Leopards aren't all that bad

Portland to Roseburg, OR (9/28):

Portland Oregon and Stumptown Russian*

Mt Rainier to Portland (9/27):

Today Brad and I took a break from our busy vacationing schedules to behave like normal adults might behave on a weekend afternoon, flitting around the city, in and out of places with no particular destination in mind. We left Mt. Rainier, arriving in Portland by noon. All of Lonely Planet's budget recommendations were booked up, so we found a generic motel in SW Portland and headed out for the city. Portland doesn't have any major landmarks to visit, per se; it's more a city to live in than to visit, but we luckily were armed with great recommendations from Megan of where to go.

We started out with brunch at Gravy...I normally don't like brunch in general, but all this camping plus homesickness for New York has left me really craving it. The street reminded me of Cobble Hill in Brooklyn, and with the hour-plus wait for a table, it was just like being back home (and it was delicious). We followed that with a trip to the famous Powell's Books, which I'd been anticipating and dreading the whole trip--anticipating because of all the great things I've heard about it, and dreading it because I figured it couldn't possibly live up to expectations. But I'm a total convert, and I could happily spend weeks there. The prices are great (even on new books), and it far surpasses the Strand in ease and organization. Also, they do a great job of recommendations and lists of various prizes and awards to help you figure out what you're looking for when you don't really know. I left with 5 books (about $30 total!!) and had to restrain myself from buying more since I've already bought a bazillion books since finishing grad school now that I have the time to read fiction.



If bookstores are one of my all-time favorite things, so are movies in the afternoon, and Portland has this incredible thing where there are several movie theaters where fairly recent movies are $3, and they will serve you decently-priced microbrews and pizza while you watch the movie, which is pretty much my idea of heaven. I could barely walk from eating too much at brunch, so pizza was out of the question, but it was nice to have the option. We saw Paper Heart, which was decent and certainly much better than either of us thought it would be. Portland had won me over completely by then, but we also made time for a quick walk around the park, tacos at Por Que No, Connect Four and a beer at a bar, and fancy dessert at a down-to-earth patisserie.

Portland's vibe has a hint of Park Slope, with the sort of self-satisfaction that goes along with being into biking and organic food, and Portlanders are clearly into their city (understandably). More than any other place we've been to so far on the trip, it's a place to experience rather than visit, and it was a really nice break to be in such a relaxing, low-key environment with so many choices to spend a great day (or year).
-M

*They were out of sloe gin.
-B

The Elusive Mountain

Olympic to Mt Rainier (9/26):

We finished our drive around the peninsula and did a short hike around a temperate rainforest. We then drove through a lot of small logging towns on our way to Mt. Rainier. Even the tiniest towns that we’ve passed through have some sort of espresso shack. Today was a free day at national parks (at least in Washington state), so it was really crowded at Rainier. Signs going into the park warned us that the parking lot at the main visitors center with panoramic views of the mountain (and where the trailhead of our preferred hike was located) was full and that we wouldn’t be able to stop. A park ranger at the visitor’s center near our campsite recommended a couple hikes in that area, so we saw some more waterfalls and then some giant trees that are over 1000 years old. They’re located on an island, so they’ve been spared from the fires that periodically wipe out the other areas of the park. Relocating our activities to this section of the park meant we actually only got a few fleeting glances of the mountain itself, but it looked suitably formidable.



The hikers in Olympic and especially Mt Rainier are less friendly than the other parks we’ve been in. Normally, whenever you pass people on the trails, everyone says hi and makes some comment about the weather or hike or park or general well-being, whereas everyone just seems to ignore each other in the Washington parks. Our theory is that hiking and camping is a normal activity for everyone in the Northwest, so they’re a bit more blasé about the whole thing. Most of the people we saw on the trails at Rainier were carrying or leading around little kids, and the campground was full of well-behaved little kids running around and riding bikes and playing with dogs.

