Great Divide- SW Montana

July 27 - Grasshopper CG It was another lonely start as I made the 5 mile climb toward Fleecer Ridge. I have found during the trip that rumors abound about the difficulty of Fleecer Ridge.  There is a rumor that there is a very narrow knife edge crossing where a misstep could send you falling hundreds of feet (not true) and that the ascent is difficult and the descent is VERY difficult (true). 

The view from the top of Fleecer Ridge.  Just
where the road goes over the edge it gets REALLY steep.

The view from the top was spectacular and yes the quarter mile descent on a very steep path of loose dirt and busted up shale was not a lot of fun, but it wasn't that difficult.  I walked the bike down using the bike brakes to keep it under control. From the bottom of the steep down hill it was back to a jeep road and a fairly quick trip to Wise River Cafe for brunch.

Elkhorn hot spring

While at the cafe, a lady from Canada ( originally the UK) and a guy from the Netherlands came in who were riding south as well. We talked for quite a while. Cheryl has had quite the ride. She has fallen at least 4 times with one fall near Lincoln, MT resulting in a concussion and a hospital visit.  After the concussion, her boy friend, James, from Canada has been providing sag support, but he heads back home tomorrow.

While we were talking she mentioned she found a Ziploc bag with 3 small bottles of sunscreen, bug spray and hand sanitizer on the Lava Mtn trail a couple of days ago. I had just noticed this morning that I had lost them.  Her boyfriend found me at Little Joe CG and returned the bag to me.

Ran into a herd of cows with 4 bulls who didn't
seem to care too much about getting out of the way.

Cheryl and I rode together off-and-on thoughtout the afternoon.  Since her boyfriend is sagging for her she was not carrying her stuff on the bike so I couldn't keep up going up hill which was most of the afternoon.

We both finished our ride at the Grasshopper CG which is close to Elkhorn hot spring.  For $7 you got a hot shower and a soak in the 100 degree hot spring water which was very nice since I got rained on the last few miles to the campsite.  As soon as I got to the campsite the rain stopped.  While I was setting up my tent, Mike from the UK that I meet yesterday rolled in from the hot spring and he said it was really nice to soak in the hot water after 2 weeks of riding.

While at the hot spring I got to see the extent of Cheryl's bruises on both hips.  Those must have been some really hard falls.  She has a lot of grit to keep going.

July 28 - Primitive campsite near Medicine Lodge Creek

Cheryl and James invited me to their campsite for breakfast.  James had made an egg skillet with sausage, tomatoes and veggies which was really good and definitely beat the oatmeal I was going to have.

After saying goodbye to James, I packed up and headed out.  Mike from the UK left a little before I did but we met again at Bannack SP where I stopped for lunch.  I thought I might see him again this afternoon, but never did.  I did met up with Cheryl about noon and we rode together until I decided to call it a day at 57 miles. 

When we got to the turn for the dirt road to Lima , MT there was a sign that said the bridge was out 38 miles down the road... that is the better part of the way to Lima.  I had cell service at the time so I tried to check the Adventure Cycling web site where they keep updates on the route. I saw a post about a bridge outage but I couldn't read the details without signing up as a member of the forum.  So while I am futzing with my phone, a truck with government plates pulls in on the road.  Cheryl asked them about the bridge. They know the local county road folks and gave them a call.  The bridge was fixed yesterday and they hadn't taken the sign down.  We would have known in another 5 minutes anyway as about 5 bikes came down the road, all coming from Lima.  One of the 5 was a guy from Chicago, the first US citizen I had met riding the great divide in 7 days.

Primitive camp site at Medicine Lodge Creek

I rode about 17 miles up the road to Lima before I found a spot at Medicine Lodge Creek that wasn't private property, that had access to water and looked like a good place to pitch a tent.  When I stopped Cheryl ate dinner at my campsite before going on to try to get in another 15 miles before calling it a day.  I have to give her points for determination.

When I stopped, the wind was blowing pretty hard and was trying to rain.  After about 30 minutes the sprinkles stopped and the wind died down which was good for Cheryl but bad for me.  The mosquitoes were out with a vengeance without the wind to keep them at bay.

