June 7th 2012

Our last night on the road.  We will be returning to Portland, ME tomorrow after a somewhat short drive from here in New Britain, CT.  We've decided to do a motel room and pizza tonight to "celebrate."  From Appleton, WI we made the drive north towards the Upper Peninsula in Michigan.  We had heard many times over the course of the trip whether we were going to try and make it up to the UP.  Well, we figured after another couple from Wisconsin mentioned it again to us at our campground in Oakdale, WI, it would be smart to see what all the talk was about.

Definitely a secluded feeling came about while we approached the peninsula.  Long two-way roads fed from neighboring towns along newly paved roads.  Apparently a very popular place, especially during the winter, for it's miles and miles of snowmobile trails.

We made the decision to try the "12 Mile Campground" along the edge of Lake Superior.  It was a good choice.  Not only was it not busy (maybe because of the time of year), but it was also literally right on the water.  Other than the rainy weather, there wasn't much to complain about, so we actually decided to stay for a few days to check out the area.

 There are a lot of waterfalls in the Munising/Upper Peninsula area.  So we took the dogs along and made a few walks along the paths to a few different falls.

(Harbor has a really tough time staying still for pictures)

After a few days, a few hikes, and a few bouts of heavy rain, we decided to start our way south down towards Cleveland and essentially home.  Crossing the bridge from the Upper Peninsula was pretty great.  

 That night after crossing the bridge we stayed at a KOA around Cleveland.  A small pond with bass and sunfish provided some novelty fishing.  LOTS of geese and ducks around too.  Oh, and a friendly raccoon visited us (our trash) that night as well.  From Cleveland we then made the decision to head towards Bellefonte, PA where we had stayed early on in the trip.  We were even able to get the same cabin we had slept in previously.  Pretty cool.  The weather was really nice in Bellefonte as well so we were able to hang out for part of the day along the local pond and watch the horses in the neighboring farm run around and chase each other.

(Annie keeping the fire going for cooking dinner) 

 So now here we are.  Last night in paradise, and guess what??? We got a flat tire today!  Yes you read that correctly and the irony (of this blog) has come full circle.  About halfway through our drive today I noticed that the tire pressure was dropping really quickly.  After pulling over and hearing a loud "sssssssss" noise and seeing a pin sized hole in one of our back tires, we got it patched up and were back on the road within a couple hours.  Thankfully we were near a service station and tire place.  

Tomorrow we will be landing back in Portland...tired and ready for our own bed.  We couldn't be happier with our adventure around the country.  We saw more in two months than many people see in a lifetime.  Our trip will bring us right back to where we started, but we hardly feel that way.

May 31st 2012

We've made it to Appleton, Wisconsin.  Today we dropped the dogs at a boarder for a few hours and were able to visit my (Josh's) grandmother in nearby Neenah, WI.  I kicked myself a number of times this evening when I remember that I'd forgotten to take pictures during the visit.  Definitely not pleased with myself on that one...but none-the-less we were able to make the visit, so that's good...

We indeed made it to the Badlands, Crazy Horse, and Mt. Rushmore.  With a short stop in Riverton, Wyoming, crossing the rest of the state, we stayed a couple days in Custer State Park.  Located in southwest South Dakota, Custer is situated within the Black Hill National Forest.  After driving around the state park trying to beat the Memorial Day crowds along the main road campsites, we were instructed to head up to Central Lake to the sites there.  One of the park employees figured they would be less busy. Thankfully she was right and we found a nice place along the hills with a leveled tent area and less of the crowds.  Luckily, not only was our spot comfortable, but the surrounding creeks and lakes (especially Central Lake where we were) held some good fishing.  So, later that evening and following afternoon for a few hours I was able to hook a few rainbow and brook trout, and what looked like a grass carp (which I also read later is a local "invasive species").  The dry fly fishing was great, especially the first evening.  I think I counted 5 or 6 rainbows in air at one point.  

