Travels with Jacob

2005-12-16T17:21:00.000-08:00

xxx

Emigrant Lake from the campground - Ashland, OR

2005-10-12T18:02:00.000-07:00

Emigrant Lake from the campground
This is where I�m camped a few miles outside of Ashland, OR. This is quite a lovely town, though perhaps a little too self-consciously so for my taste - and besides, they don�t allow dogs in their city park. Jacob says, �Hiss, boo!� So do I.

Nevertheless, I had a good time yesterday exploring galleries and clothing boutiques, too many of which were too much to my taste – and too expensive for my pocketbook. It was fun, though, and I did buy myself a patchwork vest that I’m quite pleased with.

There are four new entries below, catching up.

I'm back!

2005-10-10T15:57:00.000-07:00

I’m currently in Ashland, OR, parked outside the Suds ‘N Duds laundromat. Laundromats seem to be catching on to Wifi as a selling point – at least here in the States.

I’m sorry to have been so remiss in posting here. Connections were hard to find in Canada, and a good part of my time there I was moving around a lot so I didn’t take the time to locate possible Wifi Hotspots. My Verizon phone connections there were almost always Roaming, so even if my data cable hadn’t broken, I wouldn’t have wanted to use it to connect to the internet.

Anyway, I’m back, and will try to keep in touch fairly frequently. I’ve edited the entries below so that they show dates that approximate when I was actually there, even though I really sent them to the blog today. As you remember, you read the dates “uphill.” The last entry that most of you have read was Revelstoke on August 21; there’s a second Revelstoke entry that I’ve added today. It turns out that you'll have to go into the August and September archives for some of these posts.

I’m now caught up to about mid-October; I’ll try to do the rest in the next few days.

Wishbone Campground -- Columbia River Gorge

2005-09-28T18:01:00.000-07:00

This is a delightfully funky campground on the WA side of the Columbia River, a few miles east of Hood River. Before I got this far east, I camped at Beacon Rock State Park (also on the WA side), not in the main campground, which is heavily forested and across the road from the river, but down on the river at the boat moorage where there are two campsites next to the river, and which is also much more open. Wishbone campground is set in scattered small oak trees, with lots of birds, especially Western Bluebirds.

Here's how I got to Deception Pass

2005-09-26T17:54:00.000-07:00

From Quadra Island, I took the ferry back to Campbell River and drove south to the Living Forest campground outside of Nanaimo. I stayed there for a couple of nights, but it was pretty cold, so I decided to head south. I discovered that I could take an early morning BC ferry from Crofton, about 25 miles south, to Vesuvius on Saltspring Island. I explored the island for most of the day and then took another BC ferry in the late afternoon from Fulford Harbour to Swartz Bay at the northern tip of the peninsula that extends north from Victoria. I didn’t like Saltspring nearly as well as Quadra Island.

At Swartz Bay, I spent the night at McDonald Park, then drove a few miles south to Sidney, BC, where I caught the Washington State ferry to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island and connected to another WA State ferry to Orcas Island, where I camped at Moran State Park. I chose Orcas Island over San Juan because there’s no public campground on San Juan, but I think I would have liked San Juan better; what I saw of Friday Harbor during the hour wait for the ferry connection was nice (including a small group of peace demonstrators), and more desirable still, while in line for the ferry out of Orca, I met a couple who told me that there’s a place on San Juan Island that overlooks a strait where they saw lots of orcas.

From Orca Island, I took another WA ferry to Anacortes, and then drove to Deception Pass State Park.

Most of the campgrounds I stayed in on Vancouver and the other islands were set in deep forest. (The exeptions were Cluxewe [which, by the way, is pronouned like “cluck seaweed” without the “d”] and Heriot Bay. As the weather moved into fall, it was getting colder and darker, so I decided to go south to the Columbia River gorge.

2005-09-25T17:58:00.000-07:00

Through the morning fog you can just barely make out the bridge over Deception Pass, between Fidalgo and Whidby Islands, at the eastern end of the Strait of San Juan de Fuca. I stayed at the state park here. Hint: click on the picture to make it bigger.

2005-09-21T17:51:00.000-07:00

From Cluxewe, I went to Quadra Island via a 20 minute ferry ride from Campbell River. Quadra Island is lovely. I would have stayed there longer than 2 � days if the major campground, We Kai Tai, had been open. Both We Kai Tai and the Heriot Bay Inn campground, where I did stay, are on Heriot Bay, on the east side of the island. The views in the bay are wonderful, and the ones on the outer, eastern side of Rebecca Spit, which forms the southern part of Heriot Bay, are even better. The island is partly forested and partly small farms. There are a lot of artists living there. One of the things I especially liked about travelling in Canada was the support they give their artists. Signs directing you to artist studios are posted on the highway. I definitely preferred Quadra to Salt Spring Island, where I went next for a couple of days.

I took a kayak lesson while I was there and learned how to get in and out of the kayak, as well as how to paddle it. We then took a two hour trip around the bay.

2005-09-18T16:26:00.000-07:00

A sunny day at Cluxewe. This was the furthest north that I went on my travels. Since I was there shortly before the equinox, the days were about 12 hours long, just as they would be anywhere, including Los Angeles, where I've lived for the last 29 years. But the sun at noon was noticeably lower in the sky. This place felt remote, even though there were fishing and even cruise boats coming through the strait, and the campground was only about 2 miles from the main road, and 7 miles from the small town of Port McNeill.

Cluxewe

2005-09-16T15:41:00.000-07:00

Across the gravel drive from my campsite was this estuary. Here you see it at high tide. The Great Blue Heron hunted here.

Sunset at Cluxewe Campground

2005-09-15T19:38:00.000-07:00

2005-09-15T16:20:00.000-07:00

Jacob on the beach at Cluxewe, late afternoon. I liked Cluxewe a lot. The front edge of my campsite was high-tide line. I spent ten days here, mostly just watching the tide come in and out, walking on the beach, seeing bald eagles, harlequin ducks, loons (I didn�t know that they were ever on the ocean, but they spend the winter here),stellar jays, and ravens.

2005-09-10T15:30:00.000-07:00

I camped here at Loveland Bay two nights. It's about 15 miles from Campbell River. Then I camped a couple of nights at Elk Falls campground, right outside of Campbell River, so I could do town stuff - laundry, etc. The guy who checked me in where I got the oil changed in the van suggested that I might like Cluxewe campground, near Port McNeill, so that was my next stop.

2005-09-07T15:29:00.000-07:00

After Elaine and Laura left, I went north to Campbell River. This is the cemetery there.

Jacob on the way back from Bamfield

2005-09-06T15:14:00.000-07:00

This was taken on board the ship going back to Port Alberni. It rained almost all the way back, and was fairly chilly. Jacob was allowed on the boat, but not inside. When he started shivering, I put my fleece vest on him. I wouldn't say that he was exactly thrilled about wearing it, would you?

The trip to Bamfield was beautiful – I’m still haunted by the vision of white seagulls against the rain-forest green of the walls of the inlet – but we spent a lot of time and energy getting ready to go and return. In retrospect, I wish that the three of us had decided to spend our time together doing a little less running around and a little more enjoying one another. Even so, it was great to have the four days together.

Bamfield part 2

2005-09-05T15:12:00.000-07:00

This is the view from my motel window at Bamfield. We had separate rooms because Elaine is allergic to dogs. The village of Bamfield, we learned, is in two parts, and most of the tourist stuff is on the side opposite the one where our motel was. There's a water-taxi, however, so on our second day we crossed over and visited several galleries, most of which were along the path out to the beach on the Pacific. Although it rained a good part of the time we were at Bamfield, it was light rain, and it cleared up for us during our hike. You'll notice a number of cars in the picture; the only road into Bamfield comes to the side where we stayed. My guess is that most of the cars you see here belong to people living or staying on the other side of the inlet.

