St. Mary Campground, Glacier National Park, Montana
Monday, June 27th – The girls slept in a bit. I got out the solar panel – great light here for using the solar panel to recharge the trailer’s battery system. The batteries really needed the juice. The morning was going to be quiet until…. I ran out of propane! I heard the refrigerator clicking and the check light came on. I tried to light the stove… nothing! We’d last swapped propane in Las Vegas (Day 12). I expected it to last longer.
I should have just gone to St. Mary to see if they exchanged propane canisters but I thought maybe the general store at Rising Sun might. Rising Sun is about 5 miles away and (I found out) does not exchange propane canisters. I turned around and was able to do it at the grocery store in St. Mary. Then we headed back to the campsite where I swapped the propane canisters. The food in the refrigerator was saved.
We rode our bikes to the Visitors Center. The girls got Junior Ranger books. We ate lunch in Babb, then headed into Many Glacier. We made it to the Swiftcurrent Motor Inn where our 2pm hike was meeting. The ranger leading the hike was the same ranger that lead our hike to Grinnell Lake last year (Ranger Monica). After the nature hike, we did a ranger tour of the Many Glacier Hotel. They are in the last year of the renovation plan. We had a fancy dinner at the hotel (topped off by a chocolate fondue dessert) and then drove back to camp. On the way to the Rising Sun Campground for their evening program, Sarah spotted a coyote. The evening program was about the history of the beaver in North America.
Apgar Village/Fish Creek Campground, Glacier National Park, Montana.
Friday, June 24th – We got up early to attend the bird watching ranger program in the morning with Ranger Sarah from Wisconsin. The girls enjoyed the walk and so did I. We were able to use our binoculars to see several birds.
Rains came at about 11am. Ate a second breakfast at Eddie’s, the restaurant in Apgar Village. Went to the Visitors Center and the girls received their Junior Ranger badges for Glacier.
Apgar Visitors Center
Went to the 11:30am Junior Ranger program at the Nature Center in Apgar Village. The focus was for younger children; Emily had a good time but Sarah was a bit bored. Ranger Teagan ran the program. After a brief presentation she did an activity with the children were they each were an animal or plant and then formed a food web connected with string. Once one item was eliminated from the web, the rest of the food wed could feel the impact.
We headed back to the trailer, hiding from the rain. After a brief lunch and a nap, we headed back to the Nature Center for a 3pm program discussing the “Peace Park” nature of Glacier being connected to Waterton. Also talked about other Peace Parks.
Next we headed to the Glacier Conservancy book store near the West Glacier train station and picked up a few items. Then to the restaurant in West Glacier for an early dinner where we ate too much. We followed the early dinner by a trip to a gift shop on the other side of the grocery store in West Glacier.
Then a drive to Lake McDonald Lodge where we are awaiting the 8pm Evening Program in the auditorium on Night Creatures. We staked out a corner in the lodge’s lobby, making use of the electrical outlets to charge our laptops. With the campsite’s location in heavy trees and the poor weather, it is difficult to use the solar panel to charge our electronics.
It looks like the summer plans are coming together. In an effort to capitalize on the success of last summer’s trip, this summer’s agenda is a bit more aggressive. 60 days and eight national parks: Yosemite, Kings Canyon, Zion, Grand Canyon’s North Rim, Bryce Canyon, Glacier, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton.
I got the last reservations I needed on Friday. Yosemite seems to be the odd duck when it comes to reservations due to its popularity and scarcity of campsites in the Yosemite Valley. Last summer we were able to make only a day trip to the Yosemite Valley and had a wonderful time. But we only saw just a tiny bit of what the Valley can offer, not to mention anywhere outside the Valley.
For this summer’s trip, we have reservations for a few days at a campsite on the valley floor. Yosemite will be our first national park this summer. After Yosemite, we will head south to Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Park. Although I grew up in California and attended Boy Scout camp near Kings Canyon, I have never actually been there. Then we make our way to Zion National Park followed by the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Heading back north, we will spend a few days at Bryce Canyon National Park. This area of Utah, Arizona, and Colorado is loaded with national parks. Some folks spend the summer making the “Grand Circle Tour” seeing all of them. Our Grand Circle Tour will have to wait until another summer. I have never been to Zion, Bryce, or the Grand Canyon. Our visit this summer should give me a good idea about this area and I will know if I will want to come back again to see other national park gems like Mesa Verde, Arches, Canyonlands, and Capitol Reef.
