Author: Matthew

The Great American Eclipse occurred in The Sawtooth Wilderness in partial and full forms between 10:12:11AM and 12:52:19PM Mountain Time.  Those anal astronomers had pinpointed the viewing period down to the fractions of a second, and we had traveled a long way to see it so we didn’t want to miss a minute of it.  Frank was our timekeeper to ensure we were looking up straight into the sun to see it start to disappear.

LOOKING AHEAD

Several hours before we were standing on a mountaintop doing what our mother’s always told us not to do, we were waking up near Rendezvous Lake with great anticipation.  We only had a vague idea of where we were going to witness the eclipse and unsure of how long it was going to take us.  So our goal was to be walking out of camp by 7:30-8 to give us at least 2 hours to get to our viewing spot.  We had to hike up at least one mountain pass then continue off trail up a ridge to find a nice flat spot to hang out and watch the eclipse.  We either didn’t have that far to go or the adrenaline pushed us up the mountain faster than expected, but we found our viewing location a little after 9AM giving us an hour to hang out before the show started.

We climbed up the closest ridge after hiking up the mountain pass, reached a nice patch of land that leveled out enough for 6 guys to lay about and found 3 other men who had already beaten us up the ridge.  We came up on them and asked to join their party.  They not so politely pointed along the ridge and said we can get higher if we continue on the narrow ridge to its peak.  While we may have been able to gain a few extra feet of elevation if we continued, the ridge narrowed where we would all have to stand in a line if we didn’t want to be slipping down the side of a mountain.  I’m pretty sure all of us in the Fellowship were absolutely fine with viewing the eclipse with more people but this group had different ideas and thought we would ruin their experience.  As the next group of people behind us climbed the ridge to join us, the three original guys picked up their packs to head back down the ridge to a lower point to be alone.  We thought there was enough sun for all of us but apparently not.

We were not at the highest point in the Sawtooths but we were atop a ridge splitting two mountain valleys and we could look across to several mountain tops feeling like we did our best to get to a remote location.  As the eclipse approached we could see more and more moving silhouettes across the valley climbing up neighboring ridges and peaks.  We were all trying to ascend the Sawtooths to find our own private Idaho.

Over the next hour about 8 more people joined us on our ridge.  Two couples from Idaho and a group of recent James Madison University grads from the East Coast.  Frank, a JMU Duke himself, made the connection and the 12+ of us hung out, conversed, swapped camping stories waiting for the show to start.  KT informed the group of the unique things we will be able to see during the eclipse such as Shadow Bands and Baily’s Beads.  One of the JMU grads, we’ll call him Craig, responded by saying that he hopes he’ll be able to see the Moon’s shadow sweep across the landscape.

“I don’t want to miss that.” Craig said, “How do you think we will see that?  What will it look like?”  I think we all stood there a little confused then finally without trying not to sound too condescending somebody told him that I don’t think he’ll miss the moon’s shadow.  Craig was still apprehensive. 

LOOKING UP

When you look up at the sun with your ANSI standard certified eclipse glasses all you see is black with an orange dot as the sun.  You don’t see any rays.  It is a perfect circle.  No halo of light surrounding the circle.  It is a bizarre sight and you have to constantly take your glasses off to regain your sense of your surroundings.  DO NOT ATTEMPT TO MOVE WITH YOUR ECLIPSE GLASSES ON.  YOU WILL TRIP AND FALL.

Frank looked down at his watch, and relayed to us that the eclipse was supposed to be starting, but it was hard to believe anything was about to happen.  Not sure what we were all expecting but it appeared to be a normal, beautiful sunlit Idaho morning.  As soon as Frank voiced his disbelief of the impending eclipse, I looked up and on the edge of the orange circle, I saw the tiniest arc of black where orange should have been.  As if an mouse had taken a miniscule bite out of wheel of cheese.  Everyone looked up in amazement as we watched the black arc continue to expand and take over the circle.  If you weren’t looking through the eclipse glasses, you would have never known what was happening.  It didn’t get any darker.  There was no shadow or anything.  We watched the sun over the next 45 minutes turn from an orange circle, to a “Pac-Man” sun, to a crescent sun, to a banana sun then to a sliver of light. 

The first thing everyone noticed was the temperature drop.  For the first two hours on that ridge, we were basking in warm sunlight but as the moon covered the sun by more than 60% we all put our glasses down to grab our jackets from our packs.  You still couldn’t tell by looking around an eclipse was occurring but you could definitely feel it.  At around 95% coverage you could finally see the shadow of the moon overtake us and start to shade us.  Then, looking through the glasses, everything went black.  Where did the sun go?  Everyone stopped talking.  The animals went silent.  I took off my glasses looked up at the sun and saw an awe-inspiring ring of diamond white completely encircling the black obstructing moon.  The white ring burned against the sky as you stare in confusion of what exactly you are looking at.  No sun, no rays, no light, just a white ring.  It was mesmerizing, beautiful and confounding.  For a couple seconds everyone stared in silence…  Then, we all rejoiced at the unbelievable sight.  Our ridge screamed out in celebration and we could hear the joyous screams carry across the valley from the neighboring mountaintops.

