Back on the Road

The teenage girl on the ground three feet from me is either seriously fucked up or dead.  Both EMT’s bent over her comatose body frantically search for vital signs as her two young friends anxiously hover nearby.  I can hear the concern in their voices over the four-foot high barrier separating me from them.  The EMT’s waste little time before whisking the girl away to a nearby ambulance, so we never learn her fate.  She is certainly the worst off, but only one of many kids that get carted off after getting too high.  Thank god I lived through those days of my youth.

Silversun Pickups rocking hard

Babe and I are in the mosh pit at the Xfest music festival in Calgary, trying to avoid the bodies passing over our heads with front row seats to some great rock ‘n’ roll.  We had come to see my current favorite band, the Silversun Pickups, who were killing it at the moment on stage.  I had seen them play two years earlier with my son Colin at the Gorge in Eastern Washington.  In those days they had little following outside of their hometown LA.  Now they were the third headliner behind Linkin Park and Incubus at a festival that included a number of other excellent bands.  We loved all of them.  The Joy Formidable from Wales had a fabulous drummer, the band fun. featured a great lead singer, Young the Giant got off to a slow start and then rocked hard and the alternative band Mutemath from New Orleans was great.  We didn’t get there in time to see them, but we heard The Pack A.D. ripping it up during the short walk from our hotel to the venue.  Unfortunately, Incubus cancelled during the show because their lead singer was hoarse, but that enabled the Silversun Pickups to play a longer set and Linkin Park finished by blowing the doors off the tents.  All in all, it was a great day of music in a wonderful city, despite having to endure an hour of cold, wind driven hail sandwiched between clean air and plenty of sun.

Babe staying warm in her purple OR rain shell.  Unlike most concert goers we checked the weather forecast & prepared

Still smoking hot and extremely naughty at 53

Yes sports fans, the Babe and I are still living the life.  She just turned 53 and I will turn 60 on this seven-week road trip that has already taken us through Bend Oregon, Northern Idaho and Montana.   

 

Life doesn't get much better than Babe fishing in Glacier

We plan on leaving Calgary tomorrow for Banff National Park and Lake Louise.  After a few days there we will cross western Canada north of Jasper to Squamish, British Columbia.  We are here to climb and fly fish before working back down to Reno, Nevada and the air races.   

From there we are flying to Spain and Sardinia for three more weeks of climbing in the sun before returning to look for jobs.  Heartfelt thanks go out to Barb Lawson for watching my house plants, Dieter at Southern Oregon Nursery for taking care of my bonsai and my son Colin for watching the condo.

Plants & property safe in the hands of friends and family

The trip got off to a tough start when I hit a deer soon after leaving Ashland.  We saw the deer hit the right front bumper milliseconds before we felt the thump of the Audi propelling the godforsaken beast into the air.  The thump was solid, deep, like Ray Lewis leveling a wide receiver trying to catch a pass over the middle.  In my peripheral vision I watched the long-legged vermin fly at least 20 feet off the ground and land somewhere in the woods more than 100 feet away.  Take that motherfucker!  Large chunks of hair, some with meat attached, replaced most of my grill and right headlight.

We were lucky.  It was just after 7 PM when and we had been crawling along Dead Indian Road (I now understand the name) because it was covered with game and free range cattle.  The deer bounded out of the woods from the other side of the road and hit us when we were going about 40 mph.  A direct hit or faster speed could have resulted in a much more serious encounter.  Thank god I wasn’t driving my motorcycle.

Unfortunately, the deer still got the last laugh.  Despite the car driving like it was unaffected, there was $10K+ of damage to the front end and our vacation came to a standstill 45 minutes from home.  Rolling back into Ashland we encountered four more young bucks strolling brazenly down our street, thinking that they owned the right of way.  I normally want to shoot the sonofabitches anyway, so I did my best to run one over; the damage had already been done.  Surprising how fast deer move once they realize you aren’t a typical Ashlandite more concerned with their tantric message.  Cosmic!

Our Ford Explorer on Going to the Sun highway in Glacier

So two days later we a rented Ford Explorer and were on our way.  There are many things I miss about the Audi (acceleration, road handling, visibility, comfort, navigation system), but I have to admit the Explorer isn’t all bad.  Silverfuck by the Smashing Pumpkins is thumping on the stereo and it sounds pretty good.  And even though we just got passed by a Prius, I have quickly adapted to the mind-numbing complacency of cruise control forced on us by the loss of my Passport 9500ci radar detector/laser shifter.  Makes me want to park in the left lane, get on my cell phone and join the legions of shitty American drivers who haven’t looked in their rearview mirrors for a week and think, like the deer, that they own the road.  They sometimes make me wish for the future depicted by Harlan Ellison in his fabulous short story Along the Scenic Route. 

