Debbie and Ed's Wild West Trip: Part 3

Part 3: Glacier National Park to Yellowstone National Park

Follow along on our adventure as we head to Yellowstone and meet up with geysers, wildlife and a stranger.

Day 10: Many Glacier Hotel, Glacier National Park to Old Faithful Inn, Yellowstone National Park
Drive time: 11 hours, 41 minutes; 609 miles

Next stop: American's first National Park: Yellowstone.  We left early from Many Glaciers knowing we had a long trip ahead of us. Most of the morning we followed along the east bank of Flathead Lake, a beautiful scenic drive. We travelled to the mining town of Butte, skirted the Big Hole Valley, then around Helena, over to Bozeman before turning south at the Gallatin Gateway to Yellowstone.

On the way, Ed drove, and I read to him from our travel books. I was particularly struck by a passage that talked about Yellowstone's policy on fighting wildfires. In the 1970s, the Park decided to allow wildfires caused by lightening to burn under controlled conditions. It was dusk and drizzling when we finally turned into the Park. I was heartbroken to see that the Park was covered in what looked like dozens of smoldering fires.

But all I was seeing were the steaming geysers and boiling mud pots! I was so relieved and a little chagrined by my naivety. We checked in the Old Faithful Inn and settled into the last two seats at the bar for a beer and burger. It had been a long day and we were delighted to be where we were.

Day 11: Old Faithful Inn, Yellowstone National Park to Canyon Village Lodge, Yellowstone.
Drive time: 1 hour, 21 minutes; 42 miles

Early the next morning we walked out of the Inn door and over to Old Faithful. The geyser erupts about every 91 minutes and sure enough, right on time, we saw it blow: spouting 3,700-8,400 gallons of hot water at heights of 106 to 184 feet. It really was pretty impressive.

After breakfast at the Inn we hiked around Upper Geyser Basin, the largest concentration of geysers anywhere in the world.

We had originally planned to camp for the next two nights, but because we arrived so late the evening before, we didn't want to rush off to try to find an available camp site. Fortunately, we were able to get a room reservation at Canyon Village, in the northern part of the park and closer to the campgrounds that we needed to get to early the following morning. So we made our way through the park, pulling over often to see the wildlife in the Hayden Valley: birds, bears, buffalo, sheep, wolves and coyotes.

After checking into the hotel, we headed back out to hike the South Rim of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone -- one of the most spectacular hikes of my life!

Day 12:  Canyon Village Lodge, Yellowstone to Slough Creek Campground, Yellowstone
Drive time: 1 hour; 30 miles

The race was on. Most campsites are first come, first served so we had to get up and get going in hopes of finding one. We drove up to Slough Creek and back about 5 miles off the road to the wilderness campground. No fancy showers; no flushable toilets, but plenty of fabulous views along the creek. We lucked into one of the prettiest sites and after the standard bear warning from the campground host, set up our tent before heading up the creek -- Ed with his fly rod and me with a book.  Ed caught one trout. How big?  Big enough to take the hook.

By early afternoon, all the sites were taken. As we began to fix our dinner, a young guy appeared on the hill above our site and called down to ask if he could share our table. He spoke with an European accent -- a young man traveling around a foreign country. All I could think of was Jack in Germany last year. Ed and I looked at each other and then both encouraged him to come on down. Turns out, Mario was originally from Berlin and had been working for a German engineering company in Portland for the last couple of years. He was headed back to Germany by year end and decided it was time for him to see some of the States. He was traveling by himself, sleeping in his car as he was afraid of being eaten by a bear, which by now did not seem preposterous to us.

We shared a beer with him and he shared a white chocolate candy bar with us. He was nice company and we wished him well when he took off in the morning. He left us a scape of paper with his name and email address on it. We promised we would look him up if we made it to Berlin next year.

To be continued. Stay tuned....

Debbie and Ed's Wild West Trip: Part 2

Part 2: Essex, Montana to Glacier National Park, Montana

Our wild west trip continues as we make our way to our most western point. In store for us: a stolen cooler, huckleberry pie, and an encounter with a mama grizzly bear and her three cubs.

Day 6: Cut Bank, Montana to Essex, Montana
Drive time: 1 hour 12 minutes. 75 miles

We were getting closer and closer to the million-acre Glacier National Park, just a few miles south of the Canadian border. We had booked a night at the Izaak Walton Hotel, an old inn that is located just outside the park at a stop on the Amtrak. We arrived mid-morning and since our room was not yet available, we grabbed a hiking trail map and headed into the park.

