Friday, September 18, 2015

From far enough away, everything sounds like the ocean.

A chilly evening in the Big Hole -- a consolation prize after being mudded out of our cabin in the Snowcrest Mountains.

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A "ghost house" on the way to Moose Meadows. No moose, no ghosts.

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Epic landscapes in the Cabinets. What a great and underappreciated range of mountains.

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We drove to Portland, where a car was waiting for us.

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A last-minute trip to the coast. It brings back a lot of memories from my trips there as a kid. I wonder what Cooper will remember. (Click on this photo to open it.)

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Incredible secret beach.

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Trail leading to another.

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Old growth forest -- where I learned that "old growth" just means it hasn't been cut in 200 years. That's lame.

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Killing it on the Great Divide.

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Killing it in the Prius.

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Killing it in the Extreme Buick.

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Just your basic average every day Labor Day Weekend snowstorm.

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Branham Lakes.

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Tobacco Roots.

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Dedicated wine glasses are for glampers.

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The Hour of Magical Light along the Madison.

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Took a two-day 150-mile mountain bike ride from Elk Lakes Provincial Park to Banff and back. It's not a super-tough endeavor, but there's one caveat: the six-mile stretch of trail between Elk Lakes and Kananaskis Country Provincial Park circumvents a 200-mile drive, meaning if something goes wrong, you can't just stick out your thumb and get a lift home.

Pretty country, though.

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Somehow I got my mileage count off and the first day was 20 miles longer than I had planned. I would have stopped and camped at Spray Lake (the camp host flagged me down, actually, and offered moose sausage) but I had already spent a considerable sum to reserve a spot in Banff. Banff, as expected, was a tangle of tourists and outrageously-priced restaurants. I fell asleep to whistling wind and woke to the cute pitter patter of what I hoped were pine needles hitting the tent. It wasn't. By the time I was packed up and downtown it was pouring rain and 43 degrees. I got wifi from Starbucks and the radar showed showers extending as far west as Golden, so pedal in the rain it was. As a consolation, Mountain Hardware's $75 rain jacket really does work pretty well.

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So a full day in the rain, with just enough dry breaks to take a few photos.

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Yeah, it's fall for sure.