Montana - Alberta - and - British Columbia

We left the Herzog's cabin last Sunday morning after a great week of climbing with friends. We were sad to leave, but as always on the trip there was something new around the corner that tempted us to keep moving.

We left and drove for a whole day just to reach westernish Montana. We camped near Anaconda Montana along highway 1 in forest service land, and left immediately the next morning. We arrived in Missoula around lunch, picked up some supplies and left immediately again. This time we left I-90 and headed up through Thompson Falls along highway 200 (thanks for the recommend Jesse!!). Cassie and I took a swim in a small river flowing out of the Cabinet Mountains. The river was almost 10 feet deep and so clear you could easily see the bottom, it was also incredibly cold. I had to throw mojo in to get him to swim. It was a beautiful drive and we camped that night along lake Kookanusa (spell it out Ko - Can - USA) and you get the reason because the lake (reservoir) crosses the border. There is some climbing there but we didn't get to do any because the weather took a turn for the worse and was very windy and rainy. It stayed that way off and on for about a week (until today). Again it was a beautiful night of camping along the lake and a lot of driving.

Next we headed east to Glacier National Park. Neither Cassie nor I had been along the "Going to the Sun Rd". Unfortunately it might have been incredibly beautiful but we sure didn't see any sun, and almost didn't even see any mountains due to the weather. We have very few pictures because it rained nonstop the entire time. Couldn't see a thing, but that's the way it goes. We headed north into Alberta and had a relatively easy time crossing the border. The border guard asked a lot of questions and eventually found out that we were unemployed. There is apparently some concern with illegal immigrants and he was happy to hear that we had enough money to leave the country and plane tickets to Europe. He could have asked for us to do a significant bit more work by having us hold onto some kind of card we needed to return when we left (their way of keeping tabs on us), but luckily he didn't. It's still incredible to me that people would think we might become illegal immigrants. Of course, if the debt crisis causes the US economy to tank we might not come back....

We drove west along Route 3 towards Fernie British Columbia and stayed at a provincial park there. It was almost our first paid campsite in a month. We opted for it because the first free site we found along the road which was incredibly beautiful in a field next to a river, also happened to be right behind a gun range. It only took a couple of shots before we realized how close we were and we got in the van and hauled outta there as quickly as we could. The next site had more skinned deer carcasses than I've ever seen and given the bear population and the disgust with the site we chose to move on. By then it was getting dark and we were exhausted. As luck would have it we pulled into the provincial park, found the last open site and we elated to get a break from the very nice person who collects the fees. After hearing our story of intended free campsites they "forgot" to collect the fee. Many thanks to you!!!

We continued driving the next day and made it to Kootenay National Park on the west side of the Canadian Rockies. The site was excellent and within walking distance of Marble Canyon which is an outstanding limestone slot canyon with brilliant blue-green water rushing through it. There is an interesting vantage point that is precariously being hollowed out below it by the water. A little disconcerting after you realize what you have been standing on.

The next day we headed into Banff National Park and did a hike to the Six Glaciers along Lake Louise. There is some really good climbing on the back of the lake but we figured that with all the climbing we are about to do and with the incredible scenery that hiking would be the best use of our time. It was worth it. The lake is incredible (other than the huge hotel) and the hanging glaciers were awesome. At the top of the hike is a cute little teahouse that has been operated by the same family for something like ninety years. They pack in the perishables on horse, and fly in the non-perishables in the spring. It was a pretty touristy hike, but the scenery was exceptional.

We camped that night at Rampart Creek, just south of Jasper National Park. The weather continued to stay good and bad with clouds helping to create a mysterious look to the mountains, but with rain causing hikes to be more difficult. We hiked to the Athabasca Glacier at the Columbia Icefield and only stayed a few minutes since the rain and wind created an incredible chill. Along the road we saw our first bighorn sheep and Cassie got some amazing pictures of them. We drove out of the park that day and stayed off the road near a creek just north of Blue River BC.

We woke up this morning and intend to get near Kelowna BC to climb some rock again for the first time in a week. During the drive we were commenting on how we hadn't seen any bears yet and that we were disappointed. Not 5 minutes later we saw two cubs in trees with a momma bear trying to coax them both down. Cassie took something like 150 pictures while we watched.

Today I write this blog post from the library in Kamloops. We are catching up on emails and relaxing in the air conditioning. Well that pretty much catches us up. Next post should have some climbing pictures!!!

NOTE: No pictures posted because of the incredibly slow internet here in the kamloops library. some pictures did make it to flickr but we only got about 25% of them uploaded. Will add pictures asap. here's the link to the pictures that did make it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewandcassie/