any of the peaks in the Neversummers.

After a little more than a mile, we came across a boulder field that would lead us back to the Red Mountain trail below. This would be a “shortcut” and allow us to skip the treacherous bridge crossing. But it took us more than an hour to go down about ½ mile to where we would find the trail. And we almost missed the trail as it turned out to be hard to spot in the boulder field. We would have had a second chance to hit it further down, but we were glad we found it when we did.

The rest of the hike out was pleasant enough other than the afternoon thunderstorm that developed. It’s been stormy many days but the last few days have been pretty nice, maybe the weather is going to get better. But that may just be wishful thinking.

** Resume Reading Here **

Our friends Larry and Jennifer visited us for a few days. They had been in Colorado for several days and successfully climbed Pikes Peak on July 3. Larry and I tried some fly fishing for two days. We first tested the Colorado River right near where we are staying but the water was around 48 degrees, too cold for the fish to bite. I tried working on my fly casting nevertheless and was pretty pathetic. Kathy and Jen went up the Colorado River Trail to Lulu City. The trail had high water in spots and a bridge further up has washed out which closed the trail up there. The next day we all went to Devil’s Thumb Ranch and after eating a sumptuous lunch, found a mountain stream where the fish were biting. At least Larry got some catches, I didn’t get any. But I only lost 2 flies over the course of the 2 days, so that was a pretty good accomplishment. Larry thinks the fishing should be pretty good in the park in a couple of weeks when the current slows down.

We also went up towards Mt Ida with Larry and Jen. It was a tough day as we had to use snow shoes starting at Milner Pass. The trail was hard to follow but we eventually found it higher up and then when we were totally out of the snow the trail was well defined. But it was very windy and there was some cloud formation that was a cause for concern. We got within a mile of the peak when we ventured up to the ridge and stopped for lunch in a pleasant spot, sheltered from the wind. We headed back after that and came out in a totally different area, but near where the car was parked. Jen said it was a harder hike than Pikes Peak due to the conditions.

News & Notes

With the heavy snow melt, the closure of the Holzwarth site where our cabin is, the high rivers and streams, inaccessible trails, etc we were hoping that things would get better. But things seem to be getting worse! More trail closures, bridge failures, and the river only started going down in the last day or two. Hiking, fishing and camping have not been as good as normal. At least the animals have been thriving with all the vegetation that is growing in abundance.

The strangest thing we have heard that happened in the park so far this summer was about a group of horse riders who fell off their horses. There were fifteen of them, and upon being spooked by hikers, fourteen of them fell and a few were injured seriously enough that they needed to be taken for emergency treatment. We’re not sure what the hikers could have done to spook the horses so badly. Kathy surmises they must have jumped out on them and yelled BOO! But who knows. Another young girl fell from a horse on July 9 and had to be carried out after having hip pain. Then there was a four year old who broke an arm falling off a horse. I have no idea why a four year old was on a horse, that doesn’t sound safe. There have been too many injuries falling off horses!

There was a bad accident on July 16 when a car wandered over the center line and hit a vehicle coming the other way. I talked with some people who were at the scene moments after it happened, and they said the one car was on its side, there was lots of broken glass and some people were bleeding badly. The protection rangers were at the scene very quickly and an ambulance was called from Grand Lake. The driver of the vehicle that wandered into the path of the other may have been too busy looking for wildlife and not paying attention to the road. We have seen that a lot with other drivers who seem to forget that they’re sharing the road.

Occasionally a BOLO (Be On Look Out) is issued in the park. On July 9, one was issued for a 1983 blue VW Rabbit that was involved with a murder east of the park. I didn’t hear whether the vehicle was spotted in the park but I wondered why anyone would try to drive through the park when there is only one main road heading east to west. It seems that would make it hard to escape. One of the park employees I know who was a former protection officer told me that a lot of people think there are no ‘real’ enforcement police in the park, but they would be wrong. Our protection force can enforce the law just like anywhere.

When talking with visitors, we try to let them direct the conversation to suit their needs. But sometimes they can go on about things that have nothing to do with the park. It could be about other places or their personal lives and we try to steer them to matters within the park. The interpretive role is to help people feel connected to the park, and they can’t do that if their thoughts are elsewhere. It also strikes me that some people are “living somewhere else” rather than where they are at the present. Living in the moment is a simple thing that we can easily lose sight of.

The Last Week of June, Still Winter?

*** IF NOT INTERESTED IN A HIKE REPORT, SKIP THIS SECTION ***
We got through the t-storm on our way up to Timber Lake, it was early afternoon. We had to put on snow shoes about 3.5 miles up the trail and trudged up. The shoes felt heavy and the mix of blow down and bare ground made them awkward to use. We got up a steep area with lots of switchbacks but blow down forced us off the trail. We encountered other foot prints from time to time but they were hard to follow and we finally got up to an open area high up. We came across a sign for campsites a couple of times so we knew we were pretty much on the trail. Timber Creek was flowing with a vengeance and several “undersnow” streams seemed to be feeding it. We had to be careful as we crossed what seemed to be a hard packed snow field of several feet in some areas, knowing it could give way below if we stepped in the wrong place. I recognized the high cliffs that loom over Timber Lake, which sits at over 11,000 feet, and we veered to the right to get up to where we figured the lake would be.
We got to the lake by 4:00 but were well on the other side of it, if we had stayed on the normal course of the trail, we would have hit the beginning of the lake. We had beautiful sunshine and calm winds, taking the pleasant opportunity to eat and deal with our footwear. Then dark clouds started forming again and we knew we had to start scrambling back. Kathy lunged to get down off the rock she was sitting on and let out a squeal as her snow shoe got stuck in a crack and she landed headlong in the snow below. I had to free the snow shoe from the crack, and remarked to her how that would be a really bad place and time to break an ankle, which could have been the result. No one else was around and we wouldn’t see anyone on our return trip, so it would have been a long cold night huddled in front of whatever fire I could build to wait for a rescue. That didn’t happen so we made our way back down heading to what should have been the route the trail took, but quickly hit some difficult slopes. I was almost right on top of it before I heard the roar of rushing water almost below me. Yikes, not a good place to be at all, so we veered back up to where the snow seemed to be packed more firmly. While hurrying to beat the ever darkening storm, we eventually got down into trees, which was safer than being in the open and up higher.
Then the hail started. This wasn’t predicted! Even though we were in the trees, I didn’t feel protected enough from the stinging hail. Fortunately they weren’t real big hail balls, but we temporarily sought refuge under a tree, hoping the storm would pass over. It wasn’t to be, after a few minutes we started up again, taking the brunt of the hail from time to time. I only had my emergency poncho, which didn’t offer the best protection from this kind of storm, but as long as we kept moving we could avoid hypothermia.
It was impossible to follow any tracks, the hail obliterated them. We soon knew we were off course, as it turns out we missed a switchback in an area of blow down. We had to backtrack and search around a bit before we discovered a piece of the trail. It seemed to come to an abrupt end and after failing to follow it, we figured the best way to continue would be to start heading straight down toward the stream, which we could hear below. We eventually found the trail much further down and would continue to get off course from time to time. After getting to the end of snow pack, we were glad to be able to just follow a defined trail again. But we had to wring out our socks and put on gloves before continuing.
By the time we got back to the car, we were soaked and we saw that the hail had hit there as well. The storm was widespread, doing major damage more to the south in Granby and Grand Lake. The winds had been stronger to the south, and we were fortunate that the wind wasn’t worse for us. Although several campers evacuated the Timber Creek Campground that night as the storm made a wet and uncomfortable tenting situation. Thus ended our biggest adventure yet, one where route finding and dealing with the elements turned a fairly easy hike into a much tougher one.

