Image first

I want to marry her and take her name as my own. Then we can add "juggling instruction" to the sign

I kinda experienced night

Went to the minor league baseball game here in Missoula. The thunderstorm started in the 7th inning, suspended play, and I walked back to the motel.
Now, if night means headlights and street lamps then,  yes. If night is looking to the west and seeing only darkness then, no.

The home town Osprey were up 10-0 over the visiting Voyagers of Great Falls when the ump signaled stoppage. I got a free team hat as part of the evening's promotion.

The weather, more lightning than rain, calls into question tomorrow's plans to hike up to Lolo peak once I leave Missoula.

Beginning to think about what happens when the trip ends.

Note on video links

The video links I've posted for YouTube may not work. I had to change them to unlisted. My stalker found them thanks to Google's prompting to change YouTube handles to Google Profile/G+ handles. She started leaving comments. I deleted them and hide the videos.
In the future I'll post individual links to each one. {Sigh}

Well somebody's reading this blog

USA TODAY

I went to little calf creek in escalate (posted pictures) and then had a drink at Kiva koffehaus (wrote an r-rated review on Yelp.

New videos online

Four new videos on Youtube here (sort by Newest)
There would be more but the multi-select isn't working here on the computer in Missoula Library

omg , the cure for any boredom is east this weekend

http://www.knieveldays.com/ in Butte, which is a pit... Literally.

I might have to rethink this whole "nature" theme to the trip.

Better than walking in a mall.. i guess

So after two days of ice cream and movies I decided to do a little local hiking in order to earn my pizza. Also the forecast is for high heat wed-fri so it made sense to designate mon and tues hiking days (2 off, 2 on, 3 off, resume normal trip activity)
Yesterday I went to Rattlesnake NRA just north of town (13 minutes) and this morning I went to Blue Mountain Rec Area just south of town (20 min)
B O R I N G
5 hours of monotony at rattlesnake and 3 at Blue Mtn (I learned something and shortened the return)
Perhaps I'm spoiled from spending so much time in national parks but there was nothing interesting or challenging about these places. Maybe they're fun for bikers and rattlesnake might get better in the backpacking wildernesses section too far north to get to in a day hike. I hope so 'cause otherwise I don't want my tax dollars protecting them from development.
Perhaps I'll rent a bike tomorrow. There needs to be a good outdoors experience here in Missoula.

Fungus,animals, rock, dead trees, ice, aquamarine lakes

New photos of Waterton and glacier NP posted here.

Ranking Montana "cities"

#1 Bozeman - too homogeneous but not a lot of weirdos

#2 Missoula - a fair number of semi-homeless white guys with unintentional dred locks

#2.5 Whitefish - not really a city but it has a good pizza place with slices

#3 Helena - can u think of a state capital to which you'd really want to move? Too many of the kind of guy who wears gay looking Affliction or Tap-Out clothes but would beat up gays as a hobby if he could get away with it.

One last shot at canada

When I moved to the Bay Area I noticed that if I scanned around the FM dial I had about a 10% chance of finding Pat Benatar's "Love is a Battlefield" playing.

*Today* doing the same scan in Alberta yields about a 15% chance of finding VanHagar's "Right Now" (aka "The theme to Crystal Pepsi")

Parking in Missoula for a while

I'm going to stay in Missoula for a week,  rest up, sample the local pizza, plan the next phase of the trip (west though Hells Canyon and the Columbia river gorge on to Portland), and take in a minor league baseball game.

Also , how awesome would it be to go to high school here (see picture)?

This is because I don't experience night, isn't it?

I stayed at the Northern RV and Yurt Village last night. It's at the southwest corner of Glacier NP and I staying in a cabin here about two weeks ago. This time I slept in a tiny yurt, which is cheap. Both the cabins and yurts are bring your own bedding. Which is no problem since I have a silk sleep sack, a sleeping bag, and a regular pillow with me. For some reason I decided to just go with pillow and sleep sack last night. Around midnight I was cold and had to pee so I went out to get the sleeping bag. Not used to manuevering in anything less than bright daylight, I banged my shin very hard into one of the rocks lining the edge of the parking area. That's right, I have, for months, marched all up and down a mountain range named for rocks with only a small elbow boo-boo to show for it and I bash myself in a parking lot.
Good thing today's plans calls for pizza and "Dark Knight Rises" instead of summiting something.

