An Autumn ride

October, 2006
Perfect blue sky - not a cloud in the sky, comfortable 60 degrees temperature, leaves turning colors all around us. We indeed picked a great day for our final bike ride of the season! This time, we decided to go for a comfortable and easy 15 miles on the Nashua railroad trail. The trail starts at Ayer Center, typical North-Eastern quaint town center and goes for about 11 miles till Pepperel Center. Our son had his new road bicycle called Denali, which was great, because in the past his cool looking hybrid bike with its thick tires had slowed him down.
With almost no traction in our pencil thin road bicycle tires, we were glad it wasn't wet, otherwise, the sodden leaves on the trail would have created a slick surface for us to glide on rather than ride on.

We started off at an easy pace, cold though gentle wind blowing against us (good thing we all had our thinsulate gloves on). Just as we passed the wide clearing that off terrain vehicles use, we picked up speed and set the pace for the rest of the ride. We cruised along, passing a beautiful pond with its Lily pads almost dead in the cold, past the vast apple orchards and a pumpkin patch. We took turns riding the lead, allowing each other to take a wind-break. Leaves gently fell all around us. Maples - beautiful shades of reds, vivid oranges, and fiery yellows; Oaks - darker shades of red, brown and dark gray. We turned a bend and the most awesome sight waited us - a tunnel of maples in their most majestic colors. Leaves gently floated down, creating a light shower of yellows and reds. We asked our son to ride ahead, stop when directed, turn around and smile - which he dutifully did and was promptly captured in our digital Canon.

At the 7 and a 1/2 mile marker, we did an about turn and started our ride back. The wind picked up against us. Lungs straining, hearts pumping, and quads burning, we maintained the pace and were back in the parking lot about an hour and a half after we started.

July 6th, Mount Audobon
Today we hiked Mount Audobon in the Roosevelt National Forest. The mountain is part of the Indian Peaks mountain system. Mount Audubon is approximately 13,300 feet high, but we started at approximately 11,000 feet. The trail starts off in a dense pine forest. There were visible signs of recent rock slides. When we started, the hike was pleasant and easy to hike. However, the trees started thinning pretty soon and the climbing bacame more difficult. After days of heavy hiking, my body seemed to be crumbling. The air got considerably thinner and I was having difficulty breathing. The elevation effect was catching up with me. The trail evened out a bit and alpine vegetation covered the area not under snow. The views were breathtaking, but my breathing got rugged. Pretty soon I was hyperventilating. We sent our son ahead with our friends, while Joe and I slowed our pace. Another mile of slow going and I felt much better. We picked up pace as reached the boulder strewn slope leading to the top and pretty soon caught up the rest of the group.
Clouds started swirling and strong breeze picked up as we reached the top. Despite the fear of thunderstorms, we were impacted enough by the view to stick around for a while. Going down turned out be quite easy as we hopped from boulder to boulder, covering large distances in each leap. All in all a moderate enough day. This was going to the last hike for the trip as were going to fly back to Boston the next day. So, it was with a mixed feelings of sadness and relief that we made our way back to Longmont.

July 4th, 2006 Rocky Mountain National Park
Exhausted as we were, we had somehow dragged ourselves to our friend's place in Longmont, Colorado the evening before. We were so thrilled to be puttering around in a home like environment for a change, cooking hot breakfast of our choice. Late morning, we decided to pack some lunch and head out to Rocky Mountain National Park for some auto hiking. The plan was to hit the Trail Ridge Road in the park, stop at prime spot, cajole all three kids out of the car (one of ours and two of our friends'), walk to the designated spots, ooh and aah over the scenes, capture some shots, hussle the kids back in and move on to the next spot. After 10 days of hiking, we were only too happy to play couch tourists.
Even though my son and I had visited Rocky Mountain National Park about two years ago, I had forgotten how rugged and wild those mountains are, how treacherous and narrow the road through the Park is and how prolific and unafraid the wild life is. We ventured into non-protected areas of tundra vegetation, took pictures of coquettish wood chucks, walked to the numerous vantage points and remarked over the populous presence of big-horn sheep.




Towards late afternoon, we had warmed up for a short hike, so we turned around at the Alpine Visitor Center and headed towards the Fern Lake Trailhead for a short 6 miles hike to the various alpine lakes in the area.

Joe and my son headed off with our friends and their kids for the fireworks at the neighboring golf course, while I called it an early night.