*** HIKE REPORT OVER, RESUME HERE ***
June 24 was the only day we have been able to lead tours back in the Holzwarth Historic Site, and I was looking forward to an easy end of the day as I walked back from Fleshutt’s Cabin to join the others and close up the place. I approached the bridge and saw this young man of maybe about 20 in a wet suit sitting on the edge holding a paddle and smiling. I asked him if he was trying to cool down, as it was a warm day. He said no, that he was trying to warm up and then pointed out his raft that was lodged in the bridge on the upstream side. I peered over and saw a homemade raft built out of pine logs and lashed together under the water and being pushed against the bridge by the strong current. He said he didn’t realize “there was a dam there”. “This is a bridge,” I said “and there are many others downstream”. He kept smiling and said at least he had a good ride while it lasted. How he managed to bail out and escape serious injury I never did find out. The current by all rights should have pushed him into the bridge unless he jumped off onto land, which would have been a remarkable athletic achievement. He said he “lived in the park” but I never got that full story either. I offered him a ride but after finding out where he was he said he would be fine. When I joined the others, Kathy suggested I notify Protection so I got them on the radio and they came over to look at the raft, but it had somehow been swept though one of the culverts of the bridge and was now downstream a bit. They later found the kid at the campground and got more of his story. He had bought the lashing material at the local hardware store from Steve, husband of one of our seasonal rangers. Steve apparently advised him against trying to build the raft after he sought his advice. This Huck Finn was not going to be dissuaded though, but I bet her won’t try this again on the Colorado River up here. As of a few days ago there have been four river deaths in Colorado just in June, it’s a dangerous sport when the water is flowing with ferocity.

Our friends Dick and Jill visited us for 3 days and although we were still in our one bedroom apartment, we managed to squeeze in together just fine. Although fishing didn’t work out, they were treated to some outstanding wildlife viewing. We saw a Mama moose and her baby trot across the field just across the river from us the first night. We watched them for almost fifteen minutes. There also were two magnificent bull moose grazing along the North Inlet. Dick thought it would be a good fishing spot also as it was not flowing real fast and the water was clear. Without waders though we would lose a lot of flies in the trees, so didn’t try it. There were several elk, many bulls with huge racks that impressed Dick. When we hiked up the Colorado River we ran into a herd of Bighorn sheep, five adult ewes and four lambs. They were very close to the trail but did not seem too nervous by our presence. We also watched them for about fifteen minutes. I explained that ewes got their names because when the rams (males) are around they say “Hey, you” to the females. We all went over to Sulphur Hot Springs one evening, one of the things we never got around to last year. Soaking in the many different baths there was soothing and relaxing. Jill’s silver jewelry turned green from the minerals and she was dismayed at first but they provided her with silver polish that restored them; this happens a lot there. The baths would have been even better without the mosquitoes but Dick discovered that going totally under water eliminated that problem for him, Kathy and I found out that the pools under some kind of cover didn’t attract mosquitoes. From their stay with us with, Dick and Jill learned a lot about our side of the park, maybe even more from us than reading the park newspaper!

News and Notes from the last week of June:
- We are still unable to get into our cabin as the Colorado River continues to rise here due to snow melt. They now say it will peak sometime next week, I will believe it when I see it. The bridge is holding but the road has been washed out in many spots, Kathy refers to one area that’s cut very deep as the “Grand Canyon of the Kawuneeche”.
- Berthoud Pass, the route between here and Denver, was closed early Monday morning, June 27, with a reported 16 ton boulder among the debris. I had just gone through the pass about 9:30 the night before, having attended a friend’s wedding in Denver. When the pass gets closed, which happens occasionally, it’s a long way around to detour. I was glad I didn’t have to add 2.5 hours to my trip as it was a little after 11:00 that night when I got back and I was tired from just the normal drive.
- Kathy did a century (100 mile) ride on her bike the Sunday I went to Denver. She didn’t plan on it but felt good and just kept going. When she got back to our apartment she needed an additional 1.5 miles to make it a century, so she added that. It seems she does these amazing feats whenever I am gone on a trip, and I am not there to impede her, haha. I have yet to do a century ride in my whole sorry life, but maybe soon.
- Of the news caught over the radio, a man was DWI the other day and was stopped on the upper stretches of Trail Ridge Road. A woman passenger with him freaked out and was reported missing for a while. She was reported wearing red shorts and a a low cut top, good clothing for the alpine zone. They eventually found her and helped her, and took the man to the “Grand County Hilton”, otherwise known as the county jail. I can’t imagine trying to driver those crazy curves up there when drunk, it’s hairy enough when sober. Also a woman bike rider suffered from possible altitude sickness up there and had to be driven back down by our protection folks. I’m not sure she ever needed medical treatment, as getting to lower altitude sometimes is enough of a cure. I still feel a certain “light headedness” when I go up over 12,000 feet on Trail Ridge Road, and can attest it definitely feels better to get down to 9,000 feet or less.
- Kathy talked to an American visitor about Utah, he was wondering how far it was to go there. She didn’t know for sure and suggested he stop in the Visitor Center on the way out and look at a map. He then asked her if it was “outside the park.” She simply replied that it was. We’re not sure if he either doesn’t know how big the park is or doesn’t know what Utah is, go figure.