Annie got a great shot of our campsite there too.  What seemed like millions of pine needles were all over the place.  Made for slippery walking, especially at night.  Since we were already very close to Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse, we took the drive down the Needles Highway and were treated to a "blasting" of the rocks at Crazy Horse.  We decided not to take the toll into Mt. Rushmore for our drive to the Keystone, SD area already gave us unbeatable views of the rock on our way there.  

(The drive to both Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse was a cool single lane route down through the Black Hills)

(We were able to walk through the museum at Crazy Horse.  Very big and very cool.  Especially all the old pictures)

The Badlands was next on our list, so we took the drive east.  Into what seemed like a movie set for any given Mars flick, we entered the Badlands and took a brief walk around one of the visitor areas.  

 

After we left the Badlands it was time to head east towards Wisconsin.  Cutting all the way west to east in South Dakota gets pretty mundane.  But after a solid 8 hour day on I-90 through Michigan as well, we found ourselves at a KOA campground in Oakdale, WI.  Right along the highway, we think it was the noisiest place we'ved slept on the entire trip.  A lot of the KOA campgrounds are easily accessible usually via major highways, etc., but something about this one made the sounds of 18 wheelers very prominent all night.   We even listened to the Celtics lose in overtime against the Miami Heat on the (iPhone) radio. So all in all maybe not the best night yet.  Ha.  But at leased we got free showers in the morning....somewhat presentable for my grandmother.  

From here we are going to try and make it to the Upper Peninsula in Michigan.  Shooting for the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore area, we're hoping to try and snag one of the coveted lakeside campsites.  The wildfires around Duck Lake just east of that destination has suffered big wildfires recently.  Hopefully by this time tomorrow we aren't running the opposite direction...

   

May 26th 2012

We are now in Dubois, WY.  It's been snowing for the past couple of days since we got to the Yellowstone/Grand Teton area.  It's been a number of days since we've been able to have internet/WIFI so, again, we'll have to abbreviate some so you don't get too bored...

We last posted from Eureka, CA after traveling up along the Pacific Coast Highway.  The loooong winding roads finally brought us to the top via tall redwood forests and steep cliffs down to the ocean.  We found a campsite within the Redwood National Park called Jedediah Smith Campground.  I (Josh) personally think that we had the best spot in the area.  It was the last spot down along the river.  A small path led down to the water where we could take Harbor off leash and allow him to swim...as long as he dodged the snakes that kept skirting out of the rocks.

 It's easy to tell from the picture above how dark the forest is.  Once inside that line of trees it stays pretty much "night" during the day.

         

(These elk really didn't care we decided to pull over and watch them) 

From the Redwood National Park we continued our way up the coast.  Taking a break in Molalla, OR at a not-so-impressive campground where the host tried to set us up at a spot so she could spy on us more easily, we did take a noteworthy stop at the famous Voodoo Doughnuts in Portland, OR the next morning...I promptly got a decent stomach ache from all that sugar.

 The following night we stayed along the Lyre River in Washington.  The Native Americans thought it to have a musical sound to it.  Apparently, later, the European settlers agreed...as did we...It has this constant flow that has many different tones going at once.

While we were at our camp along the Lyre we got in contact with our friend Blaise who is currently working up in Alaska but has a summer house close to where we were in Port Angeles, WA. So, with the lure of a house with a kitchen, shower, couch, and actually even a hot tub along the Straight of Juan De Fuca, we took the short drive there without thinking much further.

(We took a drive to Forks so Annie could see some of the "Twilight" attractions.  One, amongst the vampire tours, was Bella's truck from the movie)

So, after being spoiled for a night, we pulled ourselves away from the house and pushed on.  It was here, in Port Angeles and Forks that we started to get rain and significant weather.   After short stop in Spokane ,WA to rest, we then headed to Glacier National Park.  Although cold and raining, we made the best of it.  Finding what appeared to be one of the only tenting campsites open in the park, we set up shop and were quickly reminded by one of the rangers that a bear had made an appearance at the campground just the day before.  We had a great view of Sprague Lake...

