Muskrats and pikas and bears, oh my!

I flew into Bozeman, a small town close to Yellowstone National Park where I had signed up for a four day Yellowstone hike which was expensive but they provided all the gear, excellent food, our guides were fantastic and I figured it was probably a good idea not to go tramping around bear country on my own.

Our guides Janelle and Tom were not just fun, they knew everything about the area, the animals, plants, geography, they told us a lot about the history of the park and the reintroduction of wolves to the area and cooked up fantastic camp meals.

Besides Janelle, Tom and myself there were only two others on the tour, Linda from San Franscisco who has two uni aged kids and a love of fly-fishing and Lauren a London artist younger than me who'd left her boyfriend in a hotel in Bozeman because he'd rolled his ankle the week before.

We set out under clear blue skies, the sun beating down and helping us work up a sweat pretty quick despite the easy walk. We saw only a handful of other people as we crossed meadows of thigh high grasses and wildflowers, disappeared into shady forests, crossed hills of fallen lodge pines sprinkled like matchsticks over the slopes and passed hot sulphur springs with white or ochre crusted edges and crystal clear water.

Backpacks on and trekking off into the wilderness

A hillside of dead lodge pines

Our first glimpse of Heart Lake

Hot springs are everywhere

We passed a ranger, a rifle strapped to his back, as he headed out to check the campsites for signs of a pesky bear who had been sighted recently and see if he was still around.

Tom was happy when we arrived at our first camp in the early afternoon, he said we were 'killing it' with our hiking speed which meant more downtime at the camp so he and Linda could fit in some fishing.

Our camp was in the shade of the trees by Heart Lake, so we had a swim and relaxed by the lake, it was so quiet and sunny and peaceful.

The shoreline of Heart Lake

Hiking around the lake to our camp

Tom getting in a spot of fly fishing

After dinner we put all our things in the bear hangs then with our bear spray by our side retired to our cute, little, one man tents that were dotted among the trees.

The bear hang is just a pole up in the trees, we had rope with us and tied everything together then hoisted it up until it was out of reach of any bears that might be wandering about.

Janelle preparing our dinner under the bear hang.

My little home away from home

My tent was near the top a hill looking out over the lake, in the morning I climbed some rocks to get a look out over the lake and was surprised to see lots of furry little things scampering about. Muscrats and pikas scurried around and over the rocks doing whatever it is muscrats and pikas do in the morning, not at all bothered by me.

Aww little pika, so cute

Muscrat, not as cute as the pika, a bit more weaselly looking

We packed up and set off again, while walking we saw a giant elk in the distance, he stood staring in our direction before taking off, I couldn't believe how giant he was! But I was too slow to get my camera out before he took off :(

We continued on through the mix of landscapes we'd seen yesterday, stopping to look at scratched trees and other signs bears had been in the area.

Setting off again with a last look at Heart Lake

Small marsh areas also popped up on our walk

Walking through grassy fields full of wildflowers

We finished up for the day beside another lake and had a peaceful afternoon with everyone spread out doing their own thing, Janelle by the lake with a book, Tom and Linda fishing, Lauren with her sketchbook out and me wandering about with my camera.

We got to have a fire at this camp so we had dinner and hung out afterwards having cup of tea and a chat by the fire.

On the way to bed I noticed the amazing night sky, so I grabbed my camera and tripod, Tom couldn't believe I'd been hiking around with it in my pack, and went out to take some pics. Linda and Lauren came out to lay in the grass and watch the stars with me, an amazing clear night, millions of stars, the milky way a dusty cloud across the sky and so many shooting stars, so many wishes to make!  (pity the pics turned out to crap to post).

Lauren, Tom and Janelle hanging out by the fire

The next days camp was next to a river, a hot spring ran off into the river as well, so you could sit in the warm water, but hot springs are a bit funny, the water temp is not consistent, or maybe is the volume of water that changes, but one minute you're having a nice time in the bath temp water, then two seconds later you're all 'ah fuck, it's hot' and trying to splash cold water from the river into the hot water of the spring or swimming yourself further out into the river where it's cooler for a minute until the temp goes back down and you can move back into the warm water again.

Janelle called us down to the river and there were all these fresh tracks in the mud, there were the tracks of the deer and following very closely on those tracks were the tracks of a wolf and a bear!