Bike Tour of Colorado on a Very Bad Day

It is definitely Neversummer here, which is the fitting name for the mountains on the west side of the park. Two days before the start of summer, June 19, the park started getting wintery weather. Trail Ridge Road was closed at 9:00 PM that night as snow came, fiercely in the alpine region. The Tour of Colorado, a 7 day bike tour of north central Colorado was scheduled to come through the park the next day. This would involve an almost 5000 foot climb from Estes Park to the top of the park, over 12,000 feet elevation. About 1500 bikers were expected to participate. On June 20, a decision on whether to attempt the ride was delayed for 3 hours until the go ahead was made at 8:00 AM. A majority of the bikers, we believe, started the ride and made it up to Rainbow Point, high in the alpine zone. They faced an hour and a half wait until the road was cleared so they could continue. There was only room for a minority of the riders in a vehicle to keep warm, the rest huddled on the leeward side out of the wind, fighting hypothermia and trying to stay warm. After the road was cleared, later in the morning they ascended further to the top but were met with stiff winds and a wintery mix of snow and drizzle. The road was wet and conditions were absolutely miserable.
Several hundred made it to the Alpine Visitor Center where they sought relief from the elements. Many suffered from hypothermia, and two or three needed hospitalization, they were taken by ambulance to the medical center at Granby, almost 40 miles away. The tour group and the park were overwhelmed with handling the situation. Although the bad weather had been forecasted correctly for two days, the tour still went on through the park. Riders were given the option to skip the day, but most seemed to decide on riding. Most were also dressed inadequately for the conditions - they were the ones most susceptible to hypothermia. Amazingly though, no one wiped out on the slick road conditions and as far as we know, no one has died.
We were assigned to “rove” at the upper points of the west side that day, just a few miles below the Alpine V.C. Since the road was closed when we started our day, we had to stay lower and went to the North Inlet trailhead, where there was little activity save for a group of 4 backpackers who were going up the trail to higher elevation. I talked with them and found out they had been out for a few days already, under miserable conditions, but were all in good spirits and ready to continue their week-long backpack. “Keep smiling guys,” I said and wished them well. They were going to be far better off than the bikers, as I would learn later.
Later in the morning we heard on the park radio that Trail Ridge Road was open and the bike tour was coming through. We grabbed some lunch at the Kawuneeche Visitor Center on the west side and headed up the road to assist in whatever way we could. About a mile up the road in the park, we passed a staging area where the bike tour was trying to assemble an aid station for the bikers. A few more miles up, we saw the first of the bikers heading down. It was a steady rain at this point, but all the riders were handling the wet surface well. We made it to the Colorado River trailhead, where we connected with Chief Ranger Mark McCutcheon, informing him that we had a warm vehicle with bike rack and could help in whatever way we could. He directed us to go up to the Alpine V.C, as there were many riders up there who may need assistance. We never made it up that far as when we got up about 3 more miles to Farview Curve, we saw a few other volunteers stationed there lending assistance to riders. No sooner did we pull over than several riders pulled in and we quickly immersed ourselves into checking on them. The first rider I encountered was a woman who was in obvious distress. She was shaking from hypothermia and I asked her if she needed to get into our warm vehicle. She did without hesitation. Another vehicle, one of the volunteers, was housing 6 riders trying to warm up. Immediately several more riders arrived, stopping to take a break from the tortuous downhill ride. I looked at each of them to see if they were shaking, and offered two more of them a seat in our warm car. Others were ok and just needed a rest, before they decided to continue. Ranger Mark was there, and other volunteers, he told us to take who we could down to the aid station, so we put 2 bikes onto our bike carrier and started taking the two riders down. The woman was transferred to another vehicle to stay warm, allowing her time to decide whether she could get back on her bike. We later met up with her when we returned, she decided not to continue and was grateful for our assistance and the eventual ride she obtained in a bus that was dispatched to pick up riders. As we descended from the higher region with 2 of the riders, who were still trying to recover from their ordeal, we came upon another rider who hit a falling rock right in front of us. He almost lost it but was able to stay upright, but his water bottle fell off his bike. I stopped so Kathy could retrieve it for him, but we were right on a major curve and it was not a good place to be stopped.
I was hoping this would be quick, but the guy announced that his tire was flat and I knew we couldn’t leave him there. Suddenly, there was a pack of bikers and vehicles coming around the curve and somehow they all managed to steer clear of us, as we were stopped right in the road. Yikes. I had to move away from that spot, so pulled further into the curve and a bit more out of the way. We managed to get his bike on our carrier, the first time we realized that we could carry 3 bikes, and we got the heck out of there with our new passenger. We made it down to the aid station, about 14 miles, where we deposited our riders and their bikes. They were pulling over all the riders as they still had about another 17 miles to go before they finished the day and they needed to be checked for their ability to continue. The 3 guys we transported were very grateful for our help, and we immediately turned back to go see if we were needed in any other way further up. We made it back to Farview Curve where we found even more volunteers assembled as well as Ranger Mark. That’s when we learned that the ride was closed for all the other riders left on top on and that they would be transported down by a fleet of buses. There were some riders hanging out in the volunteers’ vehicles and eventually they were transferred to a bus after it arrived.
Within time, since there were no more bike riders coming down, we were thanked by Ranger Mark, and released to head back. Instead, Kathy and I went up to the Alpine V.C. just to check out the scene there. We were amazed at the hundreds of bikes that were left outside the V.C. Several buses had transported riders to their destination for the day, and a couple more were about to embark. All the riders were taken care of, but their bikes were being loaded into numerous UHaul trucks, as they attempted to load them all in. I could imagine all the scratches that these bikes were receiving, but oh well. I walked into the V.C. and saw four park staff assembled at the desk. One of them turned out to be Vaughan Baker, the park superintendent who came up from the east side to assist. He and I talked affably, he asked me about what had happened further down on the west side and I described the scene at Farview Curve. He was amazed when I told him it seemed like hundreds had continued the ride, although many of them stopped due to hypothermia. He and some of the others shared how most of the riders were comforted by being in the V.C. When they said that many of them needed to get out of their wet clothes, I remarked that there must have been a lot of naked people there. They laughed, but I guessed that it didn’t get to that point. I sensed from talking with both Vaughan and Ranger Mark that the park was not keen on the idea of doing the ride under such brutal conditions. That had been a decision made by the tour. And it’s too bad the riders never got a good view from the top. Nothing but clouds, bitter winds and low visibility, the timing for the ride through the park was a little off. Better weather is expected the next day, and these riders missed seeing some spectacular views. On a good day, the alpine portion of the park is beyond description, as we were fortune to as we came over on June 10.
The earlier portion of our week was interesting, as we went through four days of training, a good bike ride one evening in the park, and a climb up Shadow Mountain on our one day off, followed by a picnic and campfire on two successive evenings where park staff got to mingle. But it pales in comparison to the day the Tour of Colorado decided to come through the park. We could not imagine biking in the conditions these riders faced. When we reached the top at the V.C. that day, the wind was still fierce and there was still mixed precipitation falling. No conditions for a bike ride by our book. Nevertheless, this is a day the riders and the park staff will remember; it wasn’t for the faint of heart and it just might force a hard look at what conditions this tour should subject its riders to. Mountain weather any time of year needs to be held in awe and wonder, and again this time nature won.