We're starting to notice the leaves starting to change a bit, so that should be exciting for our drive back east.
-M

The Pacific

Seattle to Olympic (9/25):

We took an early morning, quick walk through Seattle's sculpture park by the Puget Sound with views of Mt Olympus. Walking along a trail through the park, we were yelled at through a loudspeaker that we were in a restricted area. We couldn’t tell if that was just another art installation, but we left nonetheless. We took a car ferry across Puget Sound, where I had a hot dog for breakfast and made a little girl extremely jealous and her grandparents a bit defensive. On the other side of the sound, we made our way around the peninsula going in and out of Olympic National Park and stopping at Hurricane Ridge for a great view of the sound and Canada. On the advice of a park ranger, we did a hike to some waterfalls and found a campsite on the western side of the Peninsula. The campsite was right beside Rialto Beach, so we watched the sunset from there. It was a pebbly beach, with lots of jagged rocks sticking up from the water, and it’s probably my favorite place of the trip so far. It’s all east from here.

In addition to the hallmark of reaching the Pacific Ocean at roughly the halfway point of this leg of our journey, we also went net positive on our parks pass. A couple weeks ago we paid $80 for unlimited access for a year to all national parks and forests, and with our entry to Olympic, we would have paid $91 in entrance fees by now. (Beauty and fiscal prudence, the perfect road trip -B).
-M

Come as You Are

North Cascades to Seattle (9/24):

So the morning hike proved a bit harder than expected, but, we eventually made it into North Cascades. Then, turned around, found KEXP and headed into Seattle. A lovely enough day, we did a few Seattle things, like eating at Salumi and going to Pike Place Market, where we’d read that people toss fish around but they seem to just drop them into boxes, pretty normally, though people took pictures nonetheless, and we walked along the waterfront. We were lucky enough to stay in the Moore Hotel the same night that alice in chains was playing a show downstairs in the Moore Theatre, so there were a lot of darkly clad people milling about the street. We watched a bit of tv and ate tacos, then, a drink at Shorty’s, and thus Thursday.
-B

Into the Northwest

Spokane to North Cascades, WA (9/23):

Today was a lovely apple of a day, though nothing of particular importance happened. We left Spokane in the morning, stopping at Pearrygin State Park for a picnic lunch along the way to North Cascades NP. The weather was beautiful — mid-70s, sunny, with a slight breeze. We took a wrong turn after lunch and drove almost an hour before we realized that, but that wasn’t so terrible as we don’t really have a schedule or anything. The detour was perfect road trip driving anyway—small highway winding through beautiful scenery with the windows rolled down and stereo up.

Once we got to the Cascades, we took a one mile hike to Rainy Lake and back, which was probably the most pleasant hike we’ve had. It was a stroll more than a hike—I wore my flip-flops and carried my purse. Like Iceberg Lake from yesterday, Rainy Lake sits in a glacier cirque, which is formed when glaciers carve out a bowl-ish basin from mountains. We walked through a verdant forest of huge evergreens to get there, and I learned that the reason that trees on a slope often have a curve at the base of their trunks is because in the winter, snow leans on them going downhill while they want to grow upwards. It’s called snow creep.

After our stroll, we found a nearby campground and made a pasta dinner. Brad is currently throwing kindling on a roaring fire (after purchasing an ax, on Megan's advice - between the ax and bear spray, we are now much better armed to enjoy Nature. -B), while I’m starting a new book, and that’s pretty much the plan for the rest of the evening.
-M

A trick of geography has thrown us for a loop - North Cascades National Park is actually divided in two, with the divider - which has the main road and the campsites - being a strip of land called the Ross Lake National Recreation Area. So, tomorrow we'll have to take a hike to enter the park proper and add it to the blog list.
-B

Trip of the Iceberg

Glacier National Park to Spokane (9/22):

We made a second go at Glacier today, hoping to improve upon yesterday, which had at times been alternately disappointing and scary. I was really disappointed about the closure of a large section of Going to the Sun Road, the only road that transverses the park, because Lonely Planet calls it “arguably the most spectacular drive on the planet”. Brad was disappointed about the closure because it meant we had to detour around the edge of the park to make it to the other side, meaning we did not make spectacular time. We were also a bit shaken up after our encounter with Mr. Growly, which we were eager not to repeat.