Bamfield

2005-09-04T15:09:00.000-07:00

After spending a night together at the Living Forest campground, Elaine, Laura, and I decided to take one of the merchant ships that take passengers as well as cargo from Port Alberni, in the center of Vancouver Island, out to Bamfield, a small fishing and tourist village, on the western coast of the island. The trip takes about four hours and makes several stops enroute, mostly to deliver cargo and mail. We saw a humpbacked whale, and a black bear on a beach along the way. This picture is of the inlet at Bamfield.

Living Forest Campground on Vancouver Island

2005-08-30T15:06:00.000-07:00

This is the view from my Living Forest campground site, in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. I came here from Revelstoke, with an overnight in a fairly obscure campground on the Fraser River. I hadn�t intended to stay in Nanaimo, but the write-up on this campground was nice enough that I went to check it out, and liked it so well that I decided to stay and meet Elaine and Laura there. The ship you see in this picture is the ferry from Vancouver; the mountains are on the BC mainland.

2005-08-23T12:34:00.000-07:00

Revelstoke street scene.

2005-08-22T12:31:00.000-07:00

This is my campsite at Lamplighter Campground in Revelstoke. The ash tree in the center of the picture was quite something -- full of red-orange berries. The picture does not do it justice.

Revelstoke

2005-08-21T19:33:00.000-07:00

I'm currently staying at The Lamplighter, a private campground in Revelstoke, BC. I came here because they have Wifi internet, so I could get caught up with you and with my bills, etc.

This is the first time I've stayed more than overnight at a private campground, and I like it better than I thought I would. Although the sites are almost ridiculously small and have no sight privacy, the people are nice, there's a laundromat right in the campground, there are showers, it's rather pretty with some beautiful big trees, and it's within very easy walking distance of the Columbia River and the trail system that the city provides. It also helps that in Canada the public campgrounds are more expensive and the private ones less than in the US, so while I'm paying more than I would in the nearby provincial park, it's only a few dollars more. It's also nice to be in town for a change, and Revelstoke is a lovely little town, set on the river in a bowl of mountains, some of which have glaciers.

Tomorrow I'll head west, aiming to reach Vancouver Island in a couple of days. I'm feeling a little bamboozled by what seems a wealth of choices of places to see on Vancouver Island/the Gulf Islands. If any of you have been there and have suggestions, either positive or negative, I'd be glad to get them.

Wherever I end up, Elaine and Laura will be joining me toward the end of the week for 4-6 days. We may camp, or maybe look for a cabin to stay in.

2005-08-21T19:32:00.000-07:00

This is one of the Vermillion Lakes just outside of Banff. I spent just over 24 hours in Banff NP; it rained almost all of that time and was never clear enough for mountain views, but I did like these lakes. This is the kind of place I'd like to camp, but all of the campgrounds I saw in the Canadian Rockies were in heavy forest -- nice for privacy, but not for views.

2005-08-21T19:21:00.000-07:00

From Glacier, I went north into Canada. Customs (while Elaine, John and tea waited) took about 45 minutes. First they had the drug dog (a chocolate lab named Hershey) check out the van, then the customs agents searched it -- although not very thoroughly or I never would have made it in time for tea -- and then they sent me inside to talk with immigration who wanted to be convinced that I wasn't planning on staying indefinitely. This didn't take all that long, but I had to wait while they sorted out the woman in front of me -- a naturalized US citizen who had not brought her naturalization papers with her. Elaine, John and I, after tea at the Prince of Wales (see the picture below) then drove to Pincher Creek where we camped in the municipal campground there, the rain having let up. It stayed dry that night and the next day, but then began raining again off and on, as you can suspect from the picture above of Upper Kananaskis Lake.

The Kananaskis is east of Banff NP and is much less crowded, and definitely beautiful. If I had more time and the weather were better, I would have stayed in the area longer and done some hiking. Or maybe not -- they were having frequent grizzly sightings on the trails and even in the campgrounds. While I would have liked to see a grizzly from the safety of my van, I really have no desire to meet one on the trail.

Sportsmobile Sightings

2005-08-21T19:13:00.000-07:00

Since I left California in late April, I’ve seen a number of Sportsmobiles. Interestingly, they come in batches – I go for up to a month without seeing any, and then I see three or four within a few days. This round I’ve seen six – two on the road and four in campgrounds. I’ve had a nice time meeting and talking with owners – a couple from Santa Cruz, CA, whom I met at Baker’s Hole campground; a couple from Tennessee who are on the Sportsmobile Owners Yahoo! Forum; a couple from Wisconsin; and a single woman from Virginia whom I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to talk with much, since John and Elaine were with me by then. The last three were all at Rising Sun campground, though not all at once.

2005-08-21T19:00:00.000-07:00

Here are John and Elaine, having tea at the Prince of Wales Hotel at Waterton Lake. As you can see, it was a pretty gloomy day with quite a bit of rain, so we decided to go for tea. I should have taken a picture a little later, after the brought the epergne with the sandwiches, scones, tea cakes, chocolate covered strawberries, and fudge -- very elegant and delicious. Although I am not in the picture, I partook. Those who know me at all well will not be surprised to hear this.

2005-08-21T18:57:00.000-07:00

This is one of the spectacular views from the Hidden Lake trail which departs (upward) from the Visitors' Center at Logan Pass -- the highest point on the famous Going to the Sun Highway. The following three pictures are from the same hike.

2005-08-21T18:55:00.000-07:00

This Mountain Goat mother and kid were just above the Hidden Lake overlook, and were quite habituated to people; this picture was taken with just a little zoom -- probably about 2 or 3x.

2005-08-21T18:50:00.000-07:00

This is another of the 18 or so Mountain Goats I saw on the Hidden Lake trail, in the wildflowers. This picture was taken on the way down the trail; as you can see, the clouds were coming in and obscuring the mountains. This was the beginning of days of rain; John and Elaine arrived two days later and were fortunate to have fairly clear weather for their drive over the mountains on the Going to the Sun highway, but that's about all the sun they saw for the next two days while they were with me in Glacier/Waterton National Park.

Bighorn Rams

2005-08-21T18:36:00.000-07:00

These Bighorm rams on a ridge near the Hidden Lake Trail silhouetted against the sky seem iconic -- though of what, I couldn't say.

2005-08-21T18:30:00.000-07:00

This is Two Medicine Lake; the picture was taken from near the campground. I stayed here for a couple of days. It's in the southeast corner of the park and is fairly remote from the rest of the park. The campground here is probably the nicest of the larger Glacier Park campgrounds -- well wooded and somewhat hilly, which gives some privacy to the sites. A few of the sites are on the lake shore, but they have no shade. I took the boat across the lake and did a bit of hiking to Twin Falls and Upper Two Medicine Lake -- the hike, like the campground, was mostly through lodgepole pines (I think), which is not my favorite. An OK hike, but nothing spectacular.

2005-08-20T10:58:00.000-07:00

Sunset - Madison River at Baker's Hole campground.
This is a lovely National Forest campground right next to the Madison River, about five miles from the West Yellowstone entrance. I walked about 30 feet from my campsite to take this picture. A little earlier in the evening, Jacob swam after a beaver in the river, which fortunately decided to slap its tail and dive - I gather beavers can be quite nasty when they want to.
I�d recommend this campground to anyone wanting to explore the west side of the park.

I'm way behind

2005-08-13T14:55:00.000-07:00

I'm way behind in my posts, partly because I've had a hard time connecting, and partly because I've spent more time travelling in the last two or three weeks. I'll try to update soon - in the meantime, just to let you know where I am, I crossed into Canada yesterday with Elaine and John, who stopped to visit me in Glacier National Park on their way to Canada Yearly Meeting (of the Religious Society of Friends [Quakers]). It was great to see them and spend a little time with them, especially my dear friend Elaine.