Getting close to our next camp spot

Crossing the river was fun

Lauren and Linda sitting where the hot spring water meet 

Bear and wolf prints fresh and still wet in the mud

Bear print

Our last day we hiked back to where we had a last river crossing before reaching the carpark, we sat in the sunshine, shoes off and feet in the cool water waiting for our ride to arrive.

We could see the road, cars and vans, bumper to bumper, crawling along, engines revving and horns tooting, we were all reluctant to make the final river crossing and have the trip be over.

All the gang hanging out as the sun sets on our last night

One thing I love about camping is that first shower when you get home, the dirt and grime and sweat washes off and you feel like a whole new person.

Freshly scrubbed I walked into Bozeman for food and found the main street blocked off, there were food vans, all the pubs had bars set up out front and there was a large truck set up as a stage for music.

I noticed a sign for sangria and queued up behind a couple, I spent a minute of looking at the back of the girls head before figuring it out.
'Lauren?' I said and she turned around confused then smiled.
'Ha, I was wondering how anyone here knew my name,' she said.
'It took me a minute to figure out it was you, you look different clean!' I said.
Lauren introduced me to her boyfriend Mike and we hung out for a while, testing the sangria and watching the locals dancing up a storm in front of the music truck.

Next stop Miami and meeting back up with Robina.

Goonies never say die!

Our Canada visit finished with a couple of days in Calgary for the Calgary Stampede.

The stampede is a big rodeo, kind of a cross between Melbourne Show and Oktoberfest with cowboy hats. There are show rides and games, music and bars, an acrobatics circus, evening stage shows and of course there's the rodeo but we didn't actually see much of that.

Everyone dresses the bit too, so we donned our flannel, got ourselves some hats and ended up in Nashville North, a giant tent with bars and a big stage, to drink rum and dance to country music.

Haley came to meet Robina and I after she'd finished work and rocked up with Sarah, an Aussie girl we met randomly met a few weeks before. Sarah was travelling around Canada, had been on the road by herself for months and is still travelling now! We met Sarah on our road trip when we were in a little Mexican restaurant for dinner, she was sitting near us, overhead the familiar accents and the rest is history :)

The next night we went to the last night finale show, we saw chuckwagon racing, tight-rope walkers, guys playing drums while being flown above the crowd on lines, fireworks and lots of singing and dancing by Canadian children dressed in bright colours.

The next day I said goodbye and flew to San Jose (Robina was heading to Hawaii the next day) where I was spending three days attending an IoT conference for work.

IoT means Internet of Things, it's all about integrating and smartening up things like controlling home security from your phone, your fridge telling you when you're out of milk or jackets for cyclists with led lighting on the back that hooks up to your google maps so the jacket can flash arrows on your back telling cars behind you which way you're about to turn. Healthcare is also a really big area for IoT too.

It's an area that I don't know much about but sounds exciting, I thought the conference would be fun so was disappointed when a lot of the conference turned out to be boring as shit.

The worst bit was one of the main speakers. He was talked up as being an amazing public speaker and a real guru around IoT and future application and innovation.  He began his talk with a couple of bad jokes about his mother in law, followed it with another shit joke about his wife then showed a youtube video of the starting credits for the 70's show The Six Million Dollar Man. So disappointing.

After San Jose I flew to Portland where I stayed a few days with EJ, another excellent person who I had met travelling (this time Iceland a few years ago) who was willing to put me up for a few days and show me around.

The first night EJ took me to his local - Joe's Cellar, a dingy bar just down the road from his place with no windows, or as EJ likes to call them 'judgement panels' - totally a 'Danger' bar.

So we're having a quiet beer when this guy stops at our table, then asks if he can sit down with us. Being polite we were like yeah sure, so the guy sits himself down and then starts telling us about how much he loves religion, asks if we're religious and then tells us how he saw Jesus. Yep, that's right, he saw Jesus. We asked where and what Jesus was doing. He said he saw him running past out of the corner of his eye. Yep, Jesus is back, running around Portland in people's peripheral vision. We finished our beers and made our excuses.

Funnily enough, last time I met EJ we also had a fellow of dubious mental stability want to make friends, we're obviously just too friendly looking for our own good.

