Thunderstorms

7/21/2018

We woke up around 6 and slowly made our way out of the wagon for a relatively quick 2 hours drive to the Badlands. We stopped on the way at a grocery store to get food for the next day or so. We picked the campsite we wanted based on the fact that there was potable water and a pool. It was right next to a motel, but the view of the Badlands was unreal.

Once we checked in we set up our tent and hopped in the pool. This is the moment we realized that this campsite was the best choice hands down. We hung out by the pool for a bit while we waited for Derek to join us.

When Derek showed up, we all hopped in the pool before exploring the park a bit. We drove through the park and stopped at a number of different stops to take pictures and look at the prairie dogs and burrowing owls. These are both the cutest animals, but they’re tiny, and somewhat far away, so we couldn’t really capture the them on our phones.

We finished the drive and headed back to camp to make black bean and sweet potato tacos, which was a great break from all the meats we’ve been eating. After dinner we made a fire and watched the sunset until a thunderstorm ended our night early. We quick packed all the necessary things into our cars, and quick hopped in our tents.

Sleeping at night was insane. Our tents were actually falling down and hitting us when the wind would gust, then go back up to standing (sideways) when the gust would end. It was actually kind of crazy, somewhat scary, but mostly worrisome that we would get super wet because the fly was pushed against the screen of the tent. fortunately when the wind was at it’s strongest, the rain wasn’t coming down too hard. All three of us actually got out of our tents in the middle of the night because Derek’s tent was in rough shape. It’s a bigger, so more tent to fall on him.

In the end, we were all alright, but it was just a bit alarming for a while.

Full Day Drive

7/20/2018

At 5am our alarm unfortunately told us we had to wake up. So we did. We both showered quickly and packed up the car before starting the long drive. Our first stop was coffee. The place we went into wasn’t technically open yet, but they said they would make us some coffee. The worst part was that they didn’t even have decaf. Who doesn’t have a decaf option? What about people like me who don’t do caffeine, or even people who do love caffeine that just want the taste of coffee in the afternoon, or with a scoop of ice cream. I’m not salty at all tho.

The drive was really really long. We stopped plenty of times for gas and bathroom break. We also stopped for breakfast, which had pretty good breakfast sandwiches. For lunch we were in Billings and found a cafe where I grabbed a wrap and ate it on the road. At this point we were ready to be there, and wanted to just keep trekking along.

We rolled into Custer a little before 8pm and checked into our HipCamp site, which was a covered wagon. Alex said this may be her favorite spot we’ve stayed, and I may agree. It was this wagon in an open field with a bed, and some benches on the side. Definitely the coziest spot we’ve stayed in.

On our drive in we saw how bumpin’ Custer was, so we made sure to head back into town after checking in. Our host told us about a spot to hit up for food, beer, and music, so we obviously went there. We ate some sliders, a local beer, and listened to a really fun band. It was a cool environment where everyone seemed to know each other. After a few hours of this, we headed back to our wagon, read, and called it a night.

Going to the Sun

7/19/2018

I woke up at 6:30 for my 8am video interview. I made sure the internet was up and running, ate a small snack, and put on my shirt and tie (thanks Chuck!). I was recommended to wear a shirt and tie for this interview from the Assistant Director, who I interviewed with earlier wearing just a dress shirt. I explained our traveling situation, which she totally understood, and said to try to get at least a shirt and tie for the interview.

At any rate, after the interview Alex and I made some breakfast and slowly made our way into the park. Our plan was to drive the Going to the Sun Road today, and possibly stopping for a hike. the drive is absolutely insane. Most of the pictures of this drive will be at the bottom of this post because there are too many to add right here.

We stopped at a few spots to take pictures and soak in the ridiculous beauty of this place, and didn’t end up hiking. We went all the way through the road and stopped at the Ranger Station to get some postcards before heading back through.  There wasn’t anywhere to lunch in the park, so we did the drive East and back West before hitting up a grocery store for stuff to grill. By the time we got back to the Airbnb, it was basically dinnertime.

We went swimming too

i started cooking the corn and steak while both of us were chatting with people. By the time we started eating our lunch had turned into dinner at 5pm. We were both pretty tired, I think just generally fatigued from the backpacking, but also the non-stop moving that is our road trip. We were planning on just staying in tonight, but it was recommended that we go to Loula’s Cafe for pie in Whitefish. The drive is 30 minutes one way, but we decided it had to be done. On the way there we also ran into an amazing Farmer's Market that had TONS of food, live music, and beer. Super fun stop.= before amazing pie.

We hopped in the car, drove to Whitefish for our AMAZING slices of pie (you MUST go here if you’re anywhere near Whitefish ever), and headed back to the Airbnb to call it a night. We packed up the car as much as possible before going to sleep. Tomorrow we take the long drive to the Black Hills - it’s a 12ish hour drive so we’re leaving at 6am (5am wake up).

Our back patio for the day

Protein Pancakes

7/18/2018

We woke up around 7:30-8 and made some pancakes. The pancake mix we picked up was advertised at Paleo Pancakes, and we didn’t look at the ingredients before we each ate probably 5-7 pancakes. Later in the day we looked at the packaging and they’re mainly made our of nut flours and have 17g of protein for two pancakes. No wonder we were full when we felt the need to eat lunch…

We ate breakfast and hung out by the lake for a couple hours before packing up camp and heading back to the car. The hike out was easy, but definitely hotter than our hike in. We got to the car, jumped in Bowman lake for one last swim, and drove back out.

