Fast Forward

Guys! It's been a year! What happened?? Oh, right, we finished our road trip, moved to Richmond, got new jobs, started grad school, and totally ignored this blog for the last 12 months. My bad.

But, we're about to take a completely different kind of summer trip (well, not that different...we'll still be hiking), and I figured that before that happened, I should wrap up this series from LAST summer.

So like I said, we're getting ready to take our vacation for this summer. We decided to go for it on one of those budget European airlines, and in 6 more days, we will be on our way to *Iceland* for a week! Needless to say, we are incredibly stoked about it, and the next 3 work days cannot go by quickly enough. We'll be flying into Reykjavik (is there any other option?), staying there for a day/night, then taking a hikers' bus out to the Landmannalaugar highlands to begin a 4 day hike down toward the coast. After we complete that hike, we'll spend a day hiking on a glacier and trying out ice climbing (best birthday present ever, thanks Mike!) for the first time!

July 22, 2016
Now that we're less than a week from our next international trip, I'll take a quick minute to talk about the last time we crossed the border--in late July, 2016, we went from Olympic National Park to Sequim, Washington on to Vancouver, British Columbia. Vancouver was such a cool city! Obviously it's beautiful there with all of the mountains and water surrounding it, but it was neat to walk around and see what all the city had to offer. We also had one of the most amazing meals ever for dinner the night we were there. Of course oysters were a must while we were there, but we managed to find a restaurant with dozens of different types of them, and all other options for seafood, as well. We ate a dozen oysters and about 5 other types of seafood and loved every bit of it. Clearly it was an amazing meal if it's stuck in my memory for over a year now.

July 23-24, 2016
After leaving Vancouver, we drove out toward Alberta and Banff National Park. We didn't plan any actual backpacking while in Canada, but rather just a couple of day hikes. So after spending the night at a remote spot we happened to find by a beautiful river, we drove into Banff the next day.

Not too shabby for car camping.

Upon reaching Banff, we did the mandatory visit to Moraine Lake. It's one of those places that you don't even mind being crowded with tourists, because it is so absolutely beautiful you can't begrudge anyone from wanting to be there. We didn't stay too long, though--there really were a ton of people.

The bluest water.

After that, we headed to the trailhead for a hike to the summit of Mt. Bourgeau. This was about a 12 mile hike that we gave ourselves the rest of the day for. Between the alpine lakes, sweeping views, and snowy summit, I can't even begin to put into words how absolutely incredible this hike was, so I'll just let the following pictures speak for themselves.

We had perfect weather for the whole hike.

Sometimes we like to play Bananagrams while we hike. Hey, nobody ever said we were a normal couple.

Feeling a little bit small...

I wasn't kidding about words not even coming close to describing this beauty.

Snow as tall as we were.

Spot Mike!

Ok, I'll cut it out with the photo onslaught, but you see what I mean. Banff was without a doubt the most stunning place we went all summer...which means that on our Great American Roadtrip, Canada came out on top. What.

July 26-27, 2016
After being totally blown away by Banff, we headed back to the U.S. and to Glacier National Park. We were unfortunately unable to get backcountry camping passes for the park during our time there. Since it's such a popular place, their quotas for the more traveled routes fill up quickly and in advance. Since we couldn't plan out every day of our multi-week trip, we were stuck with choosing routes once we got to the parks. This meant that we just had to do a couple of day hikes in Glacier. We figured we'll make up for it once we begin our CDT thru-hike next year and really get to dig in to the park, though.

This method of seeing the park ended up working out beautifully. We did some really fun hikes that were still beyond gorgeous, despite not going too far into the backcountry. We went to Iceberg Lake and looked at the chilly water, still harboring chunks of ice. It may feel like it's never summer in this place, but it was hard not to think about the negative impacts that we as humans are having on the icebergs and the glaciers--Montana is warming at nearly twice the global rate, and Glacier National Park may lose all of its namesake glaciers within the next few decades. It is already down to only having 26 remaining of the 150 that were there in the late 19th Century. I will never understand how more people aren't willing to take action to save these incredible, unique spaces. Despite feeling sad about the glaciers' fate, we did feel lucky to be able to visit before they disappear forever.

Ptarmigan Tunnel, built in 1930 through the Ptarmigan Wall by the CCC.

Iceberg Lake.

Look closely and you'll see all the mountain goats to the left of Mike!

The next hike we did was up to Swiftcurrent Tower. This ended up being an incredible day because we saw a crazy amount of wildlife! Almost immediately after beginning our hike, we got to see a moose eating breakfast in a pond just off-trail. We never saw a moose while we were hiking the AT through Maine in 2015, so this was particularly exciting for us.

After that, as we were hiking up the mountain, we saw a dark mammal scurrying across some snow and ice. We couldn't tell what it was at first, but I shot some photos of it through my telephoto lens so we could zoom in and get a better idea. Turns out it was a wolverine! We definitely did not expect to see something like that on this trip. It was so cool, though! And we ended up speaking to a park ranger in Yellowstone who was so jealous of us, saying she had worked in Glacier for years and never saw a wolverine.