While I was cleaning up my bike (and swatting mosquitoes) I found 2 broken spokes on my rear wheel.  The nearest bike shop near the route is in Jackson Hole which is now my finish and still another 275 miles.  At this point I'm hoping it gets me there.

July 28 - Lima, MT

Ride down the canyon to Lima

I checked the spokes on my bike's rear tire before heading out. I found a few that that were extremely tight, so I loosened those and tightened a few others to try to even the stress on the remaining spokes.  I also moved as much weight off the rear as possible and decided to take it easy on the riding, no really steep climbs, no standing and rocking the bike side-to-side and brake with the front brake as much as possible.

Within the first few miles I had a really steep climb, so I walked a good portion of it and relied almost exclusively on the front brake for the descent.  I checked the spokes at every stop and no more broken spokes in 50 miles to Lima.

It was a nice ride and a nice day.  I have landed at the Mountain View Motel in Lima.  Not exactly the Ritz, definitely in need of a lot of TLC, but the sheets look to be clean and the shower was hot, and laundry for $1.75.

Looking at the next few few days, the big climbs give way to flatter river bottoms and rails-to-trails which should be good for keeping the spokes on my rear wheel in tact.

Great Divide - detour ahead, Lincoln, MT

Friday, July 21

My fully loaded bike.  My backpack is strapped
across the rear panniers, sleeping bag & shoes.
The solar panel is mounted across the tent.
The sign seems appropriate for the day.

After breaking camp in Seeley Lake it was a pretty quick ride over to Ovando.  Along the way I met a couple from Belgium headed north who advised me to check in Ovando to see if the route to Lincoln was open.  There have been fires in the area and the winds have been picking up.  I checked in at the General store in Ovando and they had heard of no road closures, some trails, but the route should be open.

I had lunch and then moved on.  As I was getting near the turn for the climb over to Lincoln, I ran into another couple from Slovinia heading north. They told me the route was closed.  They had just come from Lincoln and the forest service had told them to tell everyone they saw that the route was closed.  Shortly after meeting the Slovinian couple, I met 2 guys from Germany riding coast-to-coast.

Fires above Lincoln, MT

I appreciated the warning to take the detour even more when I met a couple of guys from Italy who had gone over the pass toward Lincoln yesterday and then camped only to be turned around by the forest service as they tried to get to Lincoln. They had to go back to Ovando and take the highway.  They weren't real happy.  That was a 1800 foot climb each way.

Anyway, I made it to Lincoln and hope to make Helena tomorrow, but it will be another tough day of climbing and crossing the continental divide twice.

But it is a little puzzling to me that I meet as many non-US citizens out enjoying the wonders of our great country by bicycle as I do Americans... Maybe more.

Great Divide - Montana Mountains (Ted)

Farm country between Whitefish and Bigfork

After leaving Banff it was a relatively easy 41 mile ride to Bigfork.  This was to be my rest day, so I didn't take it to hard and was at the Wayfarer State Park fairly early.  Big Fork is a small tourist town on the northwest corner of Flathead Lake.  It was a nice place with a number of restaurants.  I met a couple I had seen going into Whitefish and we were both staying in the state park.  I was up early the next morning planning to ride 75 miles and climb off 6000 feet to Holland Lake.  I stopped in town for breakfast and meet another couple from Indiana doing the Great Divide as well.  They were hoping To make out to Holland Lake as well but I haven't seen them since.

Primitive campsite near Holland Lake 

It was a tough day of climbing gravel roads, usually with a slight tail wind in full sun which is hard for me.  The tail wind makes it feel like there is no wind blowing at all and I quickly over heat. The excitement for day came when I saw a bear.  He was clearly as scared of me as I was off him as he run up the mountain so fast I hardly got to yell at him.  It looked to be a fairly young grizzly.  I met a guy picking Huckleberries and he said he had walked into one the day before and they definitely scared each other... bears love Huckleberries.