  I took the 2 mile hike up to Avalanche Lake the next morning before we started our daily drive.  Although still raining and cold, I made my way up along the snowy/muddy trail to be greeted by a giant pile of bear poop.  It looked very fresh too.  So after I decided it wasn't warm enough to be VERY recent and keeping in mind the good work I'd just done hiking all the way up there, I stayed there alone at the lake to try and hook some trout.  I think I did more checking over my shoulder than I did casts, but just to stand there in the lake all by myself up there was pretty neat.  I was able to take a couple shots with my phone too...

I was told by 2 rangers about 45 minutes later when they brought up a group of what looked like high schoolers that a bear and her two cubs had been hanging out yesterday right were I was fishing that morning. Also, a guy had been trapped in the small outhouse at the entrance to Avalanche earlier as well.  The bears walked around him in the outhouse for quite some time while he videotaped the incident.  I guess the rangers got a viewing of the video later that day.

I dried off in the car, turned on the seat-heaters and tortured Annie with my horribly smelly feet, which had just be released from their waders and we took the drive south towards Yellowstone.  Stopping once in Livingston we then took the following day to drive through Yellowstone as it was very close to the park.  The entrance to Yellowstone from the north is pretty great...

About 10 minutes into the park we saw quite a few deer and bison.  A bear also cut across the road on his way up a steep hill on the other side.  He was so fast cutting over and up along the woods that it was tough to get a picture but we managed an out-of-focus silhouette of him... 

(The bison are pretty "whatever" about you being there)

 Continuing through the park we eventually made our way to Old Faithful and took a walk around the geysers.  We stopped at a falls along the way.

Yes, all that sulfer does smell...

 Old Faithful was a little late past the "4:15ish" time that a ranger told everyone.  It was very windy and cold and after standing outside for an hour waiting it was amazing we still have use of our extremities.

After that day of touring was done we slept in West Yellowstone last night and then took this morning to take another drive through the park to see what we weren't able to get to previously.  We also wanted to head to Grand Teton National Park as well which is just south of Yellowstone.  We got another showing from a bear today as well.  This time it was a larger grizzly bear chomping on some food along the river.

Exiting though the south gate, we then drove down to the Grand Tetons.  An old cabin which was left over from the 1880s as part of a larger encampment still remains along the road.  Harbor was happy to check out the condition of the rooms inside...

So we are still ducking the rain and snow here in Dubois.  Our next official stop is going to be the Badlands, Crazy Horse, etc. in South Dakota.  It's roughly an 8 hour drive from here so I can't say confidently that we'll make it all in one shot tomorrow.  We're going to have to find out.

May 17th 2012

Day 37.  Been a while...Well, we've made it to the Pacific Coast.  We are currently ordering breakfast at a Starbucks in Eureka, CA so we can connect to some WIFI.  We've been out of even cellphone signal for a while now.  Because of the fact that it's been about 2 weeks since our last update, we are going to try and keep it short and sweet, but hit all the main points.

We left off in Golden, CO.  From there we made our way to Estes Park, CO to see Rocky Mountain National Park.  Deciding to stay for a few days, we did some hiking and exploring around the area as we liked it there so much.  Seeing spots like Bear Lake, Nymph Lake, and Alberta Falls via short hikes definitely made it worth while.  The town was cool enough that the local elk population would hang out in the intersections and parking lots...

 Bear Lake road was under construction while we were there so the many times that we had to drive back and forth along it we had to follow the "follow me" truck through some of the one-lane areas.

 

The Stanley Hotel was the inspiration for Stephen Kings "The Shining"

The valley area below is fenced-off to help keep the elk inside.  People can get through the fence to walk around (and fish, which I did).

 From the Rockies, we then made our way to Rifle, CO for a night as we made our way towards the Grand Canyon.  Our campsite was in Rifle Gap.

After the short stay in Rifle we continued our way towards the Grand Canyon.  

