Landing and the Isle of Skye

After a long (delayed) flight, nearly missing our connection in Reykjavik, and a short hop to Glasgow, we met our friends Leah and Brett. We had some excellent Indian food before reassembling our bicycles, packing up the car, installing a rather unorthodox bike rack, and heading north past Loch Lomond towards our weekend destination: the Isle of Skye. 

Loch Lomond on a day that was supposed to be quite rainy. That seems to be a theme so far...

The Isle of Skye is a mess of geology that was once the seat of the power of Clan MacLeod and Clan MacDonald. It also has excellent walking and spectacular scenery, which were primary motivations for the four of us. 

The castle at Eilean Donan, shortly before the crossing to Skye. 

Leah and Brett's trusty Vauxhall, complete with bikes that kept us from opening the trunk...

Outdoor pursuits in Scotland are mostly governed by two factors: the weather and the midge report (http://midgeforecast.co.uk/). Skye was rated a midge of 3 for the weekend we were going to be there, so we were hoping to find a camping spot with as much wind as possible. Midges' only real strength is their numbers. Otherwise, they are weak, slow little bastards, swept away by a little breeze, UV, rain, or cold. The pulloff with camping spots we found turned out to be enough in the wind, so we set up the tents with only a few midges following us. We then headed off to find dinner at the nearby pub, which turned out to be packed to the gills with visiting walkers, climbers, and general tourists. 

The beach at Glenbrittle. 

The next morning, we headed for the nearby trailhead for several hikes in the Black Cuilins, a mass of gabbro sculpted into steep peaks during the last glacial period. We headed out from the car park and up the hill, heading for a hanging valley with a tiny loch amidst the peaks. 

Up to the hanging valley, shrouded in clouds

The hidden loch.

The view down.

Brett checking out the chilled margins on a dike.

On the way down we passed a crazy (or at least very skilled) guy carrying up his mountain bike. We kept looking to see him hurtling down the steep rock slope, but when he did ride down it was very, very cautiously. 

The heather in bloom.

Two weeks in Montana

I suppose we'll have to report on our early July activities at another time, but for now, it seems appropriate to write about the two week field course I just finished co-teaching in Montana since it is fresh in our minds. We're waiting in the Seattle airport for our flight to Vancouver, so we'll see how far we get.

The two week course is on public lands management and is based out of Missoula, MT. As the course centers around the history and practices of the Forest Service, we took students into the national forests for each week of class. The first week we went backpacking for three nights just across the border in Idaho in the Clearwater National Forest. It's my third year doing this course, and Dave's second, and we're still happy to go backpacking in these same places. The way the course works is that we have class in the mornings, usually go for a day hike late morning, and then have class in the evening again after dinner. The best part of the first week is the day hike up Granite Peak. It takes you right up to the Idaho - Montana border and provides a great view to the surrounding area. My other favorite part of the backpack is the stream -- we camp nearby and it is lovely (but cold!) for swimming. We also do a day hike up to the headwaters, which are located in a beautiful alpine meadow. It's been neat for me to see the differences in the area between the last three years I've gone. The first year was definitely the wettest (they had a big snow year that winter) and the wildflowers were amazing. The second year was dryer (even though it was two weeks earlier), and this year was even drier and hotter. The wildflowers were mostly gone by, though we did hit the alpine gentians at their peak -- a flower I hadn't seen either of the two previous years.

In between weeks in the out-of-doors, we stayed with Chelsea's cousin Abby, John, and Georgia (and soon to be baby boy!). They were very gracious to have us, as they were moving houses and are 8 months pregnant right now. Getting to spend time with them is one of the main reasons we keep deciding to come and do the course again. It's wonderful to see them and to spend time in Montana with them. We didn't head out on any major adventures this year, which was OK since we were pretty exhausted from teaching the course, and Abby was less mobile than usual since she's carrying around a second person! We did head down the Bitteroot Valley to cool off in the river, and also made a stop at the Wildwood Brewery for a refreshing drink. We also hit up the Saturday Farmers' Market in Missoula, which I think is the best farmers' market anywhere in the country.

