Edmonton to home via Vancouver Waikiki & Fiji

After a few, mainly relaxed days in Edmonton we were lucky enough to have the first real snowfall of the year the night before we flew out. This is our friends Rob and Cheryl's place that morning. After a short stop in Vancouver, it was off to the warm sunny beaches of Hawaii. We stayed smack-bang in the middle of the touristy bit of downtown Waikiki where there are nice beaches, lots of shopping and commensurate herds of tourists. Life consisted of two swims a day, shopping, reading, relaxing etc – just like a holiday in fact.

We also spent a lovely day touring the island by hire car and found that there are still places that are quiet and tranquil if the hustle and bustle of the main areas get too much. We had a swim at Waimea Bay – famous for gigantic waves – but it was flat as a tack as it was the wrong time of the year for the big ones. Also surprising were the number of indigenous people who still spoke the local language.

Overall, a nice spot for a do-nothing holiday, and better than we anticipated - sort of like Bali with twice-as-good infrastructure and three-times-higher prices.

Then it was off to Nadi (flying Air Pacific, Fiji’s national airline) before finally getting back to Brisbane. I bet there is no drunken-loutishness on Air Pacific flights – the male hosties all looked like they would fit right into the Fijian rugby team!! The immigration area was very slow – and this must be normal as they had 4 guys with guitars and ukelele’s entertaining the queue – a bit strange, but they played great music. Ian felt like home there – everybody was very quiet and softly spoken.

Finally back into Brisbane, and the end of the trip (apart from having to drive the final 3500 km to Darwin). Although it was one of those life adventures that will never be forgotten, it was great to be back - but gosh, don’t those Aussies talk funny!!!

Reflections on life

Well we are now nearing the end of our great adventure and struggle to find words to describe the experience - amazing, enriching, beautiful, powerful, hard, difficult and stressful all come to mind. But in our wanderings I came across these 2 wonderful pieces that has kind of summed it up. They are both by the great naturalist John Muir who fought for the existence and preservation of these places.

“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings, Natures peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees, the winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy while will cares will drop off like autumn leaves.”

"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.”

And finally a third by David Brower (1912-2000)…”There aren’t many places left where we, ourselves, can choose whether to exploit or leave wild. Although the budget of natural things may have looked unlimited to Grandfather, we know it is a finite budget. Wilderness is a fragile thing. People can break it but not make it. And we are quite capable, in our own time, of breaking it all – quite capable of using up all the choices America will ever have between saving and spending what is left of its unmarred natural heritage.”

East Coast Meandering

We caught the overnight flight from Edmonton to Halifax (right on the east coast in Nova Scotia) and about half of the passengers were workers returning home from Fort McMurray oilsands jobs on a 20-day on/10-day off schedule. East coast unemployment is generally high (decimation of traditional fishing grounds) and the highest paid jobs for east coasters are usually 5000 km away in Alberta!!

So it was in the hire car, off and about, up and down and around and around the coast of Nova Scotia. Nice coast line, lakes etc, and almost every body has a house with ocean/lake views, but the highlight was that the trees were in full fall colours. Only small boring hills (ie not the Rockies), but filled with all sorts of wonderful colours, particularly the Cape Breton area. Also in Cape Breton was the Alexander Graham Bell (of telephone fame) museum. Turns out he dabbled in all sorts of things ranging from teaching deaf people to talk to high speed hydrofoils. The other highlights were the quaint fishing villages of Peggy’s Cove and UNESCO-listed Lunenburg.

We tried the famous Digby Scallops (in Digby – where the houses are so cheap, you could almost put them on your Visa card) and scallop-connoisseur Jen thinks they’re pretty bloody good – so good in fact that she had only one scallop-free day in the first 7!! We also gave the famous local lobsters a go but weren’t that impressed – best described as a tough and flavourless version of mud crabs. Also there wasn’t much of it for a lot of money (just like muddies), so it was probably our first and last.

Nova Scotia (translated as New Scotland) has very strong British heritage (surprise, surprise) with lots of place names lifted straight from ‘home’. We even struck a few people - usually old men - speaking Gaelic.