Arrived in Colorado to Lots of Snow, Amazing

It is good to be finally at our destination, Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP). We left NY on June 1 and drove through the midsection of the country; many days were in the nineties. The temps here are 60’s and 70’s, dropping into the 30’s at night. It feels refreshing. The trip was fairly uneventful, a good thing. We visited with friends and family on the way and met up with friends from back home, Larry and Susan in McCook, Ne. We had to travel a little north and they had to travel a little south to make the connection. They had been on a 3 week trip, visiting family in Texas, their two kids in Ft Collins, Co and seeing many parks in Colorado and Utah. They were heading east to get back home and their jobs and we were heading west to start our volunteer assignment at RMNP for the summer.

We arrived in Colorado on June 5 to a strange mix of flood warnings and high fire danger. The snow pack in the Rockies is tremendous, over 250% of normal in some places. With warmer temperatures, the snow is quickly melting and filling rivers and streams. At this point, the National Weather Service is calling the flooding only minor, but we have been told by a ranger in RMNP that the Colorado River is higher than it’s ever been in the park. The bridge going into Holzwarth Historic Site (HHS) where we plan to stay is closed and temporary housing has been arranged for us and the other couple, Lee and Sally, who were scheduled to stay at HHS. They arrived a week earlier and said that the area in the campground where our temporary housing is still had lots of snow when they got here. It’s all gone now. We were able to walk into HHS, the bridge is open to foot traffic. We noticed that lots of Lodgepole Pine trees had been cut along the road approaching the site due to the pine beetle infestation. But HHS still has magnificent trees standing as the park sprays them annually to keep the trees safe from the beetle. We just hope the bridge holds and the waters start to recede, but it looks like it will take a long time for the snow to melt in the mountains.

We had been staying on the east side of the park in Denver and Boulder. There it is normally drier than the west side of the Front Range, and the fire danger there has become high. Smoke that could be seen in the air was actually from the huge Arizona fire. We went to hear a talk by a Boulder County Fire Management Officer at REI and learned about issues facing the area and the residents. A lot was said about the Four Mile Canyon Fire that happened here last year right at the end of our assignment at RMNP. We almost cancelled a trip to Boulder then because of it, the city had been put on standby to evacuate, but fortunately we got here ok and no evacuation of the city was needed. The fire left a lasting effect on the community however, and we talked with a few people who had residences in the burn area. Their homes and some others were spared but many homes were lost, fortunately no human lives were lost. We toured the area of the fire with our friend Judy who lives in Boulder. She took us up to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain, a short climb, where we had great views of the burn area. It was a massive area, about ten square miles and 169 homes had burned. Some residents have started rebuilding, and the interesting thing is that since the surrounding forest has burned the fire danger is basically non existent there now.

After Boulder, we spent a few days camping on the east side of RMNP, acclimating to the higher altitude. The weather was nice except the first night when a thunderstorm hit us. We were in our tents but it was in an open spot and we were not really safe, fortunately we didn’t get hit. The number of dead trees from the pine beetle epidemic was noticeably higher than what we saw last year when we visited the east side, and it will get worse. The west side has had the epidemic for ten years and most of the lodgepole pine trees there are dead. We did some light hiking for two days, sometimes in snow but we stayed lower to avoid the deeper snow pack. This past Friday we drove over Trail Ridge Road to the west side, the road had only been opened Monday of this past week. Before that we climbed Deer Mountain, and even though it is about 10,000 feet it was free of snow on top and offered great views of the mountain ranges within the park. We spent an hour up there, and it was a popular spot. We talked with other people, including two younger women and their toddlers that they hauled up on their backs. They helped us identify the peaks in the Mummy Range and then we found that one of them, Lisa, had written the guide book “Rocky Mountain National Park, the Complete Hiking Guide”. We’re going to check it out because the hiking guide we have has some deficiencies and Lisa said that is why she wrote her guide. It was the description of hiking Mt. Meeker that particularly annoyed her and spurred her to write her guide. She was gracious to the writers of the other guide though, acknowledging that it was the first effort to write a guide to hiking in RMNP and because of that deserved credit. She did 15 years of research, exploring and hiking, and two years of writing and editing of her book. She said though that it wasn’t worth the tremendous effort it took. I thanked her anyway for writing the guide, fully expecting it to be an improvement.

The top of Trail Ridge Road had very high banks of snow in some spots. We heard that they had to plow through 17 feet of snow, and we estimated it was only a few feet less than that when we saw it. The pack is melting with the 50 and 60 degree temps they are getting up there now. On the west side of the park, the Neversummer Range looks to have even more snow. The hiking is limited here right now if you don’t have snow shoes, and we didn’t bring ours, not expecting to need them. Andrew, a backcountry ranger who was here last year for his first stint, told us he had been out in his snow shoes checking out the trails and said it was hard work. He even post holed while breaking trail with his snow shoes, that means the snow is getting rotten and not holding up. They presently have only four backcountry camp sites open out of more than fifty so there is not a lot of backcountry camping right now. On our first hike here this summer we went up the Colorado River Trail to Lulu City, using snow shoes for much of the way. But we didn’t have to break trail as it was basically hard packed from foot traffic.

We are thrilled to see old friends from last year and to meet new ones as well. Our neighbors Lee and Sally are from Texas and we found out that we have mutual friends in the NPS. Jim and Jan worked with us at Bryce and they worked with Lee and Sally at Chaco Canyon. Lee and Sally also worked at Capitol Reef in Utah and I remember when they came to visit Jim and Jan at Bryce. Small world in the NPS. We have already been recipients of Lee and Sally’s generosity, borrowing laundry detergent and receiving some Texas style tortilla soup, yummy.

