Moose have predators?

Just learned that Moose have predators...didn't think this was possible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moose#Natural_predators

Good times...

 The tourist picture in front of Mount Rushmore. Lots of rain after I got off Harney Peak (highest point in South Dakota). It is way smaller than you think, but very cool nonetheless.

 The rain did not help the pictures, but I purchased a professional one in the gift shop. As I left the area, I saw snow along the roadside in the higher elevation areas. Yes snow in early September. And I have to come back to Indiana with all of its humidity!?

 The Crazy Horse monument. Nothing is really done on it. I wish they would let the government come in and finish it up or get some big private investors. This project started in 1948! See this wiki - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_Horse_Memorial

 Harney Peak highpoint from far away. It was a 6 mile round trip jaunt.

 My self shot picture in the lookout tower.

 Information about the peak that seemed interesting.

 Some of the rock formations in Custer State Park. If you go to the area check out Custer State Park.

 Cathedral Spires in Custer State Park.

Prairie Gopher. Even though it says not to feed them I think people do. They were too friendly. 

I finally have a connection where I could upload the video of the wind on Mt. Reynolds. It made for some dangerous times when it picked up while doing some the hand hold climbing. Near the end you can see one of the little pieces of talus go flying by. Yes, the wind is moving the rock.

As I trekked back through South Dakota it rained constantly. I even made the stop at Wall Drug in Wall, SD. I ate lunch/dinner there and walked around to take a gander at everything they offered. A tourist trap, but a neat story on how they made it on the map. http://www.walldrug.com/t-history.aspx

If you have not been out west to places like the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore, Glacier NP, or any of the hundreds of other national parks then you need to plan a trip. You don't have to climb mountains. You can take some easy day hikes and view things that millions of people only get to see on TV. If you take the beach trip every year, you might think about doing something different. It is great to get away and relax, but it is great to be reminded of how beautiful of a country we live in and how fortunate we are to be able to live here.

When people asked me where I was from I said Indiana and usually followed it up with there is not much to see here. A few days into this I changed that and said there is a lot to see here. Driving through the National Forest in Southern Indiana in the fall is gorgeous. Turkey Run and/or Shades State Parks are awesome to see. The Dunes on the south end of Lake Michigan. There is a lot to see in our own backyards. If you live near me there is the Garden of the Gods in Southern Illinois and don't forget Mammoth Cave just down the road in Kentucky.

I will post other pictures as I get things uploaded. I even am creating a fast motion film of the the entire trip with the pictures I have taken and the camera images from the vehicle. I am not sure how long that will be, but hopefully I can do it some justice. I video taped my reaction to seeing Devil's Tower from far away (this movie might be given an R rating for language - haha).

The pictures!

 My first day in Glacier NP. This greeted me as I drove into the park. The sound was amazing.

 Mt. Reynolds from Logan Pass. This is a class 3-4 mountain. This means there is a lot of hand hold climbing and some precarious situations. It was around 9500+ ft. Not much but the rock walls are straight up. All of the mountains in Glacier were carved by glaciers.

 A view before the pass up Mt. Reynolds.

 The view from Mt. Reynolds on the opposite side. This is called the Dragon's Tail I believe.

 A selfie on the edge of some class 3 rock. A false move would surely bring broken bones.

 This view shows the steepness of Mt. Reynolds. Lots of talus and scree. A mess to climb up.

 A view into Logan's Pass. These mountains are amazing.

 Another selfie on Mt. Reynolds. Yes I took video of the climb. I will hopefully upload the video of the strong winds. 30-40 mph gusts and maybe more. Hard to stand up in a few places.

 The view from Mt. Reynolds towards Jackson Glacier. They say these will all be gone by 2030.

 My hike toward Iceberg Lake the next day. I found another hiker on his own and we hiked together. When I stumbled upon him we ran into bears. I did not have my camera ready for that, but he told hem he would send me some pictures of the black bears. I saw a mother and one cub. My newly found hiking companion stated there was another cub as well.

 More pictures of glacier cut mountains on the way to Iceberg Lake. It was an 11 mile hike round trip.

 The remains of the glacier in Iceberg Lake. And yes those are icebergs floating in the lake. We met a ranger out there that said in another year or so there won't be any more icebergs in the lake and it will depend upon winters.