Bear proof food storage

Mid afternoon I decided to take a nap on a bridge concrete support and let the sun get a little lower in the sky.  I can't believe I slept for half an hour there, on a 16" wide piece of concrete, but I was getting pretty tired. I started riding again and at 65 miles I came to a primitive camp site next to a creek and called it a day.  It was 6:30PM and I was tired and hungry.

The primitive camp site worked well with easy access to water. In the state parks the have "beat boxes to store your food, so at the primitive campsite I had to improvise.  I had read in one of the resources for the Great Divide trip to hang your food from a bridge.  Since that was handy that is what I did.

Today was another big climbing day.  After leaving Holland Lake, I was faced with 2500 feet of climbing in 20 miles.  Again it was mostly in full sun with a slight tail wind.  It was a slog to the top, but the single track descent was well worth the effort... It was GORGEOUS!!!

Single track ride down the mountain

After the single track section, it was back to dirt road for about 10 miles.  I had a decision to make, continue on for 26 miles or call it a day.  Since I had cell service again, I gave Beth a call to catch up since she and Nick had made their way back to Jeff  City.  After taking a rest I decided to call it a day. I am about 4 days ahead of my schedule and my legs are just a little tired.  So I rolled into Seeley Lake.  The  campground is full but I found an RV park with bike tent camping for $10 right in town.

Yet another captial - Iowa (Beth)

Iowa State Capital - Scaffolding around dome and crane are due
to repair work.

Weds., July 19 - Des Moines, Iowa and the state capital was our beginning this morning. This is probably the most impressive captial building (inside and out) that we've seen in our capital tours.

Library inside Iowa State Capital.

Then it was another  long drive to Jefferson City.  It was quite the pleasure to have Nick join us on the Portland to Banff section of our trip.  AND he was definately necessary for the long drives between Banff and Jefferston City.  The plan is to stay here for a few days to visit with relatives before making the solo drive back to Albuquerque.

This is my last planned post for this summer.  I'm sure Ted will continue to post or send me updates to post as he continues his journey down the Divide.

2 Captials in 1 day (Beth)

Tuesday - July 18

North Dakota State Capital

Yesterday was our day to visit capitals.  From our campground at Gen. Sibling State Park we drove the Geo into Bismark proper to see the North Dakota Capital. Very unimpressive, but one more checked off of the list.

South Dakota State Capital

Then it was a long drive to Pierre, South Dakota to visit that capital.  It was much more impressive with a dome, mosaic floors, marble staircased and hand painted murals.  After leaving Pierre we continued our drive to Lake Vermillian Recreation Area just outside of Souix Falls. Again a beautiful campsite.

Today we continued the long drive between Pierre and Des Moines, stopping about 20 miles west of Des Moines.  The goal now is to find a site with electricity as the temps are in the high 90's and anything closer to Des Moines was booked solid.  Tomorrow the plan is to drive into Des Moines, visit the captial, return to the campsite and then make it to Jefferson City by the evening.

Great Divide - Whitefish (Ted)

July 17 - Whitefish, MT

View of west side of Glacier NP

The last couple of days have been off the grid.  After leaving Eureka, MT, the route turns east toward the west side of Glacier National Park.  Beth and I did some riding in this area a couple of years ago, so I knew this would be a pretty area.

It was a big climb up to Whitefish divide.  I met a cycling club from

Time trial viewing stand.

Calgary which included speed skaters who were doing time trials up the mountain.  I had been on the road for a while so I set up my chair (1 lbs.), made some coffee and watched them roll by.

After climbing over Whitefish divide, I passed one of the most unique springs I have ever seen.  It looked like someone had built a water feature into the mountain side.  A little further down the valley I entered an area where the fire had burned both sides of the valley.  The wind was blowing pretty hard and the wind whistling through the trees was very eerie.  Almost like wails and faint screams.

Natural spring gushing from the mountain

Burn area where the sound of the wind in
the trees was pretty eery. 

My campsites the night was Red Meadows Lake.  The final 2 miles was a was a steep 800' climb which was a tough go after riding 60 miles and the welcoming committee were clouds of aggressive mosquitoes.

