One of the very first trips we took was to run the original Oregon Backcountry Discovery Route (BDR) in July 2017. In fact, we attempted a segment of the route in May on our way home from a trip to Oregon's Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, but lingering snow and dozens of down trees made progress painfully slow. We enjoyed it so much that every year since, we've picked another BDR to tick off the list. This year, Colorado is the name of the game, and it's one I've been looking forward to for quite some time. The route begins at…
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All the trips - because every trip is an adventure!
We had many miles - all on pavement - to cover after descending Redline FSR in British Columbia's Purcell Mountains. You see, it seems that in eastern BC, the highways run almost exclusively north-to-south, with only occasional drifts to the east or west. Since parallel roads never cross, it's only the rare instances where one highway drifts east as another drifts west that one can work their way horizontally across the province. Of course, it's not all bad. It's the spectacular mountains - often topped with glaciers - that prevent the easier east-west movement. Always a treat to wind our…
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Unlike the previous day when we'd returned from our hike at 6:00pm, we were back in the parking lot for The Lake of the Hanging Glacier a little after 2:00pm. That gave us plenty of time for a quick scrub-down with washcloths before climbing into the Tacoma for what would turn out to be the highlight of our entire trip! After a sunny morning, clouds were rolling in, but the sun still fought its way through to highlight Mt. Scarlett O'Hara from time to time. Our destination wasn't far away - less than ten miles, or however many kilometers that…
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We'd gotten up with the sun at the Farnham Emergency Hut and it wasn't yet 7:00am when we departed our 7,300-foot camp site for temporarily lower elevations. It was there - at 4,800 feet - that we'd disembark from our American Hiking Machine (the Tacoma) in favor of our own two legs, regaining all of the elevation we'd lost - and more - as we fought our way through the 10-mile trek to The Lake of the Hanging Glacier. A perfect day on Horsethief Creek. After hiking the Conrad Kain Hut during the afternoon heat of the previous day, temperatures…
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We arrived back at the Tacoma completely thrashed after hiking the Conrad Kain Hut in the Bugaboo Mountains. Still, we'd made it down the mountain in good time, giving ourselves a few hours to dash - madly - to the spot we hoped to camp for the night. Farnham. The last time we'd visited Farnham had been full of emotion. We'd made it over the sketchy bridge - adrenaline pumping - and up the narrow shelf road. We'd driven nearly to the edge of the glacier, and - gleefully - tasted a bit of the ancient ice. And - in…
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Having woken up at what @mrs.turbodb continued to remind me was 5:15am Real (Pacific) Time - and admittedly early given our long day of driving to reach British Columbia's Kootenays the previous evening - we completed our exploration of Doctor Creek FSR and rolled into Radium Hot Springs only a few minutes after 10:15am. Having enjoyed an ice cream at Screamers the last time we were through, this was high on our list of places to revisit, even if it meant a slightly later start to the hike we'd planned for the bulk of the day. Plus, ice cream is full…
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It's been almost a year since we last found ourselves north of the border, in the land of lakes and glaciers. Then, our final night necessitated a painful retreat as thunder and lightning exploded overhead and gale force winds whipped down off the glacial ridge. We were high in the Kootenays, beyond the deteriorating old bridge at Farnham, hoping the tent would remain attached to the Tacoma. Now, we're headed back. We'll work our way along the same road system, to similar elevations, and to the base of some familiar - and some new - glaciers. This time, we'll add…
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This is a special place to my Dad, one that he's been visiting for more than 30 years. As such, I've used names we've given to local landmarks or redacted the names of places that might be too revealing. If you recognize any of the places shown in the photos, please help to keep them special by not mentioning their names or locations. For the last eight years, I've spent a few days to a week with my Dad at his favorite camp site in the Sierra National Forest. We didn't think this year would be any different as we…
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Having slept well, we rose to foggy skies, dashing our hopes for nice morning views of the nearby mountains. This kind of weather was what we’d come to expect in Iceland - rain, fog, overcast, perpetual light, with occasional sunbreaks. It felt very familiar coming from the Pacific Northwest. It was time for breakfast! Dinner for breakfast! Specifically, Icelandic Frozen Dinner for breakfast! As we had eaten “lunch” the day before at 4:30pm, aware only of our stomachs and not the time, when it came time for dinner, surprisingly, we weren't that hungry for the frozen dinners we'd purchased in…
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We stumbled into the breakfast buffet at Fossatun groggy from our midge disturbed sleep. Other than @mini.turbodb, who slept soundly while the little critters munched on her skin, Dan (sweltering under a sheet in the cabin) and I (in the car, trying to escape the bugs) barely slept at all. Where we’d been alone at dinner, breakfast was full of European tourists, mostly Germans, which was change of pace from the other places we’d been in Iceland which seemed to have few Europeans. Breakfast was a delight - the best breakfast of the trip. Breakfast at Fossatun also included two…
