From the window in our humble cement block motel (expensive but humble) we could see the Prince of Wales. Not the man doomed to be known as William’s father the royal environmentalist Charles, the Canadian hotel that our daughter Leigh was sure had once been Cinderella’s home.

We spent Labor Day weekend in Waterton, Alberta CA hiking ourselves to exhaustion because it is SO beautiful. Once you make the 7 hour drive from Spokane you can easily access mountains, lakes, waterfalls and nuisance deer. Midwesterner’s will recognize the town of Waterton as Mackinac Island without the fudge. The Prince of Wales is the Grand Hotel they don’t charge to sit on the porch but they do serve High Tea. Waterton has bike rentals, boat trips but also cars and a huge campground.

Waterton from Bear's Hump

Saturday we hiked about 8 miles to two lakes. It was 36 degrees when we started our hike at 9:30am. Luckily we started by hiking up Akamina Pass so we warmed up pretty quickly. The top of the pass had all kinds of markers letting us know we were entering British Columbia as if making it out of Alberta was a big deal.  I expected some some ranger to jump out and ask for my passport but the ranger’s cabin  was closed. From the main trail the hike up to Forum Lake was the longest 2K I ever hiked. We kept telling ourselves it’s kilometers not miles so even though the trail is straight up we can do it. There is a beautiful waterfall on the way up so I insisted that Dennis take a lot of pictures so I could catch my breath.

We chatted with a young couple from Lethbridge who asked us if we were going to climb the ridge above the lake. At first we were uncertain but when we saw the ridge Dennis and I said “No!” in unison.

Ridge above Forum Lake

 Wall Lake turned out to be the easiest hike to an alpine lake we ever had. Someone had pushed a double wide baby jogger up the trail. It felt like large families had hiked up the 3+ miles to hold reunions. As we ate our lunch two girls came by and admired a huge black “insect not a bug because it has 6 legs” I’d left sitting on a rock by my feet. One threw it in the water but I shamed them into rescuing it with a leaf when “insect” didn’t swim. 

“Insect NOT bug”

 After dinner we hiked around the Waterton campground which is huge with both tents and trailers. I think Canadians must be a pretty hardy lot because the temperature was getting down to the 30′s at night. Too cold for me to enjoy camping.

Sunday we hiked to Summit Lake and then we decided to hike up Carthew Ridge which must have been at least 9 miles round trip. It was exhausting and scary going up and down but well worth it when we saw the panorama of mountains and lakes. I always wish I had learned how to use that panoramic picture feature on my phone camera but once you are up there with the frigid wind blowing around you really don’t want to be reading phone help screens. I’m not sure how I can ever be quite as satisfied walking  south hill bluff after experiencing such beautiful scenery along with the adrenaline rush of looking below my feet and seeing the steep gravel hill drop almost straight down.

It was a four star vacation. Our days were cloudless and it got as warm as 74 which is more than you can hope for considering the altitude and the season. This was very unlike our Independence Creek backpack where we only saw 7 people all weekend and only one person spoke part of a sentence as she whizzed by on her bike. Friendly loquacious Canadians (I counted license plates and 98% from Alberta) were on every trail. I think Dennis’s with his Scandinavian sensibilities did not really appreciate their chattiness . They asked us where we were from, thanked us for visiting Canada, asked us for hiking advice, offered us shuttle service and told us their hiking histories. Even a group of deaf hikers tried to speak with us.

It was a really nice trip but we are afraid to look up the Canadian exchange rate it might dim the afterglow to know what our Waterton excursion really cost us. 

  Here is the link to ALL pictures

Bearmountain Lodge formerly El Cortez motel

Campsite Independence Creek, Pan Handle National Forest, ID

Icey Crossing

We can’t decide if it’s been 7, 8 or 10 years since we backpacked. I wasn’t sure we could still do it. We hiked hiked this trail in 1995 when Leigh was entering 2^nd grade. She still remembers it as: “the best backpack ever” because it had 22 stream crossings. Leigh really got into it when we told her she could splash through with her hiking shoes on. I swear the trail was only 5-6 miles long then and we made it to the end and then wished we hadn’t because we had to camp in a large  truck rut or something similar.