The second week we took the students down the Bitteroot and into the Bitteroot-Selway Wilderness up Bear Creek Canyon. Fortunately, it cooled down the second week, and so we weren't quite as hot -- although we could see and smell smoke from the wildfire across the border in Idaho. I really love this second camp site -- it's sort of up on the rocks and has lovely views of the canyon walls. It also has an amazing stream nearby. This year, we made it up to Bryant Lake, which is at least 5 miles up from the camp, but was well worth the hike. It was so beautiful up there, and because the lake is pretty shallow, it made for relatively comfortable alpine lake swimming. We had just a small group of students go with us for this day hike, which made for a lovely intimate hike. On the way up, we weren't sure we were going to make it, so we barely stopped and didn't enjoy any views or huckleberries. So, on the way down, we gorged ourselves on huckleberries and stopped for beautiful views -- in fact, it took us longer to get back even though we were going downhill than it did to get up to the lake.

We learned a lot from the two week course -- most notably that teaching is hard, but also rewarding. And, that I really do know the material and can teach the course (which felt good to realize). Co-teaching is awesome because you don't have to do all the work and it's wonderful to have two minds sharing ideas and thoughts with the students. Dave is an amazing assistant professor as well (he gave lots of talks on the geology of the area and on science and how it is used in policy-making). And, Montana is still awesome, despite the fact that it was really hot. Thankfully, it started to rain just after we made it back to the van at the end of the last lecture! It rained the last couple days, which was a blessing since it has been so hot and dry. It was good for things to get a thorough soaking. 

Now we're heading off to Haida Gwai in British Columbia for a week of sea kayaking. I've been looking forward to this part of the trip most of all because it will be a completely new adventure. I've never been to this part of the world (or anywhere near really) and I've never been on a multi-day sea kayak trip. We're certainly looking forward to it and will be sure to post some pictures upon our return. And, hopefully we'll add some pictures from our time in Colorado and Montana as well!

Sorry not to post as often as we had hoped. With any luck, we'll be able to back fill when we return from Canada mid-August...

A blogging hiatus

Despite our high hopes for posting blogs regularly this summer, we haven't done so well. Here is a picture from our night spent in Grand Teton National Park. We drove through on our way from Colorado to Montana. 

And one from Yellowstone...

Hopefully we can fill on some details about our adventures so far.... 

The bike trip may be over...

But we intend to continue posting about our adventures during the rest of the summer. We have some fun things planned so feel free to check in every once in awhile to read about what we've been up to! 

On the road again

After a brief trip to Cleveland to celebrate my Grandma's life (it was a beautiful service), we got back on the road again Sunday. And I can honestly say that it felt great to be on our bikes again. We left from our friends' brand new house in Portland, Maine (they kindly let us store our bikes there and picked and dropped us off from the airport, too!). We said our good byes and then promptly got a flat tire before we even got out of the driveway. Dave swapped out the tube and we started off again.

Not much later, before we had even gotten out of Portland, we got our second flat of the trip! I rode over something very sharp and heard the loud hiss of air immediately. We noticed that there was a bike shop just a few miles ahead - what luck! We swapped out the tube again (using our last spare tube) and rode on to the bike shop. We were feeling like we had made a good recovery from our double flat morning until we discovered the bike shop was closed on Sundays. Shoot!

We started to discuss options and decided that if we got another flat, we could patch the one tube, but it didn't seem like an ideal situation. We were heading for western Maine where there was unlikely to be places to eat lunch, let alone a bike shop. But, as we were getting ready to ride off, we noticed that a light was on inside the bike shop and that the car in the driveway had an open window. Maybe, just maybe, there was someone inside. We knocked (perhaps a little loudly). We soon heard a dog barking and then a man opened the door. The store was closed but he had come in to catch up on some paperwork. Hurrah! He was happy to loan us his pump and sell us a few tubes. We got to talking and he asked us how we got the flat. That prompted us to look at the front tire and we noticed that the slash was quit large and pulling apart with the inflated tube beneath it. So we decided to buy a new tire, too. Perhaps we would have been fine, but it seemed like a good idea to have a slash-free tire for our journey across western Maine.

