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You Win, Glacier, You Totally Win.

From Portland, I headed up the coast of Oregon, made a pit-stop at the beach where the Goonies was filmed (how could I not), and continued on to Seattle. A dear friend from Purdue, Dyann, met me there and will continue on with me all the way to Colorado! We spent the day tooling around Seattle, with my favorite part being Pikes Place Market, specifically the flowers and the clam chowder sold there. After a fun night out with Dyann’s friend, we set out for Glacier National Park the next day, one of my more anticipated destinations!

Glacier met every single expectation I had and went beyond. It’s hard to explain the beauty. Snow-capped mountains, turquoise blue lakes, wildflowers, it was idyllic. We took a drive up the winding Going-to-the-Sun Road and stopped to see all the gorgeous views. It reminded me of what I have always thought the Swiss Alps would look like. Glacier is not an easy place to get to, it lies on the border of Montana and Canada, far away from many signs of civilization. This keeps the crowds fairly low and provides a landscape unlike any other I’ve seen in the U.S. We were able to take a hike to a lake, saw another black bear, and raced back to our campsite in the pouring rain! The weather in Glacier wasn’t ideal and we missed seeing some wildlife we were looking forward to (no moose sightings, bummer). But to me, that didn’t matter. Glacier was magnificent. It jumped to the top of the “Places I’ll Be Revisiting” list. I absolutely fell in love.

September 26, 2016 0

We Get It Oregon, You’re Beautiful

Nate and Amy continued on with me to the next few stops, Crater Lake National Park, Bend, Oregon, and Portland via the Columbia River Gorge. Oregon quickly became my favorite overall state on the whole trip. The ever changing landscape is best described by the pictures. Crater Lake, the deepest in the U.S., was created by the collapse of a volcano, the tip of which now forms the island in the middle of the lake. We took a drive around the rim and a short hike up to the ranger tower station to get the best view of the lake. It is the bluest, most pristine lake I have ever seen, so much so that it almost looks fake. Pretty awesome. From there, we headed to Bend, Oregon, but first Amy knew of super secret hot springs that we found thanks to her amazing memory.

We arrived to Smith Rock, our campground in Bend, at night and awoke to a beautiful view. It was a fantastic campground on a cliff, overlooking a river. Oh and Nate’s birthday! That called for a day of brewery hopping with some of Amy’s San Fran friends, who are also trekking across the country, choosing vans as their mode of transportation. The day was one extremely well spent, especially since Nate rocked a man bun, you know, to fit into the Oregon lifestyle.

The next day we made our way to Portland by spending the whole day driving along the Columbia River Gorge. It was amazing, once we got to the state park area, it was basically a road of waterfalls. Every new little town we drove through had at least one brewery and endless views. It was already my favorite state and I hadn’t even made it to the Oregon coast yet. We ended the day in Portland, hit the town for a bit, and got in some much needed showers. I said my goodbyes to Nate and Amy the next morning; thanks for making such wonderful road trip buddies, I’ll see you in Bacontown!

Curl power

Man bun!

Ice cream proposal

September 15, 2016 1

Oh Whale

After a fond farewell to Ben, I went back to solo-trekking. First stop Channel Islands National Park, located off the coast of Ventura, California. An hour and a half boat ride takes you to a chain of remarkably preserved islands. But before I get to that, I SAW WHALES!! On the boat ride out, we passed a small pod of humpback whales about 40 yards from the boat, one of them breaching high into the air and slamming back down like in all the nature documentaries I watch on Netflix. It was crazy cool. Not to mention the 30 or so dolphins riding in the wake of the boat, jumping over each other just feet from where I stood! It was quite the ride. Anyway, I digress. I took a hike to the highest point on Santa Cruz Island, the largest of the Channel Islands. The views were unbeatable, once I got to the top, I could see California way off in the distance. Mix that in with a few island fox sightings and a little dip in the ocean, and my day was complete. This may not be the easiest National Park to get to, but it’s definitely worth it.

