From the Ocean to the City

I love the smell of salt in the air. I find the scent of the sea intoxicating.

I ended the month of August by leaving Canada and meeting John on the Olympic Peninsula. We spent the first two nights visiting his family in Port Townsend. His family owns The Public House, a great restaurant right by the ferry. John and I spent a beautiful, blue sky day exploring Port Townsend. I really like this town. The beautiful Peugeot Sound and a lovely harbor on one side, and Olympic National Park on the other. Paradise.

After leaving Port Townsend, John treated Kodi and I to a cabin right on the ocean in La Push, WA. Anyone who reads the Twilight series of books knows this area, next to Forks. Although we didn't see any vampires, we still managed to have a wonderful time. The sunset that evening was one of the most incredible I have ever seen. The sheer beauty of it actually brought tears to my eyes. Very romantic!

After La Push we headed to the city. We stayed on Bainbridge Island, not far from the harbor and the ferry. It was such a refreshing break to park the car (I mean Gypsy wagon) for 3 whole days and just walk and ride the ferry to get around. We were brave and went to Pike Place Market on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. Although the crowds were a bit overwhelming we had a really great time. We even figured out how to get free shots of gourmet espresso right at the market! (Sur la Table) We ended our time in the city by having a nice late lunch and a couple of beers at a table overlooking the sound.

Our last few days together John and I took it pretty easy. Just wandering around Bainbridge Island, hanging out at coffee shops, visiting friends and family and learning to play chess. I have always wanted to learn chess and I am finally getting around to it. Thanks to modern technology John and I can have an ongoing game of chess on our phones. So far I lose every game against him, but have hope that in 10 or 20 years I might learn enough to beat him!

After taking John to the airport and sadly having to send him back to Colorado, I headed south. My friend Trish, who I know from working together in Colorado, lives most of the year in a beautiful home overlooking the Columbia River Gorge. I've always wanted to visit her in the summer and am grateful I have the opportunity this year. This area by the Hood River valley is very bucolic.

With Mt. Hood looming stunningly over the horizon, vineyards and orchards everywhere, the lush abundance is striking.

Tomorrow I am off to Portland for bookstores and gardens. Everyone has told me I have to visit Powell's bookstore, and the Portland Japanese garden is world famous. I'll also be visiting family in Portland that I haven't seen in 25 years! I'm sure none of us has changed at all!

After Portland I'll be off to the Oregon coast for a few more nights of camping next to the sea. I need to smell that wonderful sea air one more time before heading back to my landlocked home.

With Labor Day over, the summer is winding down, and so is my trip. A month from now I'll be back to work. In the meantime, I'll savor these last weeks.

On the Move

"Time to get up. Time to get goin'. What lies ahead I got no way of knowin'. But under my feet baby, grass is growin'. Time to get up. Time to get goin'."

These words

from Tom Petty keep popping into my head these past weeks. There is definitely no grass growing under my feet lately. In the past 2 1/2 weeks I haven't spent more than 3 nights in a row in one place. But oh the places I've seen! From 100 mile long lakes to 100 foot tall waterfalls. From hundreds of glacial lakes to the beautiful glaciers themselves sitting proudly on top of mountains, struggling against time and climate change.

I've made it to my final destination in Canada. Tofino and the Pacific Rim National Park. It seems like ages ago that I started this journey and camped in Montana on my first night. Now I find myself at the ocean, camping in a rainforest and hanging out in a groovy little surfing town.

Tofino is the main reason I ended up in Canada this summer. Eight years ago I came up here with a friend after attempting to climb Mt. Ranier

in Washington. I loved the vibe and natural beauty of this place so much I have wanted to come back ever since. It's taken 8 years, but I finally made it!

This is Kodi's first time at the beach. He wasn't sure about it at first, it was a little scary and it tasted funny. But now he's already a full-on beach hound. Chasing sea birds, splashing in the surf, playing frisbee on the beach, it's a dog's life!

I am grateful every day that life has presented me the opportunity to take this fabulous trip. The freedom of travel is intoxicating. Although lately I do find myself occasionally longing for a little less movement. I'm looking forward to settling down a little this fall and getting back to work. At the same time still enjoying what's left of my summer of freedom.

Fall is already in the air up here. Even though the days are still long, there is a hint of the changing season in the way the light falls.

Tomorrow I'm heading back to the states. I'll be on the 3:00 ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles, WA.. I'm looking forward to being back in the US, but I'm mainly looking forward to seeing John. We are going to be spending a week together on

the Olympic Peninsula and in Seattle. John even booked us a nice little cabin in La Push, WA. where we can have a fire on the beach. Very romantic!

After that, I'll be off to visit friends and family in Washington and Oregon. Then back to Colorado. Back home. Refreshed and with my thirst for travel quenched, at least for a little while.