We just started our assignment with a week of training. We will get a review of safety, the 10 essentials and park interpretation to name a few. We will also get updates on the trails, resource protection, wildlife, water issues and fire ecology to name a few. Today we learned that RMNP has the fifth highest numbers of search and rescues (SARs) in the national park system. The mountains and weather here make for challenging conditions and keep the park staff busy. With the huge amount of snow, several projects are running behind schedule, including the clearing of trees and trails and the opening of some areas. It was jokingly said that we have two seasons here, winter and July. The chief ranger had been sent temporarily to Glacier N.P. as the chief ranger there had to take a leave of absence and Glacier has had 400% of the snow fall they usually get, so they have even bigger issues up there. I don’t want to give the wrong impression though, the weather so far has been great as far as I’m concerned. This is a place where you can be very active, even right now, whether it’s hiking (snow shoeing), biking, horseback riding or paddling to name a few. One more thing that I got a kick out was hearing about how we (employees and volunteers) are here to serve the public and the protect the park, but sometimes a visitor “fails the attitude test”. We can be polite to a visitor but they all may not be polite in return. Smile and sigh gently under your breath.

Hiking the AT in Shenandoah National Park

Kathy offered me a grand challenge, would the two of us be able to backpack for 10 days and cover about 105 miles? This is something we had never done before. I wasn’t keen on the idea at first, could think of a thousand reasons why I couldn’t go. But then I realized that if Kathy went on her own, she may just join up with someone(s) hiking all the way to Maine, so I decided to go to keep her from running off. There is a section of the Appalachian Trail (AT) that runs through Shenandoah National Park that seemed like a good place to try this. It had lots of services along it and was never that far from Skyline Drive in case I had to bail out at some point. If some important part of me broke down, for instance. We arranged to have my daughter Katherine meet us at the north end of the park on April 30 and drive us down to the south end. So now it would simply be hiking back to the car, wanting to get there by May 10.

The AT runs through Virginia for about 500 miles, the longest stretch in any of the states it traverses. Thru (or “true”) hikers going through Virginia often get the “Virginia Blues” because it takes so long to get through the state. We were privileged and thrilled to meet many thru hikers and hear their stories as we stayed in some of the shelters with them and hiked sections with them. We were classified as section hikers, but as long distance hikers we were allowed to stay at any of the shelters, they were for use by hikers who were out for three nights or more. It would have been nice if we didn’t have to carry a tent, but we needed to as the first night the shelter was full. The second night, after a brutally hot and buggy day, staying in the tent was a better choice also as I was too whipped to be sociable, so staying in the shelter didn’t suit me then. We did stay in the shelters three of the other nights, and the third night when it rained it was very nice to be dry in a shelter.

We carefully weighed everything and tested out what our backs could handle before our trip. I got my pack to 33 pounds, and determined that would be my limit. Kathy was close to that too, but she has a titanium neck and I have an arthritic neck so I let her carry an equal load. Besides it slowed her down enough which gave me a fair chance to hike at a pace where I didn’t break myself. I was only planning on carrying one liter of water, as I figured we could find water along the way. For the most part that worked, except for a 10+ mile stretch on the second day. It had to be the hottest (and muggiest and buggiest) day of our trip too, hitting about 80. I had to beg water twice to make it all the way on for 13 miles that day. We carried almost five days supply of food at first, which we determined was unnecessary as there were places to buy food. Another “luxury” I decided to take were fish oil tabs and glucosamine. I didn’t want to be away from these for too long. The Omega-3 in the fish oil has been a help to my joints, and I was actually able to avoid NSAIDs except for one time, which amazed and delighted me as I was expecting to be much achier. We were also delighted with a steri-pen water filter which uses ultraviolet. It was easy to use and took 90 seconds to disinfect water and then it was ready to drink. The battery running it almost made it through the whole trip, giving out on the last day.

The thru hiker community is very interesting, there are all types of people, but the ones we met were mostly young men. All hikers on the AT (and I assume it goes for all long-distance hikers) use trail names. Kathy and I have settled on “Brownie D” and “Tenderfoot”. There was a group of four guys called the “Hospital Guys”. One of their members, Eric, had worked in the Peace Corps in Tanzania and they were thru-hiking the AT to raise money for a hospital there. They carried big signs on the back of their packs describing what they were doing. You can check out their web site and see their progress at http://mufindihospitalhike.tumblr.com

Another interesting guy was “Possum” from New Zealand. He was actually a possum trapper back in NZ and it apparently is overrun with em. There were no native mammals in NZ and somehow the possum got introduced and now is a national menace as they have increased greatly. We had a hard time understanding Possum, his NZ accent was thick but we managed to catch a good bit. The possum fir is not the highest quality, but he had made enough money at it to afford a two+ month trip to the U.S.

“Stretch” and “Zipper” were the only couple we met on the trail. We camped near High Top with them on the fourth night. They had met while working in Yellowstone and were planning to do the AT in 4 ½ months, pretty fast. We traded stories of the west with them and found out they thought Chico Hot Springs was a great place, just like we did. They also had dehydrated all their food ahead of time and were shipping themselves care packages. Food is very important to long-distance hikers and is a favorite topic of conversation, as it is on their minds a lot. Zipper recommended the book “A Fork in the Trail” which contains trail recipes. Kathy also had dehydrated beef to make jerky before of our trip and made some granola bars, both were very tasty.

Among the other hikers we met were:
- “Helmet”, a smiling 20 year old man who hiked fast and slept a lot
- “Jelly Pants”, a 22 year old man who got his name from a “breakfast incident”
- “White Wolf” and “Always Fine”, two 60 year old men who were hiking strong
- “Orange Bear”, a Belgian whom we could barely understand also
- “Danger”, one of the Hospital Guys
- “Pringles”, who we met twice, at the first meeting she gave us the big news that Bin Laden had been killed and she also gave me water that she said she wouldn’t need, my trail angel
- “Indy”, a young man wearing an Indiana Jones hat who we saw the first night, then the last day also. He had taken three days off to go to a music festival and I found it interesting that his first day back from his time off left him feeling “trail rusty”.