There were a number of other divide riders in the campground.  One group of three women from Australia are in their final leg to reach Banff. They had started in mid-May from Antelope Wells, NM.  Some how Russ and I didn't run into them when we were riding south from Cuba.

And to prove the world is a small place, a guy and his son in the campground were from Edgewood, NM just east of ABQ and another guy worked at Sports Outdoor as a bike tech (now Sports System) for 6 years in Abq, but now lives in Kalispell, MT.  Now this is a really small  NFS campground with 8 campsites, 25 miles down a dirt road in every direction.

After a chilly night, it was back on the bike for a fairly quick 30 mile ride into Whitefish, MT for a night in a motel, laundry, shopping, and planning the next leg of the trip.

Three Australian ladies heading to Banff.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park (Beth)

Sunday July 16 -
Nicholas and I did not have a very long drive today and we broke the distance up by spending several hours in Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  This is one of my favorite national parks.  One of the smaller national parks and out of the way, it seems to have fewer visitors than others.  The badlands and grasslands surrounding it make for a beautiful setting.  Every time we have been here we have bison and today was no exception.  We really enjoyed our tour of the 36 mile scenic loop drive of the South Unit.


We then continued our drive to General Sibling State Park just south of Bismark.  Tomorrow our plan is to take the Geo into Bismark to visit the capital and mark one more off of Nicholas' list.  General Sibling has quite the connection to New Mexico.  He was the Confederate general who lost the battle at Glorieta Pass, the only Civil War battle to take place in NM.  He failed on both of his objectives:  1) to establish an overland supply route for the Confederate Army since the ocean ports were block and 2) to gain control of the Colorado gold mines to replenish the Confederate treasury.  Why then is there a park named after him in North Dakota?   Before the Civil War in 1862, he was responsible for insuring the security of the white settlers in this region.  He met that objective, much to the devastation of the Dakota and Lakota tribes.  And that's the history lesson for today!

Across Montana (Beth)

Saturday July 16 -

Ted - Ready to leave Banff

Nicholas and I have been putting in some driving time to get across Montana.  There is not much on this northern route across the state.  We spent Friday night in a city park in Malta.  For $5 dollars you can camp in the park, including water.  The park was very nice and by about 9 pm there were about 10 groups camped out; both motor-homes and tents.  It was very hot (96*) so was glad to be able to run the generator and have some air-conditioning.  Thankfully once the sun set, it started to cool off as I was unwilling to run the generator all night.

Malta City Park

Last night we stopped in Glendive, MT.  Ted and I stayed at this campground 2 years ago on July 4.  The campground had not been completed yet, but Larry, the campground manager, had a few sites set up with electricity and water and allowed several of us to camp.  The campground now has about 30 sites with full hookups and a separate restroom/shower building. I was hoping to see Larry again as he had been so helpful and friendly last time, but the campground is now managed by the hotel.  According to the check-in lady, Larry and they had separated ways once again.

If you have already read Ted's blog, you know we arrived at the campground and unhooked the Geo only to find out the battery was dead (not even a click)!  No way was I going to try to jump it off the Winnebago's batteries, although I did have jumper cables.  So a call to AAA got the problem taken care of (only about an hour of waiting).   One of the downfalls of towing the Geo is the car's ignition has to be in auxiliary so the wheels turn.  Apparently this is a drain on the battery... so my next stop was at a store across the highway to by a portable power pack.  Now I can jump my own battery if this happens again.  Just one more thing to be aware of!

Great Divide ride - days 3-4 (Ted)

July 15th - It has been a couple of days since my last confession and about 100 miles down the road... And back in the USA in Eureka, MT.

After spending the night at the Elkford Municipal campground, I was up early still trying to figure out my clicking pedal crank.  It was pretty clear it was the bottom bracket (bearing assembly that the shaft of the pedal crank goes through).  This is a bike I put together just a few months ago, so I an surprised I have had so many issues.  The rear hub failed on day 1 of my 10 day NM ride and now to have a bottom bracket fail with maybe 2000 miles is odd.