The flats delayed us quite a bit but this turned out to be a good thing. We got to Gorham around lunch time and stopped at the best looking place - the Sebago Brewery. Since it was a brewery, we decided we should have a beer with lunch (but we declined the offer to have our water bottles filled with beer!) It was pretty refreshing! As we ate, I realized that there probably wouldn't be many places to eat on our route after Gorham. That made the beer taste even better :-)

We got on our bikes and were happy to finally be in a more rural area with fewer cars again. We made pretty decent progress despite the fact that it was hot - really out first hot day of the trip. At some point, I remembered our friends in Wolfeboro (our destination for the day) lived on a lake, and that we could jump into that lake when we got there. Talk about some real motivation! The only other thing I was dreaming about was a nice cold lemonade, but I was trying not to get my hopes up since we were in western Maine, where there just wasn't much of anything at all. In fact, I had checked Yelp for eating establishments but there were no results anywhere near us. (Later, I realized that Yelp is probably not be widely used in western Maine.)

However, in Newfield, Maine when we saw a sign on the road for a museum which had food, drinks, and other stuff, I was elated. Especially because it was only 1/4 mile off our route. We rode to the museum and I walked inside. There were two women inside, and when they turned to look at me, an expression of grave concern came over their faces. "Can I get you a paper towel?" the one lady stammered. "You're perspiring so much." I must have looked pretty bad and I'm still not sure exactly what a paper towel would have done for me, but I assured them I was OK, and just needed something cold to drink. They didn't seem convinced, but told us that the restaurant just down the road had lemonade. We hurried down and drank two glasses of lemonade in about 5 seconds flat. Incredible. We also stuck some ice cubes in our bike shorts -- you just tuck them up under the legs and the spandex holds them in there. They cool you down considerably.

At this point, we took stock of where we were, and how much further we had to go. I also thought a lot about the lake and how badly I wanted to be in it. Our friends Nancy and John had offered to come get us if we needed a ride, and so we decided to call them and see if they would be willing to meet us in an hour just across the New Hampshire border. We picked the spot on our route just before the directions told us to walk our bikes for 3.7 miles. We weren't really sure why the directions told us to walk our bikes, but guessed that the road must have been rough. Given our delayed start, we thought it would be OK to skip this adventure and instead jump in the lake. We called, and Nancy and John happily offered to come get us at the meeting point.

We rode on for another hour or so, and then saw a friendly car flash its lights. We pulled over into the parking lot and about 30 seconds later, a major downpour started. What timing! We tried to pack up the bikes as quick as we could, and then got in the car. We headed home and the only sad part of the day was that between the rain and all of the water I had poured on myself, I wasn't hot anymore (plus it looked like a thunderstorm was coming.) So we didn't jump in the lake. Instead, we decided to stay another day so we could jump in the lake the next day. Also, there make had loons and I really wanted to hear them again because I LOVE LOONS! 

What a good decision that was! John and Nancy have sea kayaks and a sail boat and they like to hike! It was perfect weather so we took out the sea kayaks in the morning, hiked in the afternoon and swam just before another thunderstorm rolled through. It as heavenly - absolutely one of the best days of our trip. 

Since the days seem to flow from one to the next, I'll just continue on here with our final day of the trip. We had about 90 miles to go and John kindly offered to drive us part way so we didn't have to do 90 miles. When we originally planned the trip, we thought we could probably do 90 miles if needed. During the trip we discovered that we had no desire to do 90 miles in a day. 

John dropped us off near 93 and we started our final day of riding. In Bristol, NH we met a cop from New Zealand. He seemed so out of context but it was great talking to him. He even recommended a diner to us near Hanover. He also thought we were crazy but maybe not quite as crazy as New Zealand cyclists because all of their roads are narrow and windy apparently. I'm not sure how he made it to tiny little Bristol but I'm glad be was there and that he talked to us. 