2005-08-13T13:52:00.000-07:00

Sunset in the Lamar Valley. Magic time.

2005-08-13T13:41:00.000-07:00

A mother moose with calf at Soda Butte Creek.
This was taken early in the morning - I was the only person there to see them, which made it extra special. Mom has spotted me and is moving away with calf obediently following.

2005-08-13T13:39:00.000-07:00

Lamar Valley with a herd of bison in the distance. There�s quite a lot of wildlife in this corner of the park, and would probably be even more earlier in the season - some of the herds have moved up higher in the mountains by July. I did not see or hear the wolves, which I would like to have done, nor did I see a grizzly.

2005-08-13T13:35:00.000-07:00

2. Fawns - taken at Pebble Creek campground, early evening. I spent the first night here, and then moved to Slough Creek campground for the next three nights. They are both small campgrounds, and although the sites are pretty close together, they�re a lot nicer than most of the other Yellowstone campgrounds.

2005-08-13T13:26:00.000-07:00

I'm really glad I gave Yellowstone another chance. This northeast corner of the park is way less crowded than the part between the south entrance and Mammoth Springs, and it's very beautiful and deeply peaceful. There isn't any way to really show its beauty in a picture - it's not a dramatic beauty, but more subtle. Here's a shot at it, nevertheless.

Crazy Mountains in good company

2005-07-25T11:22:00.000-07:00

July 19-22
Three lovely restorative days at Halfmoon campground in the Crazies.

The first night dinner there were seven of us –
Nony, who invited me -- a fellow fulltiming Sportsmobile owner who helped inspire me to go fulltime. I first met her virtually on the Yahoo! Sportsmobile Owners forum, and then in person at both of the San Simeon Sportsmobile get togethers.
Cassandra, Nony’s friend who was the reason Nony first went to Montana, and the owner of the North 40 in Big Timber.
Ivanie (whose chickens lay delicious eggs) and her sister Allison, Montana natives, although Allison now lives in Washington.
Rosemary and Holly from Livingston, owners of Brontosauras, another metallic estate green Sportsmobile, and fly-fishing fools.

The second night dinner it was the four of us Sportsmobile owners (fresh trout provided by Rosemary and Holly) and the third night just me and Nony.

It was so nourishing to share food and conversation with these welcoming women in this beautiful place.

I was too busy enjoying the company to take pictures of anyone (plus I hate having my picture taken, which makes it harder to ask others), but you can see a not-very-good picture of Nony at her blog, and if you move down close to the bottom, to the section named “Ivanie and Casper” there’s a picture of Ivanie, Holly, and Rosemary. I met Casper when I stopped at Ivanie’s place on the way out of the Crazies.

2005-07-25T11:01:00.000-07:00

The view from Yawaca Sunday morning, parked at Cassandra's place.

2005-07-25T11:00:00.000-07:00

Here's Yawaca at our Halfmoon campsite. The creek is down a little trail right behind the site.

2005-07-25T10:57:00.000-07:00

A little wildflower garden near the Rock Creek trailhead at Halfmoon campground

2005-07-25T10:56:00.000-07:00

You drive through ranch land to get into the Crazies, and as you can see, it's a beautiful drive.

Yellowstone - Part I

2005-07-25T10:52:00.000-07:00

July 17-18
Well, if I though the Grand Tetons were crowded, Yellowstone is a zoo – and I don’t mean the bears and wolves! Traffic jams – not due to accidents, but because someone spots a bear, or a herd of elk – or because Xanterra, the campground concessionaire, takes so long to check people in that the parking lot gets full and the RVs line up and block the road.

I made a flying trip from the South Entrance to the North Entrance at Mammoth Hot Springs in a day and a half, because someone (Nony) made me an offer I couldn’t refuse – camping in the Crazies with Nony, her friends from Big Timber, and Rosemary and Holly from Livingston. More on that in my next message.

The fires of 1988 are still very much in evidence on much of the route I took through the park. It’s interesting to see, but not beautiful. The forest was and is primarily lodgepole pine, not my favorite tree.

To my surprise, I found the two geyser areas that I walked through quite interesting, and beautiful in their own way.

I spent Sunday night at Grant’s Village campground – another NP monster, this one on the south shore the West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake. It was completely full, and the campsites are very close together. The setting is beautiful, but it is way too crowded – and of course, being a National Park, I can’t walk the trails unless I leave Jacob in Yawaca, and I don’t like to do too much of that.

I’m also discovering that my tolerance for sightseeing, even under the best of circumstances, is limited. I much prefer to just BE somewhere – to stay in one spot and get to know it a little bit, looking at wildflowers, birds and whatever other wildlife shows up; watching the light and the weather change, spending at least part of my time just hanging out, sitting in my chair under my awning.

I spent Monday night outside the park at Eagle Creek campground, a little National Forest campground northeast of Gardiner, MT, where it was very peaceful, quiet and undcrowded.

Here are some pictures from Yellowstone.

2005-07-25T10:50:00.000-07:00

I believe this is a Fringed Gentian. It was growing next to the boardwalk at Midway Geyser Basin.

2005-07-25T10:48:00.000-07:00

This is one of the areas at the Midway Geyser basin. The pool that you see a corner of is a deep turquoise, seen through blowing steam.

2005-07-25T10:46:00.000-07:00

This elk feeding at the West Thumb Geyser Basin was most cooperative in posing for her picture.

2005-07-25T10:44:00.000-07:00

This is the West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake, taken at Grant's Village campground, at sunset. You can't see them in this picture because they're behind the tree branch, but there are a flock of Canda Geese roosting on the bar.

2005-07-25T10:42:00.000-07:00

This is one of the areas burned in the 1988 fire. As you can see, the trees are regrowing, but the damage from the fire is still very obvious, both in the standing dead trees and in the ones that have fallen. I was surprised that the burnt trees don't look charred -- apparantly the char has dropped off.

Grand Tetons

2005-07-22T17:43:00.000-07:00

July 15 - 18
Grand Teton National Park has too many people in it, at least in July (duh!) That said, it’s also quite beautiful, but regimented – I kept wanting to stop in places that didn’t have any pullouts.

I stayed at Gros Ventre campground, which is one of the monster National Park campgrounds, but this one was laid out nicely, and because it was not at one of the real popular areas, it didn’t completely fill up. Somewhat to my surprise, I enjoyed my stay there and found it a retreat from the crowds elsewhere in the park.

In addition to the wildlife in the picture below, I saw a Lesser Scaup with chicks (?) ducklings (?) and a Common Merganser ditto. Both families seemed to be practicing diving – first the mother would dive, then the little ones. It was quite fun to watch.

Jackson, WY, has WAY too many people in it. Fortunately, I discovered that they mostly only congregate in a small area, and once I found out how to avoid that part of town, it wasn’t bad, although it didn’t strike me as anyplace I’d want to go back to.

Meeting for Worship at Jackson MM ends after 45 minutes, which startled me – then those who need to leave do so and the others talk, with a focus on politics.

Here are some pictures from Grand Teton.

2005-07-22T17:41:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure that moose calves can be describe as cute, exactly, but it was neat to see this mother and baby. Notice that she's wearing a collar, so I assume that she's being studied. These two are the second and third moose that I've ever seen.

2005-07-22T17:39:00.000-07:00

Oxbow Bend of the Snake River -- Tetons in the background. This is about a mile from where we saw the moose and the scaup.

2005-07-22T17:38:00.000-07:00

Sunset over the Tetons

Update - Part 3 Sarah's health

2005-07-17T12:10:00.000-07:00

Sarah and her oncologist have decided to wait and do another PET scan in a month or two, rather than initiate any treatment just now. I'd still rather that none of this were happening (as would Sarah, I'm sure) but at least we're not dealing with anything immediately threatening.

