Nathan G. Welch
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Roll Call

9/11/2015

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Waterton-Glacier National Park was the last stop on our road trip to Seattle. Unanimously voted the best destination by Jessica, Amanda, and me, Glacier beat our most delusional, over-hyped expectations. This may seem like extreme language, but nearly every amazing view or heart pounding adventure before Glacier elicited two responses: "wow" and "I bet Glacier is better." If Glacier fell short of utopia, the trip would have been an epic failure. Our fantasies of Glacier were the measuring stick for the Rockies, Yellowstone, and everything we experienced up to that point. Our imaginations hardly compared to what we found in northwest Montana. 

Before I get to the park, I have to tell you about the drive. We exited I-15 about 90 minutes north of Helena, picking back up on US-287 after a short interstate interlude. While we only saw three highway patrolmen since leaving Kansas, speed limit signs on 287 were nowhere to be found. After five miles or so, we took bets on the number of mile markers we would pass before seeing a speed limit sign. It's important to note that the speed limits along US-anything north of Yellowstone are more like cynical dares than physical constraints. The mile markers kept climbing. I knew a Barney Fife wannabe was just over the next hill or around the next bend waiting to bring the hammer down. "60 seems okay," I told Amanda and Jessica as we drove past mile marker after mile marker. "Speed limit 70!" someone shouted. Amanda's bet (12) was largest, so she won by default. We were on mile 22.

I began to accelerate when we saw a storefront in the distance. That was a relief; we had not seen another human for nearly a half-hour. I slowed and pulled into the parking lot. We had half a tank of gas, but that's living on the edge in a place where it's nothing to go for 50 miles without seeing another soul. As we got closer to the store, two movies came to mind: The Hills Have Eyes and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. "Nathan, I don't think this is a gas station" Amanda suggests nervously. "Is that a guy splitting wood?" I ask. "The sign says private residence," Amanda replied. Jessica somehow read my mind. "This is how every murder movie starts." A shirtless man stopped chopping wood and looks up to see us trespassing on his gravel driveway/parking lot/front yard. The Prius has a 'Power Mode' button. I checked my mirrors, and hit engage. "Not getting murdered today" I said to myself as we raced up to and well past 70 mph.

We drove a few miles and decided that we had to stop. The view was simply too good to pass up. I found an asphalt turnoff and pulled over. I took a break, Amanda snapped pictures, and Jessica turned cartwheels down the street. We all handle near death murder experiences differently I guess. About that time, Jessica sees a truck top a hill in the field across the highway, and it was coming our way. I watched it for a while. "It must be a rancher or someone who works for him. I'm going to talk to him." I yell out to Amanda and Jessica who have spread out around our parking spot by this point.

"Hello, we were just driving through and decided to stop for a few pictures. Do you live around here?" I ask a rugged looking man who appears to be in his mid-50s. "Yeah, this is my property. I have 24,000 acres and 1,100 head of cattle." I looked around. The fields were empty. "Well where are they?" He laughed and told me that they were in the summer pastures in the mountains. We exchanged introductions and continued. "How do you get them down here?" I asked. Larry told me that his brother owns the neighboring 24,000 acre ranch. With help from his brother, his brother's sons, and a couple other farmers from the area, they roundup and drive the herd down on horseback every year for market and winter feeding. "What about crime around here... What do you do if someone stirs up trouble?" I asked. "We're pretty heavily armed out here. We have the deputy a few miles up. If he's not around, then highway patrol is usually available. If no patrolmen are in the area, then someone from Helena is sent up." That was incredible to me. We passed through Helena nearly two hours before. By this time, Amanda and Jessica walked up. "What's the deal with the house/store a few miles back? I was going to use the bathroom, but I couldn't do it there. We thought we were going to be murdered" Amanda joked. With a straight face, Larry pointed out that "You could have used the bathroom there if you were quick about it."