The highlight of New Brunswick was 12 m tides at the Flower Pots. These are (sometimes phallic) rock spires that almost get consumed by the gi-normous tides. Strangely enough, the park was closed – and no, the tide doesn’t stop - it’s just that on a certain date, regardless of weather and tourist numbers, the place shuts down. The day we were there it was a balmy 20C but we had to jump various fences to get to the best spots. Go figure. Also on N.B were a number of covered bridges – these are timber bridges with their own little roofs to help longevity, a few of which are still in use. Apparently they were loved by the local youths as love could be expressed in the time needed to get from one side of the bridge to the other in horse drawn carriages.

Next was Prince Edward Island. PEI seemed to be a large spud farm with a few diary cows for good measure. A tiny little place and only about 130 000 people. Crazily enough, it’s a province and gets full rights in federal parliament etc. The day we were there, there was a crazy, record-setting fall heatwave – max’s over 20C!!

It was then off to Quebec, the centre of Frenchification. Ian was certain he would dislike the place, but the old city was charming – lots of narrow lanes, stone buildings dating to the 1600’s etc. Jen thought she was in Paris again! The Quebecois (French-Canadians) smoke, drink and sleep more, and work and stress less, than other Canadians – not sure if this is a good thing or not. They think they are there own nation and nearly proved the point in an independence referendum a few years ago. If all Canadians voted on it, instead of just the Quebecois, I am sure they would now be a small, under-employed, destitute nation.

The last stop was the Toronto area – a metropolis of more than 5 million people over a few adjacent cities. Lots of big industry, mega-freeways full of mega-aggressive drivers and people everywhere - all of which offset the beauty of the Great Lakes. The nearby Niagrara Falls were spectacular but the surrounding national park only extended a few hundred metres from the falls. Outside of that green zone, crass commercialism ruled – wax works museums, ferris wheels and other fairground-type rides all proliferate and disappoint. And this was the ‘less-tacky’, Canadian side of the border!!

Oregon, Washington & back to Edmonton

Our experience of these states can best be summed up as wet - Washington is euphemistically known as the Evergreen State. We had one half-fine day out of 8, which was apparently about average for the whole summer!

Our best three hours of weather (and every one was valuable) allowed us views of Mt St Helens and also a few glimpses of Mt Rainier. The main visitor centre at St Helens was excellent and how the landscape was changed by the main eruption amazing.

We also drove through the UNESCO listed Olympic NP and the North Cascades NP, but all we saw was fog, mist, heavy rain etc. The great quantities of moss growing everywhere suggests that this is situation normal.

The Seattle/Tacoma/Bellevue metropolis is like SanFran/Oakland/San Jose – people and freeways everywhere. It was a very nice area anyway, and if we had to live on the west coast of the US, Seattle would be it. It’s a bit too wet, but with good hiking and skiing nearby and a very slightly alternative feel. This pic is of the famous Pike Markets, and the lower pic is of the 'floating bridges' - no pylons, just floating concrete!

It was then back to Canada (or more importantly, out of the USA) and into southern Vancouver where we sold the Bigfoot. It was a bit of a sad day as we had had some great experiences with it. Apart from the front jack, nothing went wrong in about 25000 km. This meant the return of the Red Rocket, and we travelled back to Edmonton at a quick rate. The Mitsubishi now has 97000 km, of which we have done 75K – works out to more than 1000 km/week!!

Before we got to the US, we were amazed at the effort Canada puts into remaining as separate as possible from their big neighbours. Things like different rules on hikes that cross the border and no cooperation in remote border posts etc just don’t make economic sense. After living in the US however, it all does indeed make sense now. If I were in charge of Canada I would build a bloody big fence with only two holes in it - one for oil going south, the other for cash going north.

Tomorrow we fly to Halifax (east coast of Canada) for the next adventure.

From Big Trees to Tall Trees

Yosemite is a great place, but consists mainly of one valley, and with 40 million people living (or at least existing) within a few hours drive, it was crowded, even though it was the ‘slow’ season. So slow in fact, that the camp ground was booked out every night we were there…. Despite this, the NP service had shut a number of the camp grounds for the season – that’s the system so therefore that’s the system – common sense does not come into it.

While we also spent a few pleasant days doing a couple of short walks and watching various crazies climb very high, vertical to overhanging walls (the most famous being El Capitan), our highlight was the day hike to the top of Half Dome. Half Dome is the famous half dome of granite left after glaciation and there is a hiking trail to the top. It is 27 km return with about 1500 m vertical (and yes, the crazies do do it vertical!!). The hike is pleasant and scenic, including a few waterfalls, prior to the highlight which is the last few hundred metres where it is seriously steep (much more than Ayers Rock for example). There are two steel cables about 3 feet high and 2 feet apart that make getting up a lot easier. One couple in front of us had climbing harnesses and carabiners! Some were envious, others derogatory. Anyway, we got up safely, enjoyed the stunning views, and there is even a pointy bit that sticks out that you can stand on with nothing underneath you. Excellent!!

