We are starting the “home” stretch this morning. We’ll spend some time in Roblin, Manitoba with Mich’s grandparents, then finish crossing the prairies, hit the mountains and expect to be home by Saturday night. Thus, this blog will be going dark until at least Sunday! Until soon…
Sorry these pics are washed out - they were very backlit and I had to lighten them up a ton.
One of the great things out here in Kenora is Mich’s mom Bev’s garden. The back deck overlooks it and I love to spend time leaning on the railing, gazing down at not only the beautiful array of well-tended flowers, but also the resident hummingbirds. These hummers are numerous ( usually at lease 3 are there, but also can be present in numbers up to 6 or more) and fascinating to watch as they go about their business in the garden and feeder up on the deck. They are less skittish than others I’ve seen, flying and even sitting within a few feet of us (provided you are still).
But the best part is how they interact with each other. Hummingbirds are very territorial. There are a few male birds here that are constantly jockeying for position in the flower patch and around the feeder.
I watched the little fella pictured above as he held the garden for most of the day. He would alight atop the feeder and survey his domain with a keen eye, opening his beak and sticking out his tongue, awaiting any other hummer (male or female) who may dare to challenge his claim on the nectar. He never had to wait long.
Within a few seconds he’d spy a potential usurper and off he’d go to give ‘em the what for. The conflict is either over right away, with no challenge, or they go at it, smashing into each other, chirping, squeaking and crossing beaks.
Perhaps the coolest thing is that is all sounds like a lightsaber dual!
You can see some of the action in the vid below. I love how about halfway through, the challenger gets cheeky and stops by the perch to talk a little trash before darting away again. You’ve gotta have spunk if you’re gonna survive out there!
The third national park of our little tour was Grand Teton, just south of Yellowstone. We had a great hike up Cascade Canyon. This place, like Yellowstone is a little busy for our taste, but for good reason. The hoards in their cars flock to the roads of Yellowstone, while the hoards with their hiking boots flock to Grand Teton. The campsite at the base of the prime hiking trails filled up at 9:20 am the day we arrived - at 10 am. Hmmmm. Undaunted, we hiked anyway, deciding to find alternative camping later. The trail was one of the most crowded we’ve ever been on, though mostly just the low part. The extended canyon trail was much quieter and fully enjoyable. At the end, after coming down off the trail, we took a little ferry ride across Jenny Lake to the trail head. All in all, it was a great way to spend our 7th anniversary.
… was a pleasant surprise. I didn’t know quite what to expect, but I guess 3 million or so visitors per year can’t all be wrong.
Actually, this park, the first in the United States parks system, is quite stunning in its thermal properties - and quite unique in the world. Though we normally visit national parks for the hiking, and we didn’t really get that at Yellowstone, we still very much enjoyed our “Geyser Day”.
The thermophyles (living things that thrive in the hot chemical environment around springs and geysers) were the highlight for us. Our “geyser day” saw us clomp along miles of boardwalk checking out the pools and springs and, of course, geysers. The colors were simply awesome as you can see.
Of course we enjoyed Old Faithful as well.
It’s cool that OF is indeed “faithful” in that they can predict each event. The catch is that they can only predict the next ONE. The length of a particular geyser event determines how long it will be until the next one. It is pretty accurate in that they can predict the time of the next one within a 20 minute window.
After an epic “geyser day”, nothing quenches your thirst like a cold Old Faithful Ale, or perhaps Bitch Creek by the fine folks at Grand Teton Brewing Co. If you would like to see the rest of the pics of the highlights of our Yellowstone visit, click the picture below…
First harvest of June
Our crops have been great this year. The strawberry field (ok, patch) has been doing well for itself after its initial planting the summer after we bought the house. This year we took lots of fruit out before hitting the road for holidays (saskatoon berries too!).
Anyway, as we travel, our plum, raspberries, pear, and peach plants are all swelling and ripening their fruit for our return! The veggies too are flourishing in our newly expanded garden. Slurp.
Pork Tenderloin with Spiced Rhubarb
Well rhubarb seems to be on my mind a lot this summer, perhaps because our patch took off so well this year, recovering after being moved from a poor location in the yard. Now out at Bev and Gerry’s we are enjoying their crop - last night with a new recipe, Pork Tenderloin with Spiced Rhubarb. Delicious! You can find the recipe here. Enjoy!
**Updated for Mom July 21**
Glacier National Park in Montana is kinda close to my heart. My mom grew up in Columbia Falls on the outskirts of the park. She spent countless summer days in the park with friends and family. Before my grandparents past away we enjoyed the magic of this park as a family, sometimes staying in Columbia Falls for a good month. Some of my most cherished childhood memories come from these times, memories filled with family, friends and Glacier Park. Knowing Mich’s love of the mountains, I’ve always wanted to show her the park and tell her of the times of my childhood that she knows little of. Finally we got the chance and made it happen. I think the park has now charmed her too as we’ve already talked of returning as soon as we can. It’s a big park and we’ve only scratched the surface of its hiking potential.
Going To The Sun
One of the highlights of the park is the spectacular Going-to-the-Sun Highway. Over 75 years old and carved out of the sides of mountains, it is certainly a road that wouldn’t be built today. It represented engineering feats of the time and is currently being reworked to last for future generations to enjoy. This road is aptly named as it reaches the high mountain Logan Pass. For most of the year it is under snow. Actually we were getting nervous as our trip was about to begin; they only opened the road a couple of days before we left!
