DREW'S DELIBERATIONS
We head out today for Asia to begin the second part of our adventure. Our gear has been reduced from a full truck to two stuffed backpacks. My only previous experience in Asia was working in Japan for a month so this part of the journey is all new to me. In Thailand we are heading for an island south east of Bangkok called Ko Samet to mellow out for a couple of weeks (this traveling suff is hard work) and then it is off to Nepal.The elevations we plan to visit in Nepal require us to bring quite a bit of warm clothing which takes up most of the room in the packs. Once we leave Nepal for Indonesia we will be able to lighten our loads considerably. Michele is just hoping that I don't decide I need to climb anything too extreme while in Nepal.Dana and Gifford are planning to meet us in Indonesia for some diving and sight seeing. I'm really looking forward to learning to dive. From Indonesia we head "Down Under". Keep a watch on the site for updates although they may be few and far between for a while.
Peace be with you
Drew
Michele has been doing such a wonderful job on her daily musings that I will limit myself to more global observations. We have been incredibly lucky with the weather on this adventure. We've encountered some rain but never sustained and never at critical times. Our survey of Alaska has left me with many future trips to consider. To really experience any part of this state it is necessary to do alot of planning and have a good bit of time, as access to the wilderness is extremely limited. I will have to return to do some back country trecking, canoeing, kayaking and climbing in the future. On our current journey we stayed pretty much on the tourist track but were nonetheless rewarded with rich experiences and incredible views. I feel that we timed the trip perfectly as most of the tourists were headed out as we entered the state. We encountered no problems with overfull campsites and the like that we heard were so common. The fall colors in Denali were spectacular! All in all the adventure to this point could not be going better. Look for major website updates before we embark overseas at the end of Sept. Drew
Here we are at mile "0" of the Alcan Highway in Dawson Creek B.C. We have arrived here via a tour of the provincial and national parks that our great neighbor to the north has to offer. From Vermont we headed west across Lake Champlaigne into upstate New York so as to avoid Montreal. We crossed into Canada below Ottawa (the capital of Ontario) and skirted the city to the west heading straight for our first camp site along the Ottawa river. Driftwood Provincial Park proved to be a great little hang. The Ottawa River is quite large and very spectacular with plush green banks. A fresh water otter entertained us with his fishing skills in the morning swimming along the bank and sunning himself on a small island off shore. Our next move was west to the banks of lake Superior (I'm not even gonna try to spell Guichigumi). We stayed in a park called Pancake Bay which was also very nice even though it is more of a recreational park than a wilderness area. The main route west through Ontario follows the north shore of Lake Superior to the town of Thunder Bay and then continues westward when the shoreline cuts south. Following the shoreline we continued to just north of the U.S. border (even got an NPR station for a while) where we stayed in a charming little park called Pigeon Creek. The following day put in the kayaks in a well protected bay on lake Superior and paddled out through "The Narrows" which put us out on the lake proper. A small island just off the mouth of the narrows beckoned us so off we went. Wow can water conditions change in a hurry. Once past the mouth of the narrows the water became very choppy and REALLY cold! Having set our sites on circumnavigating this island we could not back off now (O.K. the island was about 20 meters in diameter but you should of seen the waves, well chop anyway, but I digress) so around we went. The trip was completed successfully with no need to demonstrate our nonexistent ability to roll these gigantic sea kayaks or our equally nonexistent rescue techniques. Our original plan to reenter the U.S. to explore the Boundary Waters Canoe Area was scratched in favor of staying on the Canadian side. The course was laid in for the Quetico Wilderness Provincial Park (still in Ontario, which we entered Through New York State and could have exited into Montana). This park contains an endless maze of lakes and connecting rivers that offers great canoeing and kayaking. No motors allowed! I felt like I was driving some sleek sexy Italian sports car paddling our kayaks amongst all of the canoes. We saw several bald eagles and a group of exceptionally cute turtles. Good buy Ontario, hello Manitoba. Manitoba and Saskatchewan are the equivalent of Kansas and Nebraska in the states. Needless to say we blazed across the plains without looking back in a two day blitz that left us on the Alberta border sleeping in a turnout surrounded by 18 wheelers. The only things of note to say about this crossing is that the parks in Manitoba are as far from those in Ontario as you can get (we stayed in one and decided that was enough), and that the capital of Saskatchewan (Ragina) actually has a great vegetarian restaurant. From our nest among the semis we were within striking distance of one of the main objects of the trip, Banff and Jasper National Parks. Arriving in Banff around 1:00 pm we headed for the information center to get the skinny on good hikes, camping and the like. The center is in the town of Banff which has awesome mountains all around, cute shops beyond belief and way too many people for me. We got the info we needed which included the fact that if you don't have a campsite by 2:00 pm you are probably out of luck. We headed directly for our chosen camp and arrived at approx. 