But today Glacier did not disappoint and was only briefly mildly scary. I thought the night would be difficult, what with the sub-freezing temperatures and thinking we’d wake up at every tiny noise, convinced a grizzly was seconds away from tearing up our tent and us inside, but the night passed comfortably and uneventfully, and we even slept a bit late in the morning. The morning weather was sunny and mild, also an improvement over the ominous, cloudy skies of the day before. We packed up our stuff and headed to the nearby Iceberg Lakes trail. This was by far the most ambitious hike we’d made to date—4.8 miles one way to a lake, with a 1200 ft increase in elevation. After a steep initial climb, we skirted the tree line for several miles, going in and out of forests and alpine meadows before reaching a lake at the base of a glacier-y mountain. The scenery was gorgeous—we had panoramic valley views for much of the hike, and the lake at the end had crystal-clear water that reflected the mountains and glaciers in a sort of carnival-sideshow way. It’s probably worth nothing that our parks guidebook, published in 2007, says that there are a number of iceberg chunks floating in the lake, and we saw none today. The glaciers are disappearing fast—at the current rate, all the glaciers in Glacier will be gone before 2050. (Just god giving us a big ole hug, as per tina fey -B).

Iceberg Lakes is one of the most popular hikes in the park, so we figured there would be strength in numbers against any big mammals on the path. We quickly passed everyone ahead of us on the trail, so we were the first hikers going through that day, which was probably less than ideal bear-wise, but also meant we had the lake to ourselves once we got there. Brad hikes at the pace you would walk if you were inappropriately dressed in the dead of winter and the F train made you late for a meeting. While I normally prefer a more pensive pace, it works well for me now because I’m not getting much exercise sitting in the car all day, so this makes me feel like I’m doing something.

Brad went first on the path, brandishing the bear spray, while I placed myself in charge of the clapping brigade in the rear. A couple times we heard a large animal trampling through the underbrush nearby but nothing too make us think we were in imminent danger. At the very end of the hike, we came across three white-tail deer about 20 feet ahead of us on the path, and we watched them for a few minutes before they scampered off. Given that we accidentally parked pretty far from the trailhead, all told it was about a 10 mile hike. Especially at the sections towards the lake, I was really out of breath, whether from the cumulative effects of the hike or from the altitude. Afterwards, my legs were more sore than probably they’ve ever been, even after running 10Ks, 10 milers, or the half marathon a couple years ago. My arms and hands were also pretty tender from all the clapping, and I felt compelled for hours afterwards in the car to emit more squawks and claps at appropriate intervals.

That was a big enough day by itself, but we still had a long drive ahead of us. After the hike, we headed west towards Washington. It took us three hours just to get around and out of the vicinity of the park. Also, for some reason we can’t really explain, we never really bothered to eat for the whole day, so it was 5 before we got back to Kalispell and had our first meal of the day, by which point we were slightly delirious. From there, we left Montana through the Idaho panhandle before stopping in Spokane, Washington for the night (pronounced spo-CAN not spo-CANE, which I have been pronouncing incorrectly forever). After a 10 mile hike and 7 hours of driving, we treated ourselves to a hotel night rather than camping.

I thought Yellowstone was exhausting, but Glacier was draining on an entirely different level. The first day, it seemed really ominous. It was completely overcast until the early afternoon. Since we were so high in the mountains, the clouds were barely above our heads, lending everything a gloomy tinge. There were very few people around (especially in the Two Medicine area where we had our abortive hike), which was a huge change from Yellowstone where there were always people around. The wilderness was much more rugged and untamed. I liked the hikes better in Glacier, and they seemed a lot harder than the other parks we’ve been in. Our guidebook described a couple of hikes that we did in the Tetons and Yellowstone as “moderate”, and we literally ran for portions of those. In Glacier, even the “easy” trails seemed harder than these. And the worries about bears of course made us a bit anxious, which was draining in its own way. We also added some new wildlife to our list of what we’ve seen: an elk ran beside us on the road for a bit on the first day, and we also saw a mountain goat climbing some rocks above us while driving through.

Montana seems like the kind of place where you could spend weeks or months exploring everything, so we’re pretty sad to leave after only a couple days. A couple observations: (a) They have the most intense and graphic anti-meth commercials and billboards that I’ve ever seen; and (b) like Wyoming, the on-ramps to the interstates have cattle-guards at the bottom, presumably to prevent wildlife from wandering on.

Despite Glacier’s name, the North Cascades National Park in Washington state actually has more than half of the glaciers in the US, and that’s where we’re headed now.

-M