As you looked down on the valleys around us and out towards the horizons the moon’s shadow blanketed the Idaho landscape with just a hint of light far out on the edge of the horizon.  Perched up on our ridge, we could see our 360 degree sunrise.  It appeared as if the sun was rising up around us from all sides.  Of all the sensations during the eclipse, the warm hue of orange yellow light touching the Horizon encircling us was the most bizarre.

The blazing ring burned above us for 124 seconds, from 11:28:16AM to 11:30:20AM (https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/map/2017-august-21#).  Somewhere in between the dumb-struck staring, the celebration and being reminded by others not to stare at the sun for 2 straight minutes I was able to capture this image.  I wish I had my longer lens with me but I don’t normally carry it with me on backpacking trips.  Considering I wasn’t planning on taking any pictures during totality and it was a last second decision, I thought it came out pretty well.

We basked in the moon’s shadow trying to take everything in and capture it to our memory knowing it will soon be gone.  Then just as it appeared, it disappeared again.  We put our glasses back on and a yellow/orange sliver of the sun was visible and sunlight poured over the wilderness.  First, in faint, shallow power as if behind a cloud then quickly the full power of the sun was on top of us.  Again you wouldn’t realize an eclipse was even occurring. 

As everyone started talking and packing up there things I could here Craig say he didn’t see the moon’s shadow.  Did anyone see it?   Where was it?  Maybe he expected a shadow puppet of the moon projected on the ground in front of him.  I guess he was disappointed.  Sorry, Craig.

We stayed on top of the ridge watching the sun waxing (Not sure if you can use that term for the sun) for a little bit but as we still had several hours of hiking to do and it was approaching noon we had to get a move on. 

(I stopped about 45 minutes later on the trail and watched the final silhouette of the moon disappear from the face of the sun)

LOOKING BACK

It was an amazing, beautiful and surreal experience.  While the viewing itself was amazing, the entire experience was more than I could have hoped.  In the middle of nowhere after several days of hiking with great friends made the eclipse exponentially more enjoyable and memorable.  While frequenters of the Northwest wilds continued to say how crowded the trails were, it still seemed incredibly remote and intimate to me.  It was way better than being on a rooftop or crowded parking lot or side of a road to view it.  Thank you to KFisch for getting us all to the top of that ridge on a cloudless day to see that ring of fire.

I’m don’t know how many times I have apologized for how much time I leave in between posts but here it goes again. 

I’m sorry I haven’t written anything in while.  I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and is off to a great 2018.  At the end of the last post the Fellowship had assembled in the Mormon capital of Salt Lake City.

On the morning of August 17th, we awoke in Utah not knowing if we were going to make our way to the Wind River Range in Wyoming or the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho.  When KFisch had started sending emails out organizing Broventure 2017 in January all camp sites and cheap places to stay in the path of Totality had already been snatched up by “Eclipse Nerds”.  So he pinpointed our trip to national forests and wilderness areas in these two areas to avoid having to get permits or secure camp sites.  The “Pro” to this strategy is that it is cheaper and we can be more flexible with where we go to ensure good weather for the eclipse.  The “Con” is that if a lot of people have the same idea then it might be hard to find campsites for six people as they are a basically on a “First Come” basis.

As we all sat around the living room in our AirBnb, a stone’s throw from the Utah State Capital, we waited for KFisch to jump back and forth between weather reports of the Western Wyoming and the Central Idaho trying to decipher what the weather will be like in five day’s time.  It’s funny thinking back now how little other’s assisted in the decision making process.  Considering the fact that if there was weather or even clouds the whole reason for people flying out and taking vacation would have been ruined as the eclipse would not have been viewable.  Finally, KFisch announced he thought we would have better luck in Idaho.  Nobody disputed or challenged his advice and we geared up for a trip to the Sawtooth Mountains.  After we ate breakfast in the Temple Square where I was reminded that Mormons don’t drink caffeine (I was the ignorant asshole who ordered coffee) we stopped for some last minute supplies and a map of the Sawtooth Wilderness before we started the 6 hour drive North.

I drove Jason in my Subaru while the other four piled into their rental car.  While I thought that KFisch had a hiking route picked out to follow in both the Sawtooths and Wind River Range, in fact the four people in the other car spent some of their trip researching trailheads and trails to figure out exactly where we were going hiking.  As we entered the totality zone Traffic Warnings started appearing alerting the public of high traffic congestion for the weekend and to take measures to avoid if necessary.  As we entered the Sawtooth Wilderness Area there were vast stretches of field quarantined off with red tape and giant signs stating “Eclipse Viewing Area”.  Good thing there were directions on where to view the eclipse.  Not sure if the average person would know to look “up”.  While I’m sure it was important for the authorities to try to control the massive influx of people into these otherwise non-populous areas, it was still comical to see those signs.

