Well, it's Tuesday evening and Steve and I did a wonderful hike today. We woke up with the wind blowing away, but the sun shining. After a typical early start for us we made it to Logan's Pass and the Highline Trailhead at 11:15. (OK, OK we aren't the early birds catching any darn worms.)

What a fabulous hike. The views were spectacular:

And the wildlife amazing.

Steve even got some climbing in

(just don't tell the Park Rangers)

We hiked to the Granite Chalet and back

A total of 16 miles. Needless to say we were whipped puppies.

5 minutes before we got to this spot (the end of the trail) a couple of girls said they had seen a momma bear and her cub. They were a bit nervous to start and we had just walked out....

On the way back to our camp spot Steve had the absolutely fantastic idea that we should go into town for dinner. We did; someone else cooked for us and cleaned up. How great is that?  We are now 

kicking back in the Beast with a well deserved glass of wine and contemplating going to bed at nine. What a life!

Glacier National Park

Well, it's been awhile, but the Santora blog is again up and running. I didn't get it quite together for our trip last year. Now we have an IPad and I might be able to do better, although I'm not sure how to get pictures in.

So, this year we decided to head north. We were in Chicago from Tuesday - Friday; Steve at the SRS, me exploring the city.  What a great place. My first time there, but I hope to go back. We got home Friday night, said hi to Joey & Sadie slept then spent all day Saturday getting the Beast ready.

Sunday morning we pointed the Beast north and hit the road. 11 hours later with Steve's amazing driving ability we made it to Glacier and a camp spot in Rising Sun campgrounds. We had a lovely dinner ( flank steak, sweet potato and quinoa) and we're putting the awning away for the night.  I decided to step on the picnic table to get the height I needed when low and behold, that end of the table didn't have any support under it. I think the phrase is " ass over tea kettle" or some such thing. You get the picture.  I landed smack on my behind, but miraculously, did minimal harm.

Monday morning we awoke to a very windy and overcast day. We found out the campground we were in closed today. So we moved down to St. Mary's campground and found another good spot. Headed to the Visitors' Center to see what our options were. the nice ranger recommended St. Mary's and Virginia Falls, mainly because the trail is somewhat protected from the wind.

When we got to the trail head Steve thought it would be wise to check out the bear spray he bought. Everything we read said it was a good idea to have bear spray with you and to know how to use it. So, he pulled it out and was figuring out how to remove the protective stopper when it accidentally went off ... in my general direction.  Luckily, the main spray did miss both of us, but we did get a very mild whiff of the stuff. Holy, Moly, is that spray powerful! And, now we know how to use the can.

The hike was very nice; well protected from the wind. We got rained on a bit, but nothing too bad. Eventually I'll add pictures. Came back to camp and it's been raining most of the time. We're about to eat dinner, (thai coconut soup) so enough for today.

October 15, 2010 This has absolutely nothing to do with wandering and everything to do with families - ours has been increased by 1. Heather had Felix Orv Barker today at 1:35 pm and as one of the proud grandparents, I have to show off my grandbaby's pictures.

Sunday, September 19, 2010 We ended our wonderful trip with friends at Arches National Park.




















Now that we've been home for awhile we're ready to head out on our next great adventure. This time, with the "Tough Shed." Stay tuned...

Friday, September 17, 2010 Well, the trip is almost over. As we were heading back to Moab we saw a very strange sight: a HUGE pipe stuck in front of a bridge. You never know what you're going to see in your travels.





As we headed towards Moab I had read in the Boondocking Book that there were dinosaur tracks just off of Highway 191. Since we had been in the sight-seeing mood for two weeks, we decided to stop and check them out.



We got to Moab, picked up our clean bikes and had lunch. We got to the condo before everyone else, so were able to get all our dirty dishes washed, start a load of clothes and to take a shower. It was wonderful! Bob and Susie Bolte, Jim and Jean Bolte, and Amy and Bill Cutting all came by early evening. We had dinner in town and then off to bed for the big bike ride in the morning.

Saturday, September 18, 2010 Steve and I have done this Moab Century ride many times, but this is the first time we didn't do the Big Nasty route. We just were NOT in shape for it. So, a group of us set off about 8:00 to do the "Rollers" route along the river. It was a beautiful morning for a bike ride, but just before starting out Steve looks at the tires on the tandem and said they were looking a little worn; that it may be time to replace them when we get to Salt Lake.

