Cape Cod MA – "From Sea to Shining Sea"

Excited to have a 50-degree day in December, we headed to the Cape to explore the area.

We found a letterbox at a nice little park overlooking the Cape Cod Canal.  Then we went to Buzzards Bay Recreation Area where we saw the Cape Cod Canal railroad bridge

and Bill began the 7-mile bike ride along the mainland side of the Cape Cod Canal Bikeway.

If you look carefully at the picture above you can see Bill in neon green heading to the canal bikeway. Here is a sign that shows the bike paths.

He biked under the two bridges to Cape Cod and then we met at Scusset Beach State Reservation.

 

We actually took a similar picture at the Pacific.

We then headed to Falmouth where Bill bicycled the Shining Sea Bikeway from North Falmouth to Woods Hole and then back to meet Barbara for a total of about 13 miles.  The bikeway goes past cranberry bogs

and the ocean.

 

Barbara found a few letterboxes: one near the grave of Katherine Lee Bates, author of America the Beautiful.  The Shining Sea Bikeway got its name from a line from America the Beautiful.  Given our cross country travels, we love that line "from sea to shining sea."

Bill also hiked to the Punch Bowl, a pretty pond in Beebe Woods. This land and other tracts are owned by the 300 Committee, a Falmouth land trust founded in 1986 on the 300th anniversary of the Town of Falmouth. 

2014 Year in Review

As many of you know... after much research and planning we ordered a 19' Escape Travel Trailer made in British Columbia, drove across the country to pick it up, and then spent two months traveling in the Pacific Northwest.  Our previous blog post sums up the trip and the June - August posts chronicle our daily activities. We thoroughly enjoyed the adventure!

Bill & Barbara (1) Olympic National Park (2) Washington Pass (3) our trailer in Ohio

Earlier in the year we saw the Biltmore Estate in Asheville NC en route to Barbara's parents' place in Florida.  We saw a few other relatives on that trip.

Kate lives in a house in Lexington MA with some other young women.  She perfected her coffee barista skills at several coffee shops, but then grabbed an opportunity to serve at a restaurant in a newly opened inn.  Check out innathastingspark.com to see where she currently works; it's part of an elite group of inns. She's also studying business part-time at Northeastern University and attends the young adults group at church.

Kate (1) dog-sitting with Maggie (2) with Carrie (3) coffee barista

Carrie's on her second year at Boston College.  Her Presidential Scholar Program included a spring break trip to Italy, a summer program on social justice in Boston, and an upcoming Christmas break trip to Nicaragua.  On top of that she spent the rest of the summer working with a microfinance organization in Uganda.  Among other projects, she created a video highlighting a Ugandan loan recipient.  She is now interning this academic year with a non-profit called Accion which gives small business loans.

Carrie (1) Bologna, Italy (2) Arua, Uganda (3) Gloucester, MA

Bill delved into many projects including three weeks in Ohio helping his parents after his mom's ankle surgery.  We also spent some time in Florida with Barbara's parents.  After over 4 years, Barbara transitioned out of her role as Teaching Director of the North Shore class of Community Bible Study this November.  Barbara so appreciated her time serving in that role and will miss it greatly, but looks forward to the next chapter.

Speaking of the next chapter, with us both in retirement mode – we plan to move in 2015, but have yet to work on getting the house ready to sell and narrowing down where to move.  Stay tuned to see where we end up next and what the next trip will be.

Pacific Northwest Trip Summary

We've been home over 3 months, but are now writing a final trip summary. Here are all the states and provinces that we drove through or visited:

Distance traveled: 11,231 miles

Time away: 65 days

Where we slept: 2 nights hotels, 3 nights tent, 1 night yurt, 2 nights 4Runner, and 56 nights trailer.

 

[Click on any picture to enlarge.]

We hiked and hiked and hiked.  Bill liked 10-mile hikes that challenged him, while Barbara felt a gradual 3-mile trail was her limit. We hiked together, but sometimes we’d start out together and then Bill would continue on and occasionally we would go on separate trails. One time Bill hiked up a mountain, while Barbara drove to the top. Another time we hiked together until we saw this sign.

Since the remainder of the “trail” was a jumble of boulders, Barbara turned around, but Bill kept going and was able to reach a glacier-fed lake.

Bill's favorite hike was the Highline Trail at Glacier National Park; Barbara's was Hurricane Hill in Olympic National Park.