We had heard reports of an 88 year old man hiking the AT. Then amazingly we came across him at a park pulloff getting interviewed by TV3. The man was Earl Zook, who also went by “Bald Eagle”. Jelly Pants was with us at the time and the reporter was interested in what a 22 year old hiker thought of an 88 year old hiking the trail. So Jelly Pants got interviewed too and he was impressed with what Bald Eagle was doing. Bald Eagle was hiking the trail to raise money for cancer research. His Kiwanis Club runs a camp for children with cancer and he was touched by their plight and wanted to do something to help them. He can only do 5 miles at a time, so will attempt to complete the AT over two years and finish next year by October 2, which will be his 90th birthday. He won’t actually be able to hike up Mt. Katahdin, the end point as it’s a ten mile round trip and they don’t let hikers stay up there overnight. http://aicr.org/zook is a site that tells what he is doing and where you can contribute to his cause.

OK, it turns out there is another 88 year old man, “Cimarron”. So we’re not sure which 88 year-old man we had been hearing about. He is attempting to thru hike this year, more ambitious than what “Bald Eagle” is doing. His story can be found at http://trailjournals.com and search for “Cimarron”. He started on February 25 and is currently at 330 miles, still in Tennessee, so that leaves him with over 1800 miles to go. Good luck Cimarron.

So the thru hiker life is arduous and demanding. Many of them hike amazing distances, 20 and 30+ miles at times. If they take a day off, which is a good idea, it is called a “Zero day”. They have to keep a focus on their end goal of completion, but also set daily goals. We were generally hiking the distance between huts, but many of the thru hikers were hiking “two hut” distances. The ones going the fastest tend to be traveling light. The amount of calories they are burning is high, and they can consume food like no one else on the planet. We stayed in a cabin one night, buying hot dogs from the camp store, but had to buy a pack of 8. We had 4 left over and I carried them with me the next day, knowing I could give them away. Sure enough, Helmet and Orange Bear were happy to devour them and I was happy to be relieved of the extra ½ pound of weight. Don’t laugh, every ½ pound counts. Anyways it’s called ‘trail magic” when a hiker receives a treat of some kind. We heard of a delivery of pizza to a shelter by a former hiker from Jelly Pants, and it was much appreciated. Besides food, sleep is very important. “Hikers Midnight” means 8:00 PM. No kidding, when staying in the shelters, people generally turned in then.

We tested ourselves the 9th day by hiking 18 miles. It was the night after “Smores and Snores”. That night we stayed in a shelter with “Red Lion”, an older and heavyset gentleman who shook the rafters that night with his snoring. Preceding that, two young women, “Rea Sunshine” and “Halley’s Comet” had the makings for smores and they were assembled around a fire, roaring at first, with mixed success. The two young women and Kathy got almost no sleep that night, but my ear plugs worked well enough, although I was aware of the snoring. So on little sleep, we got an early start and made it all the way to the next shelter which was 13+ miles by 3:00. We hung out there for a while, cleaning up and visiting with Jelly Pants, Always Fine and Goose. We left after a good rest, deciding that we could keep going and “dry camp” somewhere, thereby getting closer to our car so we could get home at a reasonable hour the next day. We kept going for about another 5 miles before we saw a decent spot to set up camp, not finding water but deciding we had enough to last us until the next morning.

The AT through Shenandoah has many ups and downs. The mountains there remind us of the Catskills, as a few of them are over 4,000 feet and many are over 3,000 feet. They are beautiful and the trails are generally dry. The only time we saw any mud was the fourth day after we got a lot of rain the night before. We did two different 4,000 foot peaks, Hawksbill Peak at 4,051, the highest peak in the park and Stony Man, the second highest. We had stayed at the Skyland Lodge the night before we went up Stony Man which was nearby, but it was only a 300 foot climb up. Both peaks were little side trips off the AT, and Hawksbill required us to take a “blue blaze” trail that paralleled the AT, causing us to miss that portion of the AT and thus making us “blue blazers”. “Blue blazers” are not purists, they don’t stay on the “white blaze” trail as “white blazers” do. Then there are “yellow blazers”, they actually take roads at times and even hitchhike, the lowest of the low. A good site for long-distance hiking is http://whiteblaze.net . I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the blackberry shakes that you can get at the waysides in the parks, they were wonderful. We used these waysides, three of them to full advantage, devouring food like there was no tomorrow. Maybe that’s why we only lost about ½ pound each, we thought we would lose more.

We are heading back to Rocky Mountain National Park for another stint of volunteering for the summer. They appealed to our emotions to return, so we gave in; we will get there June 11. There really are many other good reasons to return, and there are a lot of things we didn’t get to in the park and around Colorado, so we’re glad to go back. We will have more friends and family visiting this summer than last, so it will be a busy time, and I expect it will go fast. Hanging out in Binghamton over the winter was fine, but it’s time to raise things to another level and get back to adventure, more stories coming soon.

Reflections on Utah and Colorado

Sitting in dreary Binghamton these days, I find my mind revisiting sunny Utah and Colorado. Maybe it’s time to reflect on them. What I saw in both states can be described as stunning, big (maybe even imposing) and alluring. Colorado seemed vaguely familiar to me, maybe because there were more trees and it was wetter than Utah. Utah is best described as other worldly.

So let’s go back to Utah first. The landscape is stark in many ways, but with all its bizarre rock formations and rugged terrain it is very picturesque too. Being almost bug-free is a big plus. It of course has mountains like Colorado, we got into them often. The higher you get, the greener they are, with large trees growing above 10,000 feet. Bryce Canyon was near parts of the Dixie National Forest, and Fishlake National Forest wasn’t too far away. Both forests, as well as Bryce Canyon, offered an abundance of spruce and fir higher up and Ponderosa Pine in the lower reaches. But it was still noticeable how dry they were. It was rare to see mud, unlike back east. It was rare to see many people in the forests, so we liked the seclusion they offered. You can camp pretty much anywhere in the forests too, and we had our pick of great camp sites, though primitive they gave us certain luxuries like peace and quiet and plenty of firewood.

The Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument is a remarkably vast no-mans land of treacherous terrain which contains numerous slot canyons, imposing mesas and steep cliffs. Navigating it by vehicle or foot can be tricky. When we first went to Utah in 2005 we didn’t even get into the G.S.E. because we weren’t supposed to travel on dirt/gravel roads in our rental car. Those are the only kinds of roads that will get you into the area, for the most part, and they often get washed out by sudden rainstorms that are frequent during the summer. But the area remains very parched as the rain water runs off very quickly over the hard crusty ground. It was the last major land area to be mapped in the continental U.S. because it was a very harsh environment and for a long time held very little appeal to settlers or ranchers. One has to be prepared with plenty of water and supplies, extra tires and gas, to venture into the G.S.E. We got to a few places in it, but never very far because the roads were rough and many times impassable. The monument is maintained by the BLM and they require a permit to camp there, unlike the national forests. Since there are higher risks when going in there, the BLM wants to keep better tabs on people.

