Mile 3102 - More Glacier, Kalispell and Friends, MT

Glacier National Park is one of the most user-friendly parks that we have been to. The Going-to-the-Sun Road may have a far-too-long name, but it offers a fantastic tour of the highlights of the park. And they even offer red jammer tours for those that want their history with a little class or who'd like to look at more than the sharp curves ahead. Their campgrounds are well maintained and they even have a number of fancy lodges to stay at for a more "indoor" outdoors. We did enjoy one night in their campgrounds, but lucky for us, we were also in Montana to visit the Wilkins.

We were pretty excited to see Howard and Karen, to enjoy the historic blue couches, but we had no idea what a treat we were in for!The Wilkins Property brings back memories of an epic New Year's eve trip in high school which was "Sweet-Fun". When we called Karen on our way into Montana, not only were we welcomed, but it just happened that Janice Monkowski and her sister-in-laws were there for a visit.  Now let me give you some context so you can understand the amazingness of this chance meeting.  Two of Aaron's best friends from high school were Adam and Melanie, and now they're married.  Melanie's mom is Karen, who now lives in Montana, so we were expecting to get to see her.  Adam's mom, Janice, lives in Danville CA, and once a year, she gets together with her sisters-in-law, Carol and Annette. This year, that get-together just happened to be hosted by Karen and Howard at the same time that we just happened to be driving through Montana. Now if that doesn't sound crazy awesome, we just haven't written it right. 

Now you may be thinking, "So they hung out with their friends' moms? This was fun?" It was so much fun! All four of these ladies came for some good hikes, and they know what they were doing.  Karen knows Glacier like her own backyard because, well, it kind of is her backyard. She can hike as fast as a normal person can jog. Janice has known Aaron since elementary school and is always good for a long conversation, and when you throw her sisters-in-law into the mix, there's usually four or five conversations happening simultaneously.  

When we arrived in Kalispell, we were sat right down to some warm creamy chicken lasagna, a perfect salad, huckleberry pie, and chocolate bread pudding. Seriously. You can't follow up a day of hiking much better. Oh, wait, we also got our own bedroom and bathroom and in the morning Karen made fresh croissants and blueberry muffins. C'mon; I love going to see the Wilkins.

The next day, we were right back on the trail, and this time it was Sarah, Aaron, Janice, Carol, and Nettie. We were headed up to the Hidden Lake Trail, a hike Sarah and Aaron had foregone since they were avoiding the crowds. The trail starts at a visitor's center which sits at highest point on the park road and has attracted so many people over the years that they built a wooden boardwalk to lessen the crowds ecological impact. The thought of crowds and a boardwalk were deterrents for us, but Karen sold it in style: she pulled out a painting that a local artist had painted for her based on one of her photographs. If all those people want to see what's up there, it must be worth a look-see.

The trail is a three mile round trip boardwalk that gradually gives a better view of the area as the grade inclines. There are plenty of visual appetizers along the way of almost all the best of Montana's wildflowers. You're also bound to run into a surly mountain goat or a marmot going about his business. The view at the end is also quite breathtaking. Glacial water never disappoints. Blue, beautiful view of blue.

Aaron caught up with Janice and Sarah chatted with Carol and Nettie, and we all took pictures. It was a good time. At the top we enjoyed our lunches and watched the nearby animals. Aaron really wanted to get a close-up of the Marmot, and so he hid in the shade of nearby tree. It turns out that the spot belonged to a mountain goat, who came right over when he saw it had been stolen. The mountain goat won. We all hiked a little more, talked a little more, and snapped our little cameras silly.

This chance meeting was bound to end, so the next morning the girls were off to the airport. Thanks for letting us invade your special time, it was really special for us!

Mile 2978 - Glacier National Park, MT

So the glaciers are melting, but apparently, they’re never going to change the name of the park.  Glaciers after all, carved the whole thing, so you could argue that it’s still a very appropriate name.  Regardless, it is insanely beautiful.

Our first impression: Glacier has lame visitor centers; they're basically gift shops.  Up to this point we have relied on visitors centers to help us decide what to do in the parks, and every ranger we talked to said, "There's not a bad hike in the park".  Their responses were a little too scripted, and really, just not very helpful.  Since there was no internet to fall back on, Aaron spent some time reading through some of the books in the gift shops and figured out a plan.

