canada!

we are in canada and they dont have any Wifi... im sneaking a message out that we will post the blog restarting saturday. thanks guys.

Itinerary Change

Just so everyone knows, our itinerary is getting shifted during week 5. Due to snow in the upper cascades we are going to be unable to do our backpacking trip, and are thinking of rerouting through Idaho. Zach has some friends there, and it would be some much needed R&R. I'll post a more revised itinerary when we know.

Yellowstone National Park

Day 19 Wyoming

North! as we progress north the Sun is setting later and later, by the time we reach Canada the the light will stay until close to midnight. We are going to have to train ourselves to sleep with the sun
Our drive time this morning was fantastically short in comparison to the five or six hour drives we have been doing, Yellowstone only took us a little over an hour. The real time consuming drive is in the park itself. Not only is Yellowstone the largest National Park, the speed limit is 45mph and the traffic is horrendous. We theorize that over 100,000 tourists are in the park at any given time. It's a steady stream of cars and RVs moving like ants through the park. Which brings me to a section I like to call "Idiots and Elk".
One downside to Yellowstone is the road system. Single file, with no shoulder. Only broken by the occasional turnout large enough for only a few cars, or one RV. Unfortunately the wildlife does not conform to the Disney philosophy, and thus are wherever the food is. We found out rather quickly that there is no reason to look for animals, just watch for the idiots stopping in the middle of the road, getting out of their cars and driving in the other lane. All for one buffalo or elk. Even though they will see hundreds more during the course of their visit. My favorite idiot tourist move was the double parking in every lot. If you parked, you almost certainly would have some jerk park right behind and block you in till they were finished taking their sweet time with whatever the attraction was.
After another hour of battling our way through the park we arrived at Norris Campground, hailed as one of the best campgrounds in the park. Due in part to being on a hill surrounded by grassy meadows and a crystal clear creek running around the base. This was all fine and dandy, our problem was the hundred thousand people also looking for campsites, and that we arrived near noon. God is watching out for us, and he also has a sense of humor. After circling a few times we spotted a fire-pitp and picnic table practically sitting in the road at an angle on the hillside. The worst campsite ever made. The site was so small our tent was up against the picnic table on one side, and the fire-pit on the other. But we had a site.
We spent the rest of the day driving south along the tourist route, stopping at all the major spots, Norris Geyser Basin, the Artists Paint-pots (clay sputter geysers) and of course Old Faithful, which turned out not to be very faithful. Ranging within 1/2 an hour from the predicted time. After watching Old Faithful go off in the rain, we decided to have dinner at the Old Faithful Lodge, and by the time we finished we watched it go off a second time.
After a long day of getting frustrated with tourists, and only seeing one lonely buffalo, we headed back to our tiny little campsite to have a beer, and go to bed.


Day 20

8:00am

Today we had no plans of getting stuck in our cruddy campsite. After being jarred awake by two people fighting over the campsite across from us I hopped in the car with a camp chair to go claim a better site. Twenty minutes, and still no available campsites, these people are ruthless! On the way back, feeling defeated, I spotted a site with no tag on the post. The people had yet to leave or wake up for that matter, but they were within sight of our site. Grabbing my camp chair I plopped down to read, waiting for them to wake up. Which turned out to be only a matter of minutes. I hurriedly jogged over to them. It was a group of three guys about our age, so I asked them if they where leaving today. No! They intended on staying another couple days. I was bummed, we would have to sleep on that darn hill another night.
To soften the blow of not getting a site Zach and I opted to make pancakes. Mornings are just better with comfort food. Half way through our meal a car rolled up occupied by the three gents I had spoken with earlier. It turns out they felt bad for us, and made it a mission to find us a campsite. They nabbed one for us just up the hill and across the street that was four times the size. We had a couple of beers left over from the night before that we gave to them with a big thank you! Strangers going out of their way to do something nice. How awesome!
After breakfast we started moving, figuring it was easier than pack everything into the car, we picked up the tent and carried it up the hill. We had a number of highly entertained people watching us move camp like this. Including the three guys down the way. Moving this way got us set up in our new campsite in about fifteen minutes. Life was good.
The rest of the afternoon we drove several loops, getting to see several of the other major features of Yellowstone National Park. Including Yellowstone Lake which had a fantastic sandbar we hiked out on, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone that has the most painted and photographed vista in the park, and some stunning waterfalls.
As we headed back towards Norris we got caught up in the largest traffic jam yet, this must be some serious wildlife. We smartly found a turnout and walked the quarter mile to whatever everyone was freaking out about. Squinting across the half mile of valley floor and up the hill we spotted him! A giant grizzly! Check him off the list, of course photographing him turned out to be a serious challenge. Even with Zachs giant lens at full optical, and digital zoom the bear was still a tiny spec on the hill. But we did it. The photo is the best we could do.
Just down the road from the Grizzly bear we had to stop again for some elk that decided the road would be a good place to hang out. We navigated past them, pulled over and got some more good photographs.
Getting back to camp we thought we were in for a quite night, a glass of box wine and sleep. Little did we know that shortly after we started eating our rice and beans, one of the guys from this morning would come up and invite us down to join them (Micheal, Cliff and Barton) in a drink and some fireside conversation. If y'all have seen "The Hangover" it's pretty much how our night went, the fragments we can remember are strange. From knives and guns, wandering drug dealers (don't worry he left frustrated we were not interested), throwing up to Zach having some sleep walking adventures.


