Don't think so, but I'll check today. Thanks!Originally Posted by Johnny Thunder
johnney,dont go. stay . forever. never leave the AT. allways hike the AT.no other trail knows how you like it. AT love you long time.
matthewski
Don't open it if it's packed in dry ice.
Skids
Insanity: Asking about inseams over and over again and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein, (attributed)
When I hiked the PCT this summer, at Crater Lake, I ran into a family who had biked from Vancouver all the way to the tip of Argentina taking 2 years. They then spent 6 months in NZ and were riding back home to Vancouver from San Fransico.
If you have money and time, you can pretty much just look at a map and find somewhere to go until you get sick of it.
I agree with that to a point, and it seems like you do, too. Travel for the sake of travel is great. But, I think that 6 months is about the limit for me on one individual task. Maybe it's from old school days when I'd get burnt out around April and just pray for the summer to come. So if I'm going to be out for multiple years one thing will have to lead to the next.
The purpose of the thread was to solicit informed trip ideas...I have some...you have some...put them them together and you've got a real big pile of ideas. Instead, it became about my secretions. I'm at fault for that.
So, let's get this one back on line. Today I was thinking about British Columbia. What's up there that i should see assuming that I'd be there in the Fall with Winter approaching?
Especially, if it's marked "BIOHAZARD"
"For me, it is better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring."
Carl Sagan
Well, from April 8th to July 10th 2007 we drove from Maryland (only had our Hubba tents and some regular car camping gear) in our 2003 Chevy Astro all-wheel drive van across the US and turned north towards Alberta, saw Devils Tower, Glacier National Park, Grand Tetons NP, Yellowstone NP, went into Canada, up to Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump, across through British Columbia, camped in some Provincial parks and saw lots of black bear and one young grizzly, did the Al-Can highway from the beginning all the way to Fairbanks, spent a week in Alaska with friends seeing Denali NP,(completely fogged in, most facilities still closed) Anchorage, Seward, and Valdez, came back out of Alaska on the Al-Can to the Yellowhead Hwy, down into Washington state at Vancouver, decided we'd had enough of camping in the cold and rain (it was cold and rainy for almost the entire trip until we got into the Bay Area of California) and bought a new tent trailer in Port Angeles WA. We'd had to get hotels here and there as well as most of the campgrounds along the Al-Can and back weren't even open yet. After seeing family in the Bay Area, went down into Death Valley and spent 3 days in the 120 degree weather with no a/c and had a fabulous time. Had the campground at Panamint Springs to ourselves - who camps in Death Valley in late June?From there it was across into AZ, UT, CO, and onward til we got back to Maryland. We visited 16 National Parks (buy the pass - more than pays for itself), countless State and regional parks, day hiked in several states, parks, and in Canada, slept in freezing cold rain, muddy campgrounds with dirty snow still on the ground in Alaska, and drove 14000 miles.
By the time we got to Alaska we had driven so many thousands of miles of mountainous craggy snow covered scenery that Alaska left us unimpressed - just more of the same. I tell people now that the best way to see it is to either fly in or take a boat. It was also very expensive and we were told that after Memorial Day the prices often tripled. I remember seeing a bag of Fritos, not a big bag, for almost $8 in a gas station store. We stopped at a hotel on the Al-Can that charged us $60/night on the way into Alaska and $120 a night 9 nights later for the exact same room on the way out. Guess they figured it was getting close enough to Memorial Day.
All in all it was great fun and we'd do it again. We'd already been to eastern Canada because we had lived in Montreal, so we'd been to Nova Scotia, Quebec City, and Ottawa. I wouldn't go back to Alaska. The first hundred miles or so of the Al-Can reeks of petroleum wells and is landscaped with dead moose carcasses; campgrounds, hotels, gas stations and other places for the most part don't bother opening til Memorial Day and shut down Labor Day. If you wait for that then you'll be crammed in with the herds of tourists off the boats and in their huge RVs. When we could find a campground we were usually alone. One of them wanted to charge us $25 for a 5 gallon jug of fresh water, and wouldn't unlock the restrooms. (yes, we have a trailer but we never use the tiny toilet or shower it has - makes for more storage area instead).
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."
nobody said cross country couldnt be north south. soo,....my trip would be up and down the AT over and over and over again. hiking and stopping in towns to make my art, send it to market and continue hiking. setting up temporary studios for just a week at a time in hostels and motel rms. visiting my people on short trips to new york and philly.and ashville.FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE. YOU CAN PULL THIS CRAYON FROM MY DRY DEAD HAND! this one draws till he drops!
matthewski
I have to back up Belew on Southern Utah..........I've never seen such beauty! I highly suggest a canyoneering/repeling trip in Zion.....and the mule ride in Bryce was an amazing way to see the park! That, and the best trail to see the park is shared with hikers and mules.....so unless you feel like walking in horse crap for 2 days, it's really the only way to go!
Heres the album http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...4&l=bb4426d098
this includes Zion NP, Bryce NP, Canyonlands NM, Coral Pink Sand Dunes SP, Grafton Ghost town, Lake Mead, Hoover Dam, and of course......Vegas
yeah, theres some "tom-foolery in here" so if you don't like it....dont look ;-)
The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose............................................ ...
Strong and content I travel the open road
~Walt Whitman Song of the open road
The Grand Canyon should never be used in sexual comparisons, for a variety of unpleasant reasons.
I would love to try Alaska but would pick the Smokies.
Cool. Alaska would be great...not sure if I should rule that out.
The Smokies are amazing and you should get to them (on and off the AT) as soon as possible. Since we're so close I don't really think of the AT as one of my "dream" trips. It'll probably be the destination for some of our long weekends over the next few years.
deam on butter pop. were all goin down.only time to make rice sofa and chairs.
matthewski
[QUOTE=Johnny Thunder;941369...@Cookerhiker - I keep mentioning the eastern canada thing....Jess is from NH...not sure if I'll convince her to head North in that stretch. Refresh my memory...did we grow up in the same town or go to the same college? I forget.......[/QUOTE]
We both grew up in Ridgewood, NJ but at a considerable distance in years!
How about Baja California?
And if you come through Santa Barbara, you can put your tent up in my back yard and have all the avocados you want.
Some knew me as Piper, others as just Diane.
I hiked the PCT: Mexico to Mt. Shasta, 2008. Santa Barbara to Canada, 2009.
I would try to go to yellowstone. The roads would be fun to bike. If you go in like Early june or late summer would be an awsome time.
Keep the coast of Maine an option. Not all of it. But things get interesting at about Freeport. Take the back roads from Freeport. Yah, stop at LL Bean if you want. It's great as big stores go. But bike along the open fields and shore to Brunswick's Cooks Corner. There pickup the Old Bath Road that runs along the Androscogin River to Bath. Take time to explore Phippsburg and its 31 miles of hiking trail, before heading north. Avoid Route 1 wherever possible when visiting other coastal towns.
No tour is complete without a day or two in Acadia National Park, but only if you climb a few of the coastal mountains. But the best part of the Maine coast is north of Acadia. North of Acadia the tourists are mostly gone. It's another era. Tiny villages, a few interesting restaurants, a few great trails. Don't miss the bold coast and its trails.
Keep going and you'll be in Eastern Canada. A great touring place. But that calls for another forum -- or at least another thread.
Weary
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