Finding our way back to I-15, we will head north, north, north…. up to Glacier National Park. Glacier was on of our stops last year and Glacier rivals Yosemite in beauty (my opinion). Glacier also has a lot less people. We will spend a week on the west side of the park and then a week on the east side (even less people). There were lots of things we did not have time to see last year and there are many things we would like to see again. We have reservations at St. Mary Campground now, but I would be thrilled to get one of the first-come first-served spaces at Many Glacier Campground. We’ll see.
Back on I-15 and heading south, we will find our way to the northern entrance into Yellowstone. Yellowstone was another park we visited last year and I am looking forward to this return trip. We are starting our stay at the Canyon Campground, located centrally on the eastern side of the figure eight loop. From here I hope to explore the Mammoth Hot Springs and the old Army garrison. We will probably make one or two twilight trips into the Lamar Valley to see the wildlife (at a safe distance). Then we move down to Grant Campground, located on the western portion of Yellowstone Lake. I would enjoy a day trip out to the Norris Geyser Basin as well as exploring Lewis Lake to the south.
Our last national park this summer will be Grand Teton. This year I have reservations at their RV park on Colter Bay. This place has full hooks up for our trailer which may be helpful as temperatures climb a bit in July. We never got to explore much of Jenny Lake or look around the Moose Visitor Center which has a few attractions nearby.
Then we’ll make our way back home to Kansas.
A few goals for this summer’s trip:
– Have fun and make sure the schedule does not become oppressive. The time allotted for Yosemite, Glacier, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton should allow for a relaxed schedule.
– Balance taking pictures with having fun. I usually error on the side of not taking pictures in order to make sure I am enjoying “the moment”. I think there is a balance. There are those who spend their vacation looking through the screen of a cell phone as they swing around a selfie stick. Not for me.
– Make a few NPOTA contacts. I plan on getting an HF rig installed in my vehicle by mid-March. My intent is for casual operation and to keep a paper log.
– I have toyed with the idea of using my PACTOR III modem to allow for an email capability. There are many locations I will be this summer that does not allow for cell or internet access. If I can design an easy way to integrate the modem into the mobile setup, testing it with a mini-laptop and am sure it will work without issue… I may do this.
I had the opportunity to be a guest operator at WW1USA today. WW1USA is a special event station located at the National World War I Museum in Kansas City, MO.
There was a request for operators that I saw on Larry’s List. Larry’s List is an awesome resource for hams in the greater Kansas City area. Not just another email list-serv, but a truly valuable resource in understanding what is happening in the area. From community events, swap-n-shop, club meetings, weekly nets to nearby hamfests – Larry’s List is one stop shopping for everything you need to know about amateur radio in Kansas City.
I read about the opportunity to sign up for operator/logging slots during this weekends activation of WW1USA and thought it would be a neat opportunity.
Arriving about 10 minutes before my shift started, I was immediately directed to a position and asked to start logging for an operator working contacts on 20 meters. The brief instructions I received was to log the callsign, name, and state of the contact. I think I recognized the logging program as N3FJPs logging program for Windows. I had used this program before during Field Day 2009 with my dad, KD6EUG.
As I adjusted into the chair, my ear turned towards a speaker, my fingers pecking away entering callsigns… I noticed there were not any radios here! Each of the operating positions were laptops, using HRD to control a rig at a remote location. Pretty cool. As I believe it would have been fairly difficult to raise antennas on top of the museum and then route feedlines down to an operating room, the planners of this special event used internet connectivity. To be honest, as an operator, the fact that I was not in front of the rig was really not even apparent.
After twenty minutes, I slid into the operators chair and proceeded to work contacts for the next two hours. Again, the planning effort of this operation became evident when I saw a short script in front of me for calling CQ as well as providing answers on how calling stations could QSL the contact. When a station at the distant end asked for more information about the reason for the special event, I was handed another card which talked about commemorating the failed Gallipoli campaign.
I had a great time making contacts: stations all over Canada and the United States. What a fun time!
During our local camping experiences back in the summer and fall of 2014, I had to relearn how to make a campfire. Sad to admit it too, as I spent many years in the Boy Scouts and did earn my Eagle Scout. When we started camping (after we bought the travel trailer), I struggled to get a campfire going.
Recognizing my shortcoming, I went back to the manual.
What I had forgotten was the tinder and the kindling. Before the larger logs that serve as the main fuel for a campfire can actually be used, very small tinder must be used to ignite kindling. For tinder, I mostly use paper. I found that while traveling this past summer is that I would get a fair amount of paper from the different campgrounds and visitor centers. I would use that as the tinder. I brought kindling with me. Stored in a box, I collected very small, dry sticks that were broken up into small pieces.
My lesson learned is that I need to maintain and bring a box with tinder and kindling.