Before hitting the deer we had planned to spend to spend four days climbing at Smith Rocks outside of Bend, Oregon.  That was cut down to a single day on the rock at one of America’s premier climbing areas; arguably the birthplace of sport climbing and home to many of the hardest rock climbs in the world.  Smith’s tranquil setting and superb rock are hard to beat, and we spend a fabulous day climbing moderate sport routes.  At the end of the day Babe led a solid 5.7 classic (Dancer), with consistently thoughtful moves and bolts spaced far enough apart to pucker up that cute little butt of hers.  I was impressed (with the lead).

Getting back on the rock at Smith Rocks

After leaving Smith we stopped for two days to see my son Kevin in Moscow where he is attending the University of Idaho.  Two of my nephews, Mac and Logan, are going to school seven miles away at WSU, so we take the three boys out to dinner.  Even though it is just a week into the new school year, all three are very appreciative of going out to eat.  The cousins have been extremely close their whole lives, and it is fun to see the world through their eyes as they yuck it up.  So much possibility lies in front of them at a time when the world is ripe with change.  Exciting.  We take Kevin out to buy some sorely needed clothes before heading on to Glacier National Park.  His impressions of the University are favorable, and I am optimistic that this will be a great year for him.

Logan, Kevin and Mac

Babe's first fish ever caught on fly tackle

Before rolling into Calgary we spent the prior week camped out in Glacier where we went on long day hikes into incredible alpine lakes to fly fish.  Babe caught her first fish ever on a fly rod, a beautiful 14” cutthroat trout, at Hidden Lake.  She is quite pleased with herself and her new Cabela’s RLX size 5 rod & reel.  It is an excellent combo and much easier to handle then my 42-year old Fenwick fly pole equipped with an ancient, Perrine automatic reel that she had been practicing with in Ashland. 

Me reeling in another cutthroat trout on Lake Otokomi

But that old pole had caught plenty of fish long before fly fishing became a yuppie sport with over-priced equipment and the current catch & release ethic.  I did update it with a new Cabela’s reel before leaving on this trip, and must admit it is a great improvement over my outdated Perrine.

Hidden Lake in the background

Hidden Lake had been closed most of the summer due to a large grizzly that had staked it out for himself, but it opened on our last day in the park.  The six mile round trip hike into this incredibly beautiful spot was a welcome relief from the 13 miles we had humped the day before with 2,000 feet of elevation gain into Otokomi Lake.  

  

Note the bear spray on the hip

Hiking into all these lakes it is easy to imagine turning a blind corner and running into a bear; in fact, it happens all too frequently.  Glacier is rugged wilderness and the site of the most bear attacks in the USA.  My ex-wife Jane and I had run into a grizzly during my most recent trip to the park 23 years earlier when she was seven months pregnant with my first son and Glacier still had glaciers.  So Babe and I are both carrying bear spray and I am also packing the .44 with magnum shells designed for bear.  God forbid that I should ever have to use either. 

I have had numerous bear encounters over the years, including ones with habituated black bears that persistently bothered me.  Fortunately, I have never had to spray or shoot one, but I have seen enough of their speed and power to not take them for granted.  The most frequent comment you hear from bear attack survivors is how fast the event takes place.  We don’t make the mistake of carrying our spray or gun in our packs, and I made Babe practice with the spray before hitting the trails.  I have my doubts about the spray despite all the politically correct assertions that it is more effective and safer than a gun.  More often than not you are downwind and in a heavily vegetated area when you unexpectedly encounter an aggressive bear in the wild, meaning that you end up spraying yourself and providing a welcome seasoning for the beast to enjoy.  I have yet to talk with someone who has actually sprayed a charging bear from 10-20 feet away (they run as fast as thoroughbred horses), but I know I can hit a silver dollar consistently from that distance with the .44.

Bighorn sheep

Mountain goats

Mountain goat perch

Hoary marmot

Thankfully, after four days of backcountry hiking we encounter lots of bighorn sheep, marmots and mountain goats but no bears.  At Hidden Lake we don’t find any sign of the grizzly, but we do find numerous wolf, black bear, elk and deer prints at a watering hole filled with tadpoles. 

Hidden Lake tadpoles

Just your average Glacier view

We are treated to stunning vistas on our hikes, as well as when driving on the amazing Going to the Sun highway that traverses the park. This national historic landmark is truly one of the world’s most amazing roads, carved out of steep walls featuring unstable rock.  My mother, afraid of heights, could hardly breathe when we drove on it nearly 50 years earlier.  Built in the 30’s, this engineering marvel would never be built today.  It just wouldn’t get funded.  The scenery along this road is as good as it gets, but most of the glaciers for which the park is named have disappeared since my last visit 23 years ago.  Melted.  The current forecast by the USGS is that all the glaciers in the park will disappear within the next eight years, so get there now if you want to see them. 

Going to the Sun Highway

The only negative on trip (other than hitting the deer), is that I lost my iPhone in Glacier.  I decide to wait before replacing it and pick up the cheapest phone available at the AT&T store in Kalispell, Montana.  I certainly got what I paid for (piece of shit).  

Not to worry however, we are about to head into one of the most beautiful places in the world.  Stay tuned.