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Today, I had a plan. Not a vague “go here, then there” plan like I’d had for the last two days, but a minute-by-minute itinerary, and I was sure that it was only mildly hopeless that we were going to follow it. No more 10pm dinners! We were going to have reservations! We had places to eat! It was very tidy and almost immediately we were off schedule. And by off schedule, I mean we were 30 minutes early! Yay! The plan was to “do the Golden Circle” - which is on every tour of Iceland that goes beyond Reykjavik…
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I knew we had a big day ahead of us, but I didn’t realize quite how big. I had carefully mapped everything, calculated n overall driving time, and it seemed doable, but would it be? I wasn’t sure, but I was sure we’d need to leave early - we had places to see. With each passing day, there seemed to be more mist and fog, and this morning it felt like the clouds were attempting to touch the ground and stay there, which was not ideal when you want to take pictures of waterfalls with some degree of contrast with…
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We were up early - very early - out by 4am to catch our flight to Keflavik, Iceland. Like everything in Copenhagen, the bus to the train to the airport was a smooth ordered process. They even provided bags for our 3oz liquids! Upon arriving in Iceland, we were famished, and unlike sunny Denmark, Iceland was solidly mid-March Seattle in weather: 50F and raining sideways, with dark, cloudy skies. We gathered our bags and headed to the car rental place outside the airport on foot. How had we gone a week without a car and barely noticed? That was about…
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From Helsingor and Kronborg Castle, it was back on the train to our next stop: Humlbaek and the Louisiana museum of modern art. Named for the three wives of the original owner - who were all named Louise - Louisiana became an art museum in 1955. Modern art enthusiast and cheese wholesaler Knud Jensen bought the place with the aim to create the “appropriate atmosphere" wherein people "...feel obliged [...] to approach the works of art.” He succeeded in my book! The buildings, the grounds, and the art are so interwoven and beautiful as though the whole place is a…
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After waking up a little later than we (I) intended, we got ourselves together and headed out in a new direction - away from the city. But first, we stopped at the Meany grocery store, which was not mean at all and would give Whole Foods a run for their money. Opting for snaegles (a pastry), they were consumed before we reached the end of the block. Yum. We hopped on the F train toward Hillerup, and easily transferred trains to Hillerod and Frederiksborg Castle. The trip had - once again - been so easy (thank you Copenhagen Cards and…
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In Reykjavik, we deplaned outside. Last time I deplaned in Iceland on my way to Norway, it was February, and the weather was very different. Windmills in Oresund - Denmark, you are so efficient! (left) | Danish flag on Radhuspladsen - city hall. (right) After a blessedly uneventful flight, we arrived in Copenhagen, a little groggy, but excited for our adventure to begin! Having purchased the Copenhagen Card in advance, we now activated them, which gave us 72 hours of all-inclusive train and bus travel, access to every museum and castle we could think of, and even a boat tour!…
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Having thoroughly enjoyed our downtime along the gurgling banks of the Bruneau River, found ourselves racing north along Rowland Road shortly before 11:00am. Our plan for the remainder of the day was to visit several homesteads that I'd marked - but that we hadn't been able to see due to time - on our first adventure to the Idaho-side of Owyhee. Oh, and there was a possible hike down to another of the canyonlands rivers, should we feel as though we hadn't had enough of the start-sweating-as-soon-as-the-Tacoma-door-is-opened temperatures outside. Our first of several visits to Sheep Creek throughout the morning.…
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Working our way south from Cave Draw involved a series of long, slow, dusty, bumpy, and all-around miserable roads between the lip of Bruneau Canyon and Rowland Rd. These are roads we've traveled before - usually to access the sketchy descent to Indian Hot Springs - making the misery even more miserable given that we knew how long it would last. To break up the bouncing, we stopped to admire the afternoon clouds gathering overhead. Usually in the Owyhee, graded gravel county roads are in reasonable condition - capable of supporting speeds upwards of 40mph - but it's the ranchers…
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Last year, we didn't get to Owyhee at all. This was entirely due to the fact that the Tacoma didn't come home to the Pacific Northwest - from Las Vegas - until early July. By that time, we'd missed prime Owyhee time - a short period of weeks right around Memorial Day - when the grass in the high desert is green, the rains (and resulting mud) are largely done for the year, and the temperatures haven't yet climbed into the unbearably hot range. Missing the undulating grass, we are trying our best to make up for the lack of…
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Sleeping - at an elevation of 8,000 feet - below the summit of Merritt Mountain was the most pleasant night of sleep we've had in a long time, even nicer than the previous night, perched on the canyon edge, overlooking the South Fork Owyhee River. And, like the previous night, I'd set my alarm for a time of day no one should be awake, ensuring that - at the very least - I'd capture the Earth's shadow as the sun climbed into the sky behind us. It was fabulous to watch the Belt of Venus fade across the horizon, the…
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