We saw lots of cool stuff when we hiked, like snowcapped mountains, beaches, waterfalls, big trees, glaciers, alpine meadows, rainforests, cliffs, sand dunes, and seastacks. Trails took us behind waterfalls, in a cave, and through the devastation caused by the eruption of Mt St Helens. 

And then there were the moments when we spotted something moving and said, "Oh, look!  There's a ______!"

We saw so much wildlife!

Barbara letterboxed some on the trip, adding the pink places to her list of places she found boxes.

 

Her letterboxing highlights included boxing with Judy and finding some very special boxes in Washington.

We drove over beautiful highways like the Sea to Sky Highway in British Columbia, Chuckanut Drive in Washington, Washington Pass in the North Cascades, the Historic Columbia River Highway in Oregon, Going-to-the-Sun Highway in Glacier National Park, and across the vast country. 

Most of our trip focused on natural scenic places. We didn't explore cities much, but explored some beautiful gardens and parks, like the Butchart Gardens near Victoria, British Columbia.  

We enjoyed various tours and ranger-led talks. How cool it was to see Theodore Roosevelt's cabin and then watch the PBS Roosevelt series when we got home. We saw 1^st Order Fresnel Lenses in lighthouses and then saw one close up in a museum when we got home.

All in all it was a wonderful trip and we are thankful for a beautiful country and the opportunity to travel, see sights, and even see a few special people along the way! 

We know a number of you followed us along on our trip as we blogged.  It seemed like our readers were right there with us.

Who's that peeking along with Bill from behind that tree? (Edited by Barbara's dad)

North Dakota to Massachusetts - The Last 2000 Miles

Our original itinerary was a bit aggressive -- driving 2000 miles and visiting 2 relatives in 3.5 days. We are thankful the relatives accommodated our last minute request to move our arrival time, as this allowed us to do it in a more leisurely 4 days.  :-)

We had a delightful visit and delicious meal with Bill’s cousin and his wife in Minnesota. Both were most gracious.

We told Bill’s parents that we’d arrive at their house in Ohio by 6pm for dinner.  We felt great in the morning as our GPS ETA read 5pm.  “Cool!  We’ll be there an hour early.”  Well we hit traffic – bad traffic.  I-74 was shut down in both directions for hours due to a collision involving commercial-grade fireworks that needed a bomb disposal team.  Needless to say we were over an hour late for dinner and we appreciate their holding the meal.  We enjoyed yummy food and got to see Bill’s parents and sister.

Here we are in front of our trailer in Bill’s parents’ driveway.  

We recommend this campsite – very quiet plus it has free wifi.  :-)

Speaking of campsite, our “campsites” for three nights were Walmart parking lots.  They worked out great as we could pull in late and not fuss with finding a site or registering. Plus they didn’t require backing up or leveling, and they were free. Is it a great country or what?

Our own driveway, however, did require backing up and leveling, but we are now home.

North Dakota - Theodore Roosevelt National Park

We left Glacier National Park and cut across Montana on back roads.  There are no short cuts across this big state and gas stations can be more than 100 miles apart.  By the time we arrived at the first-come-first-serve campground at Theodore Roosevelt National Park, the rain was torrential.  A sign at the entrance said that the campground had limited space and we saw cars leaving as we drove in – not a good sign. But it was for us, as those were tenters fleeing the deluge and flooded campsites. Since pooled water doesn’t bother a trailer, we ended up with a nice pull-through campsite. The skies cleared by morning and we headed for the visitor center.

On the way, we saw …

Two buffalo, two buffalo, buffalo on the lawn

Just rompin’ all around and stompin’ on the ground

And all of the grass was gone.

Well the grass wasn’t really gone and there were lots of bison, but we did end up singing all the verses of this song that Barbara’s family heard growing up.

One hundred and twenty eight buffalah

Man there’s enough of the

Buffalo on the lawn

Just rompin’ all around and stompin’ on the ground

And all of the grass was gone. *

And we also saw prairie dogs.

There are fields filled with little prairie dog “houses.”  It’s lots of fun to watch them.  We would have liked to see some other wildlife like elk or mule deer, but our one little attempt at a hike was blocked by this guy in the middle of the trail.  

We decided to abort our hike and give him a little space.

The terrain is interesting – Roosevelt said, "I grow very fond of this place, and it certainly has a desolate, grim beauty of its own, that has a curious fascination for me." It resembles the Badlands with its strata of eroded sediment, but it had some green vegetation too.

