Author: searcyf@mac.com

30 April 2018

Yesterday, after publishing the day’s blog, I decided to check the alerts of the next two parks after Great Basin: Capitol Reef and Black Canyon of the Gunnison.   The NPS often tells you any road closures, wildfires, bear alerts, etc.

The Capitol Reef alert took me aback.  It said that as of February 2018 they were taking campsite reservations through recreation.gov.  This was news to me.  When I planned the trip to Capitol Reef, they were not taking campground reservations at all.  Even more concerning is all of my campground reservations with national parks have been made through recreation.gov and you would think that since I’ve made so many reservations through them, they would have notified people who are registered with them of this change. Not so.

In any case, I immediately went to recreation.gov to make reservations and of course, they were booked.  That led me to check Black Canyon of the Gunnison and they had changed also. One campsite did take reservations now and two others were no reservations.  The one campsite you could reserve was also full.

Not wishing to be locked out of a place to stay to see Capitol Reef, I made motel reservations at the nearest place (8.8 miles from the park) and decided to do the same at Black Canyon of the Gunnison even though they have sites with no reservations.  My reasoning is if the site you can reserve is filled, the odds are by the time I get to the park in the late afternoon, all the non-reserved sites will be taken.  Who would have thought the parks would be so filled in early May?
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Best laid plans…. It’s an added expense.  Most of the hotels in and around Capitol Reef (at least those you in which would deign to stay) run $160-180 per night indicating that they are now in season with higher rates.  At least for Black Canyon of the Gunnison I was able to find a motel fairly economical with my Choice rewards package.

The only place I’ve been so far with unused campsites was Craters of the Moon, and I suspect it’s because most people have never heard of it and it’s a national monument, not a national park.

There are other options.  The Bureau of Land Management allows camping and so does the National Forestry Service.  Then there’s always the private campgrounds.  However, at this late date, I opted for the motels for insurance.

That leaves me with only two more parks where I will be camping: Theodore Roosevelt and Isle Royale.

29 April 2018

What’s the saying?  “Discretion is the better part of valor.”  The last two nights were very windy.  It was pretty steady at 24 mph with higher gusts.  If I had know it was in the forecast, I would not have put the big tent up but the smaller one.  There’s too much surface area on the big tent.  A couple of times I thought I might set sail.

The wind was a harbinger.  I waked to a weather alert for a fast moving snow storm for today and tomorrow in the higher elevations above 5000 feet.  The only problem was that I was already at 5000+.  They predicted 8-12 inches in the passes, so I took Falstaff’s saying to heart and packed up the tent and camp and was on the road to Baker, Nevada by 8:30 am.

I didn’t intend to make it to Baker today.  I was looking for some place in between Arco, Idaho and Baker and I ended up in Wells, Nevada – a cross roads between US93 and I-80.  As I pulled into town, I was greeted by billboards touting their houses of legalized prostitution.  You don’t see that on Florida billboards!

The town has, as best as I can tell, two major casinos and several smaller ones.  Every small bump in the road in Idaho and Nevada has casinos.  The locals can’t possibly keep these financially afloat so I can only assume tourist traffic later in the year is where they make their money.  Tourists come for the national parks, forests, recreation areas, monuments, and state parks.  I wonder if the Department of Interior knows they are subsidizing  gambling on a large scale?
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Tonight is a Super8 in Wells.  It’s not really so super – it’s showing its age.  However, the room is spacious, the bath is clean, and as a TripAdvisor reviewer said, “no bedbugs”.  I always check just in case, but for $60 a night, it’ll do.

I really intended to stay and third night at Craters and I did miss my cave hikes, but I just didn’t like the idea of being snowed in.  As I drove south on US93, I ran into rain and snow showers and you could look at the mountain ranges around and see it was getting more than flurries.  Time will tell if I made the right decision.

Tomorrow is Hidden Canyon Retreat in Baker, Nevada.  I have three nights there for Great Basin National Park.  I’m not sure how much of a retreat it is but you get emailed instructions not to rely on GPS.  Instead, you are told to approach via Garrison, Utah, pass through the town and take the dirt road off to the right.  This should be interesting.

There is no phone service but they do have wifi but it is said to be very slow.  I’ll try to get my blog out every night as usual if the wifi doesn’t crash.

28 April 2018

Today marks the half-way point time wise  of my trip – 40 days with 41 to go.  We’ll count it even by this afternoon.  It’s been a great experience so far even though it has been with a little pain and effort and extra expense.  