We took the Going-to-the-Sun Road from the park's west entrance up to Logan Pass. The road, an engineering marvel, spans 50 miles through the park's wild interior, winding around mountainsides, affording amazing vistas.

Starting out from Logan Pass, we hiked toward Hidden Lake, stopping along the way for a picnic lunch.

That evening we dined at the Izaak Walton and walked along the railroad track after dinner. We met some people at the Inn who had boarded the train in Chicago and hopped off 28 hours later at the Inn – what a great way to travel.

Days 7 and 8: Two Medicine Lake Campsite, Glacier National Park
Drive time: 2 hours 60 miles

The next morning we headed back into the park in search of a campsite. Even though it was early September, many of the campgrounds had closed for the season -- leaving fewer sites available on a first-come, first-serve basis. We took our chances on a more remote campground: Two Medicine Lake and sure enough found a great site.

As we had figured out at previous sites, we cruised around the campground, determining which sites were available and finding one we like. We then placed our cooler on the picnic table to "reserve" it while we signed into the campground. When we came back to our site our cooler was gone. Simply vanished.

This act of apparent vandalism dismayed us. It just didn't seem like proper camping etiquette -- stealing someone's food. Eventually, the campground ranger showed up. She had confiscated the cooler and placed it in a nearby metal bear-proof storage box. She then read us the riot act about keeping food out of reach of the bears. Turns out, she wasn't pulling our legs. While in the park we encountered no less than 10 bears. (More later.)

We spent the next two nights happily camping among the mountains and lakes, hiking during the day and fly fishing into the twilight. We celebrated Ed's birthday with a hike up to Aster Falls Lookout. Our second day at Two Medicine Lake, we took a tour of the second half of the Going-to-the-Sun Road in a 1930's-era Red Bus.

We capped off our second afternoon with a trip to a tiny town called Hungry Horse for a slice of world-famous huckleberry pie.

Day 9: Many Glacier Hotel, Glacier National Park
Drive time: 1.5 hours

We spent our last night in the park at Many Glacier Hotel located on Swiftcurrent Lake. The hotel was built in 1915 by the Great Northern Railway as a way to entice tourists to come to the park via rail. Grinnell Glacier, one of the largest glaciers in the park, is a hard hike away (and up) from the hotel. We packed a lunch, grabbed our hiking poles and made our way around Swiftcurrent Lake over to Lake Josephine. Our plan wasn't to go all the way up to the glacier, but just to have a nice, peaceful hike around the lakes.

This is bear country; we saw six of them on the drive into Many Glacier.

When we got to Lake Josephine, some hikers told us that a grizzly bear and her cubs had been spotted way up the mountain above the trail -- and that just happened to the direction we were headed. Keeping  an eye out for her, we made our way along the shore path to a rock outcropping where we had our picnic.

All was quiet.  After lunch, we decided to head back. I led the way. We had gone no more than 100 feet when Ed (fairly calmly) asked me to stop and slowly turn around. I did. He was backing up and whispered that the bear cub had stuck her head out in the bushes just above the path, not 20 feet ahead of me. According to Ed, it looked like a furry Volkswagen Beetle with ears.

We went back to our rock outcropping and watched as the mama bear and her three cubs took their time eating berries, going for a swim, eating more berries and having a leisurely afternoon, never venturing far enough from the path to allow us to escape. Why hadn't we invested in a can of that bear spray?

At the other end of the path was a couple we had passed earlier, lugging large cameras. Because they were on the escape end of the path, they were having a grand time photographing the bears. I was too scared to even think to take a photo. We were stranded for an hour or so before mama decided to take her cubs and head back up the mountain. We headed back to the hotel encountering no more bears -- but looking and listening hard for them.

After our eventful afternoon, we took it easy by doing our laundry at the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn.

To be continued. Stay tuned....

Debbie and Ed's Wild West Trip: Part 1

Ed and I have been home for two weeks or so from our epic western trip and before too much more time passes, I wanted to post some thoughts and photos from our adventure.  I can't believe I am 55 years old and had never explored the northwestern part of our county. I just didn't know what I was missing.

The basic plan for the trip was to drive out to Glacier National Park in Montana via North Dakota and return via South Dakota, swinging through Kansas. This plan would allow me my first car trip out west and allow Ed to color in three more states on his U.S. map, leaving only two unvisited states: Alaska and Connecticut.

Here's a couple of things you need to know about this trip. First, our approach to travel has changed in the past couple of years, mostly due to the fact that we don't have a carload of kids with us or jobs that require us to check in daily. We are more flexible with setting (or not setting) our itinerary and the pace that we set for ourselves along the way. For this trip, we had a general idea of how the days would lay out and the stops we would make -- but not every day was accounted for, and we had pre-determined lodging reservations for only about half the nights. 