July 5th, 2006 Red Rock Amphitheatre
We made a quick trip to Red Rocks Amphitheatre located at the foothills of Rocky Mountains. The amphitheatre is truly a unique structure - an open air theatre with walls erected 250 million years ago by the gradual earth movement. The bright red sandstone monolithic columns of rock jut out on three sides cradling the stage. While the kids ran up and down the stairs, we visited with our friends. We spent a lazy day visiting the beautiful city of Boulder, and bringing the kids over to meet a violin performer at an music festival.

July 3rd, 2006 Wind Cave National Park

The early morning drive to the Wind cave National Park took us on a winding road through the Black Hills State Forest area. The road made its way through herds of bisons, elks, mule deer and towns of prairie dogs. The animals were not shy at all and made an attempt to approach us as we slowed down to capture them on the film/storage chip. Years of interaction with humans had made them almost tame, but you still never know...
Wind Caves are definitely one of the most amazing natural phenomenon I ever saw. Winds caused by changes in barometric pressure are what give Wind Cave its name. These winds have been measured at the cave's walk-in entrance at over 70 mph. They are one of the world's longest and most complex caves. There are close to 121 miles of caves concentrated in about a square mile area. So, if you were to take a string about 120 inches long and squish it all together into an inch square area, you get a fair representation of how these underground passages are just layered on top of each other, interconnecting and intersecting with each other in a tight one square mile area.
We took two of the guided Wind Cave tours (private venturing not allowed) and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The caves are overflowing with unusual formations - thin calcite fins form honeycomb like structures. This boxwork covered the ceiling, walls, absolutely all surfaces on which we were not walking. The caves are dimly lit, but on one of the tours, the guide turned off all lights and lit a single, small lamp to make us appreciate how the early explorers and adventurers explored and visited these caves.
I provided side entertainment to the members of the tour by continuing to wear my prescription sunglasses throughout this oddessey in the underworld - remember I lost my prescription glasses? They must have thought I was some crazy foreigner with strange accent, who probably doesn't understand the concept of sunglasses!

July 2nd, 2006
Devil's Tower, Mt. Rushmore & Badlands of South Dakota

For a change, we decided to do the "touristy" stuff the next day. We bid goodbye to Medora early in the morning and drove through "civilization" - read traffic, to Devil's Tower Monument. Our early start allowed us to get there by 9:00 am. The Tower, yes the same one featured in "Last Encounters of the third kind", erupting through the ground higher than any other natural body around does look like something out of this world. It's not actually a single block of rock, but rather a collection of hexagonal thin rocks - much like a stack of pencils held together. What was even more amazing was the fact that the tower didn't actually emerge out of the ground, but rather the ground around it slowly eroded away over the millenniums, leaving the harder, non-erosive collection of rocks behind. We walked around the rock along with a Park Ranger and got to glean great information about it. After our son had managed to finagle enough money from us to buy a crossword puzzle of the Rock, we started our drive to Mount Rushmore.

We drove through heavy traffic to the Black Hills region. The road was lined with Casinos - what better way to celebrate the Americanism of the monument than with Casinos! The town adjacent to monument looked like a carnival - tacky, loud and garish. As we parked in the huge parking lot right next to the monuments, we got a glimpse of the sculptures carved into the mountain. They looked so small that I was convinced that they were artist's model of some kind. I was sure that the access to the monument would involve some kind of a climbing through the hills followed by a magnificent sight of the carvings far in the distance. Anyways, my husband and I (tailed by our son), argued our way to the monument (or artist's model), depending on whom you believed. Guess what! My husband was right - that was it - walkway leading right to the faces - the real thing, not a model!

As we continued our drive to Badlands of South Dakota, I took a nice long nap, while my husband and our son counted the miles down to the Wall Pharmacy in Wall, S. Dakota (Free ice water for all and free coffee for honeymooners). A quick stop at the pharmacy revealed a huge strip mall - all associated with the Wall pharmacy, selling everything from plastic trinkets to clothes to furniture - what a pharmacy!!!