2:00 pm to find the camp full sign already in place. Luckily my Yosemite experience payed off and we ignored the sign and pulled in anyway to be given the last site. Michele had been battling a cold for the past several days and decided to stay in camp while I took a trot up Johnston Canyon, a 1.5 mile trail up a steep walled canyon to a couple of waterfalls. This is your quintessential tourist trail, paved all the way with interpretive displays along the way but quite nice. The engineering of the trail was impressive as sections of it are supported by cantilevered I-beams imbedded into the canyon wall giving unique perspectives you would never get on a wilderness trail. Michele feeling a little better the next day proposed the Plane of Six Glaciers hike up out of Lake Louise. This is your classic huge granite monoliths covered in gigantic glaciers feeding milk white glacier fed streams that flow into topaz blue glacial lakes. In other words WOW! This hike is also of the tourist variety as it starts at Lake Louise Lodge and skirts around the lake on a paved trail that eventually turns to dirt. The round trip is approx. 8 miles unless your wife hides from you and makes you do a couple of extra miles looking for her. Near the top of the trail I wanted to go a littlt further to get a look up on of the canyons and Michele said she would wait for me. This section of the trail follows the ridge of a huge moraine with fairly dicey footing. I was coming down watching my feet closely and dodging the more than occasional fellow adventurer when I got to the base of the moraine to find Michele nowhere in site. I looked all around and decided she must have headed for the privy that we passes about a mile back. When I got there still no Michele. I waited a little while before heading back up to where I left her. No Michele! As panic was about to set in I noticed the tip of a boot sticking up from behind a windbreak. She had fallen asleep on the rocks in full view of the trail above but in my concentrated state trying not to knock anyone off the moraine (mostly myself) I walked by without seeing her. Anyway reunited we descended back to the safety of our camp. Enough of these tourist trails! My macho ____head hormones were about to explode so the next day I left my beautiful wife in a parking lot all day and soloed Cascade Mountain which overlooks the town of Banff. As peaks go this is probably the tourist trail of peaks in these parts but I got an early enough start that I had the place to myself. I didn't see a humane until I was about 1/3 of the way down off the summit. I really pushed myself time wise and was pretty pleased with the results although I missed my ETA by about 25 minutes (OH well). The downside of our stay in the parks was that much of B.C. and Alberta are on fire which made for some extremely hazy scenery. The rest of our time in the parks was spent viewing glaciers and other scenes along the Icefields Parkway. All this has left us at mile "0" ready for the next adventure. Until next time,
Later…
Our day in Boston was a trip back to the days of the revolution. We walked the freedom trail of historic landmarks around the "town commons" that give a good feeling for the events that led up to the Revolutionary War. The trail leads over the Charles River into Cambridge and the U.S. Navy yard that is home to the Constitution. This is the oldest commissioned war ship in the world. The ship and accompanying museum are a must (and free). From Boston we headed north up the coast towards Maine. Driving the coast through New Hampshire and southern Maine we were a little surprised at the population density. Every T.P. (campsite) on our map turned out to be an R.V. park. We ended up spending the night tucked away in a field that was the overflow parking behind an amazing stone church. The houses all through this area are not to be believed! Huge, elegant, wood, stone, incredible gardens, porches, balconies…We got up to Kennebunkport the next day and spent a few glorious days with our friends the Rimmers, boating, kayaking and lounging (George and Bar never did invite us out for a drink). Our next stop was a state park on the coast of Maine. This was just outside of the town of Camden. We did some hiking around the area and kayaked out of Rockport Harbor. All of these towns are incredibly cute and the population density begins to decrease up that far (or should I say fah). Acadia National Park was our next destination where we spent the day sight seeing and hiking. This is a beautiful area with many islands scattered around a large bay. We drove to the top of Cadillac Mountain which is the first place in the U.S. to see the sunrise (If I remember correctly Danny Taylor was planning to meet here on Jan 1 2000 to usher in the new millenium). The White Mountains awaited our arrival so off we went. We scaled the 6200 ft. flank of Mount Washington by way of Huntington Ravine Trail which to both of our surprise (Michele much more than mine) included substantial amounts of 3rd class rock climbing (a rope is not necessary but occasionally it feels like it is). Michele did great although she swears I was trying to kill her. We are currently visiting the Rimmers once again this time at their homestead in VT. Next stop the Boundary Waters. Stay tuned!