We camped out that night near Pettit lake in the Sawtooth Wilderness and experienced the coldest night of the summer.  The temperature definitely dropped into the 30s causing us to take a long time to get out of our tents the next morning as we were not prepared for such cold weather.  After we finally crawled out of our tents, threw on our warm weather clothes and ate breakfast, we stashed my car near the Pettit Lake Trailhead, crammed all our gear and bodies into the rental car and drove to Redfish Lake.  We bought tickets to “ferry” across across the lake to cut off 6 miles of trail and started our trip into the backcountry.  The plan was to hike from Redfish Lake to Pettit Lake but we still weren’t sure of our route exactly. 

Here is a map of a pretty close representation of where we hiked, slept and witnessed totality.

When we started hiking KFisch and Chris took off speeding ahead (a regular occurrence) with Frank and I pairing up in the middle  and Jason and KT slightly behind us.  While the pairings varied from time to time, more often than not it was KFisch and Chris way out in front and the rest of us a good distance behind in some order.

The Sawtooth Mountains are aptly named.  As we hiked mile after mile, we enjoyed the jagged rock features thrusting out of the ground towering thousands of feet above us.  The rock is mostly grey with sharp spindle shaped rock formations covering the horizon resembling, you guessed it, a saw.

An ongoing worry was finding a campsite big enough for three tents, close to water and relatively close to the trail.  Because of this we tended to avoid “popular” lakes assuming all the campsites would already be taken.  As we approached the first pass to get to Baron Lake, the decision was made to trailblaze over the pass a different direction to cut the distance to Braxon Lake, a less popular lake.  A decision that would send us on a steep trek up a gravely surface with no trail to guide us.  Only the knowledge that we had to get over the ridge and down the other side.  Definitely sketchy at times as we were making our way down the steep downgrade on the backside, walking over snowfields trying not to slip but I enjoyed the off-trailing and the challenge of finding our way down to water.

We camped at a lake above Braxon Lake where we easily found space for three tents with only one other person anywhere close to us.  Everyone except Frank took a bath in the lake to wash off our sweat from the day.  As most alpine lake baths go, it was freezing and AMAZING.  Highly recommended.  We took care of our nightly chores: Setup tents, make/eat dinner and stargaze before turning in for the night.

The next morning we broke camp and continued walking down the mountain side to try to meet up with the trail we had abandoned the afternoon before.  We walked passed Braxon Lake where KFisch took to his namesake and fly fisched.  We were hoping to have some fresh fish for dinner but he didn’t catch anything worth keeping.  We found our back to the trail, backtracked a little back over the same pass from the day before (this time we followed the trail) and continued onto Lower Cramer Lake where we camped for the night.  Again, because of the fear of not finding a campsite, we stopped at Lower Cramer Lake instead of continuing on to Upper Cramer Lake which was known to be more popular and picturesque.

The third day was decision day.  How far do we want to push it and where are we going to witness the Solar Eclipse?  The first two days we covered around 10 miles a day.  And by early afternoon on the third day we had traveled another 5-7 miles and stopped to discuss our options.  Option 1:  Hike another 4-5 hours covering another 7ish miles with two more mountain passes.  We would get to see more lakes, cover more ground and set us up to climb a peak to see the eclipse early the next day.  However,  This would put us at risk of not finding a campsite because we would be getting there late and also put us further from the finish line causing a longer final day of hiking.  Or Option 2:  Hike another hour or two, go over zero mountain passes and setup camp early and relax.  This would force us to exit on a different trail the following day not allowing us to see two beautiful lakes but ultimately making day 4 shorter. 

Frank and I were probably the only ones intrigued with going the long way.  Frank wanted to see Toxaway Lake and Alice Lake while I wanted to climb a peak before seeing the eclipse.  But it didn’t take much to convince us that relaxing for the rest of the afternoon before it got dark would be worth it.  The group decided to take the short route

Within two hours of deciding to go the short route we had setup camp near Rendezvous Lake.  Almost immediately after dropping our gear, everyone (except for Frank) went for a swim.  An amazingly warm lake that we were actually able to swim around in (instead of just jumping in and jumping out to clean off).  It was a great afternoon of relaxing, swimming and playing camp games.  That evening KFisch, Jason and I stayed up to enjoy the stars  and watch the Milkyway Galaxy move across the sky.  Taking the short route turned out to be the best idea of the trip. 

 The next day we woke up and broke camp early to get to our viewing spot for The Great American Eclipse…

Over the last several years, a childhood friend of mine, Kyle (aka KFisch), has organized an epic backpacking trip somewhere in the United States: fondly named the Broventure.  The 2017 version centered on witnessing the total solar eclipse and it also included the largest number of “bros” joining in the “venture”.  Here are those “bros” who followed KFisch into the wilderness:

Frank:

Previously introduced in this blog when he joined me for our adventure through Glacier National Park, but I feel it is necessary to reintroduce and provide a more complete portrait of Frank, (aka Pov Jones; aka Povs).