Here are several photos of Larry's property, US-287, and our first views of Glacier.
We spent our first day at Glacier hiking to Ptarmigan Tunnel. Campers leaving the site we picked in Many Glacier Campground told us about their hike up to the tunnel the day before. "Snow drifts were waste deep when we were up there yesterday" the couple told Jessica and me. "Be careful. It's dangerous up there if you don't have the right gear." I thought back to our hike to Sky Pond in the Rockies. "This is our next adventure!" I told to myself. We had our site reserved by 7:30AM and headed back to pick-up Amanda from the hotel where we stayed the night before. On our way out, we stopped by the Many Glacier Hotel and spotted our first bear high up the base of a mountain next to the hotel.

We got on the trail just before lunch. The hike is around 10.5 miles round trip and gains 2,300 feet in elevation. Loud talking is the best way to avoid surprising a bear on the trail. We were mostly alone the whole hike and had been around each other every waking hour for nearly a week at that point. Topics exciting enough to keep us talking loudly for hours on end were spent days earlier, so we came up with a few bear-away songs and warnings to remedy the issue. 
  • "Roll call. Amanda?! Nathan?! Jessica?!" belts Jessica a couple miles into the hike. The person who initiates the call has to account for him/herself too.
  • "BEAR!" Amanda screams. "AWARE!" another yells. The rangers around Glacier spend their spare time inducing bear-based panic attacks among small children. They often remind visitors be vigilant and 'bear aware.' Aware indeed. 
  • My contribution was to sing songs about 'big, fat grizzlies' to the tune of the Camptown Ladies. The gist is that the 'big, fat grizzlies' do something followed with a gravely 'rawr, rawr... rawr, rawr' per Jessica.
The trail to Ptarmigan Tunnel was clear except for the last half-mile. It was amazing to start the hike in the mid-50s at the trail head, ascend just above the tree line about four miles later, and walk-up on snow. Hikers passing us around mile 3 asked if we were ready for snow. I was convinced they were lying considering the clear, pleasant temperatures we were experiencing. There was just no way we could meet waste deep snow with the conditions on the trail. I was dead wrong...
We trudged up the trail past several other hikers who "had to turn around." Maybe we should have turned around, but we saw at least one other couple make it up the pass and disappear into the mountain. We could certainly do it too and did.

I came away with two important lessons from this hike. First, the current weather is not a good predictor of the conditions around the corner or a few minutes into the future. Second, distances are always longer than what they appear. (Did you spot the hiker turning the lower switchback in the second picture above? He's the black dot on the curve.) The tunnel is only 250 feet long, but the conditions on each side were near polar opposites. It was snowy on both sides, but the sun greeted us when we exited the tunnel on the other side. As with Sky Pond, the weather deteriorated quickly while we explored the tunnel, forcing us back the down the mountain. We had to return the same way we came up. The fourth picture above shows the difference in the weather when we hit the snow (picture 2) from the mouth of the tunnel (fourth picture).

We visited the Grinnell Glacier on the second day in the park. We took boats across Swiftcurrent Lake and Lake Josephine and hiked 8 miles round trip. Park Ranger Monica guided a group of 20 or so hikers (including us) to the glaciers. The others must have been tired or slacking on their bear knowledge. They were way too quiet. Amanda, Jessica, and I took attendance, screamed "BEAR!... AWARE!", and worked on our original composition, "The Big, Fat Grizzlies," on the ascent and descent. You're welcome silent hikers.

We ended the day with well-deserved beers at on the deck at the Many Glacier Hotel. As we unwound, we met a drifter named Jessee. He noted that all the campsites were full for the night. I told him we had plenty of space at our site for a third tent. No clue what was going through my head. I must have just been glad to be off the mountain. Whatever the case, Amanda and Jessica were not impressed. Turns out, Jessee was extremely sketchy. Never would have guessed that after getting to know him for 3.5 minutes in the middle of the Montana wilderness. Thankfully, he didn't murder us. We're all laughing about it now. Jessee made the last night of the trip our final adventure. 