 My hiking companion took my picture. Yes that is bear spray hanging off my chest pack. $40 I didn't use but it was good insurance.

 Pictures of some icebergs in the lake.

 A full shot of Iceberg Lake. WOW!

The ass of the baby bull moose sticking out on the trail. No way around it by try to slip past it's butt. It's butt was at least 6 1/2 feet tall. We waited but he was eating something good and there was no way around. I tried to slip past but it spooked him and he turned on me. 

 As I got past he popped out and started to head toward me. I stopped taking pictures and ran up hill behind a tree.

 This is him again as my hiking partner passed him. He was pissed again that his eating was interrupted.

 CHARGE! Yes he ran after us down the trail a bit. We both went up hill and behind trees. He only went like 20 feet and I think what he was eating was calling his name. Remember this is still a baby moose. I would hate to have run into a full grown one.

 Old farmhouse on the way up to the North Dakota high point.

 Me on top of the North Dakota high point. No rain yet. The rain gear was for keeping the millions of mosquitoes off of me.

 I came over the hill and saw Devil's Tower. I was about 10 miles away with this picture. It sent chills down my spine. It is out there all on its own. No wonder Close Encounters of the Third Kind used this as a back drop. It is very spooky.

Close up view of Devils Tower. And no I was not about to climb it. Still worn out from my other climbs.

No update tonight

No update like I had hoped this evening. I am in southwest North Dakota and a crazy high plains storm has blown up and killed power to my internet connection. I thought storms were bad in Indiana but wow this beats some of ours.

Alive...

Just a quick note. I am alive and well. I am headed back east and making stops in North Dakota, Wyoming, and South Dakota. it is a long way home.

How was Glacier NP? Awesome! I will upload pics later tonight I hope. I will also detail things a bit more such as the moose attack that I thankfully survived. Yes, moose. From my understanding they kill more humans per year than bears. It was too close for comfort. Pictures and more details about that later.

I will be traveling the expanse of Montana today. Too many miles to count. I will hopefully make it to the ND border.

Pictures from failed climb...

 Campsite the night before the climb. Ice pellets were noisy overnight.

 The evening before the climb. You can see the snow but the peak is covered in clouds. Some lightning up top that evening as well.

 Another shot - trying to capture lightning but I am terrible with the camera.

 Day of the climb looking south above the treeline. I think Leatherman is the peak to the left. Snow on them as well.

 Looking down into the valley - I think it is called the Lost River Valley - not sure.

 Looking down at the trailhead and you can see my truck in the middle of the picture at the top.

 This is at around 10,000 ft. The peak is in the middle above 12,000 ft. The worry is the notch with all the snow to the right. That is a 15 ft. down climb and the handholds would have been troubling with the snow.

 Taking a selfie. Climbed another 1000 feet to 11,000 ft and decided it was a bust.

Climbing down. This just looked pretty.

Wyoming smells! Idaho was disappointing and Montana is just plain odd.

Ok I have not posted since Rawlins, WY. That was Monday morning?

Wyoming - it smells! Just before Rawlins was a town called Sinclair. Have you heard of it? Sinclair Gas! There was an extremely large refinery in that town. It was about two miles down the road, but you could smell the refinery very well. Wow! It is an oil smell and strong. I presume that Wyoming produces a ton of oil from all the dead dinosaurs in the ground (think of the archaeological sites there and the dinosaur on the Sinclair sign). As I traveled up US30 in Wyoming towards Pocatello I saw thousands upon thousands of oil storage units, but never saw any pumping equipment. They must do it in a different way at each of these containers. Every mile had several hundred on both sides of the road. There were tanker trucks at some of them. I don't think it was natural gas. Again the missing oil pumps perplexed me a bit.

Made it to the trail head north of Mackay, ID but was extremely disappointed due to the amount of snow on the top that I could see through the cloud cover. It was raining and lightning on the top and I am sure snowing. I made it to camp and nobody was there. I mean nobody. Well crap! Finally after an hour a few more people showed up. I spoke to one guy and his daughter who were from Seattle and going to do Borah, Kings Peak in Utah, and Boundary Peak in Nevada (I have done Kings and Boundary). I got set up and my gear ready for the morning wake up at 4 AM. It rained on me a bit and even snowed/iced a bit in the middle of the night since I heard it bouncing off of my truck tent. I also heard some new arrivals in the camping area that were jamming out to some Johnny Cash. I was 11:30 PM and I was going to be up in 4.5 hours! Woke up several times to pee and probably should have used an empty water bottle for that so I did not have to go out in the 30 degree temps. Around 2:15 AM I was freezing. I woke up shaking cold. I zipped up the mummy bag and add some more covers to me. I was cold.