Now the trail is 7.5 miles long but we only had six big crossings. This time we camped in a beautiful meadow about 4 miles in. We explored another mile or so up the trail but were completely happy with our spot . A couple mountain biking who waved as they whizzed by our campsite were the only people we saw all Saturday. We saw two groups of bikers Sunday for a total of 7 people in two days so I’d say this area is pretty lightly used. The nature highlight was surprising two deer who jumped across the brush like antelope. I’ve never seen deer jump like that before almost like kangaroos. The other great thing was our campsite by the babbling creek. Our new tent is practically all screen windows and given the blue sky we didn’t see any reason to put on the rain-fly. The moon rising early from behind the mountains was just about as bright as our Spokane neighbor’s obnoxious street light. It was certainly a welcome change of pace from the backyard.

View Independence Creek

The only downside of the trip is how sore we are today. Dennis groans every time he’s required to do stairs.  This is made up for by how much fun he had at work today telling all the outdoorsy types how I got ants in my pants.

I choose a nice grassy hill to relieve myself.  I soon felt some sharp stings and realized my shoes and more were swarming with angry biting ants.  I yelled to Dennis a couple of times but he was employing his wife tune out gear as best he could.  When he finally meandered over he wondered why I had my pants, shirt and shoes off.  “You were the one worried that our big windowed tent might be too visible from the trail and here you were dancing around in your underwear.”  He got the camera to take a picture, not of me but of the many angry ants.  It’s not very impressive ant picture.

  There is also one of me filtering watering licking my wounds in comforting scenery.

Licking my ant wounds & filtering water at campsite.

Alturus Lake Beach

7-16- 2010 They said it couldn’t be done but we snagged a campsite at Alturus Bay Inlet on what is the warmest  Saturday of the summer thus far.    This is a lively campground: kids, bikes, dogs, and every campsite seems to have several of each.  The nights entertainment was watch a parade of 12 made up of adults kids, bikes and strollers circle the campground twice.  Recovering from yesterdays strenuous climb to Sawtooth Lake we sat at the crowded beach & relaxed with a beer & lunch.  I jumped in the water and it was absolutely freezing.  About 2pm we got the energy for a two and a half hour hike along Alpine Creek the trail didn’t gain much altitude between the mountain and the stream.  One unusual sighting was a couple loudly nude bathing in the creek.  Dennis said I gawked.  I don’t have a picture of them just the creek.

Hike Alpine Creek (Alturus Lake)

Hemingway

7-17-10 Sunday  We drove to Ketchum for lunch and did a bit of a walking tour.  It’s a upscale resort town if ever there was one.  I had a salad for lunch that featured an entire head of lettuce I think.  We found Hemingway’s grave but did not add a bottle of whiskey nor did we site Muriel but we didn’t really know where to look.  We arrived at Craters of the Moon about 2pm.  On first approach it looks like a terrible accident with asphalt.  We easily secured a campsite but it was too windy to safely put up the tent.  We took a long hike, TOO LONG for me.  I quit & walked back the campground about a half hour before D.  We did the auto tour at sunset and attended the ranger’s “Critter Talk” at 9:30pm.  We learned that foxes mate for life and sometimes hunt in pairs.  A wolf print is bigger that a St. Bernard but has no claws.  We were more tired than the little kids attending in pajamas.

We spent the night in a motel in Burley.  It felt fantastic to have a shower and wash our clothes.  We also located a steakhouse on the Snake River for dinner.

Drove to City of Rocks for a short but rigorous hike.  I never saw so many prickly pear cactus in bloom.

We spent the rest of the day on the road.  We ended up in Weiser, ID.  Quite a nice little town and friendly too.  D. noticed it’s the home of the workplace education.  The friendly people had diplomas posted. 

We fled our comfy campsite by 9:30 am due to excessive head.