Here are a few highlights from the Grinnell Glacier hike.
The views on the drive out of Glacier were every bit as exciting as the ones we saw on the way to the park. We took Going to the Sun Road through the middle of the park and part of our way over the Rockies. Here are a few of my favorite photos from that portion of the drive.
Jessica summed up the trip perfectly as we left Montana. Flipping through the atlas, she noticed a familiar photo with some sappy quote. It was the mountain peak in one of the pictures above. "From now on, when I see some amazing photo, I'll wonder whether or not I've been there."

We pulled into Seattle later that night. Jessica helped Amanda and I move into our new place the next day. I had all the electronics setup by the end of the day, including our Apple TV. Our screen saver flips through National Geographic's nature sequence. I noted familiar scenes from the week before. 

Roll call... Amanda? Jessica? Nathan?
Picture
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Hooked

9/7/2015

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"I like sleeping in a tent," I hear Amanda tell Jessica as we try to beat the rain and setup camp in Yellowstone's Madison Campground. I stopped what I was doing to confirm the statement. Jessica tries to get the words out between laughing spells. "No, she said 'LOVE'--not 'like'. Love."  

When I shared the itinerary for this trip with my friends and family, most seemed eager to hear about the plan and the backup plan. "Backup plan.... For what?" I replied the last time it came up. "Well, how often do you and your wife go camping?" my MITRE colleague asked over lunch a few days before Amanda and I were scheduled to leave. Eight or so others around the table began to laugh as it became clear that there was only one plan. "She'll be hooked. I know she'll love it now that we have the right gear." To fully appreciate the qualifier, one would have to know about the pilot study we ran a couple years ago in West Virginia with our friends Will and Tina. It's enough to say that we came away with some lessons learned. This time, we were prepared.

Rain began to pepper our site as I tried to get the fire started. Jessica and Amanda were rushing to get dinner prepped and our site setup. It was already dark, and we had been on the road for 10+ hours. We only had an hour before lights out. We got everything worked out in time to have burgers and S'mores before calling it a day. It poured later that night and the temperature dove into the 20s each evening for the remainder of the trip. It was some of the best sleep we can remember.

Yellowstone was the second stop on our trip. We spent two full days exploring the west side of the park. The first day we visited Old Faithful, the Grand Prismatic Spring Trail, and Artist's Paint Pots Trail. The last stop was my personal favorite for the 'drive-up' portion of our trip. Artist's Paint Pots has several different geothermal features in a small area, including hot springs, mudpots, a fumarole, and geysers. The deafening fumarole venting steam from several holes in the ground was the highlight for me.

We visited Uncle Tom's Trail (300+ stairs) to see the Lower Falls, hiked South Rim Trail along the Grand Canyon, summited Mount Washburn, and drove the Hayden Valley and Yellowstone Lake the second day. We also spotted more stars on our second night than any of us can remember seeing up to that point. Without city lights for hundreds of miles around, the Milky Way was clearly visible too.

Overall, Yellowstone was a worthwhile stop, but the crowds
made it feel more like a horribly underdeveloped version of Disneyland than a protected wilderness. I could be convinced to return, but next time I will look for ways to put some distance between me and other tourists.

Key stats:
  • 442 miles traveled between Rocky Mountain National Park and Yellowstone
  • Average speed was 48 miles per hour
  • Averaged 46.2 miles per gallon on this hike
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One Ring to Rule Them All

9/4/2015

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“Come hobbits, come… We must climb!” Gollum tells Samwise Gamgee and Frodo Baggins as he leads them up the stairs to the Cirith Ungol pass to Mordor. I couldn’t help recall that scene from the Lord of the Rings movie as Amanda, Jessica, and I ascended the final quarter mile of our hike alongside Timberline Falls spilling out of Lake of Glass.

We started our hike to Sky Pond by boarding a shuttle at an overflow parking lot near the Bear Lake campground. As we stepped onto the bus, I asked a ranger if the route took us to the Sky Pond trail head. She paused, looked us over, and said “You know the weather is turning up there, right?” I nodded and assured her that we packed the right gear. She shrugged her shoulders, stepped aside, and told us, “This one will take you up there... Don't be afraid to turn around.” We were the last people on the bus and squeezed into the ‘standing area’ (i.e. the isle) of the bus. It was a tight fit. 