Since this distance turned out to be a lot shorter than we expected, we reached Badlands National Park in late afternoon. We had to drive through the park to get to our Lodge on the eastern end. The drive revealed magnificent colors of the Badlands canyons. Wind had carved windows, arches and doors through the delicate sands of the Badland hills creating a landscape too amazing to describe. It was hot, hot, hot, but we duly stopped at every marker (given that the marker patrol was sitting behind us in the van), walked on the permitted walkways (given that the Boy Scout was right with us) and I spent a few rolls on my trustworthy Canon SLR - trying on different lenses and filters. It was truly a beautiful place. The lodge overlooked the outer hills of the badlands. Bison and Deer roamed the valley separating the lodge and the badlands, casting strong silhouettes from the setting sun. I sat with my laptop typing up the notes while savoring the site of setting sun on the earth colored hills.

July 1st, 2006
Theodore Roosevelt National Park

The lovely town of Medora looks like Hollywood's set for a Western movie. With its saloon like stores, old-style ice cream, soda pop and chocolate shops, it's a step into the past without its inconveniences. With a quick breakfast at one of the quaint joints, we ventured into the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The early morning coolness was still in the air as we drove into the North Dakota Badlands and badlands they are with a rough, untamed beauty of barren landscape. We drove through the endless wind and water carved canyons, taking a stop here and there for short walks into the wilder area. Ben was besotted with the prairie dog colonies. They were especially active in the morning, bobbing up and down their holes, meditating on their hind legs and generally acting like prairie dogs.

Cool morning air soon gave way to hot scorching early afternoon. This is when we decided to venture into the badlands for a longer hike. We could hear the insects buzzing and Joe suspected that he heard a rattler in a distance. So, it was with some trepidation that we started the hike. In an effort to keep on the narrow path, we walked single line, with me leading the effort. I had my hat down to shelter me from the sun and plodded along, head bent. We came up a short hill, when I heard Joe calling my name in panic. I responded and immediately heard a snort – looking up; I saw a wild bison staring at me only a few feet away. All that registered in my mind was big, black eyes and mud-caked mammoth shoulders. It snorted again – I forgot all rules about walking away slowly, turned and started pushing everybody behind me into a jog. Thankfully. Joe still had his head on his shoulder. He grabbed me to slow me down. Meanwhile, Ben was bobbing up and down, trying to figure out what was going on. Amidst this confusion, we managed to slowly back away. On our way back, we stopped at one of the hills and looked back. The bison was still there, guarding its territory.

After this adventure, all thoughts of hiking disappeared from my mind. We enjoyed the car tourism for a change, capturing wild horses, bisons, mountain goats and isolated wild flowers in my camera.

We took a quick trip through the painted canyon and northern section of North Dakota badlands and called it a day. Upon reaching Medora, I found that I had lost my prescription glasses somewhere along the way. Without the contact lenses, I only had the prescription sunglasses that I had been wearing during the day. With complete disregard for the stares that I received from country folks around me, I continued to use those for the rest of the evening – being blind as a bat without them.

Where in this wilderness will I find a place that can get me prescription glasses at a short notice?

June 30th, 2006
Drive to Roosevelt National Park

We bade goodbye to the grand mountains of Glacier National Park and started our journey east towards Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. The mountain range ended abruptly in the flat prairies which accompanied us all the way to Medora, ND. We received some break from the wheat fields and grasslands by the Little Belt Mountain on the way. It was mostly a desolate stretch with us sighting more cattle than people.

After 11 hours of drive through lonely stretches of Montana, Wyoming and North Dakota, the town of Medora was a pleasant sight. Dedicated to tourism, the town is built to look like a Hollywood set of good old West – with its Saloons, Taffy stores and western gift galleries.

We checked into the Badland Motel with good views of the Badlands of Roosevelt National Park.

June 29th, 2006
Glacier National Park - Many Galciers

Many Glacier Hotel built in style of Swiss Chalet sits next to the crystal clear waters of Swiftcurrent Lake and offers beauteous views of the rows of Rocky Mountains that cast their majestic shadows on the lake.

We started off the morning with a 4 mile hike to Granite Lake. The gentle walk on the Swiftcurrent Nature Trail took us to the lake, where we crossed a bridge and took up a slightly uphill path along Lake Josephine. There was a lot of bush whacking involved as the path was overgrows with fading wildflowers.
We did get to see a lot of Bear weed in full bloom though.

We were very close to the Grinell Lake when we found the path submerged under the swollen river that feeds the lake. We trudged 3.8 miles back to the hotel, where I went in for a break, while Joe and Ben decided to pick up the Red rock falls trail in the same area.