One interesting place which we would like to visit some day is the Hole in the Rock. A 50+ mile road through the G.S.E. will take you there or a quicker approach is from Lake Powell. The Hole in the Rock is now remembered for a remarkable feat of early Mormon pioneers. It is basically a crease on a very steep side of Glen Canyon, which when the pioneers went down it in 1879 led to the Colorado River which they needed to cross. The walls around what is now Glen Canyon are about 1200 feet high, and the pioneers initially intended to establish a wagon route there. They did succeed in getting 83 wagons, 250 people and over 1000 head of livestock through the route which was a remarkable achievement. Today it is a hiker’s mecca, with some sections close to 45 degrees, it is a very tough hike.

Utah also has a remarkable culture, highly influenced by the Mormon church. Writers Jon Krakauer and Wallace Stegner, whom I’ve read, don’t paint the most favorable view of the Mormons, but we found Utahns in general pretty easy to be around. We were never proselytized by anyone and we were shown friendliness on a regular basis. It is a pretty safe place and if we ever needed help we could probably get it easily. There was no way to always know if a fellow traveler or hiker was a Mormon or not, but we figured we met up with them many times. Sometimes it seemed obvious that others were Mormons, especially young families with 4 or more young kids in tow, all fresh faced and happy. The fundamentalist Mormons stood out more, the women wore “prairie dresses” and bonnets, similar to the Amish or Mennonite women. They were often escorted by one man, and since they still practice polygamy we figured this must have been the husband of all these women. They didn’t look as fresh faced or happy though. I think most of them would prefer a different lifestyle but probably didn’t have the choice. The Mormons as a whole made a remarkable existence in Utah, turning a harsh land into a habitable place. They quickly established towns and farms throughout the region, through irrigation making lush areas of green surrounded by desert. They took care of each other and prospered. The Mormons of today come from tough ancestors and have a life and culture unlike anywhere else. One doesn’t have to agree with their beliefs to see how they manage to hold together as a group and benefit from it.

A return trip to Utah would definitely be worth it to me. It would be more familiar this time around and give me a chance to get to some of the areas I missed. We considered going back there this year after we were done in Rocky, but Wyoming and Montana called.

Central Colorado was very different than southern Utah. Being in the Rocky Mountains, it had a different feel. It seemed similar to being in the Adirondacks in some ways, but the terrain and weather were even more pronounced and severe. T-storms are common in the summer afternoon and some evenings, and we had our fair share of them. Bugs were noticeable, especially mosquitoes, we had a few bad moments with them but very seldom resorted to repellant. The summer season is shorter there than in Utah, it was turning noticeably colder towards the end of August, especially at night. So back to the ‘feel’ of the place, I got both a sense of it being civilized and uncivilized, depending on where you were to some extent. Like Utah, you could get far away from towns or roads, there was lots of wilderness if you wanted it. The Arapahoe and Roosevelt National Forests were both just outside the boundaries of Rocky. Much of them as well as 95% of Rocky were designated wilderness. It was rugged too, especially the aptly-named Neversummer Mountains, which were largely untrammeled by man. Ask our friend Jason about the desolateness there after he spent some intense time there in total solitude.

Some of my feelings for the Rockies comes from reading Enos Mills or Isabella Bird. They were both there in the 1800’s before the Rockies got settled to much of a degree. They paint a picture in their writings of a rough and challenging place, not a place for sissies. I could get a sense of that by being in the Rockies, I saw the same things they saw and felt the same lure to explore. They were always prepared to spend the night out in the elements and often did. I made sure that I always got back before dark to where I had a safe dry bed, one big difference I had from them. Isabella Bird was mainly just passing through on horseback in a lot of the Colorado Rockies. It was remarkable for a woman of that day to travel alone in rough country like that. Enos Mills lived most of his life in Estes Park, which was not the overrun mountain town it is today. He became very familiar with what is now Rocky Mountain N.P. as that was his back yard. I tried to achieve some familiarity with it too, and did to a fair degree on the western side of the park. I began to recognize the different mountains by name and even though I respected the immensity of the western side of the park, I began to get a sense of the size of the place. Enos Mills had a size-sense, and some of the rangers who have spent more than twenty years there have it. That’s when it becomes second nature to be in a place, you never feel totally lost or uncertain how far you have to go to your destination. It’s a cool feeling, and gives a certain level of security.

The Rocky area has more of a typical western cowboy flavor than Utah I think. Utah is a bit of an anomaly with its Mormon influence, but the rest of the west has a more independent make-it-for-yourself flavor. Not that people don’t pull together when they need to there, but you know you’re in the real west when you’re in some of the little backwater towns or the middle of nowhere. Then there are the upscale towns like Breckenridge, Aspen, Telluride and Steamboat Springs which are a different west that caters to the tourists and BMW set. They are just little islands of opulence in a vast area of imposing terrain and sparse population where it has to be tough to make a living. Where there’s not forests, there’s lots of ranching and many of the residents do seasonal work to get by. They came from tough stock too I’m sure. I would meet people in the park occasionally who had a long family history in Colorado. They related in many ways to the story we told at the Holzwarth Historic Site about ranching in the old days. Wasn’t easy.

Colorado has more winter than southern Utah, although they had a pretty severe winter at Bryce last year and have already hit minus temps this year. Both states offer a lot of skiing, that would be great to be out there for that. We may just have to find our way there during the ski season, which extends well into May in many areas. The snow in the higher mountains doesn’t melt until mid-July. We were in some snow on our trips in both Utah and Colorado, but there was never enough for skiing. Back when we were entertaining the idea of living in our trailer full-time, my hope was to park it somewhere warm and sunny during the winter but with access to some higher ground where we could get into the snow. If we get good snow in New York soon, I will be satisfied with that too.

So here it is almost winter in Binghamton. We have made several applications for assignments in parks and wilderness areas for next year and are now waiting to hear back on some of them we hope. Winter has certainly hit many of the mountains already. I was in the White Mountains of New Hampshire in early November, where there was plenty of snow. But unseasonably mild weather allowed us to get high in the mountains, I was able to summit six of them including Mt. Washington on a sunny, warm, calm day. It was surreal, better conditions than most days in the summer. Today is heavy rain with flood warnings, not the kind of weather anyone but ducks want. I look out the window and imagine I see the white tops of mountains. They could be eastern mountains or western mountains, I don’t care. But the west is calling and I may not be able to wait until next June to get there this time.