Day 21

11:30am

Crawled out of bed regretting the night before. Youth, made for bad decisions. We spent most of the afternoon sitting around the camp nursing our hangovers and reading. I'm not planning on drinking like that again for a long while if ever. Blah!

4:30pm

Still hurting we drove up to Mammoth hot springs and hiked the short mile loop, getting some great pictures. A mile was just about all. We could handle today. After Mammoth hot springs we drove the short five miles north into Montana to grab a bite to eat in the town of Gardner, which was a pretty simple tourist town without much to offer. We settled on a small pizza place and spent the next few hours eating soup and greasy pizza (greasy foods help hangovers).
Back to camp and sleeps embrace. Tomorrow Montana.



MILEAGE:

Driving-

This trip: 152
Total: 2730

Walking-

This trip: 9
Total:137.5

Woops!

So I got called out on forgetting to post the elusive photo of my uncle, cousin, Zach and myself. So here tis.



- Joshua L. Olson

A little info

Just so everyone knows, I do get your comments. They come through my email, and without cell service, which we don't have most of the time, I am unable to respond to them.

Also, we the last half of the trip is not set in stone, so if any of you are going to cross our path let us know and we might be able to organize a meet. I'll be posting the rest of our itinerary soon.

One final thing, if you did not know already, clicking on an images thumb nail will enlarge it. Zach has worked hard on the photos, and they are hard to appreciate in the small format.


- Joshua L. Olson

les Trois Tétons National Park

Day 17

Les Trois Tétons, translated "The Three Breasts". Leave it to the French to start naming our parks. The Tétons are a mountain range, towering as a stark contrast to the plains surrounding them. Like three obelisks protecting the caldera Yellowstone. The Grand Teton peak stands over 13000ft and is accessible by only the most experienced mountaineers.
Eager to get into the park we checked out of the Wrangler Inn, went across the street, and had a nice hot breakfast of bacon, eggs, yogurt and toast. We actually felt like normal people who eat hot breakfasts. The car ride up the the Téton entrance took us about 25 minutes, we set up camp and decided to check out the tram from the Téton Village up to an overlook with some restaurants. Unfortunately the tram was closed for a private party at the top. What a waste of a drive.
We spent the rest of the afternoon with a rented canoe on Lake Jenny, at the base of Cascade Canyon. Stopping for a short walk up the Cascade Trail to see a few waterfalls, and to jump into the water from some rocks on the shore. The water was freezing! Like stop your heart, steal your breath cold! We jumped a few more times, and headed back to the dock, ready for some dinner.
On our way back to camp we passed our neighbors, a couple of lovely young ladies who had been looking for a hatchet all afternoon, had finally gotten one and were having difficulty cutting their round of wood with it. I put on my best plaid lumberjack shirt, and headed over to save the day. After multiple attempts I failed to chop the wood. We decided it would be a waste not to burn it, so Ally and Lisa offered to share it and some marshmallows in exchange for some campfire conversation. How could we refuse?
The evening was perfect, Lisa and Ally turned out to be avid beer girls, and hop heads to boot. They brought over a growler of double IPA, and a growler of a pale red. Despite the large quantity of cardboard, wood scraps and lighter fluid, we failed to get the large un-split-able log to ignite. After a few hours of choking on smoke, and fighting with the log, we took the citronella candle we had brought and set it on top of the log to provide some light, and something to look at. Still playing with the lighter fluid we made a discovery. With enough heat, once ignited, the wax of a candle will not only sustain itself, but will emit enough light and heat to simulate a camp fire. Te four of us got a kick out of the bugs that would fly into the flame, then plummet into the boiling black wax. Leaving this world with a sound akin to sizzling bacon.
We said our goodnights, and went to bed. What a great way to spend an evening.