Every year we go cross-country skiing on one of the winter 3 day weekends. Last year I observed trends in ski clothing. Fleece is OUT, wool is WAY OUT, and shiny, stretchy, astro-bright artificial fiber outfits are de rigueur cross-country wear, at least on Mt. Spokane.

Last weekend skiing the Lolo pass, which straddles the Idaho-Montana border I was aware that I was likely to make several woolly sightings. What surprised me was rude anarchist (devil may care) skiers. This is a sport where everyone shares two little tracks in the snow. If you are not skiing, you should step out of the track. I had to detour around several skiers addressing wardrobe malfunctions while stopped in the middle to the track. I might add I’m not generally skiing at some supersonic speed that you wouldn’t see me coming. The exception is when I’m going downhill. Then I snow plow out of control from side to side down the trail and you really don’t want to be in my way.

The “I’ve Never Seen this Before & Please NO MORE!” prize goes to a man with a puppy (numerous no dog signs posted) stopped in the middle of track, apparently changing his clothes. Looking back, after skiing around the guy, I commented to my husband that I had observed that the man was sporting Hanes gray cotton briefs identical to those I’d recently purchased for him. My husband felt I was paying way too much attention to other men’s underwear on Valentines, end of story.  PICTURE IS NOT LOLO PASS.  This is Patee Canyon on the outskirts of Missoula.  There is just barely enough snow to ski.

Anonymous historian

As I put the pictures together for my presentations it is great to remember all the wonderful things we saw and all my friends in the BUTE Modern Langage Department. 

Slide Shows 

Our Pension in Vienna

Walking tour around Der Ringstrasse looking for tourist information.  There were some frayed tempers as everyone was tired and we didn’t seem to have a clear plan for our tour.

Secession Museum and saw the Klimt Beethoven

Secession

 We walked to the Church  of St. Charles Borromeo (Karlsplatz) which was spectacular as we rode up a lift and walked up some shaky stairs to the top of the dome. 

We walked through the city park (Stadtpark) with its statues and  a pond and went to St Stephens church which seemed less impressive after the Charles.  We were able to sneak in just before they closed for mass.

About 7pm we settled in the for real schnitzel and gelato in a pedestrian area near St. Stephens. 

Sunday 5-18-2008 After a hardy breakfast at the pension we walked up Rathhausplatz to the townhall and past the Parliament. 

Next we walked to the  Kunsthistoriches Museum where we saw a staggering number of paintings the most memorable of which were the Velazquez and the Bruegels.  After lunch at the museum we went to the Belvedere Palace and more paintings.  The palace and its grounds were more the attraction here.  The Schiele and Klimt’s were highlights here along with some gothic religious sculptures. 

For dinner we took the tram to Spittleburg quarter.  The transportation system in Vienna is really great.

Monday 5-19-2008 Arrived as early as possible for  a tour of the Hofburg castle.  The unexpected highlight for me was the table service collection.  The audiotour was excellent and the table services were spectacular.  Every new prince or princess seemed to need a new one commissioned that was more spectacular than the previous.  The Sisi portion was interesting about a reclusive Hapsburg queen but a bit much.  Next we toured the royal apartments seemed rather pedestrian compared to Verasailles or other more richly decorated rooms even compared to the Belevedere.  After lunch nearby, pizza and a tomatoless minestrone soup, we went and saw the jewels, robes and crowns in the Vienna Treasury where we learned more about the history of the different Habsburg kings and princes.  The audio tour was also interesting here.  Afterwards we had a nice walk along the Ringstrasse including the Danube and dinner near our Pension at a café, fried calamari and potato salad. It was raining on and off mostly ON all day so it was a bit cold and depressing.  We didn’t get to the Freud apartment but again the cold clammy weather left tempers frayed and we were in need of family therapy.  I think sugar delivered in the Viennese tradition via a slice of sacher torte after dinner improved everything.

Tuesday 5-20-2008  We then went to the Butterfly house and saw some tropical butterflies and to the Leopold museum where we focused again on Klimt and Schiele.  We had lunch at the museum and rushed to catch the 2pm train and returned to Budapest and a dinner at home. 

Butterfly house

Pictures of Vienna