The park commemorates Theodore Roosevelt’s time here hunting, raising cattle, mourning the death of his wife and mother, and shaping his views on natural resources.  We went on a ranger-led tour of Theodore Roosevelt’s hunting cabin.

After our morning exploring the park, we grabbed lunch and headed east.  2000 miles to go...

* Adapted from TWO BUFFALO by Rolf Harris, which at the time of this post could be found here.

Montana - Glacier National Park – Many Glacier

Rain was predicted for the day, but by the time we drove to the area known as Many Glacier it stopped. Again we chose separate outings. We are still married.  :-)

BARBARA’S OUTING

I chose the 3.6 mile round trip to Redrock Falls along the Swiftcurrent Trail.  I hiked alone at first with some trepidation as it is grizzly bear country.  Then all of a sudden I saw a group of people with cameras all pointed into the woods.  Hmmm… What did they see?  I should have guessed… it was a moose.  In fact it was a mom moose with her “preteen.”  I had trouble getting a good shot due to all the branches, but I loved watching them.

The reason I should have guessed it was a moose was because 10 years ago when our family was on the same trail we spotted a moose about 10 minutes further along the trail. 

I enjoyed the views of the mountains and falls, too.

BILL’S OUTING

Our family had hoped to hike to Iceberg Lake on our previous trip to Glacier, but the trail was closed due to grizzly bears. No closure this year, just stern warnings to watch for bears and avoid them, so I headed out. If I felt up to it, I could also include Ptarmigan Lake and Tunnel. The trail to Iceberg was typical Glacier, with soaring mountains and tall trees so far away that they look like matchsticks.

Iceberg Lake was a unique and beautiful lunch spot. A few people swam in it, and when one woman got out, she said between shivers, “Definitely not worth it.”

I still had energy when I reached the Ptarmigan trail, so I went to the lake.

You may be able to see the Z-shaped switchback trail beyond the lake up to the tunnel. The area beyond the tunnel is reportedly very beautiful, so I went up the trail and through the tunnel.

I came out in a cloud, so couldn’t see much.

There weren’t many hikers on the Ptarmigan trail, so I was more vigilant about looking and listening for bears or moving vegetation. Nothing. When the trail joined back with the Iceberg trail, there were many more hikers, so I felt more comfortable. Until I saw 3 rangers with rifles asking, “Have you seen any bears in the last 5 minutes?” One ranger told me that there were many recent sightings. With some trepidation, I continued on the last mile to the parking lot. A bush shook once, but nope, that was only a marmot. Back in the parking lot I vowed to kiss the prettiest girl I found, and I found Barbara.  :-)

Montana - Glacier National Park – Logan Pass Trails

Today we took separate outings but started from the same place – Logan Pass.  Since the parking lot there resembles a mall parking lot before Christmas, we took the shuttle.

BARBARA'S ADVENTURE

I took the 3mi round trip (460’ elevation) to Hidden Lake Overlook.  The first thing I noticed on the trail was a number of men coming down the trail wearing ties.  Hmmm…  Then I came upon a photographer taking pictures of a bride and groom.  Well they picked a great backdrop for their pictures – a picture-perfect blue sky, alpine flower-filled meadows, and snow-capped peaks. 

I saw marmots, a big horn sheep, and lots of mountain goats.  

As I was taking a picture in one direction a mountain goat with horns ran right behind me from the other direction.

Here is the view of Hidden Lake from the overlook.

I also had time afterward to listen to a talk on disappearing glaciers and watch the movie at the visitor’s center.

BILL'S ADVENTURE 

“If Glacier National Park isn’t God’s backyard, then He certainly lives nearby,” was written on the Granite Park Chalet blackboard, attributing Robin Williams.

My favorite section of Glacier is just northwest of Logan Pass, so I hiked the Highline trail from Logan Pass to the Chalet and back, plus the spur trail to Grinnell glacier (total of 16.5 miles, 1800’ elevation). The trail is cut into the side of the mountain and one narrow section has a cable handhold bolted to the mountain. But look past that in the picture below to the view, and the above-treeline trail is just view after view of mountain grandeur.

Rainier has more flower-filled meadows, but Glacier has flowers too.

These pictures try but fail to capture the sheer size and splendor of the mountains.

There isn’t much left of the Grinnell glacier, which saddens me. After the hike, I attended the disappearing glacier ranger talk but at a later time than Barbara.

Dousing my hat in a waterfall on the return trip felt so cool and good that I did it at all the remaining falls.

Glorious hikes for both of us.