Born in Staten Island where he spent his early years before moving to central Jersey in the 4th grade (when we met), he combines that New York edge with the class all us New Jerseyans possess.  At 5’11” with buzzed blond hair and a noticeable cowlick sending his hair up in the front, he is not normally the most talkative person, but when he voices his mind, it is honest, cutting, funny, smart and creative.  A quick witted accountant, he deals in practicality and reality.  His favorite current pastime is to give unsolicited compliments to friends, raising their spirits, seeing them smile just in time to bring them crashing back to Earth with a poignant shot at their ego.  Only the strong survive in New Jersey and Povs is always there to remind you of that.  Most of the time he is messing with you… I think.

His creative and effective ribbing of his friends is only overshadowed by his honest, loyal and upstanding personality with those same people.  His morals and honesty are never questioned, and whether that means being behind you in tough times or calling you out on your shit, he will always point you in the right direction, whether you like it or not.

About 18 months ago he picked up hiking, spending a lot of weekends driving to upstate NY or New England to hike trails alone.  Our trip to Glacier was his first backpacking trip, and I’m not sure if I was able to totally show him the wonders of not showering, sleeping on the ground and surviving off of dehydrated foods.  Still, if there is anything that can change someone’s mind about living in the backcountry, it is a maiden journey on the Broventure seeking out the Great American Eclipse.

Kyle:

KFisch  and I shared the same school buildings from kindergarten through senior year of high school, but it was not until we shared the bus in our freshman year of high school that our friendship really began.  It was his quick, smart and dry sense of humor that forged the friendship that is still going strong today. 

He is the architect and leader of the Broventure Excursions.  A man born approximately 150 years late, he would have found himself at home as a frontiersmen trailblazing the West with the likes of Lewis and Clark.  He spent much of his childhood exploring the outdoors around central NJ, instead of sitting in front of a Nintendo64, and not much has changed as he now spends his lunch breaks “chasin’ those bitchin’ swells, brah,” off the coast of San Diego.  Tall and skinny, with wavy blond hair and perpetually in shape, he is the iconic image of a California Surfer.  While he possesses classic good looks, he also has the brains so when he is not paddling through the Pacific, he is pursuing his doctorate at UCSD in Neuroscience.

It is not easy to lead a group of adult men with varying outdoors’ skills into the wilderness.  People like to hike at their own pace, stop at different times, experience the outdoors in their own way but he maintains a critical balance between keeping people on-schedule while also allowing people the freedom to enjoy the trip how they wish.  With his immense knowledge of the wilderness, it is easy to follow him; knowing the trip will be challenging, fun and an adventure.  He probably would enjoy himself just as much traveling into the unknown with just his fly rod, but we are all lucky that he invites us along.  After all, that way he can split the rental car cost.

Jason:

Another person who has already been written about in this blog, but he was never formerly introduced.  He is Louisiana bred and Mississippi raised. A country boy raised in the sticks (seriously, his parents just got high speed internet…they call it American Online…) he spent his free time as a kid hunting, fishing and reading biographies of our founding fathers.  He later started reading fantasy novels which ultimately led him down a path of severe “nerdism”.  A path that has led to an immense knowledge of epic book series, board games and Magic: The Gathering. 

Jason was one of my first friends I met upon moving to the Gulf Coast.  Jason had been working at our company for over 2 years when I met him.   While his career took him all over the world, he spent a lot of time in Baton Rouge while I was there.  Then he spent the last several years in Houston where we also lived in the same apartment complex.  

Jason has never met a person with whom he didn’t want to be in deep conversation.  Probably one of the reasons we became such good friends is his ability to completely run a conversation, often about sports or beer.  He is good at talking; I am good at listening.  He is a great story teller to the point where I often let him tell my stories because it just more entertaining for all involved.  He has a knack for calling people out in a way that makes you smile, instead of scowl.  Often smiling and joking, it is always entertaining having him around.

Jason and I ultimately came to the same decision to leave the corporate world and explore our great nation at the same time.  Jason joined me and the rest of the fellowship for Broventure 2017, and the plan was always for him to stay with me and finish the epic RealTrip together. We have hiked through Texas and the Grand Canyon together but our greatest challenge is still to come, finding totality and more so, being confined to a Subaru together for 5 weeks. 

Kyle T:

Along with Frank, this marks the maiden Broventure for Kyle T, subsequently referred to as KT.  I met KT while living in Baton Rouge through Jason.  He and Jason went to high school and college together then both moved to Baton Rouge upon graduation and until recently KT, Jason and I all lived in Houston together. While I cherish all my amazing friends through all aspects of my life, I don’t have a single person that I attended high school, partied/studied through college and started adulting with like KT and Jason have each other. Their bromance is strong. 