To be fair to the unhelpful rangers, Glacier is gigantic and has over 700 miles of trails to hike, and it's quite accurate to say that there isn't a bad hike in the park.  The park has an extensive backcountry for a nice backpacking trip, but there's also a whole variety of day hikes with parking right off the road.  A big factor in planning is that Glacier is extremely popular; most of the park is closed 9 months out of the year because of snowfall and construction, so when it's open, it's packed!  There's four sections of the park that you can drive to, but the two sections you come to see are the Going-to-the-Sun Road and Many Glacier.  We decided Glacier would be a four day stop. 

Our first day we took the Going to the Sun Road from one end of the park to the other, with a little 2 mile hike at the half way point.  We had settled on a plan at the Logan Pass visitor center and the good thing was that there was a popular trailhead right out front, though it looked like a slow line of tourists as far as the eye could see.  To our surprise, we crossed paths with a random ranger who had some excellent advice.  Just 10 yards down the main trail there was a roped off trial that he recommended.  He said it led through fields of flowers, a great waterfall, but we were sold by the promise of hiking alone.  Well, as you can see, we were't totally alone.

Hike #1 was short but so nice. We warmed up to Glacier.

Aaron really changed his mind at the free Ranger-guided star gazing that night. They brought out two huge telescopes and let everyone take turns checking out the skies. And of course, we took pictures, but we took them through a telescope. C'mon how cool is this:

State Count #3 - Idaho

Nickname		Gem State
Capital		Boise
Did we go there?		Nope!
Sales tax		6%
Famous for		Potatoes, wilderness, clean air, the world's first chairlift
State dance		Square dance
The truck smells like		Left over coffee from Seattle
Favorite meal		Franklin's Original Philly Cheesesteak
Oops moment		Forgetting to cancel one of the credit cards from the stolen wallet and getting a call wondering if we had really spent $600 at Best Buy
Highlights		Blogging at Calypso's Coffee, Aaron's manly haircut, white coffee (actually a lowlight), the tie dye family
Best drive		From the west border to the east border
Conversations		Bowl cuts, petrified forests
Adjectives		Unrushed, forgettable
Friend Count		0, so sad:(

Mile 2727 - Clean Cut, Haircut for Men, Coeur d’Alene, ID

Aaron has had an unconventional history of haircutting experiences.  It all stems from the fact that he was born with 4 cowlicks: one pair in the front, one pair in the back, parting his hair with perfect symmetry.  Now this was excused as an acceptable haircut as an 8^th grader in 1995.  Unfortunately, this style quickly acquired a not so nice nickname that won’t be mentioned here, but it was one’s hair with ones derrière.  8^th grade was also when Aaron once demanded that he be taken to a barbershop instead of the salon because salons are for girls.  That was when he received his first crew cut, and for the most part, has been disappointed in paying for haircuts ever since.   From the beginning of college until he was 27, he managed to not pay for a single haircut.

His current tradition of when to get a haircut first began on a mission trip to Russia.  He thought that  great way to learn about the culture was to get a haircut with a local barber.  You sit, you talk, you shed some hairs, and you experience that place’s everyday.  Thus far, besides Russia, he’s had his haircut in Skagway, Alaska, Italy, Costa Rica (from a one-eye barber with a straight razor!).  And now, add Coeur d’Alene, Idaho to the list!

It was about time that Aaron had a trim.  While on our route, we saw Clean Cuts: Haircuts for Men, in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.  Now, this place was for men.  It had a pool table to burn some time while you wait.  A manly sitting area centered around an ESPN dedicated flat screen, above a manly stone fireplace.  A popcorn machine.   The hair-washing sink area sported manly Nike shoes and beer brewing paraphernalia on the walls.  There was not a single curling iron to be found in this manly place.  And to top it off, after your manly cut is done, you get a chance to shoot a basket to win $1 off your haircut!  Plus they do a pretty good job cutting hair don’t you think?