Today, I waked to 46F after some light showers during the night.  The long underwear came in very handy and so did the extra blanket.  I was eating breakfast (freeze dried eggs with ham and peppers – yum) by 7:30 am and on my first trail by 8:30 am.  I pretty much had the hiking trails to myself except for one young man in a bright red windbreaker.  I met him on the Lava Flow Trail and he either tailed me or I tailed him for the trail.  

Whoever does the interpretive signs for this park is brilliant.  It’s the best geology lesson I’ve ever had.  Usually these signs are quite boring but I stopped and read every one of them.  The interpretive ranger went out of their way to explain what you were seeing in clear, concise language and also made a point of where mistakes were made by the past park staff in trying to protect the park’s features.  There were several places where the signs asked questions of the reader to provoke thought.  For example, how would you prevent people from going off trail? This certainly reinforced the idea of not straying off the marked trail.

There are two types of lava flows in the park.  Pāhoehoe and ‘a’ā.  Both are derived from Hawaiian terms for lava.  Pāhoehoe lava is more liquid and when solidified forms a smoother, rope-like surface.  

‘a’ā is a rougher type of lava.  Both are abundant in the park.

One startling feature of the park are the Limber Pines (Pinus flexus).  One has been dated in the park to 1350 years old and the lava from which it grows is over 2000 years old.  

After the Lava Flow Trail (0.5 miles round trip), I traveled the loop road.  My first stop was Devil’s Orchard.  It’s a rough, rugged looking place and was supposedly named by a local clergyman. You can walk a paved 0.5 mile loop through some pretty startling scenery.

After getting out of Devil’s Orchard, I jumped into the fire with Inferno Cinder Cone.  It’s only 0.4 miles round trip up the cone and back but the hike is labeled as strenuous.  It’s worth the hike.  

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As I was making my way down, I met the guy in the red wind breaker again.  I wondered how he got there since he didn’t have a car in the parking lot.  You might be able to see his silhouette against the cone in the picture below.

My next stop was the Spatter Cones.  According to the film in the visitor center, these begin to form as the eruption of the volcano begins to cease.  They are hollow on the inside.

It was here I figured how the red windbreaker guy got to Inferno without a vehicle.  He had hiked the entire lava flow trail which ends at the Spatter Cones.  Mystery solved.  I assume he had to walk back to the campsites or either retrace his steps on the trail from where he came.

My last stop was Tree Molds Trail.  To be honest, at the end of the one mile trail, there were two unimpressive tree molds – where trees had been captured by the lava and left indentations as they rotted.  However, the hike proved to be quite spectacular with overlooks of the entire valley.

Tonight, I intend to head into town (18 miles one way) and have dinner.  Tomorrow, I hope to do two cave walks.  They are not really caves but simply lava tubes.  They sound pretty interesting. 

I had to get a permit from the visitor center which basically entailed them asking me if I had been in any caves lately.  They are concerned about white nose syndrome in their bats. Since I had been in Carlsbad and in two caves in the Pinnacles, I was told not to wear any clothing from either of those trips.  I’ll take my bike helmet – recommended to protect your head – and my super strong flashlight.  Hopefully, I won’t slip and fall on my sore ankle again.

It’s been a very windy day.  My tent is blowing in the breeze and a couple of tent pegs came out of the ground.  One is missing.  I can only assume a crow or raven decided it was a new trinket.  

27 April 2018

I seem to be jinxed on motels.  The Quality Inn was fine as far as furnishings but it was popular with construction personnel.  They started with the beer in the lobby about 7 pm.  My room was two doors down from the lobby.  As they kept popping tops, they kept getting louder.  I finally called the front desk around 9:45 pm and asked how long it was going to go on.  

She promised she would look into it.  It seems she was part of the party.  I kept hearing her voice with the construction workers.  I finally had to turn on the fan to the AC/Heater on full.  Unfortunately, that meant there was no heat in the room.  The full on for the fan meant you could not select heat or ac.  I did get a little sleep but I think it must have run on until around 1 am.  

Quiet is not a quality for the Quality Inn.  I was awake at 6 am and the day people were as loud as the construction workers.  It didn’t bother me but I wonder about those guests who wished to sleep in.  They would shout back and forth to each other as they went about their duties.  

