17 September, Thursday S, K, and I start off the day with a nice long pre-breakfast walk,which is a good thing because it rains much of the rest of the day.Apple cinnamon bread French toast for breakfast, then some moregrocery shopping to get the snack foods for hiking that we forgot topick up yesterday. Snake goes off to work. K bakes a batch of graham cracker brownies to take along on
16 September, Wednesday A busy day! We have several stops to make for groceries this morning,then off to REI. I tell the customer service rep at the desk aboutthe broken headlamp. She tries it as well… no light. I aminstructed to go find a replacement and bring it back to the desk.This I do. Now a young man is helping me. He picks up thenon-functioning light and tries to “unlock it”
15 September, Tuesday Once again we are up early. We do not have far to drive today – itshould only be a few hours to Redmond. We stop in at the CopperKettle in Ellensburg where we listen to local farmers discuss their camaros, and gettingtheir alfalfa crop in, and how much extra moneyyou can earn by having a cell tower on your property. Breakfastfinished, we stop at the local fruit stand
14 September, Monday Before departing Missoula, we return to the Hob Nob Cafe for another roundof their sourdough blueberry pancakes. We exchange travel tales withthe young waitress who has spent time in the East working in anecological field. She finds our tales entertaining enough that sherewards us with a free cranberry white chocolate chip scone. While weare eating our pancakes we are further entertained by a young man whostops in for
13 September 2015, Sunday We are up at about 6:45 to break camp. The temperature is 38 degrees F.It feels balmy. We bid farewell to Wayne, our neighbor, drive throughthe upper loop of Mammoth Hot Springs and proceed to Gardiner forbreakfast. Although there are still many tourists around, there arenot many places open for breakfast. Many restaurants lose their staff once theschool year begins. After breakfast we head north along the
12 September 2015, (Shana Tova) We are up at 7:15 am. It feels colder than yesterday morning, but O’swatch reads -3.8 degrees C. Once again, with many layers on, we cookup breakfast and once again, by the time we are ready to go explore,it is warm enough for just a long sleeved shirt over a T-shirt. Today’s goal is further exploration of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Weplan to drive to
11 September 2015, Friday This morning topped yesterday morning. The temperature at 7 am is -4.3degrees C. We kept our long underwear on and put on jackets as weemerged from the tent. The good news is that we continue to stay warmwith our sleeping system despite the sub-freezing temperature. I mix up some oatmeal pancakes for breakfast, and O fires up the KellyKettle just so we can pour hot water into our
10 September 2015, Thursday I guess Yellowstone is not so warm in the morning. Nor is it quiet (atthe moment) at night. When we wake it is -1.3º C. Although thetemperature is colder than at Glacier, it does not feel as cold,likely due to the lower humidity. We have a shortcake and ourblueberry yogurt for breakfast, along with apple slices. As to peaceand quiet, it turns out there is major construction
9 September 2015, Wednesday Yellowstone it is! I spent part of last evening checking on which campsites fillthe latest in the day at Yellowstone. Turns out Indian Creek, whichis about 15 miles south of the North entrance is a good candidate,and because generators are not allowed, it is very quiet and good fortent campers. We woke about 5:30 am today so that we could get an early breakfast and getJazz to
8 September 2015, Tuesday It’s cold, breezy and cloudy this morning. I was hoping for a little morewarmth and sunshine for our last breakfast here, but I guess theweather is part of what makes this Glacier National Park. As we arepreparing breakfast some people stop by and ask if we are leaving.They like our campsite. We let them put their tag on our campsitepost and give them recommendations for day hikes.