Update - Part 2 Green River Lakes

2005-07-17T12:07:00.000-07:00

From Flaming Gorge we went to Rock Springs, WY, where we spent the night at a motel, partly because it was hot and partly to catch up on various business/bills/internet research. (That’s when I posted the Silverton/ Molas Lake pictures.) I didn’t see anything in Rock Springs that would make me want to go back.

The next day we drove to Pinedale, and spent the night boondocked near there are Little Half Moon Lake – a fairly pleasant place except that the mosquitos were fierce! We’ve pretty much not run into mosquitos until this point – they were just starting when we left both Haviland Lake and Molas Lake, and Flaming Gorge was dry and with enough of a breeze to keep them to a minimum. At Little Half Moon Lake, however, they were bad enough that I didn’t want to open any of Yawaca’s doors (Her window all have screens exept the ones on the front doors, so at least we could have ventilation.) Needless to say, we left fairly early in the morning and headed up to Green River Lakes campground, in the Bridger National Forest.

I went to Green River Lakes because the pictures I’d seen really appealed to me. So far, the specfic places I’ve wanted to see have not turned out to be my favorites. This is true of GRL, although the drive there and the lake are quite beautiful. The campground is not that nice, however, both because the sites do not have views and because many of the lodgepole pines which are the main species there have been killed by the bark beetle. The Forest Service has cut down most of the dead ones in the last month, and there’s a lot of dead limbs lying about in the campsites, making the places look fairly scruffy. On the positive side, the hosts were a delightful couple from Ashville, NC.

2005-07-17T12:05:00.000-07:00

This picture was taken in the Green River Valley, a few miles from Green River Lakes.

2005-07-17T12:04:00.000-07:00

This picture was taken at our campsite -- notice the cut branches on the ground and the dead and dying trees still standing. The forest here would probably be healthier if fires in the area had not been controlled for the last century or so.

2005-07-17T12:01:00.000-07:00

Lower Green River Lake --the campground is just uphill from here.

2005-07-17T12:00:00.000-07:00

This one's for you, Pat!

2005-07-17T11:59:00.000-07:00

Rocky Mountain Columbine growing along the lakeside trail at Green River Lakes. This is about as blue as the sepals get here -- most of the ones I've seen are so light as to be white rather than blue.

Update - Part 1

2005-07-16T19:10:00.000-07:00

We haven’t spent much time where I could connect to the internet in the last ten days or so, so I’m behind in my blog posting. The pictures and text below are from July 4 through July 7, in NE Utah, mostly Flaming Gorge.

2005-07-16T19:09:00.000-07:00

On our way from Grand Mesa to Flaming Gorge, we went through dinosaur country. Vernal is the closest city to Dinosaur National Monument. The sign doesn't say what species this one is.

2005-07-16T19:06:00.000-07:00

This is our campsite at Canyon Rim campground in the Red Canyon area of Flaming Gorge NRA. It was a lovely peaceful place with surprisingly few people. We stayed here three nights and would have been happy staying longer. I wasn't very impressed with what I saw of the rest of Flaming Gorge, but the Red Canyon area is really nice.

2005-07-16T19:03:00.000-07:00

Here's Jacob, exploring near our campsite

Wildlife at Flaming Gorge

2005-07-16T18:58:00.000-07:00

These are female bighorn sheep that we saw at Flaming Gorge, not too far from where we were camped. It doesn't show in this picture, but when I got a look at them from behind, at least two of them were lactating, so presumably had babies hidden somewhere nearby.

We also saw a doe with two fawns, and an American Coot family with half a dozen chicks. Boy, are they ugly little things! They have bald red heads and orange beaks and scruffy down.

2005-07-16T18:52:00.000-07:00

This picture was taken at the Range Study Bike Trail access off highway 191, fairly well at the top of a mountain ridge. There's a great open meadow filled with wildflowers, surrounded with aspen and spruce forest. We spent a couple of hours wandering around, taking pictures. There were quite a few people boondocked here, but well spread out.

2005-07-16T18:45:00.000-07:00

This is another picture from the Range Study Bike Trail area.

2005-07-09T08:50:00.000-07:00

This is a view of the Silverton City Hall looking down the Animas River from the Memorial Park in town.

2005-07-09T08:49:00.000-07:00

Here we are at our Lake Molas campsite.

2005-07-09T08:48:00.000-07:00

This is Lake Molas at sunset, taken from our campsite.

2005-07-09T08:46:00.000-07:00

Molas Lake in the late afternoon at the end of a rainstorm.

Grand Mesa

2005-07-04T15:10:00.000-07:00

Saturday, July 2
I left Molas Lake yesterday morning, headed north. The drive from Silverton to Ouray was a lot less scary on a sunny morning in early July than it had been on a rainy/sleety afternoon at the end of May. It is a very dramatic drive with great views, although as a driver I didn’t get much opportunity to enjoy them except when I stopped. The road is steep, with little or no shoulders, and no guardrails. (The reason for no guardrails is so they can shovel the snow over the side of the mountain.) It was also quite hazy, presumably still from the wildfires in Utah and Arizona.

I had intended to head fairly directly toward Vernal, Utah, via Grand Junction, but by the time I got to Montrose, CO, it was getting hot, and the prediction for Grand Junction was even hotter, so I drove up to Grand Mesa, where I’m camped at Little Bear campground, on Island Lake, in the Grand Mesa NF. Grand Mesa is a flat-topped mountain of about 53 square miles, with an elevation of about 10,000 feet. Although it’s at about the same elevation as Molas Lake, and not far away – about 100 miles as the crow flies – it’s quite different. First of all, Grand Mesa is the tallest thing in sight, so there are no higher mountains in view – the distant view is of the Uncompagre Valley below, although it’s pretty much obscured by the haze. It’s a bit warmer here than it was in Molas Lake, but there’s a lot more snow left on the ground, as the winter snow-pack was deeper. I’m guessing that’s true most years, as it’s more forested here than in the Silverton area, which has more open meadows. And the mosquitos are a lot worse here – more of them, and they’re active pretty much all the time, rather than just in the evening. There are fewer birds.

I’ll stay here until Monday and then head north. I expect I’m going to be in hotter weather for the next few days, until I get to either Green River Lakes (if I decide I’m willing to be completely out of contact for several days) or the Grand Teton area.

Molas Lake

2005-07-01T16:17:00.000-07:00

Monday, June 27
I'm feeling sad and lonely this evening. My sister, Sarah, has gotten the results of her PET scan and it appears that her multiple myeloma, which has been in remission for the last four and a half years, may be coming back. If it is, it's in a very early stage, and most likely can be knocked back with chemotherapy -- but it's not happy news, even so, and it feels hard right now to be so far away from her.

Tuesday, June 28
After I got the weight-distributing plates put on the back door of the van, we headed north toward Silverton. We’re now camped at Molas Lake Park, a Town of Silverton park about six miles south of town. It's a dramatically beautiful setting, a fairly small lake surrounded by mountains, most of which still have some snow on them. In close to the lake it's a mix of meadows and spruce forest.

My practice of getting up before the sun rises has fallen by the wayside – partly because it gets light very early, partly because it’s pretty cold here in the mountains before the sun rises – but mostly because I love lying in bed and taking my sweet time getting up.

This morning I was doing exactly that, listening to BBC World Service on my XM Satellite radio (my second choice for morning listening – when I can get it I listen to NPR’s Morning Edition). At about 7:30 a.m., when the sun had been up for half an hour or so, I heard a tapping sound. I couldn’t think what it could be, and as I listened to it more, it sounded like something dripping. I had visions of all sorts of things that might be disintegrating in the camper, but when I got up and tracked it down, it was water dripping from the raised penthouse roof of the van, as the heavy frost melted in the sun.

The haze from the wildfires in Arizona and Utah isn’t as bad here as it was yesterday morning in Durango, but it’s enough to make a difference in the clarity of the view, and there’s a faint smell of smoke that I don’t think is coming from campfires.