I was on the road to Craters of the Moon by 8:30 am.  The GPS said it was an 8 hour drive.  It took me 10.  About half way to the park, the GPS conks out and shows me traveling over the plains, mountain ranges, and across rivers where there is no bridge.  Perhaps that’s why the park service says don’t rely on the GPS.  

I pulled into the park after 6 pm.  I accidentally pulled into a camping space thinking it was the road through the campground and fortuitously found the most level space in the entire park to put up the big tent.  The ground is volcanic cinders and it makes a nice camping surface.

My next door neighbor is Randy who just went from temporary park service personnel to full time at Yellowstone.  He’s very happy.  He’s worked temp with the NPS for 16 years and just got the full time job.  I invited him over for a glass of cheap Merlot and we talked about the parks we’ve been to.  He heads back to Yellowstone tomorrow.  I’m glad someone is getting hired full time these days with the NPS.  

I have to admit Idaho is nicer in scenery than I anticipated.  There were a couple of places on the drive down through the state that you had huge rock formations and canyons you drove through.  Then you had beautiful mountain ranges on either side of you.  
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Tomorrow I plant to hit the visitor center and then drive the loop road and do a few short hikes.  I’ll also probably ask for a cave permit to do some of the caves the next day.  I may also try a strenuous hike on the second day if my ankle lets me.  We’ll see.  

It’s supposed to be down to 46F tonight so I suspect I’ll be wearing long johns before I turn it for the night!

Post Script

It rained a little last night and the wind was pretty wild but the tent stayed up and I stayed dry.  I also stayed warm.  I slept in my long johns.

 

26 April 2018

It was a short day of driving – 4 hours.  However, it was a little longer of a day at the end of the drive.  I found a place that had comparable tires to the ones I now have on the jeep at about the same price quoted earlier when I was in Tacoma.  The person I talked to was Jeff with Findlay Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge/Ram dealership in Post Falls, Idaho, just outside of Coeur D’Alene.  

The new tires are General Grabber HTS60 265/50R20.  The old tires were Goodyear Fontera HL 265/50R20.  The parts guy said the new tires are rated at 65,000 miles and the Goodyear Fontera are rated at 60,000.  I checked and he is correct.  He also stated he put a set on his Dad’s truck and his son’s truck – a good sales line.

I did check out reviews on the new tires and they receive an excellent rating on wet and dry pavement and a good rating on snow.  Since I have tire chains to fit the size of the tire, good in snow is good enough.  Even though I had a little more mileage left on the old tires, I was uncomfortable trying to finish the trip on them.  One tire already had a radial patch from almost two years ago, so that made me even more leery. 

It was nice of them to call ahead and have the tires delivered from the warehouse and then work me in.  I know it’s money in their pocket ($953.94 with alignment) but they were very nice and professional.  I now feel safer on the road.

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Jeff thought I was a little flaky at the end.  I asked for someone to drive the jeep past me while I watched the tires roll.  The reason was many years ago, I purchased a new truck that had a single tire that was out of round.  Someone pointed it out to me by telling me to watch as he slowly drove past me.  It was obvious the tire was wobbling.  It was also impossible to get the tire replaced – no one would honor the guarantee on the tire.

Jeff said he had been a tire salesman for many years and he had never heard of my request before.  When I explained, he said that’s taken care of in the balancing.  I didn’t reply that the balancing also depended on the skill of the technician and there are some dishonest places out there that will sell you an out-of-round tire and not tell you.  In any case, they all passed the wobble test. 

The balancing and installation (and valve stems) took about 3 hours and the alignment took another hour, so I was in the waiting room for 4 hours.  In any case, I’m good to go.  One thing I noticed was the alignment guy wrote that after I finish the trip and remove the cargo box and all the stuff in the back, I probably should have the alignment rechecked.  Interesting.

Tonight I am at the Quality Inn in Coeur D’Alene for one night.  It is either a 7.5 or 8.5 hour drive tomorrow to Craters of the Moon National Monument.  The NPS writes on their web site to not trust your GPS to get you to the park.  I have a feeling this is a remote place.  

There are no reservations at the campground – it’s first come, first serve, so I will either be glamping at the campsite or grumping in a motel 18 miles away.  Either way will work as long as I get to do some hiking.  

There’s a very good possibility you will not hear from me for 3 days after today.

24 April 2018

Service to Stehekin by the Lady Express is Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  Since today is Tuesday, the town was literally dead.  The restaurant and general store are closed.  However, parking was at a premium.  For some reason, there seems to be a lot of people taking up the 7 day limit parking spaces in town and yet I don’t see any visitors.