Things I've been shouting as anti-bear "whoops" on the trail

• Yabba Dabba Doo ( I can't believe it took me nearly a month to think of this)
• To infinitely , and beyond!
• Inaychuck (the fake Apache word for "ginormous dude")
• Technology user, comin thru
• Yonda lies the castle of my fada
• Stay on target, Stay on target, STAY ON TARGET!
• Shaka, when the walls fell.
• Hey, Boo Boo
• Shazam!
• Riccolooooo (alpine throat lozenge commercial)
• Babalooooooo (I love lucy version)
• Kaplach! (klingon)

What a difference a day makes, part 2

So on the evening of my "Bug Out" of Banff. I stayed at a good little budget hotel in Pincher Creek, Alberta that was run by Margaret Cho's mother. I swear the accents were identical.
Monday morning I left early and as soon as I leave the town boundaries and crest a little hill I can see the Rocky Mountain Front of Waterton National Park on the horization rising up out of the grassy plains of southern Canada. Feels good so far. 30 minutes later I arrive in park, stop at the visitor center, open the car door and.... no bug!! Already I like this place.
Turns out I'm too late for the 8am shuttle to do the one way Carthew-Alderson hike but I'm just in time to catch the 9am water taxi to do the day hike at Crypt lake. Fantastic hike. I give it 4.5 stars only because one has to take one of two water taxis in the morning and catch either the 4pm or 5:30pm back to the townsite and that costs $20. What you're really paying for is a limit on the amount of people on the trail.

Very rarely, I actually get competitive. You might not see that given that I'm not trying super hard in life to amass wealth, power, status, material goods, a strong or large social network. But it does happen. Like when I'm dropped off at the bottom of a trail with 30 people with the expectation that we're all hiking up to the same pristine mountain lake.. and that because of the water taxi system and a ban on wilderness camping in that section of the park that the lake is devoid of humans right now. Anyway, 2hr3m later I'm the first one at the lake by about 5 minutes and then it's 10 minutes before anyone else shows up. The 2nd placers were a young couple that were carrying kind of large daypacks. Turns out they did more planning than showing up at the dock 12 minutes before departure. In the large packs was an inflatable kayak, paddles, and electric pump. So they went to the far, south, side of the lake were there was no one else on shore. Interesting note: the south side of the lake, a half mile away and unreachable by foot because of dense snow on the east and west shores, is actually in the U.S.A. . The border is the end of the lake. A senior couple speculated that one could smuggle this way like "Fast and the Furious" to which I replied that the Canadian version would be the "Slow and the Sullen". BTW, I saw about 3 mosquitoes between 9:20am and 4pm.

On Tuesday I did the Carthew-Alderson one-way hike. Although the last 4 miles into town were a little boring, overall it's spectacular and had no bugs. Rain held off till about an hour after I finished (and yes, I finished long before anyone else on the van shuttle to the trail head). AND there's falafel in Wateron townsite!

So, yeah, went from being miserable to being reminded how great this can be in about a day, maybe two.

The next day, Wednesday, was to be a low key hiking day as I crossed the border and went to the Many Glacier section of Glacier NP (America baby!). Walking all of one mile up to Apikumi Falls (which I kept thinking of  "Apple-tini Falls"). While sitting there, two big rams with full curly horns approaching the other bank of the outflow stream. I took some vid of them as they came down and drank. Then the front, bigger one hopped up on a big rock. Stupidly, I stopped the vid recording since I'd let the clip run for a half a minute. Then a moment late it LEAPED across the stream onto a rock that had no horizontal surface. The top of the rock was an edge with 45 degree slopes but it made it fine then bounded onto our bank and up the hillside not 20 feet from me, the second one close behind. I love this freaking park. Also, no bugs.

Into the mouths of babes

Overheard at the self-serve soft ice cream machine in the back of the Swiftcurrent campstore -

Mother: ok honey, they have vanilla, huckleberry, and swirl.

Daughter: squirrel?