A Georgia boy, KT, is an engineer whose career originally brought him to South Texas, but it was his need to get away from the corporate world that led him to live the good life in Austin for several years and explore entrepreneurial endeavors.  There are many reasons that led me to quitting my job and heading out on my own and KT was definitely one of those influences.  Seeing how he decided to live his life for a few years and then return back to the workforce was an inspiration to me.    He recently moved to Houston where he, Jason and I were able to enjoy a few months bumming around the Bayou City together before I took off.

KT is smart, confident and funny.  He is always good to have around the group to ensure everyone knows where “the line” is, as he often crosses it.  A brash, irreverent sense of humor, his quips cause laughter and a far-off thought of, “should I be laughing at this?”. 

When different friend groups come together and forced to hang out, it can be awkward.  Especially in our case where we were to be constantly together for 5 straight days in potentially stressful situations but KT has the ability to cut any tension and keep the group at ease.  Every group needs someone who can keep people laughing when calories are low and miles are long and KT can do just that making him a happy addition to the Broventure.

Chris:

The stalwart veteran of the Broventures, he is a college buddy of KFisch’s.  KFisch and Chris have had many adventures together traveling all over the Western Hemisphere.  A Boston native, he is relatively soft spoken but always friendly and easy to talk to.  I met Chris on my first Broventure into the Alaskan wilderness several years ago and our friendship immediately took off.  KFisch was the only person I knew on that trip and I was surrounded by “Bostonians”, but Chris and I immediately became friends talking about sports, fantasy and real, and he made me feel less like an outsider and more of one of the gang. 

Chris somehow remains to be the most easygoing guy in the group while also being the quickest.  He is a skilled outdoorsmen, always first to the next waypoint, first to setup camp, first to finish meals, first to break camp.  It always seems like he effortlessly pushes himself through our sufferfests without ever being tired, hungry, sore or bothered in any way.  You can commonly find Chris sitting on his pack casually enjoying the outdoors waiting for everyone else.

He is the important bridge between the group and the leader.  Someone who has traveled with KFisch more than anyone, he is a go-to for questions about the trip, living outdoors and whatever else you need to know.  Sometimes you feel like you cannot keep asking the leader question after question so it is good to have someone else you can rely on.

Although we have lived in different time zones the entirety of our friendship, it is always nice to see him as we annually set out into the wild together.

The Fellowship:

So there it is, the Fellowship set to head out together to find Totality.  Salt Lake City was the rendezvous point before we strapped on our packs.  We converged on SLC from New Jersey, San Diego, Charlotte, Houston and Boston.  We all managed to make it to the AirBnb before we began the drive North.  On August 17th we drove out of SLC together in search of an epic adventure and the Great American Eclipse. 

(Spoiler Alert:  We found both)

Matthew

I arrived in Torrey, Utah just outside of Capitol Reef National Park in the evening on August 13th.  A tiny town with one main street, a few restaurants, a general store and that’s about it.  A town you could drive through without knowing it if you aren’t careful.  I was the last customer able to order at the Italian restaurant as they were running out of food… at 7PM.

I found a free camp spot just outside the park where I got to experience mostly clear skies and enjoy the starlight.  The following day I made my way into the park’s visitor center where I got a run down on the trails and different parts of the park.  The park covers a long, skinny plot of land in central Utah.  This land is called the Waterpocket Fold and due to uplift from tectonic activity and an ancient tectonic fault the land formed a natural sloping landscape with rock formations at an angle with reference to the horizon compared to the Grand Canyon where the rock striations are horizontal.  Another unique characteristic of this fold is water flows and collects creating this oasis of lush greenery in an otherwise barren landscape dominated by red and orange rock.

Utah Highway 24 runs through the middle of the park where the visitor center is and most of the hiking trails and popular sights.  But the park also has two dirt roads, one running to the North and one to the South.  I was told my Subaru couldn’t get to the North side of the park and I would need a high clearance vehicle.  That makes it all the more intriguing and a reason to definitely go back.  How many people get to actual experience this whole park? 

I settled on Chimney Rock trail and made my way to the trail head.  Getting ready to go on a long day hike is always a process for me.  Because of how everything fits in my car and my particulars on how I store my water, it always takes me a while to get things out, pack my bag and make sure I’m not forgetting anything.  As I’m going through this process, a woman parked next to me is going through the same process.  A similarly packed car.  Obviously another person living on the road.  She smiled,  said “Hi” as she finished up and headed out on the trail.  I briefly talked to a father and son that had New Jersey plates then headed out on the trail. 

As the trail winds it way up to the first overlook to see the beautiful landscape of the park, I run into the same traveler.  After a conversation about the view, we decided to finish the hike together.  As we had both spent a lot of time hiking alone we were both looking forward to some company.