Thursday, June 30
This morning I rented a canoe and paddled around the lake. I took Jacob with me, but riding in a tippy canoe with a slippery bottom that he couldn’t get a purchase on with his paws was not his idea of a good way to spend his time. First I had to convince him that he had to stay in the canoe. Once he got that idea, he was quite good, sitting still with his head on my knee, but I couldn’t get him to ride in the front of the canoe, where I really wanted him to provide ballast. We started our ride at the opposite end of the lake from my campsite, so when we got to that end of the lake I let Jake out and tied him up at the campsite while I continued around the lake. He’s gotten to be so good; even when a string of horses and riders went right past the campsite, he just barked once.

I talked with Sarah this afternoon. She's feeling much more positive than she was on Monday,and is looking forward to FGC (Friends General Conference, a yearly gathering of unprogrammed, liberal Friends, for those of you who are not Quakers). It was good to talk with her.

I will probably leave here on Saturday, heading north toward Wyoming.

2005-06-30T17:07:00.000-07:00

This is at the north end of the lake. There is a theoretical path around the lake, but at the north end, it become more theory than reality. The picture doesn't do it justice; it was very lovely and peaceful.

2005-06-30T17:04:00.000-07:00

This is one of the multitude of little ground-dwelling chipmunks that Jacob longs to catch. One of them had a hole in our campsite; Jacob spent hours patiently waiting for a chipmunk to emerge. Of course, the chipmunk was very cautious -- it would stick its head out, Jacob would lunge at it, and it would pop back into its hole.

2005-06-30T17:01:00.000-07:00

This is Haviland Lake, looking up the lake on the side opposite the campground. The picture was taken in the afternoon.

Moving on

2005-06-26T14:12:00.000-07:00

I left Haviland Lake campground yesterday noon, with some sadness. It has been lovely staying there long enough to watch the wildflowers come out -- daisies, a lovely blue/purple penstemon that grows along one side of a 2 - 3 foot stem, the sweet-smelling lupine and wild roses. The older family of goslings that were little when I came have just gotten their adult plumage. I've learned the call of the osprey, and the trill sound that the wings of the broad-tailed hummingbird make, and I've watched the light change on the lake as the sun and clouds shift through the day, and the moon at night.

I spent last night in the Durango Friends Meeting parking lot, and went to Meeting for Worship this morning. When we got up this morning, Jacob and I went for a walk in a field nearby, where Jacob caught a prairie dog which objected strenously to being caught and bit a chunk out of Jacob's lower lip. I'm just as glad it did so, and hope that Jake will be a little more cautious about grabbing little creatures.

Tonight we will "camp" in the parking lot of Fender Menders Autobody shop where we have an appointment tomorrow morning to get a set of plates bolted to the back door where the spare tire bracket attachment is breaking down the place that it's attached to the door. Once that's done, we're heading north, at least as far as Silverton.

Name for the van

2005-06-22T10:40:00.000-07:00

Monday, June 21, 6:00 pm
Ever since I bought my Sportsmobile in June of 2002, I've been trying to discover what to name her, but haven't been able to come up with anything that felt right until the other day. Some time ago, one of you asked me what had inspired me to go fulltime, and I've been thinking about the answer to that question, also, and remembering my summers at YW camp on Lake Erie, in the northeast corner of Ohio. I spent a month there each of the summers from age 10 through age 14, and especially the last three of those years the time I spent by myself, just sitting and looking at the lake, or on the bridge across the small stream that surrounded the knoll where we had Sunday services, was very important to me. The name of the camp was Yawaca, and I think that's what I'll name my camper. I'll probably shorten it to Waca for most uses.

Right now, I'm sitting under the van's awning, watching the rain on the lake. It's not raining hard, even though there is thunder. The osprey is hunting for fish. I'd think that the ripples made by the rain drops would make it hard to spot the fish, but I'm not an osprey. I've spent some time in the last week watching the ospreys hunt (there are at least two of them here), and have seen them catch several fish. They're very striking birds seen from the underside -- a brown and white geometric pattern.

Tuesday, June 22
I've taken the van in to get its 30,000 mile checkup and am now at Fort Lewis College where there's an exhibit comparing Tibetan Buddism and the Navajo Beauty Way. There are some striking parallels between the two, although I suppose that that's at least partly due to what the exhibitors chose to look at. There are Tibetan monks here creating sand mandalas, which is interesting, but I think I'd prefer to watch the creation of a Navajo sand painting. I don't know how much it's due to the translations, but I found myself much more drawn to the Navajo art and quotations than to the Tibetan.

More from Haviland Lake

2005-06-20T10:46:00.000-07:00

I'm still here at Haviland Lake, and will stay at least until this Thursday, June 23. This is a lovely, peaceful place, although it gets a bit crowded on nice weekends.

There are now two Canada Goose families on the lake. The seven older goslings are about half grown, and the new family has five new goslings. The two families stick together. Jacob tried swimming after them one day when they were near shore -- one of the parent geese chased him off.

The wildflowers are really coming into bloom now. On the trail up above the south end of the lake, the sweet-smelling lupine are thick, and at the far end of the lake there's an area carpeted with little white daisies.

I took Jacob to the vet this morning to get his rabies shot so we'll be legal going into and returning from Canada. The vet's office and home are outside of Durango, on the bank of the Animas River, in the pines. He used to practice in Chatsworth, CA, and likes his life and practice here a lot better. I can see why.

Friends (Quaker) Meeting for Worship

2005-06-12T17:50:00.000-07:00

I went to Meeting for Worship this morning with the Durango Friends Meeting. There were about 20 of us present.

Since I left home April 20th, I've manage to attend Meeting for Worship 5 times -- once at Strawberry Creek in Berkely, three times with Moab Monthly Meeting, and today with the Durango Meeting. This is way more frequently than I was making it to my home Meeting, Orange Grove Monthly Meeting in Pasadena, CA, the last two and a half years I was there. When it came time to say goodbye to my Meeting, I realized that I probably could not have left them without that period of being much less involved than I had been for several years. I would have guessed that I'd miss my home of 23 years more than I do, and I'm finding that I miss my connection to Orange Grove more than I expected to.

2005-06-12T17:48:00.000-07:00

This was the way Haviland Lake looked this morning at about 6:20 a.m., after a rainy night. A littel later, when it cleared a bit, there was a Great Blue Heron circling over the lake.

2005-06-12T17:41:00.000-07:00

This is an early morning shot of the main street (Colorado St) of Telluride, looking east.

2005-06-12T17:35:00.000-07:00

The balloons have landed/are landing at the west end of Telluride, after taking off from the city park at the east end, and floating across town. Unfortunately, I arrived late, and only caught the last few landing.

2005-06-12T17:31:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of Edie, the 87 year-old fulltimer, in her camper van with her miniature fox terrier, Tally Ho. I took it while she was talking, and it doesn't really show her at her best, but it's the only picture I have. Notice the baskets behind her, in which she stores her things. Her camper is quite charming, as is she.

Latest from Haviland Lake

2005-06-09T18:12:00.000-07:00

Monday, June 06
Sunshine campground and Telluride were COLD! It went down below freezing all three nights that I was there. Thursday afternoon and all day Friday were overcast all day; on Friday afternoon there was snow and thunder and lightening.

I got up early Saturday morning to see the balloons; when I got to the park, only two balloons were being filled, and neither of them took off, so I went to find some breakfast. As nearly as I could discover, only three places in Telluride serve breakfast; two of them are bakeries with limited menus where you go to the counter and order; the other is a Mexican restaurant playing energetic Mexican music, which is not what I want at breakfast time. So we went back to the campground and I made my own breakfast.