The other thing that has changed (for the better) is our reliance on our little GPS system that clips to the front windshield. I consider myself a woman of many talents, but reading maps and providing accurate navigation is NOT one of them. So in olden times, Ed was at the mercy of me trying to figure which way was up on the map, squinting to see the fine print, and getting confused between left and right turns. Now, a very nice woman with a lovely australian accent gives Ed (mostly) accurate directions and when he choses to not follow them, she simply says: recalculating. 

Here's a day-by-day recounting of our trip -- probably more detail than you want to know, but I offer it up, mainly to help me remember the days and nights of our grand adventure.

Part I: Shelbyville, KY to Cut Bank, MT

Day 1: Shelbyville, Kentucky to Mauston, Wisconsin
Drive time 9 hours and 49 minutes. 537 miles.

We packed our Subaru with camping gear, hiking poles, homemade granola and trail mix, and a couple of books on CD and headed out the drive, stopping at the gate to reset the trip odometer and say a quick prayer for a safe journey. 

First stop: Chicago, Illinois, for lunch with our friends Jeananne and Katie Beth, both seniors at DePaul University. It was great to catch up with them and see them thriving in big-city life.

From there, it was on to Madison, Wisconsin, one of our all-time-favorite cities. Maggie graduated three years ago from the University of Wisconsin and we hadn't been back since. We strolled down State Street, stopping to buy some kettle corn and ogle over the cheeses in Fromagination. 

We then headed over to The Old Fashioned to meet up for dinner with three of our favorite people: Nate, Claire and Ed.

Our intention was to spend the night in Madison but alas, the Madison Ironman beat us to all the hotel rooms, so as the sun was setting on the capitol building dome, we made our way westward, another hour or so to Mauston, WI. 

Day 2: Mauston, Wisconsin to Glendalough State Park, Minnesota
Drive time 6 hours and 33 minutes. 379 miles.

Because it was a Saturday morning, we checked the i-pad to see if by any chance Mauston or another town on our route had a farmers' market and sure enough, Eau Claire did. And it was a nice one too, set up in a city park, right on the river's edge. We loaded up on hot coffee, fruit tarts and some corn-on-the-cob and Italian sausage for a campfire cookout. Too bad I didn't need any fresh flowers; they were beautiful.

Lunchtime found us in Minneapolis, home of the University of Minnesota Gophers and Marlo Thomas's That Girl. From there we pressed on toward Fargo, North Dakota. Using our trusty i-pad, we began our search for a place to stay that night and focused on a couple of state parks just south of Fargo. One phone call to a park ranger determined that there were some first-come, first-serve, cart-in camp sites still available at Glendalough State Park. We pulled into the campsite at dusk.

We had not camped in a couple of years and I was a little worried that we had lost our knack for it -- or our interest in sleeping on the ground. WRONG. It was a wonderful campsite and a great way to stop for the night. In a matter of minutes, Ed and I set up our two-person tent; I crawled in to blow up our super thick Therm-a-rest® and lay out our sleeping bags, while Ed got our campfire going. 

The next morning we got up early to birdwatch along the lakeshore and in the tall prairie grasses. Such a nice way to start our day.... 

Day 3 : Glendalough State Park, Minnosota to Medora, North Dakota
Drive time 4 hours and 22 minutes, 275 miles

I just remember fields and fields of tall prairie grasses and nothing much else. That's North Dakota – and we covered the whole state – east to west – and it all looked the same, until we got about 10 miles from our night's destination and saw a sign to a lookout point. We took the off ramp and found ourselves staring out at the North Dakota Badlands, an eerie scene if ever there was one. I half expected John Wayne and his posse to come riding over the desolate hills.

We spent the night at the historic Rough Rider Hotel in Medora, North Dakota. The town sits just outside the Theodore Roosevelt National Park and not much was going on. We walked around the town and found a bar serving cold draft beer, salad and buffalo burgers. It fit the bill.

The hotel is named to honor Roosevelt's Rough Riders and their service in the Spanish-American War.  It is currently owned by Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation and features many TR memorabilia, including books from his library.

Days 4: Mendora to Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota
Drive time: just an hour of so of driving around the park

We were up and out early the next morning, staying around just long enough for a big western breakfast in the hotel dining room. Then we headed up to the park to search for a campsite. We found a lovely one amid cottonwood trees on the banks of the Little Missouri River. 

As soon as we set up camp, we drove through the hills, stopping at a trailhead. We grabbed our hiking poles and set out along a dry and dusty trail that followed a dry and dusty sage-lined creek bed.