Looking back on my time on the road, one of my biggest regrets is the lack of people I was willing to talk to, meet and really get to know.  Before I left Houston I had visions of being holed up in small bars meeting locals learning about their lives and towns and really getting to know them over a beer or two or three or four…  Or meeting fellow travelers that invited me on their own adventures.  But to be honest, except for a select few stories that I have already written about, more often than not I was sitting at the bar by myself looking at my phone planning my next day, or talking myself out of being social on the trail thinking people don’t want this hobo looking guy invading their space.  Enter Kat.

Kat, an artist living in New Orleans who could not mask her North Carolina accent if she tried, possesses the ability to hold both sides of a conversation which was fine by me.  Often apologizing for dominating the conversation, I was happy to let her so I could hike and listen to something other than my inner-monologue.  Conversations about how we got where we are, why we made decisions that got us here, travel “pro-tips”, families, past/current significant others and our futures.  While hiking through the wilderness I don’t see any need to hold back.  I probably will never see this person again and who are they going to tell.  It was weirdly therapeutic to talk it out to someone else even if they are a complete stranger. We spent two days together hiking, going to campfire ranger talks and enjoying another’s company for a change. 

Listening to Kat’s stories, she is the type of person who makes fast friends wherever she ends up.  An inviting, honest and entertaining personality, it is no wonder people gravitate to her.  And while she has created friendships with ease all over the West on her travels I certainly have not and I’m lucky that I ran into her that day in Capitol Reef. 

What an adventure!  The RealTripping is on pause for right now.  I dropped Jason off with his dog and car in North Carolina on 9/21 and headed to my new home.  After 106 days and 15,666 miles living out of my car exploring the Western United States and Canada, I have settled into a spare room at my brother’s place in Newport News, VA.  While there were several objectives for this trip, finding myself on the East coast at the end was one of them and I succeeded there. 

I apologize for not keeping the blog post portion of the website updated.  The last post that wasn’t a “Photo Announcement” was about Washington state.  John Philip defined our trip through Oregon and California to Las Vegas therefore I will pick up the narrative in Southern Utah.  The  blog still needs to cover Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Toronto, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Virginia and North Carolina.  As well as new friends met along the way, a total eclipse, a crashed wedding and reuniting with the part of the country I spent the first 2/3rds of my life in.  The narrative will be finished and I hope all of YOU will continue reading.  

As I mentioned in the last post, Jason and I blitzed across the country once we left South Dakota covering many miles in a few days stopping at friends and families places in a nice change from sleeping every night in our tent.  This album has photos from Iowa, Toronto, Pennsylvania and NYC.  Enjoy!

Matthew

Iowa->NYC

32 Photos

So, I’ve made it all the way to the East Coast.  Last night I slept in my childhood bed and this evening I will share beers with some of my oldest friends.  It has been an amazing trip so far and we are quickly approaching the end.  I am already missing the mountains in the West.

Jason and I hit the road fast and often on the trip from Badlands.  Crossing South Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ontario and Pennsylvania while also briefly touching Nebraska and Indiana on our way to New Jersey.  We put a bunch of miles on the Subaru over the last 10 days and now we are taking a quick break in New Jersey.  I hope you can take a quick break and enjoy my photos from South Dakota.  Unfortunately, it was very hazy/smokey while we were there but it was still pretty amazing landscape.

Matthew

South Dakota

26 Photos

On a beautiful Sunday afternoon on the 6th of August 2017, as I sat on a camping chair surrounded by towering pines. I offer to hold Stan-the-Man’s beer as he climbs into a hammock on day-two of Mammoth’s 22nd annual blues music and craft beer festival. The sky is crystal clear. The beer is cold. The crowd fantastic. The company perfect, and the music sets a pleasant background. As I hand Stan-the-Man his beer back, he sighs, without a shred of pretense, “dang”. In one syllable, he exactly articulated my emotions. A relaxing moment, on a beautiful day, in a great weekend, at the end of a fantastic vacation.
​Rewinding nine days, the trip had not started off quite as magical. I arrived to the Newport News airport approximately 40 minutes prior to my scheduled departure, and no sooner had I made it through security were we alerted of a 45 minute delay. With a healthy turn in Charlotte, there is no reason for concern at this point, so I settle in to wait for my flight. Nine minutes prior to the scheduled arrival of the in-bound flight that is suppose to take me to Charlotte, they issued another 45 minute delay. Why they waited so long to issue this most recent delay is anybody’s guess, but alas, this delay was going to cause me to miss my connection in Charlotte to Portland.

​I was rebooked on a flight out of Charlotte to Portland for the following morning, and elected to stick with my original flight out of Newport News to avoid any chance of missing the new connection. When one flies “American Airlines, in association with American Eagle, operated by Piedmont Airlines and a ‘partner’” one does not exactly get priority in cases of weather or maintenance delays so it is best to stick with any flight that appears to be going, no matter how delayed. I figured I might be able to spend the night at the USO in the Charlotte airport or in the worst case scenario sit in one of Charlotte airport’s famous rocking chairs all night.  