Drew
Hard to believe we’ve been on the road for a month already. Our first day in Philadelphia we sent Freeway on her way back to Colorado with Randy, we’ll miss the little gal. We spent a week in Philly visiting with family and friends. This included our wonderful "Bluejean Brunch" on Saturday the 11th with great food, music and company. The weather was exceptional for July until our last couple of days when gills became required equipment for breathing. We are currently in Cape Cod bothering our buddy Tara for a couple of days. Two days ago we "did" Provincetown (P-Town) and took a whale watching cruise. Fortunately for us we came upon a Hump Back on whale-nip who proceeded to go through the entire catalogue of spectacular whale behaviors including more breaches than I could count (which isn’t too many because I don’t have my HP). We also encountered a pod of Atlantic White Sided Dolphin which put on quite a show surfing our wake. P-Town offers some great people watching as tourists mix with the eclectic local crowd, representing many alternative lifestyles, to paint quite a colorful mosaic. Our kayaks came in handy once again yesterday as we used them to explore Town Cove and some salt marshes out of Orleans. Today we took an auto tour of the Upper Cape (which geographically is the lower cape, don’t ask me). I drug Michele kicking and screaming into the Sandwich Glass Museum and the rest of the day we simply took in the sights. The place is exceptionally cute although it becomes increasingly obvious that many of these drivers have spent way too much time in Boston. Speaking of Boston we are off to visit Beantown tomorrow (by train). We are headed from there to the Maine coast and then…
So for now…
Later
Drew
Q: How do you know that you are not in California anymore?
A: When you see someone lowering their Jet Ski into the water with a little red farm tractor!
(we actually saw this on lake Michigan today.)
The Rocky Mountains have faded away in our rear view mirror. The next time we encounter this awesome range will be in Canada on our way to Alaska. We traveled through Wyoming into the south west corner of South Dakota. The Black Hills region of South Dakota, most famous for the monument at Mt. Rushmore, is incredibly beautiful. Michele and I would both like to return to these enchanting mountains when we have more time to explore. The peaks top out at over 7000', the highest mountains between the Rockies and the Alps. Granite walls and spires abound interspersed with dense forests and clear mountain lakes. A mountain goat out for an afternoon bouldering session decided to wow some tourists (including us) with roadside acrobatics just around the corner from Mt. Rushmore. Our destination for the evening was the Bad Lands National Park (Golden Eagle pass pays off again). We located a primitive camp ground to be our home for the night, it was here that we discovered our little stow away (see Freeway's Home Page). Our planned early departure to view the Bad Lands at dawn was foiled by the kitty that kept us up half of the night. After a night at a friendly port in Minneapolis, forsaking the interstates we wound our way along the mighty Mississippi admiring the immaculate Minnesota farms. Crossing over to Wisconsin at La Crosse we continued south along the Mississippi and then east along the Wisconsin River to Madison. This brings us up to the present whiling away a week or so in the Milwaukee area, visiting, kayaking on Lake Michigan (really nice and surprisingly warm) and eating as much Kopp's custard as we can get. The pace of life is slowing from the frenetic pace of the last couple weeks in San Diego to life on the road. That's all for now but there is much more to come!
Drew
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