===

Heard on the radio while trying to find something to listen to in the northern Montana,  "...that's got to be a record, getting a muddy hog off the ground and putting its rear into the barrel in just 4 seconds "
It was some kind of rodeo commentary and not Dan Savage

What a difference a day makes

Saturday the 14th at around noon I finished with the highlight scenery section  of the Cory Pass loop in Banff and was plunging back into the humid, bug infested, 3 mile return through moderate scenery within earshot of the highway sometimes.
Then I stopped in Banff,  the town, to replace some worn hiking socks (if you had "socks" or "his will" in the what-vital-trip-component-will-fail-next pool,  you win. Read on)

There was traffic and parking difficulties. I know that there will be no $9 hiking socks. This is a resort town so I'm resigned to paying 13 or 14. When I find them they are 2 pair for 40. NO. I find a slightly lesser make for 2 for 36. One of the store guys asks me if I need anything. I reply, "I need hiking socks for less than 15 a pair". He looks around then sells me the lesser ones for 14 a pair.

I go back to the hostel canmore. No one seems terribly happy there except the two guys playing bollards outside my room past my personal bedtime

The Canadian Pacific railroad comes through town at 2am and then 4am.

Sunday morning I leave the hostel in intermittent rain. The plan is to hike to rockbound lake and then kill time inside somewhere in Lake Louise before camping Sunday night (and Monday as well).
At the trailhead I am a little better prepped and have everything I need except poles in the cabin with me so that I don't have to deal with bugs while 'booting up'
Sure enough, when I open the door, the rain has stopped bug the skeeter are out in force. I start up the trail doing an odd gait that sequences: left pole into ground, stride, check back of left arm and left flank for mosquitoes, repeat with right side of body, look down at chest and belly for bugs, repeat.
I do this for 45 minutes walking uphill on a damp old wagon road with nothing to see but small pine.

Than I snap. I am NOT happy. Am getting eaten in a boring forest while wearing clothes soaked with sweat, drizzle, insect repellent, and dead bug bits. What I have to look forward to is two days in a campsite in the rain with a plague's worth of bloodsuckers filling in the gaps between the droplets. The ranger told hike I want to do the next day is all covered in snow and is impassable.

I turn around and start back to the car. My periodic anti-bear whoops become slightly hysterical. I shout, "I WILL KILL EVERY F*(!ing mosquito in this forest! " , "if you come near me your life is forfeit ", "I want his brother dead, his family dead, if his has a teenier mosquito as a pet I want that dead too!"
Did I mention that no one else is on this trail?

I decide to cancel the camping and cancel the two nights after that near Jasper. I do not want to drive further north. That way will definitely not be home and weather forecasters say it is not going to be fun either.
Somewhere on the way back to the car I get a little more composed and I think, "yes, I definitely cancel camping in the rain, but maybe i'll finder cheaper acccomdations back in Canmore and continue on to Jasper in a couple of days"
Then a mosquito landed on the *inside* of my glasses. It took up an entire quadrant of the lens. Nope. Not staying. Getting the hell out of dodge and driving south.

Drive south I did... for 3.5 hours in mostly rain to Pincher Creek, Alberta 30 miles north of Waterton national park. Waterton is adjacent to Glacier nation park in Montana across the border.

Next post: it all turns around,

Original post title: was DDT really so bad?

Hostels aren't as gregarious as they used to be

This is the 3rd hostel/hostel-ish place at which I've stayed though I've let a private room at each. When I did roadtrips in my 20s I basically planned them as hops from hostel to hostel. At one in St. Louis I went to a blues bar with people. In Niagara falls there was an organized van trip to watch the sunset on the banks of lake Ontario.
Now people don't kibitz as much. I wonder why? (Finishes blog post on phone in common room full of wi-fi zombies on phones/laptops/ and tablets)

'Banff' is the First Nations word for...

A) magnificent highland scenery
B) abundant humongous mosquitoes
C) awful Disney-esque mountain town
D) all of thee above

The pictures in the Photobucket link above are from the hike I did through Cory pass on July 14. Though only 8+ miles it took me 4h20m. It was strait up through an armada of mosquitoes (not my phrase, another hiker described them that way). It was one of those hikes were you don't want to stop moving no matter how tired you are because that's when they'll get you. At one point I almost welcomed a bear visit. I thought, "a nice 800 pound grizzly wound make a much better target than me. Yeah, skeeter would love bear meat. How can I get one to come round?"

The saving grace is that the 40 minutes of the hike with all the postcard views were also the most bug-free.