Soon after all of this, we made it to Grafton where we got on a rail trail. It as a little rough going, but no cars and no hills! I have no idea how they made it that flat but it was kind of nice after so many hills on the rest of the ride. Also it was much more shaded than the road and so also cooler! A big bonus and definitely worth the blow downs we had to walk our bikes over and the one dog that chased us a bit.

We stopped for first lunch and second lunch by two different beautiful lakes. The first had a loon calling! The second was Mascoma lake and we knew we were close. 

We made it into Hanover, I stopped to get an iced chai and then we headed down to the river. We jumped into the Connecticut, jumped out, rode across the river and met my aunt Judy right where she had dropped us off some two weeks ago. And, then it started raining! A perfect ending to a pretty amazing trip. 

We're so grateful to all of our friends and family who helped make it possible! Thank you John, Judy, Jim, Mary, Tara, Jesse, Jake, Catrina, Kyle, Gray, Sean, Sarah, Sam, Kristin, Nick, Carol, Chuck, Scott, Katie, Nancy, and John. We could not have done it without you guys! 

Slight change of plans

After arriving in Bar Harbor and looking at the weather forecast for the week, we decided that rather than leave on Monday to head south again, we should stay in Bar Harbor and ride around here - without our bags! Fortunately for us, our friends invited us to stay longer and our other friends offered to give us a ride down to Portland on Thursday (they were going there anyways) so it all worked out great. Riding around in a beautiful place (rather than on roads we've already ridden) sounded like a great idea to us. We didn't really see the point in leaving Bar Harbor if we had the option to stay longer. 

So, we've spent the last few days riding the Park Loop Road in Acadia including riding up Cadillac Mountain, hiking, and enjoying time with our friends. It's been fantastic! Today we're going to ride on the carriage roads in the park and stop for popovers at the Jordan Pond House - highly recommended to us by our friends Bill and Ellie. We can hardly wait! 

A much needed rest

After 5 days and 315 miles of riding, we finally arrived at our friends' house in Hancock, ME. Jesse, Tara and their adorable son Jacob are wonderful hosts. They planned an amazing dinner (including a big pasta salad, sweet potato fries, fish, broccoli, and homemade strawberry ice cream!) for our arrival Friday evening. Getting off of our bikes, showering, eating delicious food and chatting with wonderful friends -- it made the whole ride worth it! 

We all went to bed pretty early and then were happy to wake up to beautiful sunny skies the next day. We had a delicious crab quiche for breakfast, and then went down to the ocean for a walk around Hancock. On the way, we passed the smallest post office in the country, which was in the process of being lifted and leveled. How many guys does it take to lift up the smallest post office in the country? Two, it turns out! Yep. It was small. 

We headed back home, had some lunch (with more homemade strawberry ice cream!) and then did some house projects and took some time to relax in the hammock. As I was lying in the hammock, I thought to myself again what a beautiful home Tara and Jesse have created for themselves. They have a big garden, chickens, pigs, an orchard, trees for shade, low bush blueberries all around... If I found a place like that (well, actually they built their house) I would never want to leave either! They are always working on big and small projects, and one of our favorite things to do is to help them with whatever project they're working on at the time. This time, we got to weather seal the deck using a long rolling paint brush -- I found it to be especially relaxing rolling the deck. We also thinned some of the veggies and did a little weeding. We felt a little bad -- we were definitely tired from all of the riding and so didn't feel as helpful as usual. But, we were so grateful for the relaxing day and for the chance to spend some time again in their little piece of heaven. 

That evening, we all went over to our other friends' house in Bar Harbor. Kyle, Catrina and their sweet and energetic son Gray hosted all of us for dinner. They grilled for us, and it was a lovely evening with great friends and more delicious food. Sunday morning, we went for a short hike up a mountain with a lovely view out over the coast. We came back and then went hunting for mussels. We missed low tide by just a bit, so it was sort of tricky to find the mussels, but we got enough for an appetizer for dinner that night. We helped Catrina build a jungle gym for Gray, watched the hockey game that night, and enjoyed another relaxing day with friends. The weekend was perfect -- relaxing, beautiful weather, good friends, good food, and no bike riding. Yes!