Portland is lovely, it's the first US city I've found that feels liveable. I went shopping along quiet tree-lined streets, wandered through markets and parks on the river and checked out the breweries, bars and bookshops.

EJ gave me a tour of the area around Portland, we visited waterfalls and went to Astoria where we saw the house and the beach from the Goonies and watched EJ's puppy Myles go crazy on the beach.

Myles is a year old great dane, which means this cute playful, excitable puppy is actually an energetic, jumpy, drooling giant who just wants to play all the time! Taking him for walks, people stop in the street to comment on whether he's a big dog or a small horse and at the beach he went crazy running around chasing other dogs and the entire beach stopped to watch.

Next episode we're headed into the wilderness of the famed Yellowstone National Park.

One with the Nature

Driving through Canada's Rockies was pretty easy, the mountains are split by large open valleys because they were bulldozed apart by glaciers not carved by rivers, or so they told us on our lake Minnewanke tour.

So for those of you like me who are prone to motion-sickness the roads are good as they wind gently along the wide valley floors - that was until the mountain range between Whistler and Jasper.

First we stopped at Lake Joffrey, it was a light hike up to the valley where you suddenly step out of the trees onto the banks of a lake of the most intense and vivid blue.  The colour is ridiculous  #nofiltersrequired.

Leaving the lake was easier said than done, we had parked on the roadside in the gravel and when Haley hit the pedal the wheels started spinning. Going forward the wheels just spun and behind there was a steep drop-off so we weren't going anywhere.

Haley was all, 'Oh god, we're stuck! My cars going to fall off the cliff!'
'Nah, we'll be right,' I said wandering off to collect some sticks and rocks to put under the tires. I squeezed my small collection of twigs under the wheel, but they just spun out. I looked for more sticks and stones, but the gravel was pretty bare.

As Haley continued to freak out, I scratched my head wondering where I'd be able to find bigger sticks and Robina was probably off taking a selfie when a rusty old 4wd pulled up.
'Need some help?' said the driver.
'You don't have a couple of big sticks do you?' I asked. (Jokes, I didn't ask for the sticks)

The guy, a random kiwi in Canada, grabbed a tow rope from his rust-bucket and had us out in five minutes.
'Great,' said Haley. 'I was worried we wouldn't get to the winery in time!'

We drove through a tiny country town called Lillooet, pulled up at the winery just before closing and I rolled out of the car for my second vomit. (Told you the roads got worse!)

In the winery Haley asked for Armand and the guy at the counter pointed out an old dude pouring wine and chatting to a couple of ladies. He came over and asked if we were there to taste some wine, Haley told him we were looking for him.
'I'm Haley and I play cricket with Ali in Melbourne,' she said.
'WHAT?!?' he shouted, eyes wide. 'Oh my god! Oh wow, really?!?'
Robina had gone to the loo and said she could here him shouting from all the way out the back.

Armand's son Brent is married to Ali who Haley plays cricket with. Armand was super excited to meet some random Aussie who knew his son and poured us all some wine.
'Where have you come from? What are you doing here? Where are you going? Where are you staying? How long are you in Canada?'
Armand had a lot of questions and when he discovered we had no idea where we were heading that day he invited us home to meet his wife Ida and told us we could stay in their RV.

We ended up in Lillooet two nights, Ida was an absolutely lovely, funny lady and she makes an excellent chilli and Armand was super excited to have visitors and insisted on taking us on a 'hike'.

Armand drove up into the hills, at the end of a bumpy dirt trail he jumped out, we took photos of the wildflowers and ate salmon berries before Armand just walked off into the bush.

'Hmmm, haven't been this way in a while,' he says crashing through the undergrowth, but after ten minutes we appeared at the side of a lake. A wide blue lake like Joffrey Lake the day before but without the million people on the track. We had the entire lake to ourselves. Armand led us around the lake, balancing on fallen logs to cross the water and rock-hopping through scrub and swampy patches.

'We'll go to the waterfalls,' said Armand pointing way, way up at a tiny trickle of water streaming from the top of the mountain, right up near the snowline.

We didn't realise that by 'hike' Armand meant eight hours scrabbling over landslides and scaling mountains up to the snowline.

Armand was hilarious and to top it off made an excellent video of our hike, make sure you watch it, it's fantastic!