P.S.  Before the haircut, we ate at Franklins down the street and enjoyed some pretty quality cheesesteaks.  Two thumbs up for all Franklins, Andrew included!

State Count #2 - Washington

Nickname		Evergreen State
Capital		Olympia
Did we go there?		Drove through it
Sales tax		6.5%
Famous for		Coffee, Grey's Anatomy, Twilight, apples, wine, rain, grunge rock, volcanoes
State vegetable		Walla Walla sweet onion
The truck smells like		Coffee
Favorite meal		Dinner in Hoh Rainforest: crackers with peaches and goat cheese for appetizer, panang curry with basmanti rice for the main dish, with a shiraz white wine
Oops moment		Stolen wallet
Highlights		Being at the top of the Olympic Range, finishing the Jungle, Seeing the Forks Twilight Tour bus, games with friends, travelling through the universe
Best drive		Hurricane Ridge to Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park
Conversations		Sleeping-in, socialism, grandparents, marital communication round #57, fears, Calvinism at Biola
Adjectives		Water, diverse, trafficy, sunny (it was!)
Friend Count		6

Mile 2159 - Hoh Rainforest, WA

One hike that Aaron had been looking forward to was the Hoh Rainforest.  The pacific north-west is home to a number of temperate rainforests that are the most densely populated ecosystems in the world.  The average rainfall for the Hoh Rainforest is 150 inches of rain a year. For those of you in the Bay Area, Oakland gets 23 inches a year.  Portland, for all your claims of gloom, you only get 37 inches a year.  Seattle, which is a little closer to the park gets about 38.  You're probably wondering what the highest average is - Mt. Waialeale, Hawaii gets 450 inches annually.  So it rains alot in a rainforest, go figure. 

The Hoh was big, green, and dense.  What a different experience from the mountain top experience of Hurricane Ridge.  We camped the night at the trailhead and started the day walking through the Hall of Mosses, where supposedly the most spectacular species could be found.  It's worth seeing, but we were much more impressed by the Hoh River Trail, 17.5 miles along the river.  We hiked five of it and then turned around to keep from hiking at night = ten amazing miles!  

The amazing part of being in such a dense ecosystem is how plants use every square inch of growing opportunity.  Most of the trees have roots that look like octopus legs that hold them up off the ground.  As young trees (seedlings) they took root on top of a fallen tree, and as they grow, their roots wrap around these trees on their way to the soil.  Eventually they grow to be thick and strong and by that time the fallen tree decomposes and leaves a distinct tree-trunk shaped space between the other trees legs.  There's also ferns, moss, lichen, and fungi fighting for a space of their own.   So of course - NUMEROUS pictures.  Aaron eventually ran out of room on his memory card.

Mile 2050 - Hurricane Ridge, WA

A few days of Seattle city life gave us the urge to head back into the wilderness. One of our mandatory destinations was Olympic National Forest in the most north-western corner of the continental U.S. It's known for its temperate rain forests (which are worth the drive), but Danny and Cindy made sure that we didn't miss Hurricane Ridge on our way through. 

To get over to Olympic we took a ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge Island and hopped right back on the 101. We're becoming quite fond of the 101. It winds you along the northern coast of our fair country through fun rural coastal towns and into the park. We highly recommend this drive.
We headed straight up to Hurricane Ridge for our hike of the day. There are a number of great hikes that leave from the visitor center, but thanks to Aaron’s research, we knew that we wanted to do a hike from Obstruction Point. It's the highest elevation in the park, but it mean driving along a narrow, steep, windy road along the top of the Olympic Range to the trailhead. Add some zero visibility fog and anxious deer and you have yourself a very exciting ride! The hike starts just about at the top of the mountain, which makes it a little bit of a cheater hike. Basically we walked 5 miles along Elk Mountain's ridge with amazing views in every direction and didn’t have to climb to the top of the mountain in the first place. Clouds would roll in and roll out, which led to a continuously changing, beautiful landscape! And as a bonus, there were wildflowers still in bloom. Amazing hike! This was easily Sarah's favorite hike thus far.

We headed toward Badger Valley

The fog hides the sheer cliff to the left

The view of the mountains. R.I.P. Grey Hat

Fog rolls in 

Fog rolls out