Afternoon and the evening was spent curled up in one of the many comfortable couches in the breezeway, which afforded beautiful views of the fort like walls of mountains and lakes.

We ended the day by attending a multi-media show by Montana singer/songwriter David Walburn. This show “retraces the expedition of David and three friends as they set out from Atlanta, Georgia to claim and establish a homestead deep in Alaska wilderness”.

June 28th, 2006
Glacier National Park - Drive to the Sun Road

If there is heaven on earth… Nothing had prepared us for the gorgeous, majestic peaks of the Glacier National Park. We started on the Drive to the Sun Road that coasted along Lake McDonald through the typical temperate forest. However, a few miles on the road, the sight changed, we passed from bend after bend of awe-inspiring sight of jagged peaks jutting into the sky, cradling numerous glaciers around their bellies. Hundreds of waterfalls roared down the melting glaciers, just a thin stream from far, but roaring deluge of water from us close. The road was not for the faint of heart, as it snaked up hugging the sides of the massive mountains. The glaciers had eroded these giants into craggy peaks and sharp ridges. These massive structures surround you like giant ramparts of some ancient forts.

The highlight of the day was 8+ mile hike to the Granite Park Chalet. We climbed some 2500’ over 4.8 miles. The first mile was fairly easy, but soon my lungs starting burning. In another mile, I had gotten into a rhythm – stick, 2, 3, 4, stick, 2, 3, 4… On and on we climbed, our pace slowing over time – stick.., 2.., 3.., 4.., stick.., 2.., 3.., 4.. I was really wary of an encounter of the bear kind, so I prodded Joe to yodel every few hundred feet, just as the park ranger had suggested – which Joe did with gusto. However, the only wild life that we encountered were a couple of deer that were curious enough to walk over to us, some hare, a lot of over fed chipmunks, some grouse and a cowboy with 2 horses ;-). The view from the chalet was amazing. We were almost eye to eye with the gorgeous glacier covered peaks. Large meadows filled with Lily of the Valley surrounded us in all the directions. It was all worth the effort in the end.

We checked into the historic Many Glacier hotel inside the National Park’s Many Glacier entrance for the next two days.

June 27th, 2006
Drive to Galcier National Park
Today we undertook the 550 mile drive from Mt. Rainier National Park in Washington to Glacier National Park in Montana. We drove through the Mt. Rainier National Park to savor the beautiful vistas one last time, picked up the road that led us through the lonely stretch of Pinochet National Forest and then through desolate wilderness of dry rain shadow area on to I-90E. Soon we were in the midst of rolling hills with potato farms as far as the eye could see. With just the dust devils to keep us company, we rode on through Idaho into Montana.

The “Big Sky” Montana was true to its word. Vast expanses of open skies accompanied us through the rolling hills into the majestic Rocky Mountains. We checked in for the night at the Vista Motel right outside the West Glacier entrance of the park. The room opened us right to the views of the mountains. The rooms had the look of a mountain chalet with wood paneling on the wall. A swinging, shuttered, saloon style half door separated our room from Ben’s. A meal of delicious pizza from a local pizzeria accompanied with Huckleberry ice cream was a great ending to the day.

June 26th, 2006
Mt. Rainier National Park
The Nisqually Glacier is probably the most beautiful feature of this park, so we drove to Paradise early in the morning to attempt the short, but steep Nisqually Vista Trail. We reached the destination to find the trail still under 4-5 ft. of snow!

Joe and Ben attempted to walk up at least part of the trail, but I stayed behind in the blinding sun and temperature steadily reaching the upper 90s.

Disappointed for not having been able to do the hike, we drove down from 5400’ high Paradise Visitor Center to Ohanapecosh at the bottom of the giants of Cascade Mountains. We took a 10 mile loop that took us over the falls, into the Grove of Patriarchs and back to the Visitor Center.

The Grove of Patriarchs had magnificent specimens of giant old growth cedars, firs & spruces – some even a 1000 yrs old! It was very hot, dry and sunny. We were thankful for the endless glasses of chilled water with our lunch at the Longmire Inn.

The drive through the national park loops along the sides of the mountains through numerous switchbacks, affording wonderful views of massive glacier covered peaks and Mt. Rainier and its accompanying mountains.

We stayed at the rustic Nisqually Lodge run by an old couple. The place was charming, comfortable, clean and very well kept.