For now; "Time to get goin', what lies ahead I got no way of knowin'"

Twin Falls Chalet

One of the things I was most looking forward to on this trip was the chance to meet interesting new people. Friday I met one of the most interesting women I have ever known.

I arrived at Kicking Horse Campground in YoHo National Park Thursday night. It was the first night in a week of camping that I actually paid for a campsite, but the hot shower was well worth the fee!

Before I left for Canada, John loaned me a couple books on hikes i

n the area. One hike in YoHo and 2 hikes at Lake Louise end up at tea houses. This sounded like fun to me, so Friday I headed up to the Twin Falls Chalet where the guidebook promised afternoon t

ea was served. It's about a 5 mile hike to the Chalet, and a mile or so into the hike I met Fran.

She was heading up the trail loaded down with an old school external frame pack. As she was clearly an older woman by herself heading up the hill, I offered a word of encouragement as I passed by. We struck up a conversation, and she asked me where I was heading. When I told her I was hiking to the tea house, she said it was closed. We I questioned how she came about this information, she told me she knew it was closed because she is the owner and she was in the process of bringing up supplies!

I was immediately intrigued by this tiny woman. She told me she has been running the Twin Fall

s Chalet for 48 years, and backpacking supplies up and down the mountain all that time! Since I was going her way I offered to shoulder her burden for her. We switched packs and I carried h

er load up to the Chalet.

When I asked Fran her age, she told me she is 70ish. She runs the Chalet more or less by herself. She has a work crew come in the spring to help bring some supplies and split wood (wood is used for both heating and cooking at Twin Falls), and she has a local guy help her from time to time during the 8 weeks she is open. The Twin Falls Chalet is not affiliated with the Canadian Forest Service at all. Fran calls it her "labor of love".

I was rewarded for my efforts in carrying up supplies with lemonade and a sandwich when we reached Twin Falls. But my biggest reward was meeting Fran. I am so inspired by women like her! She shows me that you never have to give up your passion for doing what you love.

Turns out, Fran is a bit of a local legend. No surprise there. One lady came by the Chalet while we were visiting and said she had been wanting to meet Fran for years. I guess Fran and her Chalet have been featured in a PBS special and several books. Of course Fran is very humble, she just smiles and says, "yes that was me in the PBS special". She acts as if most 70ish people have a 5 mile hike with a backpack into their work! I don't think your average 30ish person would envy that task. Although I think it would be a fantastic job!

The next day I hiked to both tea houses above Lake Louise. One is at Lake Agnes and the other is called the Inn of the Six Glaciers. Even with big chunks of glacier calving off and crashing down the mountain at the second tea house it just couldn't compare with Fran and her Chalet.

I've been blessed to be able to take this amazing trip this summer and see some incredibly beautiful places. But it is the beautiful people I have been meeting along the way that have made this a truly memorable experience!

Canada - Land of Giants

Everything seems bigger in Canada.

Kodi and I crossed the border into Canada on Saturday. Crossing into Canada is easy, even with a dog. I can only hope it will go as smoothly going back into the US.

Our first destination in Canada was the town of Nelson, BC. located on Kootenay Lake. Kootenay Lake is over 100 miles long, and in places it is over a mile wide. It's huge! But for Canada, it's just another lake. They have so many big lakes in BC it makes Minnesota look almost like a desert.

It took me a little while to find my campsite on Saturday when I got into Nelson. Luckily I got into the area early in the day and had plenty of time to look around before dark. I realized as I was searching around for camp that my map of the area was lousy, so I picked a better one up at a bookstore the next day. A good map is essential on a trip like this, where my campsites are sometimes going to be 10 miles or more down dirt roads!

The campground I found was worth the search. At one point I stopped off at Kokanee Creek Provincial Park Campground thinking I might

camp there for the night. They only had overflow campsites available which were basically in a parking lot with a little grass, and these sites were $28/night! I ended up at 6 Mile Lake Recreation Site which was 10 miles down a dirt road next to a beautiful mountain lake and was free. A much better deal!

The picnic table at my campsite looked like it had been constructed from a giant's Lincoln Log set. It was huge!

The trees here seem enormous also. In general it looks a lot like the same trees and flowers we have in the Colorado Rockies, but everything is just bigger. I think maybe it's because the days are so much longer in the summer this far north. Even now, it doesn't get dark until 9pm. Just a theory, I'm not really sure.

Shortly after setting up camp Saturday, a fisherman told me he had seen a Grizzly Bear not far from camp just 2 weeks before. Then later that evening a guy camped above me said a bear had walked through camp just 2 days before! Maybe when you cross the border into BC there should be a sign saying; "Welcome to Canada, We hope our wildlife doesn't eat you!" Thank goodness for Bear Mace, it at least gives me a sense of security, even if it is a false one.