​After being rebooked with a plan to get to Portland about 13 hours later than originally planned, I called American Airlines back to see if there were any other options that would get me to Portland sooner. The attendant gave me a number of options that were significantly worse than the option I already had. At some point, I said, “my desire is to get there sooner not later.” The attendant responded with, “Well, if time is your concern, you have the quickest routing….short of getting in a car and driving.” WHAT! Portland is nearly 2,800 miles from Charlotte…how could driving be faster? I felt like Richard in Tommy Boy – “Hi, I’m Earth, have we met?”. In the end, I stuck with the plan I had.

​I was also informed during the re-booking process that I would need to check on my bag at baggage claim in Charlotte. This is very nonstandard, but with about 12 hours to kill in Charlotte, I figured it could not hurt. I was wrong about that.  

​I exited security in Charlotte and went to baggage claim only to find out that I did not, in fact, need to check on my bag as it was auto-routed to Portland. No big deal…until I tried to go back through security to go hang out at the USO or a rocking chair, and I was told that my ticket was for tomorrow morning, and I was not allowed in…until tomorrow. I explained to the TSA agent the situation and he said that there was nothing he could do, but perhaps the ticket counter would give me a gate pass. Back at the ticket counter, I was greeted by an extremely rude individual who had nothing for my plight. When queried what I should do at that point, he told me I could sleep on the floor here. Why sleeping on the floor outside security is better than sleeping inside security, I will never know.

​I was not the only traveler to be in this situation, and aside from a young man with an extremely loud ring tone that was getting a text message ever 10-15 seconds, the night passed uneventfully and I slept pretty much the whole way to Portland the following morning.

​After Matthew picked me up at the Portland airport on the 29th of July, we made our way to McMenamins Kennedy School for lunch. The Kennedy School is an old elementary school where they converted the classrooms into bars, restaurants, and some hotel rooms. It is worth a stop if you are in Portland. The morning was beautiful and we sat in the courtyard of the old school, and we had a nice lunch while we planned out the next couple days.

​Later that afternoon, we went to Powell’s City of Books in downtown Portland, where we researched hiking in the Three Sister’s Wilderness Area and bought a map. Powell’s is massive. If books are your thing, it is quite a sight.  

​As luck would have it, there was a beer festival occurring in downtown Portland, and we went to check that out. It was crowded and hot, and there was a significant amount of time between bands on stage. Actually, I do not believe we heard a single song play the entire time we were there. They were forever “getting ready to play”. We had a good time, but I would say as beer festivals go, that particular beer festival is worth skipping.

​On Sunday morning, between laundry and a grocery run, we were pretty slow getting out of Portland, and did not get to the Three Sister’s Wilderness Area until about 4:30 on the afternoon of 30 July. We stopped at a Ranger station where we asked about hiking to Moraine Lake with a plan to summit the South Sister on the morrow. We were told that we could certainly hike to Moraine Lake, but without ice climbing gear (crampons, etc.) we would not be able to summit because the snow line was at 7,500 feet while the summit was 10,358 feet. Very disappointed in the news, we decided to continue on to Moraine Lake and hike as far as we could the next morning. The mosquitoes were bad on the hike in and even worse at camp, so we turned in early to avoid being eaten to death.  

​The next morning we stowed the majority of gear out-of-sight, and set-off with day packs to attempt to summit the South Sister. It is true that there probably was some snow at 7,500 feet, but to describe it as “the snow line” was a huge exaggeration. There was some snow hanging around in shadows and under over hanging rocks, but with the exception of a 20 foot section with 2 inches of snow on it, the entire 4.7 mile trail was dry.

​That does not mean it was easy. The upper section of the hike was straight up a ridge line. According to my GPS device, we climbed 2,974 feet in 2.56 miles at the steepest section. That is a grade of about 22%. It was a sustained, soul crushing slog. The thousands of butterflies fluttering around us made the grade and mosquitoes from the night before almost worthwhile. Almost. The views from the top, however, were fantastic, and definitely made up for the effort.

​After another night in the Three Sisters Wilderness Area and a short soak in the Green Lakes, we were off again, driving south stopping at Crater Lake National Park. The lake is amazing and the views stunning, but there were dozens of people on the rim near the visitor’s center that were not even looking at the lake. Children and adults a like were beside themselves, not with the awe inspiring views of the ninth deepest lake in the world, but rather in playing in a half-acre of three-inch deep, dirty snow. I guess they can always see the lake next time they take their Griswoldian vacation to Crater Lake.

​Next, we were making our way to California and the coast. We stopped in Medford, Oregon for dinner where the Oregon heatwave of 2017 was in full effect. The car temperature read 108 F. I was incredulous that it was a sensor error…until I got out of the car. It did not take long for us to decide that we were going to have to drive out of the heatwave zone if we were going to be able to camp that evening.