We mainly saw the "south rim" of the canyon.  Being so large, it would have taken us almost another full day to see the entire "north rim" as well.  It was a hot sunny day at the Grand Canyon while we were there and plenty of people were drenched in sweat and splashing water on themselves at the "spring fountain" (which was less of a "spring" and more of a chlorine drip).  Never-the-less we fully enjoyed ourselves and got to see plenty of the canyon.  It's one of those natural phenomenons that really renders you smaller than you normally feel.  

After picking up the dogs at the local dog boarder (no dogs allowed around the park area), we then decided to head a little further south towards Sedona.  We actually didn't make it to Sedona, but found a great place along Oak Creek at the Manzanita Campground.  I (Josh) was able to do some fishing and landed a couple really nice brown trout.  Those pics are on my cellphone, apologies...

From there we made a LITTLE bit of a change to our regular routine and made the choice to stop in Las Vegas.  Yikes...Not only did we spend more money than we had anticipated (obviously) but we truly made a spectacle arriving there, which is definitely tough to do in Vegas...for sure.  But, smelling like campfire and towing two dogs behind, one of which relieving himself in the middle of the check-in area, we felt like the Beverly Hillbillies.  Yet we made it to our rooms, spent money at the roulette table with our good friend Drew Bagin (who was in town for business), and then stumbled out of Vegas beaten-up and tired (typical, I'm sure).  

The next day's drive brought us into California.  A campground called the Pleasant Valley Campground along the (lower) Owen's River.  Other than the sign at the entrance warning us of potential Plague risks via the local rodents, we had a "pleasant" stay there indeed.  A quiet area with a small creek running 4 feet from our tent made the evenings fun for the trout fishing (only hooking a few, none brought to hand).  

I also did some fishing along the Owen's as well with no luck.  Lots and I mean LOTS of manure along the river made it tough hiking through some of the areas and also a little disconcerting regarding manure runoff...

Because of our location just south of Sequoia National Forest, we decided to take route 395 up along the eastern Sierra Mountains towards Mommoth.  I was hinted by the owner of a fly shop that were was a place called "Hot Creek" up near where we were headed which had great trout fishing.  So, we headed out finally found a campground after searching for quite some time.  Initially we were trying to sleep at the Convict Lake campground (below), but the camping section of it was closed.  So, we then found another place which we called "the Dust Bowl."  It was the Brown's Owens River Campground just outside of Mammoth.  Although it's location to the "Hot Creek" was ideal, the loss of area water in that spot had left a massive amount of salt behind.  The breathing was difficult and honestly inhabitable if we'd been there for any longer.  

The bright side of it all was, again, it's location to "Hot Creek."  So for a few hours that day I wound my way along a few miles of dirt roads and down into the canyon to do some trout fishing.  A hot and sunny day catching a few brown trout made the return to our salt mine a little easier to take...

Although the river ran behind us, in front of us was the salt.  Lots and lots of salt...

From the Dust Bowl we then set our destination for Yosemite National Park.  Driving up along 395 and then across route 120 brought us literally inside and directly east-to-west of Yosemite.  Then we headed into the Yosemite Valley...

Yosemite was amazing.  Once you get into the valley area and see the waterfalls, cliffs, mountains, etc. all "falling" into this specific area you have no question in your mind why it's as famous as it is...The drive brought us up and down thousands of feet at a time to vistas that you see on postcards and tv commercials.

After Yosemite we made a short stop at McClure Lake to spend the night.  The amount of wildlife around was crazy, but even more so was their willingness to come near us.  Sort of unnerving as we wondered what else besides cute bunnies and deer were gonna come say hello...

From McClure we finally made our way to the "other" coast.  Driving northwest we made our way to a campground along the Pacific Coast Highway called Ocean Cove Campground.

Although it was very windy that day our spot right on the cliffs by the water was tough to beat.  The sunset that night was, well, pretty damn nice...

 Driving up along the coast highway and the Redwoods highway we've made it to Eureka.  Our plan today is to head further north up through the Redwood National Park and then to Crescent City...We shall see what we can find....