Another lesson I learned (on our most recent campout to Perry Lake) was that after a campfire has initially started and it is a campfire that I am going to use to cook food, then dump coals on it. I had a bag of coal in the trailer that I had been given by a British couple when we camped at Glacier National Park. They were wrapping up their trip and I took it off their hands. I used the coals in conjunction with using a pie iron to cook dinner on our last campout of 2015. The coal worked really well (as coal does) in keeping a nice even temperature for cooking.
I am going to capture many of the lessons that I learned on my 2015 Summer Trip.
The first lesson I learned is that while boondocking (camping without electrical and water hookups), making coffee in the morning becomes a bit more complicated. When we do have power, we have a regular coffee maker that can be prepared the night before. The morning, just plug it in, push the start button, and there you go…. coffee!
Without power, I considered a few options. A percolator? I tried it and the coffee taste was hard to get right. A french press? Maybe. I settled on http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BCS13IW. The product description says this:
The Clever Coffee Dripper combines the best features of French Press and filter drip brewing, eliminating the drawbacks of each. By adding a stopper to a filtercone, the Clever Coffee Dripper combines control over steeping time with a sediment free cup. The dripper will fit on cups and thermoses with tops wider than 1.5″ and less than 3.75″ in diameter. Of course, if you put the dripper on a very narrow thermos you should make sure it is stable. Cleaning: Cleaning the Clever Coffee Dripper is very easy. Just dispose of the used grounds and filter and rinse. Do not allow residue to build up in the filter. Lightly scrub the cone with very hot water and a sponge or brush, taking care to clean shut off mechanism lightly from the top. If necessary, use a detergent-free cleaner designed for carafes and filtercones.
It ends up being a great solution. I can easily heat water in a kettle on the stove inside the trailer (or on a camp stove outside). Add a filter with three scoops of coffee in it. Then fill up to the top with boiling water. Let sit for 15-20 minutes (that is the hard part). Then you just set the whole device on top of your mug and the coffee drips down into the mug. Awesome (and tasty).
The problem: it only makes enough coffee to fill one mug. This is a serious issue if you have more than one coffee drinker.
The solution: buy another Clever Coffee Dripper. With two, coffee can be prepared for two immediately (well… 15-20 minutes after the water boils). Once the first round is poured, the Clever Coffee Dripper can be prepared again for a second round of coffee. I now have the second Clever Coffee Dripper and will test out this solution in April or May 2016 during a test-run campout.
The travel trailer is now winterized and back in storage. I was also able to get the water heater fixed and get the hitch on the tow vehicle lowered (the Land Cruiser’s hitch was about 4″ higher than that of the Tundra).
It is time to put the plans together for the 2016 Summer Trip! Only 208 days until we roll out.
I am looking at a few different possible itineraries. Much will depend on if I am able to get reservations where I need to get them.
The mission will be similar to last year’s: exploring our National Parks. The wife has never been to Yosemite (gasp!) and it would be nice to spend some time there early in the season. I have never been to the Grand Canyon (gasp!) or any of the other major national parks in Utah and Colorado.
I really enjoyed my time at Glacier National Park and would like to spend more time there. We didn’t get to see all of Yellowstone.
For reservations, I already have them for Yellowstone and Grand Teton. They start accepting reservations two years out. Yosemite is a gamble. It is hard to get reservations there and I have to wait until January or February to try. Pretty much all the rest of the parks do not take reservations until 6 months out. That puts me at the end of November and the beginning of December to get my reservations in.
Most likely I will dash out to the West first. That will take four days of driving. If I can’t get reservations in Yosemite, I could always go to neighboring Kings Canyon or Sequoia National Parks. I have never been to either.
The fastest approach would probably be taking I-70 west until hitting I-15 in Utah. Then heading towards Las Vegas, take I-15 until I hit Barstow, CA. Alternatively, I could head south first, down to I-40 and make my way to Barstow, CA by way of Albuquerque and Flagstaff.
In California, we can stay either in Yosemite, Kings Canyon, or Sequoia. This would allow us to take a day trip (or overnight) out to the Bay Area to see relatives. I most likely would come in from the south through the San Joaquin Valley and approach from the west. Alternatively, I could head north up the eastern side of the Sierras to Lee Vining, CA. From there I could take Tioga Pass into Yosemite. But that would mean that Tioga Pass was open in early June and I had reservations for Yosemite. We will see.
Yosemite National Park
After California, I will head south and then east to Las Vegas, back up I-15 and head for Zion National Park. From Yosemite to Zion is 650 miles, making this leg a two day trip.
North Rim, Grand Canyon National Park
After spending a few days at Zion, it is a 125 mile jog south to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
After Bryce Canyon, I can hop back on to I-15 and make my way towards Glacier National Park. This will be a three day trip with stops in Pocatello and Great Falls. It would be nice to spend two full weeks at Glacier. Probably mostly on the east side, but maybe the west too.