So I turned to the all knowing internet and sure enough I found numerous complaints about  Sram GXP bottom bracket early failures.  Since I was up early, I packed up, stopped in at a local truck stop diner where I got hear several local Candians say,  " don't cha' know, aye".  Good to hear some local Canadians since most of the service employees in Jasper and Banff are from Australia on special work visas.

Anyway, it was a pretty quick 45 mile pedal on all paved roads to Fernie, where I dropped of my stuff at the Red Tree Lodge bike room and then headed to Gearhub, a local bike shop that had good reviews on Google. In this case Google did not lie.  I talked to the senior bike mechanic (and I am guessing part owner) and he quickly confirmed that the Sram bottom bracket is a known problem and may be why he had one in stock.  He had a pretty good supply of both Sram and Shimano parts, so it is probably just a good bike shop. It was noon on a busy Friday, but they assured me they thought they could get it replaced and ready for me at 9AM on Saturday.  And true to their word it was ready when I went back a few minutes after 9.

The whole time in the small ski/mountain bike town of Fernie was good.  The Red Tree Lodge was older but well kept with free laundry machines, a room just for bikes and gear, a lounge room with couches to hang out while I waited for my room to be ready, and very nice staff.  I ate in a couple of different places and both were really good and reasonably priced for a ski town.  So all in all, I would give Fernie two thumbs up.

So back on the bike again, I was headed for the US boarder.  I passed a group from Adventure Cycling who left 2 days before me and are now a day behind me.  I also ran into the group of 3 who were leaving from Banff when I started.  We met at the Roosville border crossing.  Unlike Canada that allows cyclists to walk into the border crossing office we had to wait in line with the cars. While we were chatting in line they mentioned that all 3 had expired passports, so I asked if I could go first, just in case they got held up. They said no problem, but it really didn't matter.  The boarder patrol let them thru with only a chiding about getting their passports renewed.

Kevin, the "Dad" of the group had done some research once they realized they had expired passports and found that when you are a US citizen crossing into the US on land with an expired passport, the boarder patrol has no legal reason to stop you.  You can't fly into the US from Canada, but you can roll in.

Anyway, they continued on toward Glacier National Park, while I decided that 61 miles was enough and stopped at the Eureka city park to camp for the night.

I spent most of the evening chatting with Austin who is camped in the park and hiking the Pacific NW trail or trading texts with Beth about the battery in the Geo dying and she had to call AAA for a jump start in Glendive, MT... Yet another issue with towing a vehicle behind the RV, but she handled it well.

Back in the USA (Beth)

Wednesday, July 12 - As Ted explained in the previous post, the plan was for Nick and I to spend a quiet day in the town of Banff and at the RV gearing up for our drive back to Missouri.  A text from Ted changed that slightly as we had to meet him Goat Creek Parking Lot in Kananaskis County about 20 miles from our camp spot in Banff.  Most of the road was good but the last 5 or 6 miles was a gravel, twisty, mountain road with washboard ruts.  The drive was quite scenic as we passed several lakes and traversed up a canyon to the parking lot.  Ted was right there waiting for us.  We then reversed our way back to Banff.

Thursday, July 13 - Today it was our turn to say goodbye to Banff and head back to the US.  Nick and I managed to take care of not only our typical jobs but Ted's as well including hooking up the tow car.  The drive to St. Mary's was uneventful other than a long wait at the border.  Because our RV is tall (12' 6") we could not use the car lane but had to get in the commercial truck/bus lane.  This lane was unmanned and we sat behind a truckload of big round hay bales for about 15 mins. before the gate was opened and someone came out to check our passports.  We are staying at Johnson's of St. Mary's and ended up in their overflow camping.  We are basically on a grass site but do have electricity and water.

After setting up and taking a break, we took the Geo across the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park.  This is a beautiful ride with great views of the lake, glaciers and waterfalls.  Ted and I rode our bikes up to the top (Logan Pass) from this side two years ago.  However, that same year (2015) shortly after our last visit, a forest fire occurred.  It is sad to see how many trees were burnt but the number of flowers was amazing.