Monterey Bay was our next stopping point where we stayed in a very cheap city-run park amongst very large mansions. We checked out a portion of the famous coastal highway (nice, but very foggy – typical autumn weather) and were amazed at the number of Porsches – we felt very smug in our uncommon Mitsubishi while everybody else (apart from Mexicans) seemed to have one of those things. There were a few different sorts of seals to watch, but the highlight was very cute sea-otters.

Then it was up the coast for a few days at Half Moon Bay, on the south-east outskirts of San Francisco. It was footy grandfinal weekend in Australia so we decided to get our sporting fix with an NBL (baseball) game between the Oakland A’s and Los Angeles Angels and a pre-season ice hockey game between San Jose Sharks and Calgary Flames. Baseball is sort of like cricket, but not as exciting – apart from crowd-watching and working out which of the blondes sitting in front of us had had the most surgery. The craziest looking woman was about 6 foot tall, near-anorexic with double D cups that appeared to start at her collarbones – that’s California! The ice hockey was damned good (as per usual) and we had our first experience with scalpers – all went well and I think we saved some money. We tried to get into an NFL game Sunday (SF 49’s and Seattle Seahawks) but couldn’t get tickets – we did drive around the stadium and checked out some scalpers (from the safety of our car) and decided that was close enough.

San Fran/Oakland/San Jose is more or less one continuous city with many millions of people – we listened to an all-news radio station when driving and they averaged a murder per day, and the traffic reports confirmed the peak hour lasted for about 20. The entertaining bit was that California tends to be far more politically left than the inland areas we have been in. There are lots of entertaining bumper stickers with our favourite being:
"Somewhere in Texas, a village is looking for its idiot".
The other miracle is left-leaning talk back radio – the most (in)famous guy we have been forced to listen to previously made John Laws look like a pinko, lesbian-loving, organic-only vegetarian. This guy thinks that ‘normal’ kids SHOULD takes guns to school so that they can shoot the ‘crazy’ kids once a massacre begins.

After SF, it was north to Redwood NP, to see the tallest trees in the world. Lovely groves of very tall (370 feet!) trees, but not as spectacular as the Giant Sequoias.

Las Vegas to Sequioa National Park

From Sedona it was a big one-day drive to Boulder City, just east of Las Vegas. It was HOT with a max of 40C and a predicted minimum of 29C. As there was a casino offering rooms for $40 and a full buffet for $3.50 we wimped it and got a room for the first time. The room was average, the roast turkey excellent and the smoke-as-much-as-you-can (well, at least it seemed like that) casino section, smelly and depressing. The craziest thing was horizontal slot machines set into the bar thereby allowing smoking, drinking and gambling at the same time – the next step in convenience just has to be catheters. And you think I’m joking.

We paid a quick visit to the Hoover Dam – an engineering marvel but one that managed to stuff up a great river and a great canyon at the same time. On the freeway out, we got within about 5 km of the famous Vegas Strip, which was plenty close enough.

Death Valley was also hot (45C surprise, surprise) so we stopped for a couple of photo opportunities including the lowest point in the US (-282 ft) and watched the temp gauge very carefully on the 10 km/5000 ft climb out of the valley. On the drive out the are 5 roadside stops with water for overheated cars…

The Mitsubishi kept going so so did we, to Lone Pine near Mt Whitney in the Sierra Nevada’s, which is the highest point in the lower 48 states (14494 ft). The hike to the top is 36 km, either a very long daywalk(!!!) or an overnighter. We were lucky enough to get an overnight pass (someone cancelled as the hike is booked out a year in advance!!) and headed off for a very scenic 10 km hike with a climb from 8500 ft to 12000 ft to camp at Consultation Lake. This was our highest camp ever, but despite being halfways acclimatized, we spent a cold (-3C), windy and seriously sleepless night. The next morning our resting heartrate was +90 bpm instead of the usual 60-ish. In conjunction with Jen having a bad headache and predicted max temps on the summit of 2C and 60 kmh winds, we decided discretion was the better part of valour and retreated. We were back in the caravan park by lunch feeling fine and healthy due to thick air and temps of 25C. We are still constantly amazed at what a bit of altitude does to both the weather and the body.