I hadn’t slept all that well either Thursday or Friday night, mostly because of the Soras. (Sora? Sori?) Soras are the only ones of the Rails (marsh-dwelling birds) that you’re likely to see; there were two of them on the small pond at Sunshine campground, walking on top of the water plants. What I didn’t know about Soras is that the have a very loud, insistent call which they make repetitively – and they do it late into the night and they start up again very early in the morning -- and my campsite was right next to the pond. So I spent a good part of Saturday afternoon napping.

In the evening I went into Telluride to see if what they call The Glow was happening. It was. There were five or six of the balloons, inflated, lined up in the middle of Main St, and at a signal, they would all light up by turning on their hot-air burners. The flames would shoot into the mouths of the balloons and light them from inside, and make the translucent balloons glow. It was rather dramatic, especially the first time they did it. What was also interesting is that quite a few of the people there (I assume they lived in Telluride) were really dressed up – a few of them were even wearing evening gowns – and were not wearing coats or other wraps, and by this time of the evening the temperature was at least in the mid to low fifties.

I didn’t take my camera, so I have no pictures of the glow. I was feeling sad and lonely – the most so since I’ve left home – and not in the mood for photography. I’m finding that I’m more subject to mood swings since I left home. I’m not surprised by this, and the “down” times don’t last more than a day or so. Most of the time (like right now) I feel deeply content with this life.

Sunday morning I went back to see if the balloons were flying, but I didn’t get there early enough (I’ll tell you why in the next paragraph) so by the time I got there all but three of the ten or so balloons had landed. I got to watch the last three float in.

The reason I was late was that when Jacob and I went for our early walk, he discovered an elk calf, which he found very interesting. (So did I, for that matter.) I had a hard time getting him to leave it alone. I hadn’t taken my camera with me, so when we got back to the campsite I grabbed it and went back (about 1/3 mile) in hopes that it would still be there, but it wasn’t. There was a man boondocked nearby who said he thought the calf may have been born the night before; he had heard the elk moving around during the night. He may have been right; it didn’t seem very well coordinated, which is just as well since it tried (quite understandably) to kick Jacob.

After watching the balloons we drove to Durango and did some errands; we got back to Haviland Lake campground yesterday afternoon; it’s lovely and peaceful here. Today has been very lazy; a little tidying and re-organizing and a couple of short walks and that’s about it.

Thursday, June 09
I’ve been having a very lazy and relaxed time here, and have nothing very startling to report. I’ve seen the Canada Goose couple with their seven goslings out on the lake; one of the parents leads, the goslings follow pretty much in a row, and then the other parent brings up the rear. I’ve also seen a mother mallard with ten ducklings swimming along near the shore. When she led them to a fallen log, she hopped up on it, and one by one the ducklings did likewise, except for one that couldn’t find any room left.

Today I spent the afternoon in Durango doing laundry and grocery shopping. I’m going to have to come back either tomorrow or Monday as the mail I expected hasn’t gotten here.

I still haven’t gotten my cell phone internet to work properly. I’ve got one more thing to try myself and if that doesn’t work I’ll see if I can find an expert to fix it for me. I must say I’m very pleased with the wireless access I’ve been able to find, Right now I’m parked outside the Durango Library and connected via their wireless; I don’t even have to go into the library.

I’m tentatively planning on leaving Haviland Lake on either Sunday, Monday or Tuesday and making my way slowly north to the Teton/Yellowstone area. If any of you have suggestions for campgrounds outside the National Parks, let me know. (Click on Comments, below, if you want your answer to be readable by others, or click on the envelope if you want to send a message to me only.)

Haviland Lake campground

2005-06-02T13:30:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, May 31
After my last post on Sunday, I went and got Jacob from beside the library and started out to find a trail near town. On my way there I tripped crossing the street and banged up my left knee. It’s doing fine now, a bit multi-colored and tender, but it really swelled up right after I did it, so we took the gondola back up the hill and went to the campground where I put ice on the knee.

Yesterday we left Sunshine campground and head for Molas Lake campground, outside of Silverton. I wanted to go there because I’d been so taken with the picture from the 2003 Sportsmobile rally there. The drive from Telluride to Silverton goes down the San Miguel river to Placerville, then up over the Dalles pass to Ridgeway, then to Ouray (pronounced YOUray), and then to Silverton. It’s a beautiful drive, but it was cold and raining much of the way, and I wasn’t in the mood for sightseeing. The drive from Ouray to Silverton is white knuckle – no shoulders, no guardrails, steep and winding most of the way. When I got to Silverton I discovered that Moulas Lake campground hadn’t opened yet (although it was supposed to) due to melting snow. I stopped to look at it anyway; it is beautiful, but it was very cold. I decided to keep heading south toward Durango, and am camped at Haviland Lake campground in the San Juan NF. At 9700 ft, it’s about 1000 ft lower than Sunshine campground, and there are no visible snow-capped mountains. There’s the lake (a reservoir) with cliffs on the side opposite the campground, and at least as many broadtailed hummingbirds as there were at Sunshine. The hosts here have feeders out, and at times there are as many as a dozen hummers there at once.
I saw an osprey soaring over the lake this morning when we took our early walk.

There are also trout in the lake. I know this because just a little while ago Jacob and I were walking along the shore when a boy came along with a string of four. I said something like, “It looks like you’ve had good luck,” and he said, “Do you want them?” and I said, “Sure, thanks!” He and his dad were leaving to go home and would have released them if they hadn’t swallowed the hook, so I got lucky.

Wednesday, June 01
A delightful day. I watched three Canada Geese with five goslings for quite awhile while Jacob swam. I got to see the parents take the goslings into the lake for a swim. The two geese that I assume were the parents stayed close to the gosling; the third goose was a ways away and seemed to be acting a sentinel. If anyone out there knows if this is common behavior among Canada Geese, I’d be interested to hear from you. You can click on “Comments” below if you want others to be able to read what you have to say, or you can click on the little envelope if you want to send me a private message.

There were also a couple of osprey that came and went. I didn’t see them catch any fish, but I got a good look at them.

Later in the day we walked to the other side of the lake and both on the way there and on the way back saw a Western Tanager, a beautiful bird with a bright yellow body, black wings with cream spots, and a flaming read head. And then we saw a beaver, first while it was swimming in the lake, and then a little later while it was at the edge of the lake eating a leafy branch.

On my way back from the john before going to bed I stopped and had a nice chat with a couple who have spent a lot of time in Montana; they gave me some suggestions for good campgrounds.

Thursday, June 02
I’m posting this via the Durango, CO, Public Library wireless internet. I’m now completely unable to connect via my cell phone, and the guru I consult at Yahoo!’s Internet by Cell Phone group says he doesn’t recognize my problem. He suspects that I’ve picked up some sort of “infection” and suggests I take my computer to an expert. Arrrgghhh!

I’m on my way back to Telluride and Sunshine campground; I’m going for the hot air balloon festival this weekend. I think it should be quite something to see the balloons in that dramatic valley.

On Sunday, I’ve decided to go back to Haviland Lake campground for a week or so. I like it a lot, and feel the need to be in one place for several days before heading north into Wyoming.

2005-06-02T13:14:00.000-07:00

This is the view as you turn into the valley where Telluride, CO, is located, if you're getting there by car. The yellow flowers are dandelions, which grow all over these mountain meadows.

2005-06-02T13:00:00.000-07:00

Here's the view if your method of transportation into Telluride is the Gondola from Mountain Village. The gondola, I'm delighted to say, allows pets on every third or fourth car. Jacob was a bit anxious about this strange means of travel, but he was good about getting on and sitting fairly quietly as we rode. It's a fun way of getting in and out of Telluride, and solves the parking problem.

2005-06-02T12:12:00.000-07:00

This is one of the views from my Sunshine campground site, taken at sunset.

Photos on view at Yahoo!