Great Divide -Leaving Banff for points south (Ted)

Wednesday, July 12

Single track along west side of
Spray Lake

 It was a cool and gray start to my great divide ride from Banff.  After packing the bike and telling Beth and Nick goodbye, I headed for the trailhead. When I got there a pickup with at least 4 riders were unloading their bikes.  They were only going as far as Whitefish, MT,  but at least  I knew  I would have some company on the trail.

After about 10 miles I had a bad feeling I had forgotten something.  I stopped and checked my clothes pannier and didn't find my cold weather riding gear.  Gloves, balaclava, arm and leg warmers were all in a zip lock bag in a drawer in the RV.  Luckily I still had cell service and I texted Beth and we worked out a place to meet a few miles away on my route.  This was exactly why I left a day earlier than originally planned... So Beth would still be around Banff to bail me out.

There has been some concern that the route along the west side of Spray Lake would be closed and I would be forced to ride a busy, dusty gravel road.  Luckily it wasn't closed and the ride down that side of the lake was great with a lot of single track along the lake.  While riding this section I met a couple from Belgium who were riding as far as Yellowstone over the next 3 weeks.

Waterfall near Spray Lake

After finishing the section along the west side of Spray Lake it was back to the dusty, washboard gravel road for 20+ miles of up and down.  By the time I finally found a campground that wasn't full, I had ridden 64 miles on some pretty rough trail and roads. At least the campground had a shower (a mile down a big hill from my campsite) but the hot shower really felt good after a hard first day.

After a fairly good night sleep in Bolton campground, I packed up and headed for Elk Pass which is only accessible from a 2 track trail.  Once you have crossed Elk Pass, you are back in British Columbia and a 200 mile car drive to get to the the next town of Elkford.  Elk Pass is the only continental divide crossing in the Canadian portion of the Great Divide ride.  The ride was a mix of 2 track, jeep roads, power line maintenance road, logging roads and finally some decent gravel, but by that time the wind had picked up and made progress slow even though it was generally down hill with occasional climbs.  So it was a pretty tough 51 miles. 

View south from Elk Pass

If going by the guide book, Cycling the Great Divide, I have covered 4 days of riding in 2 days.  But now I have a pretty annoying clicking in my pedal crank.  I don't have the tools with me to pull the crank and the only bike shop near me is 37 miles away in Fernie, so tomorrow I plan to ride straight there down the highway to see if I can't get this fixed.  It will cut off some of the back country riding, but I really don't want to break down on the "Grizzly Highway" which is very remote and has some tough ground to cover due to washed out roads... And the highest density of inland grizzly bears in North America.

Banff.... Finally

Tuesday, 7/11/17 -

Overview of Banff

Our Banff curse is finally busted!  We rolled into Banff National Park Sunday without any mishaps.  The campground is again quite big, with over 500 spots in our area and over 600 in Village 1, but they are well set up and easy to get in and out of.  The space assigned is big enough for a much larger RV and a tow car.   Unlike Jasper, we do see and hear all of our neighbors.  The campground is basically rows of streets and RV's are parked on both sides.  All the sites have electricity and over half have sewer and water as well.

Monday, we woke up to rain but by mid-morning the sun was out.  Although the forecast called for more rain, it looked like we had a window for hiking.  Tunnel Mountain trailhead was within walking distance from the campsite so that became our choice.  The climb up the mountain was rated "easy" (not so sure about that) and the views were spectacular.  High above Banff you could see the town, river, ski runs, golf courses and all that the Banff area had to offer.  We lunched in a small cafe on the road before returning to the RV.   A herd of elk on the highway had the traffic almost to a halt. Just after returning to the RV a very strong thunderstom hit - rain, thunder, lightning and hail.  We were happy to be back in the RV before all of that hit.

The hotel at Lake Louise

Ted spent time inside the RV and under the awning getting ready for his upcoming ride.  The bike needed to be reassembled and all the equipment remounted.  Paniers needed to be packed for travel.

Today, we again woke up to rain but it cleared off by the time we drove to Lake Louise.  A hike out and around the lake and up to teahouse ended at a snow covered trail, so we returned to the Lake and hotel.  After again eating lunch out, we returned to the town of Banff to get the Bear Spray, (given the number of sightings, it seemed a wise choice and added minimal weight to his already loaded bike) and a few groceries.