P.S. I have started another blog with a completely different tone.
http://notafraidofliving.blogspot.com/
I'm not sure where I'm going with this blog yet, to be honest. I may cheat and just throw out sound bites, or I may turn it into a world class literary masterpiece. hah. At least i will try to use humor to make a few points, but it may be up to the reader to truly appreciate the meaning.

Made it Home

As we were getting closer to the lake, we heard loud booms. Oh no, it sounded like thunder. We were hiking in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, near the shore of Lake Superior. When we got to the lakeshore, moving with some trepidation, we could see enormous waves on the lake, maybe up to six feet. Periodically, a wave would crash against the rocky cliffs of the shore; that was the booming sound. Better than a tstorm. We were glad we weren’t on a cruise boat, and they probably weren’t running today, as we never saw any. It is supposed be seen best by boat, but we got several stunning views walking along the Chapel trail along the lake. The North Country Trail also coincides with parts of this trail. I decided not to take the boat tour the evening before when the waves were two to three feet. I would never have made a good sailor. In any case, it was an exhilarating day and we had better weather than the forecast called for, but maybe the November gales came early on the lake that they call Gitche Gumee.

We had spent the two previous nights in the western part of the Upper Peninsula. The fall colors were gorgeous, it was at its peak. We found a very nice inn and restaurant called the Root Cellar on Lake Gogebic, the room was only $25 for the night. They raise the prices when the snowmobile season kicks into gear. The next night we stayed in a yurt at the Porcupine Mountain Wilderness State Park near the shore of Lake Superior. The park is rated one of the top ten state parks in the country and is very nice but the yurt was riddled with cluster flies. Yuck, we should have just tented.

We spent the last night in the U.P. in St Ignace, right near Mackinaw Island. The weather had turned cold, or at least it seemed cold to us with the breeze although it was in the high forties when we rolled in. We didn’t feel like trekking around the town that evening though, and waited until morning to see it and check out the Mackinaw Bridge. It was not completed until 1957, keeping the U.P. separated from the ‘mit’ or main part of Michigan. It spans about five miles and is the longest suspension bridge in the western hemisphere, third longest in the world. Before the bridge was built, there was a long and rich history of ferries that crossed the rough waters of the Mackinaw Strait.

Later that day we stopped and visited with my cousin Todd and his wife Sue near Detroit. They treated us to dinner and we caught up on our lives some. It had been twenty plus years since I had seen them, the best I could remember. Todd has been cranking away on family history, and has been keeping in touch with me and my siblings on this issue. He showed me some info and pictures I had never seen before, including a photograph of my Great Grandfather Benjamin O. Keefer. I thought it looked like Ben could have some Native American blood, based on his eyes. My mother had thought there was some Native American in her line, but Todd has not uncovered anything to show that yet. Keep digging, Todd, maybe I can find more on the Keefer line too.

We rolled into Binghamton, home, this past Monday night. We were greeted by rainy weather, which is alright because I was whipped from the trip and didn’t need to be lured outside by good weather. It felt good to be home and off the road.

Some rambling thoughts about our return trip:
- We saw a lot after finishing at RMNP in early September, but were constantly on the move. I can only do that for a limited time, and next time may decide to drive straight to our destination with as few stops as possible.
- Every part of this country has something to offer. The west is a phenomenal place of course, it keeps calling us. We saw some of the Midwest the last week of our travels and have to say the home of the Great Lakes has a lot to offer. The east is home, and that means a lot to us. We live in a great country.
- We got lulled into staying in motels, and both my maps app on my new Droid and using the web site tripadvisor proved to be big help in finding ok places. We could have camped more than we did, but pitching a tent and setting up bedding and then taking it all down the next morning gets old real fast.
- There were a lot of construction signs that were flat out wrong. They got better the further east we got. But I don’t believe too many construction signs anymore, I don’t think that construction crews care about (or pay attention to?) keeping their signs meaningful or current. Sorry for the grumbling.
- You meet many friendly people when traveling. When others are traveling too, it’s easy to relate to what they are going through. When you meet people who live in an area that you are passing through, they generally want to put on their best face and can be very helpful.
- We are big advocates for satellite radio. You can stay tuned to a station almost anywhere, except in canyons, areas of tall trees, some cloudy days and anywhere where the line to the satellite is blocked. Our GPS came in handy often too, although we can’t say it’s 100% foolproof. And how it got set to ‘shortest distance’ instead of ‘faster time’ and how long it was that way (the whole return trip maybe?) I can’t say.
- There are always risks when driving across country. The worst event this time occurred on I-90 near Cleveland when the truck in front of us suddenly swerved and I had to swerve also to avoid a mattress and box spring that had just fallen off a van. Phew, that was close. The VW bug that was just behind us went right over the mattress though but kept on going.

Traveling is not the healthiest lifestyle. We tried to stop and stretch our legs as much as we could but our bodies are not meant to be strapped in by a seat belt for hours at a time. We didn’t eat as well as we would at home, and didn’t always sleep as well, and failed in other areas of wellness but just pushed through it.

We blew it as far as getting to Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior. The last ferry to the island from Michigan was September 27, which means you had to be OFF the island by then. We had thought that we had until the END of September, but not so this year. So we’ll have to fit in another time. We also should have stayed at Glacier longer, the weather was improving the day we left and we saw only a little part of this world class park. Maybe a return trip or an assignment there will get us back.

- We will be giving a presentation to our Sierra Club group on October 19 about our time with the NPS, here is a description of it:
Scott Lauffer and Kathy Cronin have spent the last two summers volunteering for the National Park Service. In 2009 they were at Bryce Canyon in Utah and in 2010 they were at Rocky Mountain in Colorado. You will see and hear about what makes these parks special, their work with the interpretive ranger staff, the fun they had with visitors, the value of national parks and some of the exploring they did. "Useful places preserve themselves, beautiful places need preserving." In a turbulent world, the national parks offer a place of refreshment and a chance to get away from it all, the intent of the presentation is to provide the same.

This will be the last blog update for a while. I hope to resume it after we get another assignment. Although things are happening in Binghamton, and that looks exciting, I’m not sure that fits in this blog. The fall will be a nice time to be here. We have to figure out where we go next and when, maybe somewhere over the winter. For now, it will be nice to reconnect with friends and family and get a sense of home again. Thanks for taking the time to check this blog out and hopefully it was not a total waste of your time. Be well and follow your dreams.