Up and down the Going-to-the-Sun Highway the famous open-topped Red Buses, made by the White Motor Company and used in the park since the 30’s, can be seen. These are a cool piece of park history that have been recently restored by Ford and pressed back into service.
Hiking
Of course, the primary reason for us to come to the park is hiking. And even though the higher trails and passes were still mostly closed due to snow, we got some great hikes in. We day hiked and backpacked to our hearts’ desires.
Mich walks amid bear grass (no, not bears! well, not that we saw anyway…)
The Belly River trail
This is a view of Glenns Lake (where we camped for two nights) and the Belly River valley behind it (that holds the trail we accessed this area by), taken from Stony Indian Pass.
Of course, in addition to all the bear aware stuff that you have to do in this country (and there is a lot of it you must do!), other back country techniques like filtering all drinking water are followed.
Our third night in the Belly River back country found us camping on beautiful Elizabeth Lake. The backpacker’s network (word of mouth from people you meet on the trail) reported to us that one of the original trails we wanted to hike on this trip, Ptarmigan Tunnel and Pass, had finally opened THAT DAY. The hikers we heard this from had stopped in at that closest ranger station and heard the news over the radio as the park rangers announced it. The trail enters the above picture on the left and passes through the trees. It cuts across the rock face above the large patch of snow you see in the middle of the pic before entering the tunnel (blasted out by miners) and finally over the pass (above and to the right of the snow field). It looks like a really cool trail! We assessed and reassessed the idea of changing our itinerary and hiking the pass in the morning. It would mean making it over the pass in down to the Many Glacier campsite in time to catch the only shuttle of the day up to the Canadian border where our car was parked at the trailhead. Hmmm. We decided to do it.
We woke up the next day to this.
No this is not in black and white. It was rather cold, and the lower trail was quite wet from overnight rains. We again assessed and reassessed and decided to forgo Ptarmigan tunnel for another day and go back out the way we came. We will be back Ptarmigan Pass, oh yes, we will be back.
What better after 4 days on the trail than a nice cold Moose Drool or Scape Goat beer from the nice folks at Big Sky Brewing Co.? Mmmmmm, beer.
If you are interested in seeing the rest of our Glacier Park pics, click on the mountain goat picture below…
As per my Mom’s request, here is a shot that shows the remaining depth of the snowbanks at Logan Pass. This is the reason the roads don’t open until July. This year was one of the latest openings on record.
120 km/hr = 75 mph = The speed “limit” in Montana.
Well, after logging a LOT of road and trail miles (mostly in the States, thus, they really were “miles”), we’ve made it to the next phase of our summer travels - Kenora, Ontario. It’ll be great to spend time with Mich’s family (except, unfortunately for that world traveling brother of hers, currently in Africa). I’ll try over the next few days to post on our past few weeks and update our pics so you can see what we’ve been up to. Now though, I’m off to rustle up some more coffee!
After enjoying Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks we are back to civilization again. We have now hiked over 100 km in the last 9 days and seen incredible things along the way. But, I’m finished walking for now. At least my knees and toes and ankles and… are! Now it’s time for my fat butt to get attention sitting in the car for hours as we make our way to Kenora!
Well, things have been a bit quiet on the blog of late. Sorry. After seven straight nights in a tent and 75 km of hiking trails, by way of Glacier National Park, Montana, we are back to civilization. Our time in the park that my mother grew up beside was awesome. They had crazy snow this year, and a near record late opening due to the snow and so we did a lower backcountry hike than planned. However, the Belly River Trail was stunning, especially when we did an extra excursion as far up Stoney Indian Pass as we could get. Beautiful. I’ll start posting some pics when we get to Kenora in a week or so. Between now and then, it’s on to Yellowstone!
Anyway, in the below map, we basically hiked from where you see the road reach the Border through the valley to the pass that is marked. Zoom out or scroll over to the right. Simply awesome.
People often are surprised how young I look for my age. I often reply that it’s just because I’m so immature, but actually I’ve just been outed! My secret of course is resveratrol, and I’ve been sucking down as much of it as I can before middle age!
So on Canada Day, the CBC program Sounds Like Canada aired a story about Canadian food. I got to hear most of it. Interesting stuff that centered on the question of the Canadian meal. Just what is the quintessential Canadian meal? I’ve been asked that question many times over the years and I have to say that it is not the easiest to answer. Should it be made up of indiginous ingredients? Or could it simple be something that’s imported, but somehow changed a bit or just become a huge part of the cuisine for the majority of Canadians? Is there something that represents the whole country and isn’t really regional? See? It is a tough question. So is it poutine? Perogies? Burgers? Meat and potatoes? I guess I’d say it could be something with Bison (with blueberry sauce) or Salmon (possibly smoked), had maple syrup in there somewhere, with perhaps bannock and root veggies and fruits. Oh, and Butter Tarts! ANY THOUGHTS?
You can download or listen to the Sounds Like Canada podcast of the Canadian food show HERE.
PART I
A Canadian Icon - The classic big flag outside a Husky Station.
A different kind of Canadian icon - Gord Downie sings the national anthem.