I decided to get an early start so I was on the trail by 8:30 am.  I wanted to hike a ways on the Lakeshore Trail.  The trail is 17 miles long (to Morgan Point) but most people only hike sections of it.  I decided to walk until my ankle let me know it was time to turn around.  

For some reason, this trail is not played up too much.  I found it one of the best trails of my trip thus far.  The scenery was stunning and the wildflowers were in full riot.  

There was the orange and red of paint brush, the blue of phacelia, and white of the western dogwood.  

You could not have picked a better early morning walk.  The only drawback was the sign at the ranger station that said to watch out for the Pacific Coast Rattlesnake.  It stated that the snake was not aggressive (glad to know that) but you need to watch where you put your hands and feet.  It suggested parents make their children follow behind them.  I would have suggested letting the children go out front and scare the snakes away.  I suspect it was a little too cold for them early in the morning.
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I stopped around 1.7 miles and decided to return to Stehekin.  The return walk was equally beautiful with another “snapshot” moment around every bend.

Next I decided to to the short 0.2 mile Imus Loop.  It starts by steadily ascending and then leveling out about the lodges and restaurant, and then descending back onto the road in Stehekin.  

It was not as spectacular as the Lakeshore Trail but satisfying.  I think I’m getting into the hang of this with the elevation.  Now if my ankle will only cooperate and stop bugging me about a mile and a half, I could really get into this hiking stuff.

Tomorrow, I pack up and leave Stehekin. Check out time in the cabin is 10:30 am and the boat arrives at 1:30 pm.  It should put me back in Chelan around 4 pm.  I have a room for one night and then I travel to Coeur D’Alene, Idaho.  It’s one night there then three nights of camping at Craters of the Moon Natural Monument.

 

23 April 2018

It was cool this morning when I waked up.  I think it was around 42 F.  I settled for freeze dried biscuits and sausage and gravy – yum – just add boiling water.  After that, I packed the Ford Explorer with my pack and headed out to Agnes Gorge.

It’s supposed to be a 2.5 mile one way hike to the gorge with views of Mount Agnes along the way.  One tourist information magazine said hop on your bike and ride 2 miles to the starting point.  Rightttt!  It was 9 miles to the start of the trail. 

It’s so far back into the woods, you actually enter North Cascades National Park.  All of Lake Chelan and the town of Stehekin are outside the park boundaries but if you go far enough north, you enter the park.

To get there, you have paved roads until you pass Stehekin Airport – yes,  they really have an airport.  Then you hit a dirt/gravel road that twists and turns for 7 miles. I was able to turn the Explorer around on the narrow road and park at a pull out just below the trailhead.  I started the hike around 9:30 am.

My first view was of Glacier Lilies (Erythronium grandiflorum) and my first time to see these in bloom.  They are spectacular and eye catching.  In one case, I found an small field of them.

It’s interesting how they can melt their way through the snow.

This is an uphill hike but very gradual (or I’m getting into shape) and so I didn’t need to stop to catch my breath.  About halfway into the hike, I started to hit some snow patches.   

As much as possible, I was trying to follow foot prints from previous hikers. No one was on the trail today, so they were all old foot prints.  All of a sudden it dawned on me someone had a very large foot print. I looked down and saw claw marks at the end of the foot print and realized I had been following a bear’s trail in the snow.

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As you rounded one bend in the trail, you had a spectacular view of Mount Agnes in the distance.  

Parts of the trail are not for people with acrophobia.  One loose step and it was a straight 300 foot drop into the Stehekin River.

The trail continued upward and the snow continued to cover the trail.  Finally at mile 1.3, I lost the trail entirely.  I was not the only one since foot prints went in all directions hunting for the trail.  I called an end to the hike and retraced my steps.

The trail was easy but the snow patches were difficult.  One time I sank up to my knees.  Often, you would take a step thinking the snow was firm and then crash through.  It really wasn’t good for my ankle and it started to throb on the return trip.  

You also had to cross several melting snow streams and balance your way across.  

I regret losing the trail but it was a thoroughly enjoyable hike.  I got off the trail around 12:30 pm and headed for the town of Stehekin for lunch at the restaurant – open from noon until 2 pm most days.  After eating a hamburger and fires, I purchased a BLT to go with a coke for tonight.