After camping that night near the beach, I made my way up the coast via one of my most anticipated drives, Highway 1 through Big Sur, a section of the California coast south of San Francisco. Sadly, however, my excitement waned as I realized the enormous effect wildfires were having on the area. The view of the ocean was completely blocked by smoke on the entire drive and all of the state parks and campgrounds located along the coast were closed. These fires continue to rage all over California, as the state continues to experience severe drought conditions. While it sucked that my plans got ruined, it is so much worse for the land, the environment, and the people affected by the fires. Lucky for me, one of my best friends, Nate, lives a couple hours north of Big Sur, so I headed to his house early instead of camping, which turned out great thanks to his amazing roommate Christy and his equally amazing girlfriend Amy. More on that next time!

August 30, 2016 0

Weird Trees and Frisbees

The heat is on. At least in Joshua Tree in July. Ben and I arrived without a campsite reserved and upon asking the park ranger if this would be a problem, we got a chuckle along with “no one comes to Joshua Tree in July!”. The extreme heat made for a sweaty day, but an amazing night. Because there were only around 15 other idiots camping in the giant park, we basically had our pick of spots and total run of the place. This national park is so unique, instead of hiking trails, the best thing to do is climb giant, Dali-like boulders and search for the wildest looking Joshua trees. After an afternoon of just that, we had a fantastic night, despite our lonely, ecstasy laden neighbor (yes he picked the spot right next to us in an empty campground) who loved twirling glow sticks and playing techno while reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The night ended with the most gigantic, brightest moon I have ever seen among a million stars; we slept on top of a boulder without a tent and it turned into my favorite night on the whole trip.

We left Joshua Tree for the old homestead, San Diego! Somehow I forgot how good life on the beach can be. We did all the best that San Diego has to offer, Ocean Beach swimming, Whizbo frisbee tossing, seafood eating, local beer drinking, Del Mar horse racing, and Comic-Con people watching. A trip to Stone Brewery, the most beautiful brewery I’ve ever seen, capped off a fantastic weekend.

August 25, 2016 0

Angels and Narrows

Ben and I made our way up to Utah and headed into Zion National Park via the coolest park entrance yet. The drive takes you from the top of the red rock canyon, circling around the cliffs and through tunnels until you reach the bottom of the canyon and finish the drive along the river. This was the perfect start to what became one of my favorite parks on this trip. For our first full day, we decided to take on the Angel’s Landing hike, a notoriously terrifying hike that takes you about two miles up the canyon via a series of switchbacks until you hit a flat landing. Then the final mile climbs up the spine of the ridge, with canyon drop-offs on both sides. The narrow width and steepness of the climb requires you to pull yourself up via a bolted chain that runs the length of the spine. There are certain areas where one slip can prove to be your final mistake, one that I almost made. Had I let go of the chain during my butt-slide slip on the way down, I might have gotten to the bottom a whole lot faster. It was terrifying and amazing and rewarded us with a view that can’t be matched. I hope the pics do it justice, but I’m not sure that’s possible.

We ended Zion with the Narrows hike, an outstanding hike in the bottom of the canyon, through the river. After a couple miles, you get to the area of the canyon where you have to hike in the water, as the sheer walls on both sides provide no flatland. It was a uniquely awesome hike, one I’ll definitely do again when I hopefully make it back to this magnificent place. Turns out, there’s way more to Utah than polygamists and weak beer.

August 22, 2016 0

Dead Wood and a Giant Crack

Left New Mexico for Arizona via a drive through the Petrified Forest National Park, an apocalyptic looking place containing giant deposits of petrified wood, which is basically wood that has turned completely to stone. Worth a drive through, but since there’s very little camping done here, I moved on to the Grand Canyon, where I was joined by the boyfriend Ben! It’s been a long stretch alone, and while I make great company, I was tiring of myself. We camped in the park with lots of elk and giant ravens, eventually making our way through the crowds to do a pretty intense hike down the canyon. Of course the intense part came on the way back up when the temperature had climbed to sauna level. But what an enormous crack it is, so much so that it almost looked fake. Quite an amazing thing to see, I’d love to get back for a rafting trip someday. The pictures do a better job of summing up this impressive park.

August 15, 2016 0

Do You Know the Way to Santa Fe?