Sign warning of trail closures due to high animal activity.
Note the bears on the left.

Returning to the RV, Ted now needed to pack the tandem and bike rack into the RV, thus shortening the tow length and making one less thing for Beth to worry about as she and Nick start the drive to MO.   The afternoon clouded up and a few drops of rain hit but nothing like the storm yesterday.

Banff is a very popular destination (like Yellowstone) and crowded with people and buses.  If we would do this again, our choice would be to spend more time in Jasper and some of the surrounding national parks and make Banff the shorter stop.

Tomorrow Ted heads out into the boonies on the Great Divide Bike Route.  The sign above is posted at the start of the trailhead.  The closure zone may impact his ride on the 2nd day, but there is an alternate route if needed.  58 days, 2250 miles and 150,000 feet of climbing to get back to Cuba, NM.

Oh, Canada....

July 8, 2017 –

Camera shy bull elk near Jasper, AB... thought he was posing
for the photo version of "Whose Butt?"... and yes that
is a real book commonly found in national park gift shops

We haven’t posted to the blog in several days as there has not been much to say.  After leaving Hood River on July 4th, we drove to Flowing Lake County Park in Snohamish, Washington.  Given the traffic conditions and how late it would be before sunset we decided to bag the idea of driving into Seattle for the fireworks.  The display did not even start until 10:20 and we were over an hour from Gas Works Park given traffic around Seattle.  Instead we saw a fairly decent display right in the campground at the Flowing Lake beach area.  Most of the lake front is privately owned and a number of lake houses had spent some serious money on fireworks.  So while it was an ad hoc fireworks display, there were plenty to see and hear.

We had some long driving days to get from Seattle to Jasper, Alberta, Canada.  With very little excitement we made it into the Jasper National Park and our campsite for a couple of days before heading to Banff.

Campground map... We are in loop 26.  Nick can easily
get his running in without leaving the campground.

We were detained a few minutes at the Canadian boarder crossing.  We still aren't sure why, but we had to park the RV and turn over our passports for a "security check".  Before they had us park we had to answer a number of questions about firearms... do we own any (yes), do we have any with us (no), where are they if not with us (in a gun safe at home), do we have concealed carry permits (no)... Maybe it was because we are from the wild west of NM or Nick is from a "Red" state, or we are towing a vehicle with expired Oregon plates and a transit permit, who knows.  Anyway, after a few minutes, we were deemed OK to enter Canada and were on our way.

Pyramid Lake outside of Jasper

We should mention the size of the Whistler campground here in Jasper... it is enormous and FULL!  There are 780 campsites in the campground and very limited facilities.  We made reservations in January to ensure that we had spots in both Jasper and Banff.

Today we were on the bikes and wandered our way over to the town of Jasper.  Without a real route planned out we discovered a pretty extensive network of mountain bike paths. We wound our way to the Jasper visitors center and got a map of the local trails.  A number of them were easy to ride on the tandem and some others weren't which resulted in some "hike-a-bike" activity, but we did get to see a couple of bull elk grazing along a gravel road.  

Beth climbing to Whistlers Peak after the tram ride.  Jasper
is in the background near the river (right) and Pyramid
Lake is the upper lake on the left

We decided to stick to pavement for a while and continued on our way to Pyramid Lake where we saw our first black bear along the way.  The lake was a popular spot for families with shallow water that was warm enough play in.  The single track trail back from the lake was tandem friendly and we enjoyed the ride through the woods.

After lunch back in Jasper we headed to the RV for some down time (serious nap) and then a short drive to the Jasper Tram to go to the top of Whistlers Peak.  After the 3000' tram ride up the mountain, we climbed another mile to the peak.  The views were good, but smoke from fires in British Columbia has filled the valley with a pretty dense smoke which didn't make for very good photos.

The motley crew at Whistlers Peak... Happy Birthday, Beth!  We finally made it to Jasper!

Hood River

Tuesday, July 4 -
We have spent the last several days hanging out in the Hood River, Oregon area, biking (road and mountain), hiking, and catching up with Jim and Heidi.