And then, as if that weren't enough, Mike and I sat down at an open trail intersection to eat lunch...just as I was opening my pack of salmon (which Mike won't let me live down now), a mama grizzly bear and her two cubs came crashing through the trees right behind us! We jumped up and yelled and made loud noises to try to keep her from coming toward us. Luckily, this tactic worked, and she kept running past (still about 20 feet away) but our hearts were both racing for a good while after that encounter! She seemed just as surprised to see us as we were to see her, but it was definitely closer than we would have liked to be. That is why they recommend talking loudly as you're hiking through grizzly country, though! Nobody wants to sneak up on a bear, especially not a mama with cubs. We saw her (or maybe a different mama) again as we were heading back down from our summit at Swiftcurrent Fire Tower, but luckily she (and we) kept her distance that time. It was a cool experience, but not necessarily one I'd want to relive with the surprise factor.

On the way up, post-grizzly lunch encounter.

At Swiftcurrent Fire Tower.

Stayed further away from them with this second sighting.

July 28-29, 2016
Then, after Glacier came Yellowstone! I'd like to say that we stayed away from bears with the next park, but that didn't turn out to be the case. We did the typical Yellowstone stuff the first day we were there--seeing some hot springs, bubbling mud, Yellowstone Falls, and Old Faithful. It was cool to visit America's first national park and see some of its most famous sights.

Not pictured: literal busloads of tourists.

Right on time!

We then backpacked Sky Rim Loop, a one-night hike in one of the remote corners of the park, far away from the hordes of tourists driving the loop road and bisons blocking traffic. It was really secluded, beautiful, and not like anything I had experienced in the park before. However, we did have another close encounter with a grizzly that night. We were camped on the edge of our designated campsite, right next to an open field. We were the only campers there that night. We practiced good Leave No Trace and responsible bear country principles and had an approved bear canister for all of our food, placed well away from our campsite for the night. However, this did not stop a very curious solo grizzly from coming right up to our tent at about 4 am. Both of us were sound asleep, until the deep, loud huffing of the bear right into our ears roused us quite abruptly. Not being fully awake, all I immediately did was leap away from the bear toward Mike (of course it came to my side of the tent), still in my sleeping bag like a spastic caterpillar. Luckily my freakout caused enough noise to scare the bear right off, but again, that was one of the more terrifying nighttime experiences I've had. Nobody wants to be woken up by a grizzly 16 inches from your face. So, we stayed up making LOUD conversation for about the next hour (not like we could have fallen back asleep anyways) to ensure the bear wouldn't come back by for another visit. We did manage to doze off for a bit longer eventually, but as soon as the sun was up, we packed up and got the heck out of there!

The site of our second close grizzly encounter.

July 30-31, 2016
The next park after Yellowstone was Grand Teton. We actually spent a day driving around, going to church (at the most beautiful chapel in the world), eating breakfast at an actual restaurant, and generally acting like casual tourists. We like to do that occasionally.

Breakfast and a collared shirt??

Front row seat to His creation.

Most photographed barn in America, maybe?

We then did a one-night backpacking loop through Death Canyon, which was green and beautiful and full of flowers...? However, a group of hoodlum porcupines did steal and completely eat/destroy my trekking poles, so those definitely died that night. We woke up to the smell of smoke, thinking it was a nearby camper's fire. Turns out that the smoke from a fire in one of the neighboring forests had blown into the area. It made it a bit difficult to breathe, especially in some of the higher elevations. Some of the best views were blocked by smoke, too. It was a little disappointing, but we were glad to have seen some views the day before. This is another place we're planning on hiking through during our CDT thru-hike, so we'll be back.

Death Canyon, definitely not living up to its name.

Climbed up over 10,000 feet, a bit more difficult than usual with all of the smoke around.

August 2-5, 2016
And that was the last real hike we went on our Summer 2016 national park road trip! We did drive through to see Mount Rushmore, and we stayed for a night in the Badlands with one of my friends from high school who works for the park service out there. On our way back home, we stayed with my college roommate Wes's family in Nebraska (thanks, Ernsts), and Mike drove through the night on August 4th to make it to Max Patch in North Carolina so that we could wake up there on my birthday the next morning. Have I mentioned that he is the absolute best?

I'm only here for Teddy.

 

One of our very favorite places on the AT...a great place to wake up on your birthday.

Writing this a year later, and looking back on all of the incredible times we had, makes me think again about how lucky we are to have experienced these countless amazing places, and to have experienced them together. Seeing so much of what our country has to offer in terms of natural, public spaces makes me want to protect them all the more. Everyone should have the opportunity to see the sun rise over the mountains, to hear the powerful waters of a rushing waterfall, to feel the cool air blowing over the snow on a summit in July......so let's do what we can to help protect these lands that have given us so much.

Thanks for tuning in to this very belated update on Summer 2016. I'll try not to wait this long to report back on Iceland. 🌄