As we were riding along Steve looks up and spots a big horn sheep just off to the side a bit. We all stop and watch him for awhile. He would gracefully bound up the rocks, stop and look at us and pose and then move a little further up. It was an amazing sight.










Back to the bike ride. Steve and I had ridden about 22 miles and were heading down a pretty steep hill when the bike started shaking pretty badly. Steve managed to stop us without any problems happening. When he checked the front tire, it turned out the the tire had started to de-laminate. I guess the tires really were bad! He said we could make it back to the finish line, but shouldn't go fast. So, we turned around and had a nice leisurely ride back. We finished around 12:30, had lunch and a wonderful massage. It turned out to be the perfect distance to ride, later in the day it got really hot and there was a headwind. We chose wisely!

Thursday, September 16, 2010 We awoke on top of a mesa with this being our view. It turned out to be a great spot, with no one around and beautiful vistas. This was definitely a slow morning and we didn't get to the Capitol Reef National Park Visitors' Center until 11:30. We were looking at our options for hiking, trying to decided what to do. One of the ones that looked interesting was the Muley Twist trail, but it turns out it is at thevery southern end of the park and we didn't have time to drive down to it and do the hike.


There was another hike that sounded interesting and close by, Chimney Rock Trail. It was only a three mile loop, but we thought the views would be nice, which they were. So, at about 12:30 we started our nice and easy hike for the day. As we were on the far side of the loop heading back to the car we passed a trail marker that pointed in one direction to the trail head and the other to Spring Canyon. We felt like we really hadn't hiked very much yet, so we thought we'd check the Canyon out for a little bit. We knew nothing about the trail, but thought it might be interesting.
As it turned out, I think this is one of my favorite hikes ever! It was along a dry stream bed and the geology seemed to change around every corner. At the beginning are massive walls on either side, possibly 500 feet above. Then the walls change to hueco (holey) rock, then around the next bend it changes to something else.

After hiking a bit we passed another trail marker. One arrow pointed back the way we came and said the trailhead was 3.5 miles and the other marker pointed down the stream bed and said that Highway 24 was 6.5 miles. We were enjoying the hike and even though it was in the middle of the afternoon, a lot of the stream bed was shaded. Steve said there would be no problem hitchhiking back to the van, even though we had no idea where we would be coming out, so why not go to the end. I was only a little concerned that since we had no idea about this trail, would there be some interesting obstacles along the way to make it difficult to continue.



It was a long hike and we were pretty tired by the end of it, but well worth the effort! It did take 30 minutes or so to get a ride back to the van, but what a great day!



As it turned out, the only difficult part was at the very end when the trail ended at the Freemont River and we had to forge the knee-deep water.







After having a well deserved rest and drink we drove towards Goblin Valley and found a great boondocking place to pop the top. Dinner and bed felt great that night.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010 The night before I had read in my "RV Boondocking In Southern Utah" book about a hike not too far from Kodachrome Basin. We got off to our usual leisurely morning and went in search of Willis Creek. To get there we had to drive on another steep, incredibly thick powdery road. In fact, when we had finished the hike and were driving back to the freeway we passed a plow that was moving the dirt to the side of the road, like a snow plow.



Anyway, this was a great 4 1/2 mile up and back hike. It wound through slot canyons and had a trickle of water going through most of it.












I knew Steve was much better; every time I turned around he was climbing on something.







After Willis Creek we headed to Boulder. Along the way we passed Calf Creek Falls Trail and decided to hike it. It was about 4:30 and it is a 6 mile hike, but we thought we would have enough time to do it before it got dark. It actually was the perfect time to hike; we met only a couple of hikers as we were heading out and no one when we were coming back and the temperature and lighting were perfect. When we got to the falls Steve decided to go skinny dipping but it was way too cold for me!





Heading back Steve spotted the one and only snake we saw on the whole trip.




One of the highlights of the trip was getting to eat at Hell's Backbone Grill. I have wanted to go there for quite some time, but Boulder isn't exactly on the way to anything. After our two hikes of the day, and looking lovely, we decided to see if we could get into the restaurant. We could, and the dinner was wonderful I highly recommend it to anyone traveling in the general area.
After our wonderful dinner, Steve decided we might as well drive up to Capitol Reef that night and see if we could get a camp spot. It was already late, but off we went. Unfortunately (or fortunately) the campgrounds were full and I pulled out my handy Boondocker's guide. They suggested a place down the highway a bit that was just past Capitol Reef boundaries, down a short dirt road. We found the area, or at least we hoped we had; it was pitch dark and we had no idea what the view would be in the morning...