It was then a 600 km journey south, east and north to Sequoia National Park, to end up only about 75 km the other side of Mt Whitney. During the drive we passed through (one of) the fruit bowls of California and what a dirty and depressing place that was – hundreds of square miles of orchards tended by seemingly-poor Mexicans with the desolation broken only by the occasional, contrastingly-palatial farm mansion. Just another form of slavery!
Winter arrived on September 19 at Sequoia NP at least, with a cold front coming down from the north. Rain, fog and 2C. The trees are the biggest volume-wise in the world, although not the tallest. We had a bonus when able to watch mum with 3 black bear cubs for about 15 minutes. Next, Yosemite.

Grand Canyon and Sedona Arizona

The north rim of the Grand Canyon is the ‘quiet’ side that ‘nobody’ visits – but the campground was booked out! So we camped just outside the park boundaries and commuted in to do a few short walks along the rim. All very pleasant, with lovely cool weather, but a few fires and the everyday-USA pollution had made it quite hazy.

So it was off to the more touristy southside – 16 km in a straight line – but a 500 km road trip(!) as the road goes way upstream until the canyon is sufficiently narrow to stick a bridge across, then way downstream. Once again, huge crowds everywhere with free shuttle buses the only way to get to most places. Good thing it is now the quiet season!!

We filled in the next day with a few short rim walks and organized a tent spot for the next night at the bottom of the canyon. We left the South Kaibab trailhead at 8.45 and got to the bottom at 12.30. Although only a short walk - 13 km down hill all the way - it was 41C with bright sunshine reflecting off the walls of the canyon. Despite drinking a lot, we were a bit hot and dry when we got to the bottom. A lovely, clean spring-fed creek runs through the campground so we spent the next 30 minutes sitting in it cooling down while each drinking more than 2 L of water. There are two steel bridges crossing the Colorado, both suspension type and both were carried down by men in the early 1930’s. To carry the 100 m plus, 25 mm diameter suspension cables, they lined men up 1 m apart, stuck it on one shoulder and off they went in a big conga line.

In great North American tradition, we saw lots of people drinking very little and a lady from the campsite next to us was helicoptered out at 6.00 pm suffering from heatstroke/dehydration/stupidity. After later talking to a Ranger we discovered that, in summer at least, this is just about regular enough to be called the 6.00 PM shuttle.

Considering the heat and having to go UP the slightly longer Bright Angel trail the next day, we opted for an early start and left camp just on daybreak at 6.15. The walk up is mainly in valleys, so most of the time it was a lot shadier and cooler than we thought it would be and we were grateful for it, especially through the Devils Corkscrew - AKA Hotbox. The trail is 15 km with a 1.5 km vertical climb finishing at about 7000 ft. It took us just on 6 hours, for a total trip time of just under 10 hours. Due to the shade and good acclimatization, we did it relatively easily – or at least a lot easier than most others. Ian had walked the full trail 15 years ago as a 7 hour day-trip and was pleasantly surprised at the pace we managed this time around. Check out the switchbacking trail on the photos.

Jen’s pack was 5.5 kg, and Ian’s was 17.5 kg (including 8 L of water) on the way down, and a few kg’s less on the way up as there are regular water stops. We were both a bit stiff the next day, but strangely enough, the only real sore bits were the outside top of our calves. All up, a very nice walk with great scenery and a pleasant campground/creek, just a bit hot during summer.

By far the worst part is that they run tourist mules along the same trails. They all seem to piss and shit in the same place, so every once in a while, the peace and tranquillity of nature is rudely interrupted by stinking, festering pools of mule-piss. Crazily enough, the mules are booked out about one year (!) in advance. So, in the fattest nation on earth, the government (ie Parks Service) is encouraging fat Americans to sit on the fat arses rather than get out and go for a walk.

The other highlight was California Condors. In the 1980’s there was only 25 of these birds left, so they were all caught and a captive breeding program started. There are now about 310, including 20 that summer in the Grand Canyon. These are huge birds with 9-foot wingspans, black bodies and baldy red heads. They seemed to be happy just circling around in the updrafts and came within a few metres of us at one overlook.

Next stop was Sedona, home of world-famous energy vortexes and more psychics per square mile than anywhere else. Apart from the Nimbin-ese style people, the town was in a very pretty red-rock setting and even had some town-planning!!!