Logan Point Visitors Center on The Going To The Sun Road, Glacier National Park
From Glacier it will take one or two days down to Yellowstone. I have reservations for the Canyon Campground. I think this should put at us for a good location for exploring. We need to devote some time to see Mammoth Hot Springs. I think we could spend the day there, head east having dinner at Roosevelt Lodge near tower and then spend an early evening watching in wildlife in the Lamar Valley.
June 2015 – Bison in Lamar Valley, Yellowstone National Park
After Yellowstone, a week in Grand Teton exploring much of went unexplored before is in order. Then generally heading the direction of home, perhaps a few days in Rocky Mountain National Park? When all is said and done, this could be a seven week trip – but could be tailored for less if needed.
A butterfly in front of the University of Kansas’ Monarch Waystation
We had a chance to head over to the University of Kansas and attend their open house concerning the annual Monarch butterfly migration. They have been tracking the huge decline in the Monarch butterfly population and are trying to raise awareness to how we can help restore the population.
Sarah and Emily examine some caterpillars in the garden behind Foley Hall.
We had a great day at Yosemite. We left the cabin at about 7:15am. It was difficult getting Emily going. I got up early and loaded the bikes the in the truck. I should have made some sandwiches but at least I packed a six pack of water bottles and two bags of Cheerios.
The total distance from the cabin to the Yosemite Valley floor in about 75 miles. The drive started pretty easy. Down the mountain on CA 108 to the junction with CA 49 heading south. CA 49 then leads to CA 120 and moves quickly until the Priest Grade. 8 miles of slow, steep and windy road. Then things moved fast again through Groveland… which reminded me of Sweeney (was he Grandpa Barrios’ brother?). I also remember the adults making a trip to the Iron Door Saloon from Family Camp one time. We passed that too.
After the turn off for San Jose Family Camp (I wish we had had some extra time to take that detour) the road got a bit more windy and you could still see plenty of evidence of the Rim Fire. The park entrance is about 20 miles from the valley floor. I got the newspaper they hand out and a map. It is a windy drive down into the valley, but very pretty.
Once down on the valley floor, I pulled into parking which I thought was the Visitors Center. The drive had taken about two hours. After we parked, we started walking to find the bathrooms prior to going to the Visitors Center. Then I saw a sign that said the Visitors Center was a 10 minute walk along the bike path, or you could take a shuttle bus. I realized we were just in a parking area – no where close to the Visitors Center. Back to the truck and we unloaded the bikes. We were off.
After a short ride we arrived at the Visitors Center. We got our National Park Passports stamped and the Junior Ranger worksheets. I also got a map that showed the bike trails around the valley floor.
We then hit a nearby deli and got sandwiches…. as breakfast was kind of skipped in an effort to get out the door. Once fueled up with a bit of food, we took our bikes over to Yosemite Falls. Emily was really excited to see the waterfall. You can’t ride bikes up too far but after we parked them, it was a short hike with a pretty view of the lower falls.
Back on the bikes, we swung across the valley floor and crossed the Merced River on a bridge. When we were coming up behind people on the bikes, I gave my little bike bell a ring to get them to scoot over.
Our next stop was Camp Curry and their General Store where we got ice cream and took a quick break. Then we continued on to the Mirror Lake trailhead. We made a short hike to the lake (which looked much different than I remembered it), found some rocks, took a break and drank water.
Back on our bikes and heading down the road, we saw a small black bear just off the side of the road. He was on a fallen log, pulling it apart – probably looking for grubs. The bear was about 20 feet away.
After more riding, we stopped at The Ahwahnee – the fancy resort hotel on the valley floor. We got water there and rested a bit. Nothing we could live without in the gift shop (lots of fancy stuff).
Back to the Visitors Center. We worked on the Junior Ranger worksheet, then attended a Junior Ranger program conducted by one of the rangers. After that, the girls got their Junior Ranger badges. In recognition of their achievement, we took a trip to the gift shop where Sarah got a Yosemite Half Dome baseball cap and Emily got a puzzle with a picture of a black bear on it.
A short bike ride back to the truck. The parking lot was PACKED. I am so glad we took the bikes. After I packed up the truck (now 3:30pm) we made our way back out. Cars parked everywhere. I am glad we got there when we did.
The drive back had more traffic than the drive there.
During our local camping experiences back in the summer and fall of 2014, I had to relearn how to make a campfire. Sad to admit it too, as I spent many years in the Boy Scouts and did earn my Eagle Scout. When we started camping (after we bought the travel trailer), I struggled to get a campfire going.