After the hike I stopped in the town of Banff on the way back to my room in the farther, cheaper Canmore. Holy crap on a stick. What an awful place. Banff the town is a simulacrum of people trying to effect a lifestyle. Whereas Canmore just feels like a town of people who like to ski,hike,and bike in mountains. Basically, any smallishtown that has a Tony Roma's, a lululemon, a bodyshop, and a Lush is awful until proven otherwise.

If you order a bread product in Canada....

.... you will be offered or given butter.

I ordered a bran-blueberry-daye muffin in Cranbrook and was offered butter. Then heard the offer take place at a Tim Horton's when someone ordered a danish. Today in Banff I got a bowl of veggie chili with a slice of bread. The sourdough arrived with two little butter-balls atop.

There are no body image problems here though. The standard icon on Ladies Room doors has quite the badonka-donk.

One more

Oh great, I talked to my friend Doris and she said, "why don't you drive to Alaska?"

I never thought of that. I'd like to go there but never thought of driving. Add one more option

Maps are fun

For instance, if were to keep heading north after I visit Jasper national park next week, in a couple hundred miles I'd come to Sexsmith,Alberta. In a couple of days it'll be decision time about what to really do after Jasper. A: original plan, head westish to the B.C. coast. Maybe take a kayak trip to see orcas (grizzlies of the sea!) See cascades NP and Ranier. Work my way towards Portland and try it out for a month as a possible landing spot B: peal south on the east side of the rockies to hit everything in the parks I've already visited that were covered in snow and/or bears when I went through. Ex: the most popular trail in Kootenay NP right here in Canada is closed, the highline in glacier was closed for snow, heart lake in Yellowstone for bears; both outlets from cascade canyon in the Tetons snow covered, mt ida and longs peak in Colorado, etc. Then head west towards Portland C: take a break from traveling and spend august in Bozeman or Missoula,MT (college towns) D: go abroad starting in sept (which requires some time not traveling in north america so I can plan) E: the free juggling festival in Sioux falls in august F: Obama campaign somewhere in the mountain or pacific time zones if I can do something other than cold call 8hrs a day G: some quality time on 's couch H: did you see that unfunny HBO comedy "Hung" ? I: get a job generating options J: Head for Mexico K: return to the bay area with a lot of great pictures, rent an apartment, lock myself in it till the money runs out, hope for the best.

Of course it's not that easy - gear edition

Forgot to mention that before hiking Huckleberry on Tuesday that I strained a muscle in my upper back performing the exciting adventurous activity of putting a bag in the trunk of my car. It hurts to twist around and look behind me while backing up the car. It also hurts to extend my left hand all the way or to roll over in bed.

So at the end of the Huckleberry mountain hike I was glad to have had no bear encounters and that the new boots work. When I got in my car I noticed that one of my trekking poles had lost a piece. Arghhhh. This one had been wonky since getting sand stuck in the mechanism back in Utah. Now the lock is gone and it slides roughly between 111cm and 117cm. On a working locking pole I usually set the length to 114 to 116cm. It does sound like a huge problem but it's a pain. Am waiting for a sporting goods store to open to see if there any chance they have a replacement part (.05%), replacement pole to match my good one (.1%), a fantastic set of poles for $75 or less (%1). Anyway, I can hike without them though it decreases my misplaced confidence in fending off wildlife

The wi-fi password at this coffeehouse next to the sporting goods store is "cappuccino" which thankfully spelled out on the menu board

INSTANT UPDATE:
The good people at Gerick Sports managed to affix a Black Diamond locking mechanism to my Komperdell pole for 5CAD!

Am now enjoying donut like food and free wi-fi at that Canadian beacon of culture Tim Horton's

New boots and the idea of Grizz

Both the guide book and the ranger said it's 6 miles from the trailhead to the Huckleberry Mountain lookout tower. I made it up in 1h54m. Of course, both ranger and book described the area as "densely populated with grizzly bears". So it may have been a matter of motivation that sped my pace.

Also, having real hiking boots helped. At first the left seemed tight but then it settled in and it was like walking on old friends.