2005-05-29T14:36:00.000-07:00

Photos on view at Yahoo!
If you click on the link, it should take you to my Yahoo! photo album where I've posted quite a few of my pictures from SE Utah. This link will only work through August 30, 2005. Send me a private message (click on the envelope below) if you'd like to view the album after that date.
SE Utah photos

Report from Telluride

2005-05-29T13:49:00.000-07:00

Saturday, May 28
I found her!

As I said in my last post, I went to the Telluride, CO, area partly in hopes of finding my 87 year old fulltimer friend. She was not in either of the campgrounds where I thought she might be, but then I thought maybe she was staying somewhere in the town of Telluride – and sure enough, as Jacob and I were exploring one of the side streets, there she was! We were both delighted to see one another, and are now camped at Sunshine campground in the Uncompahgre NF a few miles south of Telluride.

Telluride is an interesting town. It got its start as a mining town in 1875 and flourished from 1890 (when the railroad came) up until World War I when the mining boom ended. By the 1960’s it had gone from a population of 5000 to fewer than 600. What changed it was skiing – the first ski resort was built in the 1970’s – and a series of summer festivals, also started in the 70’s. It now has a population of 2200, and it’s clear that there is a lot of money here. All the buildings have been carefully restored, and new construction is designed to fit in with the original structures. Real estate prices rival those in Los Angeles. It’s all quite charming, and in a setting of great natural beauty, which they take advantage of with very nicely construted hiking/biking trails.

It’s very different from Moab, where new constrution is pretty clearly not controlled. Much of Moab, especially along the main road in and out of town, is a blot on the landscape. In other parts of town, yards are full of broken down cars or old trailers. A lot of the homes are manufactured housing.

If I had to choose between something like Moab and something like Telluride, I’d pick Moab.

[A hummingbird just flew up and hovered in the open door of the van for a minute before flying off.]

Sunday, May 29
After I wrote yesterday’s entry, it got very cloudy and cold. Partly because of that, and partly, I think, because I’m still adjusting to life with no permanent home except the Sportsmobile, and because my #$%&* Verizon Cell Phone Internet connection is still not working right, even though I thought I had fixed the problem – yesterday afternoon and evening were down times for me, and I was not enjoying being here. (I will send this via the library’s wifi.)

This morning, however, Jacob and I discovered a beaver pond on our pre-breakfast walk (didn’t see the beaver, just the dams and the lodge – we’ll go back this evening to see if he/she/they are out in the pond) and then I spent quite a while sitting at my campsite watching birds and saw several that are new to me: a Cassin’s Finch, the Broad-tailed Hummingbird (which is what was making that fairly high-pitched buzz/trill as it flew past – usually too fast to even look at it before it was gone), the Red-naped Sapsucker, and the Violet Green Swallow. I also discovered that one of the aspens across the little stream from my campsite has at least two nests in it, one of which is occupied by a pair of the Red-Naped Sapsuckers (I saw them do a “changing of the guard”) and the other by some small brown bird I haven’t identified.

Jacob and I took the free, pet accessible gondola from Mountain Village down to Telluride, where we are now. I’m in the library and Jacob is waiting outside in the hail which just started a few minutes ago.

Now it’s about ½ hour later. I went and moved Jacob out of the hail, and now the sun is shining. I’m going to post this and go get Jacob and take a hike.

2005-05-26T20:32:00.000-07:00

This was taken near sunset in Indian Creek Canyon, on the way to the Needles area of Canyonlands National Park. The drive through Indian Creek Canyon is one of Utah's Scenic Byways, and you can see why. We went here on Tuesday, May 24.

2005-05-26T20:25:00.000-07:00

Several of you have requested more pictures of me and Jacob, so here's one for you. Isn't Jacob a sweetie? This picture was taken at our campsite at Buckboard campground in the Manti-LaSal National Forest six miles west of Monticello, UT.

The last few days

2005-05-26T14:25:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, May 24

Ahhhh! This is more like it!

It’s 3:30pm, I’m sitting in the van at Buckboard campground, in the Manti-LaSal National Forest, six miles west of Monticello, UT, and am very comfortable. I’d guess that the temperature is about 75 degrees, with a nice little breeze. Jacob and I spent a couple of hours hiking at Foy Lake around noon. There wasn’t much shade, but I was quite comfortable.

This is very different from the red rock desert; we’re camped among aspens at almost 9000 feet elevation. There’s a little stream running right by our campsite for Jacob to get muddy in, and lots of bird song.

Windwhistle campground was quite lovely and I would have stayed longer if it hadn’t been so hot. It overlooks the high mesquite and juniper desert with some buttes and mesas scattered about, and has a red rock mesa at its back. There’s a ½ mile nature trail at one end of the campground which winds through a natural red rock amphitheater. Especially around sunrise or sunset it has an almost magical feeling to it.

I was disappointed not to find Edie, the 87 year old fulltimer, there. The campground host said that she found the heat very difficult, and had left on the second day she was there.

There were lots of wildflowers in bloom – Carmine and Scarlet Gilia, the Harriman’s Yucca, Anderson’s Larkspur, Fendlerbush, Cliffrose, and a bunch I couldn’t identify.

We will probably stay here at Buckboard until early Friday, and then make our way to Price, UT, where there’s a Ford dealer. The brakes are pulling left a bit and I want to have them looked at.

From Price, my plan is to head up to Kamas, UT, and take UT Highway 150 northeast into Wyoming, aiming to get to Yellowstone by mid-June.

Wednesday, May 25

Not only is it cool here at Buckboard, I get good reception on my Verizon cell phone, and I can tune in not one, not two, but three NPR stations!

I am happy to report that even in the partial shade of the (lovely, newly leaved) aspens, my solar panels are keeping ahead of my electrical usage.

I just saw a weasel of some kind run across the campground road and into the trees. It’s the first one I’ve ever seen. They’re littler than I thought they were.

And speaking of wildlife, I neglected to put this in the blog at the time:

I saw a Collared Lizard one day on the way from the campground to Ken’s Lake. Quite a striking creature. I didn’t have my camera with me, but there’s a pretty good picture at

http://www.wildherps.com/species/C.collaris.html . Move down to the third set of pictures, which were taken at Ken’s Lake. My lizard looked pretty much like these pictures, except his body was more jade than turquoise. Mine was about 10” to 12” long, and let me get a really good look at him.

Thursday, May 26

Forget Tuesday’s projected itinerary. I have decided to go to the Telluride, CO, area for a few days, partly in hopes of finding Edie, but also because it’s supposed to be quite beautiful, and I’m less than three hours drive from there – assuming I don’t stop a lot on the way, which I probably will do.

2005-05-25T11:10:00.000-07:00

This is the view from the nature trail looking across the campground toward one end of the mesa at the back of Windwhistle campground. It was taken at sunset and gives a little of the special feeling of this place.

Still looking for cooler weather

2005-05-24T08:51:00.000-07:00

Windwhistle campground is lovely, but only slightly cooler than the Moab area, so I'm going to try Dalton Springs campground, in the Manti-La Sal NF west of Monticello, UT. It's over 8000 feet, in the Abajo or Blue Mountains. Not sure how long I'll stay -- possibly until Memorial Day.

My Verizon cell phone is refusing to connect to the internet, even though there's a strong cell here in Monticello, so I'm sending this from a computer in the Monticello Senior Center.

Heading for Windwhistle

2005-05-22T11:49:00.001-07:00

Sunday, May 22

The afternoons here in Moab have been very hot – well into the 90’s. Jacob and I are leaving very soon to go to Windwhistle campground in the Canyonlands Rim Recreation Area, a few miles west of La Sal Junction, UT, where the weather should be ten to fifteen degrees cooler – and where the campground has water!

I will be sad to leave this lovely campground; I’d happily stay here another month if the weather would cooperate.