Tunnel on Historic Columbia River Highway

Friday we spent taking care of chores again.  We have been driving the Geo more than we thought we would due to the unique location of our camping spot and other circumstances so decided it should have an oil change.  The cupboards were looking a little bare and Nick needed to get a run in that didn't involve multiple laps of our tiny campground so we headed into Hood River.  After finishing chores and eating breakfast, we headed to Jim and Heidi's house.   Heidi had driven down from Seattle that morning but was needing to work remotely for the day.  After a very quick visit, we left Nick with Jim to go mountain biking and learn some of the techniques of single track riding.

Ted's plan was to install the towed car breaking system on the Geo, which necessitated a trip to The Dalles to hit a Home Depot for some additional parts and for Beth more grocery shopping at Fred Myers since she was not able to find everything at the Walmart store in Hood River.  Not sure where the afternoon went but most of it seemed to be spent driving.

Then back to Hood River to pick up Nike.  He survived his adventures with Jim but did have a few scrapes from a fall at the end.

Columbia River Gorge near Hood River

Saturday - July 1, we started with a short bike ride out of Mosier toward Hood River along more of the Historic Columbia River Highway.  Highway 30 was left partially intact after Interstate 84 was built and efforts are underway to create a vehicle-free path from The Dalles to Portland.  The section we rode today is closed to traffic and is a well used running/hiking/biking path.  Nick needed a 1 1/2 hour run and we were looking for a little flatter ground.  Flat ground is hard to come by here in the Columbia Gorge and this path was no exception.  It was a pretty good climb to reach the flatter sections but the views were amazing and the trail travels through two tunnels.

Sunday - July 2, Ted went into Hood River to mountain bike with Jim while Beth was working remotely for EASi and Nick hung out watching "Vikings" a series that we had started earlier in the trip.  Ted had a good time riding the mountain bike trails near Hood River with Jim and no blood was shed which means he wasn't pushing himself on the trails.

Jim and Heidi came to our campsite at Memaloose State Park to check out the new RV and have dinner with us.  They were impressed with the room inside our 28' "tiny house".  We have now been on the road for over 3 weeks and no real complaints about the living accommodations.

Pretty sure you can figure out which way the wind blows from
the lack of tree branches on one side of the tree.

Monday - July 3, After Nick finished his multiple laps around the campground, we headed to Mosier to meet Heidi and hike the Mosier Plateau trail.  The trail leads past the local swimming hole in Mosier creek and then on then on up the bluff to the Mosier Plateau overlook.  It is another great view of the Columbia River Gorge and a great place to experience the howling winds of the area.

After the hike we headed back to the RV for some down time and then packed up the laundry one more time and headed to Jim and Heidi's house.

While we have been in Hood River, Jim and Heidi put in an offer on a house that is just 2 blocks from their rental.  It was accepted on Saturday so, we had the opportunity to go check it out.  It is fairly new construction, has a massive open concept kitchen, dining, living room with a wall full of windows and a view of Mt. Adams.  Three really nice sized bedrooms and finally A GARAGE!!!  When you own a dozen bikes that is a really nice thing to have.  Their house in Seattle has worked because of easy access to the basement and a room just for the bikes.

As payback for mountain biking, Nick took Jim out for a run to put a little hurt on him... all in good fun.  Jim and Heidi took us to dinner on the Washington side of the Columbia River to get the experience of riding over the steel grate covered bridge (would hate to ride a bike or motorcycle over this thing) and to get a great view of Mt. Hood.  As Jim said, it is odd that you can't see Mt. Hood from Hood River.

Tuesday - July 4th  It is now time to pack up and head to the Seattle area where we plan to watch the fireworks over Lake Union near downtown Seattle.  We have a couple of nights booked at the Flowing Lake County Park outside Seattle.  The plan is to drive the Geo with the bikes down close to Jim and Heidi's house in Wedgwood/University of Washington area and then ride the bikes on the Burke-Gilman bike bath to the Gas Works parks to watch the fireworks.  We'll see how that goes.