Sunday I had a break from traveling and spent the day enjoying the Nelson area. Nelson is a groovy little town. Lots of good coffee shops, restaurants, art etc. Just north of Nelson I got to soak in Ainsworth Hot Springs. My first Canadian hot springs experience was wonderful! Ainsworth has hot spring caves where the natural spring water goes through a horseshoe shaped cave. I tend to be a little claustrophobic, but the caves were well lit and it was a very relaxing soak.

Today I'm off to Radium Hot Springs near Invermere, BC. I'll also check out Fairmont Hot Springs while I'm in that area. For now though I need to cross a lake made by giants. I think I'll take the ferry.

Paradise Found

I think it was Wordsworth who coined the phrase; "The earth laughs in flowers". If this is true, I've been in one never ending laugh fest in the mountains of Colorado.

Just when I was starting to think the peak wildflower season was over, Mother Nature proved me wrong. Last week John and I went backpacking for 2 nights up at Jasper Lake in the Indian Peaks Wilderness. Carrying a 35lb. pack was definitely a humbling experience! The pack wasn't bad

while standing still in the living room. But it felt a little heavier once we started heading up the trail! Luckily John and Kodi had infinite patience with my slow pace, and we all had a good time hiking 5 miles in to the lake.

Thunder started voicing itself about 20 minutes before we got to camp. By the time we started setting up the tent, it was just starting to rain. We got the tent set up in no time, made ourselves something hot to drink and snuggled up in the tent to read. Reading quickly turned into napping for both of us, and we spent the afternoon lulled to sleep by the sound of rain on our tent.

The next morning was clear and beautiful. Kodi and I got up first and got some good swimming in first thing in the morning. Kodi was doing the swimming and I was doing the stick throwing! Afterwords John and I relaxed on a rock in the sun with our coffee.

Mother nature is a very good landscaper. We had wildflowers in our front yard, wildflowers in our backyard, wildflowers around our breakfast rock... The natural beauty of the Colorado high country in the peak of summer is truly indescribable. We camped next to the inlet of the lake in a fairly secluded spot. The stream from the lakes above us coming into

Jasper was right next to us. We had beautiful waterfalls, wildflowers and a high mountain lake just steps from our tent.

I was feeling a little lazy on Thursday, so I stayed at camp keeping the wildflowers company and reading while John and Kodi went exploring. The boys bonded on this trip. After almost 3 hours they both rolled into camp looking a little tired and very happy. They had

hiked wayabove our camp and had great adventures. I'm glad I've found them both such a good playmate!

Thursday afternoon John and I decided to go up to the falls above our camp and have a little wine and cheese. John was nice enough to put a 1.5 liter bag of wine in his pack on the way up. I think we had the nicest spot for happy hour in Colorado that day!

Friday we headed back down to reality. We saw a lot of people heading up the

trail for the weekend and were glad we avoided the crowd b

y camping during the week. We hit Kathmandu in Nederland on the way back to Boulder for the all you can eat Indian Buffet and ate ourselves almost into a food coma! You can really work up an appetite in the back country.

Unfortunately my summer adventures in Colorado are coming to a close. Tomorrow I start heading up to British Columbia for new adventures in Canada! Kodi is going with me, but we both are going to miss our friend John. It's time for Kodi and I to have fun alone for awhile.

I'm sure the wildflowers will still be going strong in the mountains of Canada. I'm looking forward to seeing how the earth laughs up there!

Colorful Colorado

Kodi and I are living the Colorado dream.

This past week or so I've been luxuriously sleeping in most mornings. Feeling wonderfully indulgent and a bit like a spoiled princess. Then, when I finally do get up my biggest dilemma facing me most days is choosing which fun outdoor activity I would prefer for the day. Do I want to ride my road bike? Do I want to hike in the front range? Do I want to hike in the mountains? So many choices.

Most days I have been choosing to hike. Mainly up in the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area which is only 45 minutes to an hour out of Boulder. Although the weather has been fairly nice in Boulder, it's been even nicer in the mountains. The amazing thing about Colorado is that I feel like I could hike a new trail every day I go out, and not hike the same trail twice for the rest of my life!

I've been having a lot of fun exploring new trails, and seeing new mountains. Kodi thinks he's died and gone to heaven! Hiking or playing frisbee every day. He's going to have a bit of a shock when I go back to work this fall.

I've also had some time to meditate and work with Reiki in my own healing. The stress of the past 5 years definitely took its toll on my system. I went from having a relatively carefree lifestyle to an incredibly stressful lifestyle almost overnight. I didn't give my body any time to adapt. So now I'm catching up with myself and giving myself the care I need. As my friend Kathy just told me today, no one can truly give anything to anyone else until you first take care of yourself.