We spent the rest of the morning/early afternoon hiking trails on either side of the main park road.

Wild buffalo roamed the entire park -- we saw them along side the road, down by the river and right at our campground!

That night we cooked over the campfire and turned in early.

Day 5: Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota to Cut Bank, Montana

Drive time: 7 hours and 42 minutes. 496 miles. 

Tough driving day through a boring, boring landscape. We were saved by listening to a  Louis L'Amour book on CD. I can't remember the title, but like all his books, it was a western fiction story and kept our attention as the miles rolled by. We stopped in the small town of Cut Bank and checked into the Super 8 Motel. Here's a photo taken from the room's window. See, I told you it was boring landscape.

We left all that boringness behind as we headed toward Glacier National Park...

To be continued. Stay tuned.

That's All Folks

Ed has been asking (nicely) if I would please make some green tomato relish. Both he and Jack like it with Salmon Patties. Since the forecast calls for heavy frost tonight, I decided that it was now or never for relish this year. So, I picked all I could carry up to the porch. I'm hoping they will last until Maggie gets home from a trip to Madison, WI. She is who I depend on for all things related to canning.

Entertaining in Town and in the Country

Our son, Jack,  has moved to town. As much as he seemed to enjoy living in the little cottage, he didn't enjoy the drive back and forth from his life and friends in town. So, he is sharing an apartment with a Katie, a high school friend in the Highlands – a great location. (If I were 23 and single, that is where I'd want to be.)

Jack's college friend, Karl, and Karl's girlfriend, Kara, were visiting him this weekend from Indianapolis. They spent Friday with Jack in town and then came out to Farm Dover yesterday afternoon. Jack built a fire, and Ed popped some popcorn, while I worked on a cassoulet dinner. It was my favorite kind of evening.

Karl, Kara and Jack headed back to town after breakfast this morning. Hope they come back soon.

Seeing Wider and Higher

It was supposed to be cold and rainy this morning. Instead it was bright and crisp. Just after breakfast, Ed and I walked the Netflix® movie out to the mailbox, taking a roundabout tour of the farm via the trails that he has cut around the perimeter of each field.

Usually when we walk the trails I keep my eyes cast down, constantly searching for four-leaf clovers, elusive arrowheads, wildflowers, turkey nests, sink holes, snakes, or other natural curiosities that catch my eye. Today, my focus was upwards, toward the heavens. The morningtide sky was opalescent blue with the faintest almost-full moon still showing. It was cross-streaked with jet contrails (Jack's friend, Karl, gave me that word to use) that looked like a large kiss painted by some supernatural artist.

The leaves on the trees were just starting to change or to flitter down to the ground, exposing the walnuts, hickories, mock oranges and dark branches arching upwards. 

The red-tailed hawk who hangs around the farm was alternately perched on its favorite phone pole and then seen soaring over the fields looking for a reason to swoop down. 

Even the giant sunflowers, drooping and dried as they are, demanded that I look up from below and see them in their faded glory. 

Seems like all the action this morning was taking place sky high. I need to remind myself to look up -- to see wider and higher than the path in front of me.

Down-home Dinner

Ed and his good friend Paul spent the day fishing the Elkhorn Creek and brought a couple of nice fish for dinner tonight. Ed catches them and cleans them. I cook them up. I've even offered to fix some fried green tomatoes to go with them. Doesn't get more down-home than that!

October's Golden Days

Our front field is full of sunny coneflowers...

...and painted daisies.

While the side and back fields are flaunting the last of the goldenrod.

Strange Things

I find the strangest things on my walks around the farm. Just yesterday, I happened upon what turns out to be a Thornapple in our upper field. I snapped off one of the seed pods and brought it home to figure out what it could be.

It looked like something from a fairy tale -- a very scary one. Here my little sweetie, try a bite of this....

It's about the size of a large walnut and covered with sharp spines. My research determined that it is very poisonous – the seeds, fatally so.

The Thornapple, also called Devil's Trumpet, Stickweed, Datura, and Locoweed, is an annual herb that is strongly narcotic and hallucinogenic. The whole plant is poisonous, but the seeds are the most active; neither drying nor boiling destroys the poisonous properties. According to my sources, the usual consequences of the poison when taken in sufficient quantity are dimness of sight, dilation of the pupil, giddiness and delirium, sometimes amounting to mania.

It is also sometimes called Jimson Weed or Jamestown Weed; it got this name from the town of Jamestown, Virginia, where British soldiers were drugged with it while attempting to suppress Bacon's Rebellion. They spent 11 days generally appearing to have gone insane.

Yep, I'm glad I didn't bite into it.