On the way out we stopped in the town of Pole Bridge because our Virginia friends recommended stopping at the Mercantile for a pastry and other chochkies. We also grabbed lunch and a beer while enjoying the shade and views.

Our drive to Martin City was only about 45 minutes, where checked into our Airbnb, showered, and made some salads and leftover pizza. We were exhausted, so we tried to watchman episode of WestWorld on the slow internet before falling asleep.

Tomorrow is my last interview with the Director of LiveOnNY, so I’m very hopeful it goes well and the internet works out. I’ve tested Zoom Conference and loading Youtube videos, and it seems like it should work well enough for the interview - wish me luck!

More Flies

7/17/2018

We woke up to our alarms at 6am and ate a quick bowl of oatmeal before packing up for the day. On our way out we dropped our packs at our friend’s campsite. Our NYC friends had the best campsite, right on the water, and told us we could leave our stuff there to reserve the spot for when we came back from our day hike. They weren’t awake yet, so we didn’t get to say our goodbyes, but we had a long hike ahead of us so we left.

The hike started off flat, with a ton of very high grasses right on the trail. It also didn’t help that there were a million flies and mosquitos everywhere. As we made our way higher the wind picked up, and therefore the bugs left us alone. We were told the bugs up at Brown Pass campground were absolutely awful, but they were worse for us on the hike up.

When we got to Brown Pass, we skipped the campground and continued onto the pass for the view. It would have been an additional 2 miles to Hole in Wall, but we didn’t really want to make it a 18 miles day, so after a quick snack we headed back down.

The views in this valley are insane! We saw a number of birds and small animals running around the open areas, but no bears or other large animals. We hiked down much faster than expected, but that final mile or so always feels the longest. When we got down we moved our tent and other items to the new campsite and found a really nice note from our friends Nick, Sal, and Cyrus saying that they had a lot of fun hanging out.

Once we moved our stuff we very quickly ate lunch and jumped in the lake. No one else had shown up to the campsite yet so we were wondering if we would have the spot to ourselves. Not too long after we said this, a number of different groups showed up. One couple from California, and a large group of women from NE Arkansas (they raved about Arkansas, which I didn’t know had a big outdoors scene).

We hangout the rest of the day by the water, we built a fire to help get rid of some of the bugs, and chatted with our new neighbors. The group of women and one Navy guy were our favorites, and the women in the California couple, but the guy in the couple was a man-splainer. He thought he knew everything, including that bear canisters can be broken by Grizzly bears…why would bear canisters exist if they only stopped black bears from getting into your stuff? Come on now.

We missed our friends from the night before, but it was still a fun night chatting with the other groups by the fire before heading to bed. Tomorrow we’re having a slow morning before hiking out and finding our Airbnb for the next few days of exploring Glacier National Park.

Bears on Trail

7/16/2018

We woke up at 5am, showered, and got out of the house by 6am heading to Glacier for our backpacking trip. We stopped in at the ranger station to get our permit, and they showed us an informational video about backpacking. The one key takeaway for me was that if you’re charged by a bear, you should spray the bear spray at the ground, because their faces are closer to the ground, and if you spray above the bears head on accident, the bear spray is useless.

We drove the additional 6 miles on the rough road to Bowman Lake and started our hike in. It was a 7 mile hike in, with very little elevation gain. On the way in, a group hiking out told us there were a few bears about 30 minutes up the trail. I had just got done telling Alex I would be fine not seeing a bear at all. Now I wanted to see the bear, so I knew when we passed it.

Bowman Lake from the Trailhead

We made lots of noise from that point on, and didn’t end up seeing the bears, despite the multiple bear poop sightings on the trail. We stopped for lunch on a rock above the crystal blue waters, and finished our hike to camp. There was one other group at the campground when we got there, so we had lots of options. We set up camp and jumped in the water.

This lake is amazing, it’s super cold, but not the coldest. We could actually stay in the water and get used to it, rather than having to jump out right away.

We hung out near the communal fire pit and food area and chatted with the two other groups. One group of three guys in their upper 20's from NYC, and the other group were two sets of grandparents with their shared grandson , all from rural Virginia and Pennsylvania. It was so much fun to hangout with these people. We were all laughing and giving each other shit from the get go. The folks from Virginia were fishing all day, and cooked their fish over the fire. It looked amazing, and they even shared some with us!

Campsite setup

We were warned by the Virginia family about a buck that came into camp yesterday and tried to steal the sweaty, salty clothes that were hanging around their campsite. We laughed, didn’t think much about it, until we headed back to our campsite. We found the buck in our campsite with my shorts in it’s mouth. I tried yelling at it and throwing rocks near it, but it did not care. It just went further into the woods with my shorts in it’s mouth…my only shorts for the trip. I was wearing long underwear, but did not have any shorts for the hot day hike the following day. Fortunately Alex brought three pairs of shorts.

We hung out by the fire and chatted with everyone for the rest of the evening before calling it a night. We’re heading out early tomorrow for a day hike to Brown Pass, which is about 14 miles round trip, with some actual elevation gain. We’re going to miss this group of people tomorrow, as all of them are leaving the backcountry tomorrow morning.