I think learning how to love and care for ourselves, especially for women, is undervalued in our culture. We are taught to put everyones needs before our own, and we buy into this mindset. When this summer started, I honestly didn't know how to love myself. I was so used to loving and caring for everyone else, but I didn't know how to give it back to me. Any energy system based on energy flowing in one direction is destined to fail. By learning to give love and care to myself I am creating a circular energy system that can sustain itself. At least that is my goal.

Tomorrow John and I are heading out on a 2 1/2 day backpacking trip. I love backpacking! Yet somehow I just haven't found the time to do it in almost 6 years. It feels so wonderful to be doing the things I love again! This is why I live in such a beautiful place. Not to work 5 jobs just to pay the bills, but to have fun.

Living the Colorado dream. Fun. What a fun idea!

Land of the Lost

What, exactly, is the definition of lost?

Thursday morning John and I headed to East Vail and the Gore Creek campground. The campground is located at the trailhead for the Gore Creek trail. This trail heads west out of East Vail towards Summit County. Eventually the trail goes over Red/Buffalo pass and down the Willow Creek trail into Silverthorne. John and I have been planning on doing this hike from Silverthorne to Vail for years, but the logistics never worked out. Needless to say, Thursday morning we were pretty excited to be finally heading out on this adventure!

Everything went fairly smoothly Thursday morning. We got a little later start than planned (as usual), so I was a little concerned about getting a campsite. We had to take 2 cars since this is a one way hike, so John went ahead an found us a great site while I ran errands in Frisco. We did a short hike up the Gore Creek trail Thursday evening just to get our muscles moving and then went to bed very early so we would be well rested for our long hike the next day.

We started up the trail in Silverthorne around 9 Friday morning. The weather was great and the wildflowers were off the charts! I don't think I've ever seen so many wildflowers in one day. That's saying something considering I've lived in the high country of Colorado for 11 years now and have definitely seen my share of wildflowers. But Friday was the best ever! Indian paintbrush, monkshood, showy aster, columbine, and lots of others that I don't know the name of!

Everything seemed to be going great.

After a few hours of hiking, we were above tree line and headed towards the pass. Both John and I had topo maps of the area in our packs, and the trail seemed really straightforward, so neither one of us was too worried about taking a wrong turn.

Around 1 in the afternoon we summited the pass, head a little lunch at the top, and started heading down the trail. We were excited to be just 7 miles of downhill away from our camp and some cold beers! Not long after we got off the pass, John started to notice that something wasn't right. We should have been heading almost due west into Vail, but instead were heading southeast towards Frisco. After 2 miles we realized we were on the wrong trail. We had actually summited the wrong pass!

Instead of being on top of Red/Buffalo pass like we thought, we had summited Eccles pass and were on Meadow Creek trail heading towards Frisco instead

of being on the Gore Creek trail heading towards Vail. I know this sounds like a really stupid mistake to have made. And in a lot of ways it was. But at the point of the trail where it branched off one way to go to Eccles and the other to go to Red/Buffalo it really looked like only one trail.

To make a long story short, we decided to go back over Eccles, find the correct trail over Red/Buffalo and still head down into Vail. It was going to be dark by the time we reached camp, but we had head lamps and plenty of food, so we weren't too worried. I do have to say that it makes you pause for a moment when, after 9 miles of hiking, you realize that instead of being 5 downhill miles from camp you are really 10 miles and 2 mountain passes away! It took a little convincing on John's part to get me to commit to this. I thought it would be better to just continue down Meadow Creek and go back to the car. Ultimately though I just put one foot in front of the other and headed back up Eccles.

Once over Eccles pass for the second time we saw where we thought our wrong turn had been made. Ironically it was near a spot we had stopped for a few minutes while I filtered more water! The trail up to Red/Buffalo pass is

apparently not very well used. There really was almost no trail to be seen, but we could see a bit of trail higher up, almost at the top of the pass. We headed in what we thought was the correct direction, but the trail started to head downhill not up. We still hadn't found the right trail!

At this point we decided to call it a day. Our much anticipated hike to Vail would have to wait for another day. We turned around and headed back the way we came. It was a sad moment when we realized we weren't going to accomplish the goal we had set for ourselves. But at least we had a beautiful day in the mountains with incredible wildflowers and good company. Kodi wasn't complaining! Over 9 hours and 15.31 miles later we were back at the car and driving over Vail pass back to our camp.

So what is the definition of lost? John and I always knew the way back to the car, even if we didn't know exactly where we were. And we didn't really mind being off course, except for the effort it took to get back on course. So I guess the term lost is relative to one's desire to know where you are. We knew we were playing in the mountains, which is our favorite thing to do. After that, what's a little lost among friends?