​By the time we made it over the coast range and were on “the 101” (because we were in California), the temperature had dropped at least 40 degrees….and the trees were enormous.

​We followed the 101 and then the 1 over the next two days to the town of Fort Bragg, Ca. Stopping often to look at the Redwoods or the ocean. If you are out that way, I recommend the Avenue of the Giants (the 254) in Humbolt Redwoods State Park. Yes it is pretty touristy, but it is an easy way to get great views of the redwoods with many opportunities to “take a short 0.5 mile hike to see…” Spoiler, you will see massive trees….but they do not seem to get old.

​At this point, we sprinted inland to the 5, and drove south to Yosemite. We found a campsite in the Stanislaus National Forest just 15 minutes from the western entrance to Yosemite. This was a big, uneventful day of driving, but we ended it with a cheeseburger on the porch of the cafe in what is now called “Half Dome Village”.  

​Although there were plenty of people around, I honestly expected it to be much more crowded for an August 3rd afternoon. We were able to drive around the valley with relative ease, and plan out our following day in the park.

​Readers familiar with Yosemite might ask themselves…”where is Half Dome Village?” If you have a map of Yosemite that is more than 2 years old, look at it, and find “Curry Village”…..same place. Apparently, there is a trademark dispute ongoing between the National Park Service and the contracted concessions provider. I am not sure which party is at fault in this dispute, but it is truly annoying. First, the fact that the name of a camp ground / concession stand in a National Park can be trademarked is a sign that we have truly lost our minds as a society, and secondly, it is makes finding sites such as the historic Ahwahnee Hotel (read: Majestic Yosemite Hotel) and Wawona Hotel (read: Big Trees Lodge) very difficult. Also, I think it is pretty clear that during the renaming process, they renamed the Wawona Hotel late in the day. Seriously…Big Tree Lodge?!?!? Is that the best you can do?

​On that Friday, we took a big hike. We hiked up the Upper Yosemite Falls trail early in the morning, reaching the top by mid-morning for a sit and a snack near the stream. At one point, I watched a young women cross the stream with about 6 inches of water rushing passed her feet upstream of the one of the tallest waterfalls in the world. The upper falls, which she would have come to first, is a 1,430 foot plunge. I was a bit away when I saw this happening, and as I approached her friend, I informed him that that was a supremely dumb thing to do. He agreed.  

​There are a couple things the Rangers make clear to visitors in national parks. The wilderness is, as the name implies, wild. Do not take unnecessary risks like walking across a river upstream of a waterfall. Also, don’t feed our bears. Alas, without these idiots we would not have the morbidly popular book series chronicling deaths in National Parks. Yellowstone recently came out with a 2nd edition, so business is good….I guess.

​After looking at the falls, we continued out to El Capitan and had lunch on top of the monolith. On the return trip, we took a quick side jaunt to Eagle Peak. Aside from the notoriety of hiking to El Capitan, it was not worth the extra 4+ miles (roundtrip). The view from Eagle Peak, however, was awesome. If you end up putting in the effort to climb the Upper Yosemite Falls, it is an easy extension to get to Eagle Peak, and it is worthwhile.

​Hours later at about 5:30 pm, when we are 20-30 minutes from the car, after thousands of feet of climbing and nearly 18 miles of hiking, we pass a group going up with what appeared to be one 8 oz bottle of water per person. They were taking a break, and ask us how much farther it was to the top. We inform them that they are not close, and in fact, they had barely gotten started. They are disappointed, but it is important to be realistic with people in situations like that, otherwise they could get themselves into a bad situation.

​After dinner at the Whoa Nelly Deli, a must stop just off the 395 on the 120 at the Tioga Gas Mart, we made our way to Mammoth Lakes for the beginning of a weekend with great friends in the Eastern Sierra.

​Bluesapalooza, as always, was amazing. We had a couple new folks in our group this year, and we were talking the festival up a lot on Friday night. I was a bit nervous that we were potentially overhyping it. It turns out that that is not possible, and they both admitted that we did not oversell it. Not even a fairly significant downpour on Saturday afternoon could break-our spirit, and with a little ingenuity and teamwork we had a “moving tent” that kept the group dry-ish all afternoon.

​By Monday evening, we were in Las Vegas having a great steak dinner with great friends before I flew out on Monday night to return to my real life.

​As I reflect on this vacation with Matthew it occurs to me that I cannot remember ever having a vacation quite like that before. Fly into one city and out of another. Have no real plan, except continue moving on. Cover well over 1,500 miles. Hike and camp and spend a lot of quality time with Matthew. I am truly grateful that I had the opportunity to spend 10 days on the road with my brother, and I hope to be able to do something like that again someday. In the end, the only thing I can think to say to sum up this whole experience is… “dang”.

John Philip