Day 18

5:30am

Our original plan for the Tétons was to hike the Paintbrush Canyon trail and camp at Lake Solitude half way. We had to toss that plan out the window due to the heavy winter that the west suffered. The hike would require ice axes and crampons, which we do not have, nor have any training with. We decided to instead hike the 9.2mi Cascade Canyon trail to Lake solitude. 9.5 X 2 = 19 miles. This hike was definitely going to take us the entire day, and the earlier we started the better.
We got on the trail by 7:00am after a quick breakfast of chocolate doughnuts and coffee. The Cascade Trail is the second half of the Paintbrush loop, and consists of a pleasant walk around Jenny lake, a steep ascent into the lower Cascade Canyon, a gradual elevation gain up to a final steep climb to the lake. As we started the hike along Jenny lake we had the opportunity to see an eagles nest, unoccupied, and get a beautiful view of the snowcapped mountains reflecting off the surface of the water. Once in the canyon the entire hike was along the length of the Cascade River, which was fed by hundreds of small waterfalls "cascading" down the canyon from snowmelt.
During this hike I seriously felt like batman, my belt held my knife, bear spray, revolver and my speed loaders. Better safe then sorry. Even though my little .38 caliber handgun would only make a bear or moose more angry it's all about peace of mind. At nearly the half way point through Cascade Canyon we had the pleasure of encountering one of the most dangerous animals in the park. The moose. This particular moose was just off the trail grazing on the low weeds of the river a mere 25ft from us. We of course where very carful about getting to close or being threatening, as she had a small calf feeding with her. After about 10 minutes we decided it was a good time to leave because the calf was getting curious about us, and mommy was getting slightly more aggressive.
The higher and higher we climbed into the mountains, the thinner the trees, and we soon started seeing patches of snow. Which quickly turned into fields of snow, and eventually snow was everywhere. Winter in July. The temperature dropped some 40°, and we started seeing marmots in their winter coats. Soon we arrived at Lake Solitude, partially frozen in the middle of this winter wonderland. Arrival at Lake Solitude was not as solitary as we hoped, there were about twenty other people standing in the snow, or sitting on the rocks peaking out of the edge of the lake. One of the girls there attempted to get to some rocks, not realizing she was walking on snow that hung out over the water. Of course one of her legs went through the snow and got stuck between two rocks submerged in the water, myself and another gentleman had the opportunity to race to her rescue, pulling her out of the hole, and the water. I'm sure it was a cold walk back for her.
Our hike back was much faster than anticipated, even stopping to photograph a bull moose we arrived back at the parking lot by 4:00pm, tired and sore, ready to do nothing the rest of the day. Fortunately that didn't happen, and we decided to wind down from the hike we would head into town, eat some Wendy's, and watch the new Harry Potter movie at the Teton Theater, which only has one screen. This was a perfect way to relax and catchup on some much needed sitting.

MILEAGE:

Driving-

This trip: 80
Total: 2578

Walking-

This trip: 22
Total:128.5

Flaming gorge/Jackson

7/15-7/16

Day 15: Utah

Another long drive (5hrs) to Utah's Flaming Gorge Reservoir State Park, along the way we contemplated stopping at the Dinosaur Monument, but opted out due to the extra hour it would add to the trip. Besides who wants to see a bunch of dusty old bones?
My first attempt to get us to our destination resulted in driving a bit to far north and wandering over the Wyoming border. Backtracking to the reservoir, we set up camp, chatted with a nice couple from Kentucky on their way south from Alaska, threw on our swim trunks and went down to the boat launch to get some good swimming in. Three days without a shower we started to smell ourselves, and the reservoir was the perfect way to clean up a little.
Another pretty mellow day and it was off to bed, this time without the rainfly on the tent!


Day 16 Wyoming

We're going to Jackson! The little tourist town in north central Wyoming is the gateway to Teton National Park, and Yellowstone National Park. The drive to Jackson was literally nothing, there is absolutely nothing in the middle of Wyoming except for excellent AT&T service. More service in more places they say. Upon arriving in Jackson we had the opportunity to meet up with my Uncle Mark, and cousin Blake, who just happened to be on a fishing trip in the area. It's pretty wild how things work out.
We were treated to a great lunch of sandwiches, chips, and beer. All three of which we have not had due to no refrigeration and lack of storage space. Thanks uncle! I forgot how good beer was. To prove to my Grandmother that we did in fact meet, we took an evidence photo. Check it out grandma!
Unfortunately our meeting was rather short, as they had some more fishing to do elsewhere. We said our goodbyes, even though we are going to see them in less than a month when we get to Fresno. Mark gave us a canister of bear spray, which brought us up to two, and proved to be a good thing as it is required to carry with you in the backcountry of Teton and Yellowstone.
Heading back into Jackson, our timing was perfect and we caught the annual Jackson Hole Shootout. An old west performance put on by the local community theater company.
After the Shootout (everyone died) we headed across the street looking to eat at Billies Burgers, recommended by my uncle, which turned out to be to full. We opted for the restaurant next door, took a seat at the bar and ordered a couple beers. We figured we Might as well keep this beer kick going. It turns out we arrived during two for one draft beer, so we got a couple more beers. It's a good thing we ate as well or we would not have been able to get up the next day. I had the Elk meatloaf, and Zach ordered a Billy burger with bacon. Needless to say, it was a good day.
At this point we are ready to check into the hotel, our first of two we are using during the trip. Zach works for Hilton, so we got an employee rate at the Hilton owned Homewood Suites. Arriving to check in we are greeted by Lynn, front desk manager. She proceeds to tell us they overbooked, and had to set us up at the hotel across the street called the Wrangler Inn. In exchange for the inconvenience they would not charge us anything, and we could still use the pool and eat breakfast at the Homewood Suites. Not a bad deal as long as we finally got to sleep in beds.
Heading across the street we had the pleasure of interacting with a rather rude gentleman checking us in. After trying to charge us $165 dollars for the room he finally understood what was going on, and still gave us a room with only one bed, despite reserving two. Long story short Josh sleeps on the floor... Looks like I won't have a bed till Vancouver.

MILEAGE:

Driving-

This trip: 540
Total: 2498

Walking-

This trip: 0 (only count hiking)
Total:106.5