I've had an inquiry about the camera I'm using and am responding here in case others are interested. It's the Olympus Camedia C-740 Ultra Zoom. So far I'm quite pleased with the pictures it takes, and now that I'm getting a little more familiar with it, it's quite easy to use.

I’m not sure when I’ll be able to connect again, but hope to send something towards the middle of the week. If not, perhaps next weekend. Keep checking.

2005-05-22T11:49:00.000-07:00

This is a view looking back across Castle Valley from the La Sal Mountain Loop Road after it starts its climb. The most distant ridge line is on the other side of the Colorado River.

2005-05-22T11:47:00.000-07:00

On Friday, we drove the La Sal Mountain Loop Road, partly in hopes of finding some lower temperatures. The first place we came to was the small community of Castle Valley, a collection of homes and a Morman church. The residents are clearly individualist, and one of the ways that shows is in a wide variety of architecture. Here's one of this homes I found interesting.

2005-05-22T11:42:00.000-07:00

Here's Jacob playing in the snow we found at the Oonah Lake campgroud; the highest point on our trip around the La Sal Mountain Loop. Both of us enjoyed the coolness, although the air temp was high enough that I was perfectly comfortable in my shorts and T-shirt. Jacob is alway delighted to play in snow; in this picture he's trying to find the snow ball I threw.

Needles clarification

2005-05-19T16:34:00.000-07:00

I've confused more than one of you by saying that I'm heading for Needles in order to find cooler weather.

What I should have said is that I will be going to the Needles area of Canyonlands National Park, not to Needles, CA. For weather information I'm relying on those who've been there, the fact that it's quite a bit higher in elevation, and weather.com's report for the nearest town, Monticello, UT.

I'm sending this from the Moab Library's computer; the guy using the one next to me is looking at Sportmobile's website. Small world.

Several days worth

2005-05-18T09:34:00.000-07:00

Sunday, May 15

Back at Ken’s Lake campground, which feels like home. It’s warm here, too, but there a definite breeze off the mountains which keeps things comfortable.

Monday, May 16

I was really wiped out yesterday; after getting to the campground about 2:00pm, and saying “hi” to the 87 year old fulltimer, I had a snack, started to read, slept until 6:00pm, fed Jacob dinner and took him for a small walk, had my dinner, played two games of Spider Solitaire on the laptop, and was asleep by 9:30pm. I think it was`partly the heat, which I don’t handle well, and perhaps partly a response to (Quaker) Meeting for Worship this morning – although I didn’t experience it as anything unusual, I’ve learned that much that’s important about what takes place for me in Meeting happens outside my conscious awareness.

I discovered during the social time following Meeting for Worship that Moab has been a full-fledged Monthly Meeting for the last two years, even though the sources I’ve looked at on the internet still show it as a Worship Group. (Those of you who are not familiar with the Religious Society of Friends and would like to know more might go to www.quaker.org .)

I woke up this morning at 6:00am much refreshed. Jacob and I walked around the lake, had breakfast, and then I spent the morning doing errands and laundry.

While I was at the grocery, I ran into the man who used my cell phone to call 911 (whose name is James) and got a hug from him and a follow-up on what happened next. Although the cops have now arrested the brother of the girl he broke up with, before they got him the brother and friends managed to steal James’s van and take everything that was in it. James has gotten the van back, but not the contents. He strikes me as a kind of sweet guy whose hard luck is probably not new.

When I got back to the campground, I talked with Edie for awhile. She’s really impressive; not only is she 87, she only has one eye (the other is a prosthesis). She mostly camps in places she’s pretty familiar with, but she’s thinking about going to the Yellowstone area this summer which she’s only visited once before. She has a miniature fox terrier, named Tally Ho, who is her travelling companion.

Tuesday, May 17

If today wants to be considered one of my good days, it’s going to have to go a fair piece in the opposite direction of what it’s done so far.

I had intended to get to town by 8:30am to get my hair cut and the van’s water supply replenished, slow process here, since I haven’t found a source of good tasting water that I can attach my hose to for easy filling of my water tank. This means I have to fill my two gallon water bottle and slowly and carefully empty it into the van’s water tank, from the inside of the van. Of course, by the time Jacob and I took our morning walk (during which he disappeared and did not come when I called him, which is worrisome; I discovered him waiting for me at the campsite when I got back to where I could see it) and I made, ate, and cleaned up from my breakfast, it was already after 9:00am. Then I got a phone call from a friend and talked with her, and then Edie came by and we chatted for a while. These were the two good parts of the day.

When I tried to take Edie’s picture, I discovered that my camera was not working. I had already discovered that my inverter (the device that lets me use 110-120 volt appliances, such as my laptop and coffee grinder, off the van’s 12 volt electrical system) had stopped working. So that was two more things on the list. Then I realized that Jacob was doing the doggy butt-scoot, so add a trip to the vet.

Jacob’s problem was just what I expected – that impacted anal gland thing that dogs are subject to, so he’s all fixed up now, to the tune of $22.00 and a 30 minute wait at the vets.

After two tries, I tracked down an inverter at Radio Shack -- $47.00 plus $6.00 for a surge protector, so that I could plug in my laptop and the charger for the camera’s rechargeable AA batteries at the same time (which I now discover makes the inverter decide that I’m using too much energy at once).

By the time I got to the hairdresser, she was leaving for lunch and wouldn’t be back for an hour and a half, so that didn’t get done.

When I filled my water tank I managed to spill a lot of water all over the van’s floor, soaking Jacob’s bed.

Then I decided to go use the Computer Doctor’s Wifi to go online to check email, maybe do a blog posting, and take care of some online business. But it wouldn’t connect. The computer doctor spent quite a while trying to figure out why, but couldn’t – leaving me to worry that I would no longer be able to take advantage of Wifi and be left with only my cell phone connection. In fact, when I stopped at another Wifi hotspot, I had no trouble connecting, but by then I was not in the mood to do anything but come back to the campground, and it was warm enough that I didn’t want to leave Jacob in the van for very long anyway.

Meanwhile, I went to the camera store with the camera to see if they could figure out what was wrong with it. Turned out to be no charge in the batteries I had just taken out of the package and put in the camera – so back to Radio Shack, where I had bought them – and where I was informed that you have to charge rechargeable batteries before you use them. (You’d think the guy at the camera store could have told me that.)

Then I realized that the van doors were automatically locking everytime I turned on the headlights, so I stopped at the Ford dealer’s to see what they had to say about it. They seemed completely baffled, so I opted to do nothing about it for now. I’ve realized since that I can no longer lock the van using the armrest buttons when the van’s ignition is off, so I probably will pursue the problem. I’m still in warantee for another month.

Oh, and when I made my next stop after the vet’s, I discovered I couldn’t find my driver’s license which I had used as ID at the vets. I stopped in there on my way home, but they didn’t have it. I’m assuming it’s somewhere in the van, but I haven’t found it yet.

So that’s how today has gone.

Still – in the mostly blue sky there are wispy ripples of clouds and the ghost of a half moon; it’s been a beautiful day when I’ve stopped to notice.

Wednesday, May 18

Well, the locks on the van are working correctly now – I can only guess that something got wet when I spilled the water while filling my tank.

I found my drivers license; it was behind the card in the slot below the one it belongs in, so things are looking up. Still haven’t got my hair cut, though.

It’s definitely heating up here. Today should only go up to the mid-eighties, but after that it will be mid to high nineties. I’d kind of like to stick around through this weekend; there’s a triathlon at Ken’s Lake and Steelbender Trail that might be fun, and I’d like to go to Meeting for Worship on Sunday, as it may be my last opportunity for quite some time – but I’m not sure I’ll be willing to put up with the heat.

Whenever I decide to leave – Sunday after Meeting at the latest – I’m going down to the Needles area for at least a couple of days. It will be cooler there, as it’s higher elevation. I’ll try to post at least once more before I leave.