To ward off wildlife encounters I set my watch countdown timer to 1 minute repeat to remind me to make noise. Sometimes I let loose my much improved bear whoop, sometimes a movie line ("gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the war room!"), sometimes a piece of stand-up ("slam it,jam it, ram it, cram it, Willie the one-eyed wonder worm!" - Carlin), sometimes I threaten the bears. Anyway, they stayed out of sight.

End of glacier national park... for now. There's a chance i'll return in 10 days if the Highline trail opens in lieu of heading west towards the pacific coast of B.C.

Handful of new pictures posted from WY and MT

Here

Btw, MT >>WY and Glacier >>Yellowstone

Of course it's not that easy

I'm in Canada. I told this to Verizon nearly a month ago and they told me they could switch me to the Nationwide + Canada plan for any period of time I wish, same price.

Buuuut... that wasn't true. It's $20 more. Fine $20. I can pay $20. It is another country after all. But as soon as I crossed the border I get a text telling me that i'm data roaming and it'll cost $2.05/MB. So I stop driving and call the 900 number in the text to confirm that this message only applies to non-forward thinking people who didn't switch plans. Of course, NO. My switch only affects voice and text. The outrageous data charge applies, I'd been using Google Navigation for 10 minutes when I got the text, but I can purchase a plan of 100MB for $25. Bastards. That would be on top of my normal data charge. So I'm going to go without data on my phone. Therefore texting will work better than emailing for a while. Or just call

Also, gas costs 1.29CAD per liter and I accidentally booked myself into a place next week just south of jasper that I thought was a bargain only to discover it is a primitive hostel and has no showers or flush toilets (just drinking water and water for cooking)

This may be just one week and then back to the USA.

I blame Canada

On Tuesday I will hike Huckleberry Mountain in Glacier NP and then head towards Canada. I'm told but the young northern cuties staffing the Alberta Welcome Center nearby that I may enter with a cannister of bear spray as long as it had an EPA stamp.

Will have to try real hard not to be humming "Blame Canada" while going through the port of entry.

Two parks later, still oblivious

Today I was coming down the trail from Scenic point in the Two Medicine section of Glacier NP when 3 hikers below pointed to something. I turned mostly around, saw nothing, and continued walking, they pointed again, I assumed one was pointing something out to another of his party. Then he clearly said to me, "look to your right". I did. There was a big horn sheep about 10 feet away on the other side of a small thicket of dead trees just uphill. The ram was still and staring at me. I stopped and met its gaze. Then I slowly reached towards a pouch on my bag as I said to it soothingly, "I'm just getting my camera. Don't make me go for the bear spray"
Got some good shots (will upload when I get to a solid wi-fi area, or better yet a hard line)
When it stopped eyeballing me and went back to eating I walked past on the trail while keeping my trekking poles up and pointing towards it.
Hiked in the back-up used boots and even though I didn't blister or get foot pain, they felt unsupportive while decending so I got new ones.
Instead of driving 2hrs to the west side towns I made some phone calls and went to the Blackfeet trading post 40min east (everything here not in the park is Blackfeet reservation). The two brands of hiking boots were lacking. Wound up getting some well made workbooks that have a good welt,  six inch uppers, and no steel toe. Send positive energy that they don't shred my feet Saturday & Sunday.

Grizz and boots again

THIS COMES AFTER THE "STILL OBLIVIOUS" POST

I saw a Grizzly. Ok, it doesn't really count since I was on a trail but still, there it was.
Spent Saturday night at the Granite Chalet. After arriving mid-aftenoon from the Many Glacier section by way of Swiftcurrent pass I was hanging out on the patio with many other guests taking in the fine view. A woman came rushing over from the picnic tables on the side of the Chalet and said there was a Grizzly behind the bathroom building. We all rushed to the edge of the patio and no further. She was correct, it was a juvenile Grizzly wandering about 100 feet away. It moved down the slope in no hurry and I managed to snap a few pictures.

 Hopefully that will be my only sighting: in great numbers, near a building, with many people having bear spray, and small children close by to push forward in a last resort.

The work boots worked well enough but now that I'm staying only 20 miles from a real sized town I went and got some Vasque Breeze Gtx's, the same boots in which I hiked the Grand Canyon rim-to-rim a few years back.
For those of you keeping track: the person who recently wrote that he was adopting the motto "Have less, Do more" has spent $280 on shoes in the last two months.