We got off the bus at Glacier Gorge (elevation 9,240 feet). Our destination, Sky Pond, was 4.9 miles out and 1,710 feet above our starting point. We chatted with a few hikers as they passed. Only one had been up to Lake of Glass and Sky Pond. He repeated the warning about the weather, so I asked him about specific concerns. “Lightening… You’re completely exposed up there and have no where to go above the tree line.” We had not heard thunder for at least a half-hour and decided to press on until something changed. 

As we made our way around Loch Vale, we could see a waterfall high-up the mountain near the summit. I wondered to myself if the flow emptied into Sky Pond before spilling over into Lake of Glass. It was at least a mile away and had to be 600 feet or more above us. (NPS trail guide puts it around 800 feet.) “Maybe we can get closer to the falls after we visit Sky Pond,” I thought as we continued along the trail. After another half a mile the slight grade and generous switch-backs became a punishing march straight up the mountain’s face. The waterfall did not feed Sky Pond… It was overflow from Lake of Glass. We were going to the summit. 

It began to rain as we ascended above the tree line. We paused to put on our rain gear and see rock stairs leading around to a large bolder. They were walkable, but just barely. When we made it to the top of the stairs, we saw several people on all fours descending down an even steeper field of rocks. As they approached, we could see one with a shirt covered in blood. We offered first aid to bandage a laceration he got when he fell from the rock face ahead. “Rock face? What are you talking about?” This was the first I heard of it. He points up the mountain, “Lake of Glass and Sky Pond are up there. If you can make it past the vertical section, the rest is pretty easy. Be careful though, the rocks are slick from all the water. That’s where I fell.” A second person descending told Jessica that she was "an experience rock climber, and decided it was too risky to proceed." My adrenaline spiked. This is the adventure I hoped to find in the Rockies. 

We got on all fours and moved slowly up a field of rocks. There was no trail at this point. We came to a 15-20 foot tall wall bookended by a waterfall and the sky. We stopped and weighed the risks for ourselves. I started up the wall to see how difficult it really was to find good hand and foot holds. There were plenty, especially if you climbed in the falls. I made it to the top and pointed out the easiest route I found to Jessica and Amanda. They followed without issue. We continued on all fours for another 300 or so yards and took in our first views of Lake of Glass. It was breathtaking.
We could see the water flowing out of the lake and over the waterfall we spotted earlier. We could also see several (small) glaciers clinging to the sides of the mountain. I took out our chairs, and we celebrated our accomplishment with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. After a short break, Amanda broke out her camera as the rain eased up. Jessica explored the lake. I looked for the trail to Sky Pond.It was higher still. (The trail completely vanishes at the Lake of Glass. It took us 10 minutes or so to spot several--unnatural--piles of rocks pointing us towards the path.)   
We made it to Sky Pond after a short hike, but only had a few minutes to stay. Black clouds were lumbering over the peak above the pond and the rain was picking back up. The adventure was fun, but it was definitely time to go. With the rain coming down hard on the descent, Amanda and I partnered to try capturing our adventure to the sky. Jessica also caught several good ones with her camera phone.
Here are some of the images that made it off the mountain along with some photos of our trip up Old Fall River Road (dirt, one-way road without guard rails) and down Trial Ridge Road (highest paved road in the US). I just noticed that we saw the sun rise and set on Wednesday. Both were exciting to experience.
Finally, here are the key road trip stats for the leg from Kansas City, KS to Estes Park, CO:
  • Departed Kansas City at 3:09 AM CST on Wednesday, September 2
  • Arrived at the Denver Airport around 11 AM MDT to pick up our friend Jessica
  • Entered Estes Park at 1:30 PM MDT 
  • Total distance 694 miles
  • 39.3 miles per gallon on average (very low due to 75 mph speed limit in western KS/eastern CO and ascent from ~5,000 feet above sea level in Denver to ~8,200 in Rocky Mountain National Park)
  • Average speed 65 miles per hour

Next stop: Yellowstone
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