Or maybe it’s San Jose, but I did find my way to Santa Fe. Finally made it to the southwest, goodbye humidity, hello heat and that is just fine with me! I camped in the Santa Fe National Forest, a great spot up a mountain. I just happened to be there during the International Folk Arts Festival, a really neat art fest that featured artists from small towns and villages all over the world. I also got a chance to spend a lot of time in Santa Fe and a bit of time in Albuquerque. The natural landscape, the people, the art, and the food made me fall in love with these two little towns. My mouth was on fire basically the whole time I was there due to hot chiles covering every morsel of food, and it was fantastic.

I really enjoyed my time in New Mexico, and a lot of that was due to the people. There is a strong focus on art and also Native American culture and history. I was able to talk to an artist at length about environmental issues that occur in on some of the reservations due mostly to mining companies that only do enough to meet the lowest level of environmental regulations and standards. Interesting to hear about, yet also frustrating.

Oh, and I took a hike up the mountain and assumed I was following the trail. It started getting so steep, I had to essentially bear crawl to make it up. After an exhausting climb, I started heading back down and eventually got to where the trail actually went. Turns out I was on some sort of rogue trail, probably made by more hardcore people than I. Oops.

August 4, 2016 0

To the Batcave Robin!

Bourbon, bluegrass, and a giant cave system, welcome to Kentucky! The first thing I usually do when I get somewhere new is head to the campsite, set up my tent, and figure out a loose game plan for my current location. Well, when I got to the tent portion in Mammoth Cave National Park Campground, my routine came to a halt. One of my tent poles had cracked and wouldn’t stay in its designated home. I tried all my engineering skills to fix it, and actually had the whole tent up with a stick brace, until I put the last little hook on and it all came crashing down. The end of the pole had actually cracked off. Luckily, I had decided to throw my old, crappy tent into my car. I set it up and hoped any rain would lay off for the next couple nights, which it did! And, thanks to REI’s return policies, I was able to pick up a brand new tent for no charge at my next stop. Crisis averted.

Anyway, Mammoth Cave National Park, very neat. The cave system is the longest in the world, at 405 total miles. It gets its name from the humongous “rooms” within the system. You have to take one of the number of tours in order to enter the caves so I did the historic one (on recommendation from a friend, thanks Haley!). It was really quite a spectacle to see and the tour guide actually had a lot of interesting information about how the cave was formed, how it was discovered, and the activities that used to take place inside. There are extremely narrow and tight areas you have to crawl your way through and again, giant areas that seem to go on forever. Unfortunately, white nose syndrome has wiped out a majority of the once thriving bat population in the caves and the national park is taking measures to stop the spread of the fungus, but they are admittedly losing the battle. Outside of the caves, the above ground portions of the park are also beautiful, I took a few hikes both inside and out of the caves and really enjoyed both. I would definitely recommend this park for a weekend trip, or even a day trip down from Louisville.

On a side note for all you Mentor Cardinals reading this, Senor Bolton, an old Mentor High Spanish teacher, works at the national park visitor center. I recognized him right away and asked if he was the same guy. He responded that he was, said he retired, and then turned his back to me. Apparently, he’s still kind of an ass!

July 6, 2016 1

Boiler Up!

Note: I am way behind on these posts due to lack of cell service which leads to lack of internet. My bad.

Chi-town! One of my most favorite places! The trip was filled with some dear friends from Purdue, who put me up and showed me a fantastic time. I started in the burbs with my old college roomie and amazing friend Cass and her family and then moved on to the city at my equally amazing friend Matt’s house, which he shares with his lovely girlfriend Haley. All of the above people, plus some other old Purdue pals, met for dinner and shot the shit. It was great to catch up and reminisce on days spent making questionable, but hardly ever regrettable decisions. Matt and I, along with some of his buds, also saw a really awesome Phish show. One of the better ones out of the handful or so that I’ve attended. We ended the weekend with dim sum, an arts fest, and homemade pasta! Matt, your culinary skills are impressive, thanks for the lesson.

On my way out of Chicago, I had to stop at Purdue. It’s been 10 years since I’ve been, TEN YEARS. I can’t believe it. At first glance, everything seemed different. There were so many establishments I didn’t recognize, but the deeper in I went, the more familiar it felt. I guess a lot of things end up that way, different on the periphery, but the meat always stays the same. Campus looked great, Boiler Up!

Oh, almost forgot, had my best dog of the trip so far in Chicago, no surprise there!