As I got in the Explorer to return to the cabin, I felt something crawling on my neck.  I brushed it off thinking it was one of the Hemipteran bugs that seem to be breeding everywhere.  They are all over the cabin, the Explorer, and everything else.  

After I got to the cabin, I was sitting at the computer and a tick crawled across my hand,  I immediately took off my shirt and found 2 more.  I quickly shucked clothes and checked inside and out for more ticks.  I’ll probably feel them crawling all over me the rest of the day even though I checked in the mirror and couldn’t see any more.  My hostess’ daughter was walking by and I told her about the ticks.  She said yeah, they’ve been out for a couple of weeks.  Wish they had let me know sooner.  I would have put on repellent.  

Tomorrow, I plan an easy day.  I’ll drive the 2 miles into Stehekin and do a short loop near the restaurant and the hike a portion of the lake trail.  The lake trail is actually 17 miles long but I’ll only hike what my ankle allows.  The high tomorrow is in the 70’s. 

22 April 2018

I have the worst luck with motels, resorts, spas, etc. when it comes to sleeping. I stayed at the Campbell Resort in Chelan [She LAN – long a].  I was ready for bed at 10:30 pm when someone above me (I was on the ground floor) started moving not only themselves around, but it sounded like furniture.  

I was able to doze off but was awakened at 12:30 am when it sounded like someone running on the floor above me and then jumping up and down.  I called the front desk and they said they would send security to check on it.  

It eventually died down but I was awakened at 3:30 am by a hammering noise, more running and jumping.  Oh well.

I got up at 5:30 am and got showered, shaved and dressed and headed for Starbucks across the street for breakfast.  I noticed two police officers sitting having coffee and they were conversing with another person about an incident that had just happened.  

I mentioned I needed them last night at Campbell and one of the policemen laughed and said that was common for the resort this time of year.  Apparently, there are a lot of young people that flock into Chelan right about now.

I made it to Lake Chelan Boat Company at 9:00 am and was told where to park the car for the next three nights.  I got my tickets (outdoing in incoming) and we were off at 10 am on the dot.  We did not take the Lady of the Lake,  but instead the Lady Expreess.

It’s a two and a half hour cruise up Lake Chelan to Stehekin [steh HE kin].  Chelan comes from Tsillane (original spelling by fur trappers) and is supposed to mean “deep water.”  Stehekin supposedly means “the way through”. 

Lake Chelan was carved out by two glaciers some 17,000 years ago.  The upper lake is called the Lucerne Basin and it was formed by a glacier from the North Cascades.  It’s the deepest part of the lake at 1,386 feet deep (Lake Chelan is the third deepest lake in the U.S. behind Crater Lake and Lake Tahoe).  This part of the lake is approximately 30 miles long.

The second basin is the Wapato Basin and it was formed from a glacier from Canada.  It is only 400 feet deep and 12 miles long.  The Wapato Basin and the Lucerne Basis are joined at The Narrows where the lake is only 1/4 of a mile across.  

There are 95 full time residents of Stehekin and even though there are vehicles, there are no roads into the town.  The cars and trucks here had to be brought by barge up Lake Chelan.  Most people in the town are national park personnel but there are some other occupations.

I find it strange that with a full-time population of 95, most of them have no idea what the others are doing.  If you ask someone in town if the restaurant is open, they say maybe but only for lunch.  It seems there may be a touch of competition going on in the town.
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Robbie (short for Roberta) and her daughter met me at the boat and we loaded my gear into the back of a Ford Explorer (mine for the stay) and they led me to the cabin. 

Robbie operates a bakery (not open for the season yet) and has two rental cabins.  I’m in the smaller one and it is really cute.  It has a sun room, a living room, large kitchen, downstairs bathroom and bedrooms up stairs.  It has one large queen bed in one room and another bedroom sleeps four on single beds.  

Robbie recommended some hikes and I decided to hike the 1.5 miles to Rainbow Falls.  This fall has received a lot of great reviews on travel sights and I have to agree.  It is quite impressive with the spring melt.

There is a 312 foot drop for this fall which has its source very far back in the mountains so it picks up a lot of melt from the surrounding hills.

I suspect I’ll have an early night tonight.  Since there is no grocery store in the town, I brought freeze dried food to tide me over for three dinners and three breakfasts.  I can have lunch at the restaurant in town – maybe, if it is open – no one seems to know.

Since you are reading this today, I obviously have wifi – provided by my hostess.