I dont experience night

It's true. The days got longer and longer ... I keep driving further north. Right now, in northern Montana,  the sun still sets after 9 and comes up after 5. It's light for almost and hour on either side of the terminator.
Most nights I sleep from 930 to around 6, so it's light at both of my consciousness transitions.
The closest I've come to the night is stepping out for a mid-sleep pee while camping/ staying in bathroom-less yurts & cabins.
I can't remember the last time I drove in the dark. Maybe two days before I left when I dropped off a loaned hand-truck.
What's the opposite of a vampire? A day-dwelling finite-lived charmless vegetarian? Maybe I *am* finding the real Scott out here.

More changing plans

Remember the 3 points of possible failure for the trip:
* my body
* my car
* my boots

Well, my right boot is broken, it's cracked right through. In most circumstances this would be the easiest and cheapest of the 3 to fix or replace. But I'm in nowhere-ville. The ranger said the only place to be sure of finding a store with something more than cowboy boots is Kalispell. I'm in East Glacier. That's 87 miles and 1h45m driving according to google maps. Plus, I'd found a hostel here with private rooms for only $30 and there's a communal kitchen. The Motel6 in Kalispell lists at $79. I could try to come back to the east side of the park , after buying boots southwest of it in Kalispell tomorrow, near where I need to be Saturday morning but that would depend on finding a room or campsite on a Friday in the summer. Bah. Saturday is immovable because I got to a reservation at the Granite Chalet, a hikers refuge in the middle of the park.
There's also my $25 used 'wet' boots to consider. would they wreck my feet if i syarted using them for daily hikes until i pass through a decent size town on tuesday?
Wonderful wretched universe. As they say in the Hitchiker's guide to the Galaxy, "I wouldn't live anywhere else"

I do not know the words to a single song

While hiking through bear country this morning, Glacier NP, I tried again to sing and make noise since I am by myself. And it's time to admit that in additional to having a terrible singing voice that I can't sing a single song all the way through. None of the Billy Joel from my angsty high school phase, none of the Peter Gabriel from my ongoing angry college phase, not even School House Rocks (I can sing all the Preamble but not the bits that frame it). Tried Adon Olam, the song that ends most Jewish services, but only got to the 2nd stanza. The best I can do is chortle the opening and closing themes to "Land of the Lost" (which are each 2 sentences)

Weird. Though my imprinting is failing, my recall of minutia from long ago is still usually pretty good.

Also, 2 months!

Have less, do more

I guess this is the new personal philosophy. Still need to incorporate "exchange services for goods/money"

In a small dot of a town on the way to the eastern side of Glacier National Park.

Went on a touristy boat trip through the "Gate of the Rocky Mountains" this morning. Not bad for families, seniors, and bacon-wrapped Americans, but I'd have rather paddled.

Down to 48

Not like Mississippi or Louisiana were in the where-Scott-lands sweepstakes but now they're totally out

<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/30/us/mississippi-abortion-clinic/index.html?hpt=hp_t2">MS</a><br>

LA

Getting used to things

There are several intersections here in Helena that have neither stop signs nor traffic lights. They're not T-junctions or round-abouts or single-lane one-ways either. They're like nordstroms (or is it Neiman Marcus) with the employee hand book, "We trust you to act with your best judgement at all times". Or maybe D.O.T. ran out of money

Saw a sign in front of an sportsman shop, "SALE: bug spray $5, bear spray $29" and I thought, "that's a really good price for bear spray". It's high 40s to low 50s most places I've seen. Was just kind of surprised that I'd developed an opinion. Not sure I'd actually buy cheap stuff though. It's the one way bear spray is like condoms

There are two kinds of hotels out here: those with lids on the toilets and those with the 'U' seats.

Yet another person upon hearing about my trip referred to it as an "adventure".

Am thinking about writing a book called "the no kitchen diet"
I've only used the camp stove the first two nights in Death valley. Had kitchen access for a total of 7 other nights ,in ski condos & yurts,and coffee maker / hot water access for a couple more.
Am down about 7 or 8 pounds. Of course, that could be the 1000 to 2500 calorie burn I do 5 days a week.
Still, it's a possible monetization.

Bozeman felt different from places in Colorado like Steamboat Springs and Durango because a good chunk of the population in those semi-resorts seemed like lawyers who read Sunset Magazine.