I woke up again at 3:45 AM and decided just to get up and hit the trail. It took me an hour to get ready (camera issues). I climbed and climbed. It is about 5500 feet gain from the trail head to the top of the mountain. That is a lot of elevation gain. I stopped in a few places and just felt like crap. I think I was preoccupied with the snow on top. I told myself to make it to the tree line at 10,000 feet and view things from there. Well, you cannot see the top from there so I climbed to around 11,000 feet and behold the summit, Chicken Out Ridge and the snow bridge had lots of snow on them. I didn't like the looks of this. I sat for a while and debated. I worried about the hand holds going down to the snow bridge and I worried about any sort of snow or water on Chicken Out Ridge (a mishap would mean a fall of either 2,000 feet or 3,000 feet and if you were lucky you could self-arrest from the fall). I decided I didn't have it in me to go on further. Nobody else was up there with me and I worried that I was beyond my skill level when it came to the snow. As I started down I ran into three guys from Idaho and they too worried about the snow, but were going to go up further to about 11,800 feet to see how bad things were. I told them to be safe and that I was out. I was extremely disappointed in myself for not pushing further up, but I just knew in my heart I was to wanting to risk things. I trudged back down (very hard on the knees since there are very few switchbacks to ease the elevation gain or loss). I made it to camp and decided to break it down and leave. I climbed for a total of 6 hours and didn't make it. Most climbs take 12-14 depending on conditions. I would have been 16 hours. Again, disappointing, but such is life. I felt my safety was at risk by continuing onward.

As I climbed down I did a lot of thinking. I have traveled several thousand miles already and I am beat. I decided to head to Missoula to spend the night and then take my time to get to Glacier NP. I will most likely stay in that area - either hotel, cabin, or tent - probably item one or two. I know I am going to cut Triple Divide Peak due to it being around 20 miles round trip and snow being a possible issue. YES SNOW - it is 100 degrees back home and there is snow in the upper elevations. I will do Mt. Reynolds, and some trails in Many Glacier. I do think I will cut some things on the way back. Not sure yet. Just going to take my time. This was an overly ambitious trip. The things not being cut for sure are Devils Tower, the highpoints of North and South Dakota, Mt. Rushmore.

Now for my trip into Montana. I have one word for Montana - Casinos. Yes there are tons of them and they are all the same on every corner and in the truck stops and restaurants. I guess video gambling is legal in Montana. It was like there was a casino on every corner. Kind of like Dunkin Donuts in Chicago. It was very weird. I figured this place was pretty conservative, but yet they have casinos everywhere. My trip from Borah Peak trail head to Missoula was very beautiful. It followed the Salmon River. It was very cool. I will upload pictures of all these things later. I am going to bed since I was up at 3:45 AM and it is now 8:45 PM here. 17 hours - ouch. Need to slow down.

One last observation. Speed limits: They are crazy out here in the west, but I presume they are so high since you have to travel 400 miles to get to a decent sized city. When I crossed at the Idaho/Montana border it went from 65 mph to 70 mph, but there S curves that had suggested speeds of 25 to 35 mph for the next 20+ miles. What? Who can go 70 mph down a curvy mountain road? Not this guy.

It has been a long tough day. It has been physically draining and emotionally draining. Yes emotions I say. When you try to set a goal and don't make it, it becomes emotional at times. Everybody hates to fail, but it does happen and it keeps you grounded when you do. Just couldn't overcome the physical obstacle of the snow in the areas of concern. Didn't think August would be a month for snow on the top of the summit.

Pictures will be posted tomorrow - I hope. Now for some much needed rest.

Chilly

Just a little update before I get on the road for another 500+ mile jaunt. The weather is chilly here. It is 50 degrees and I just thought I would speak to that since it will be in the 100s again back home. Hopefully the rain showers will clear out in Idaho for my climb. Fingers crossed.

Windmills and bad drivers

Woke up in a cool Lincoln and reloaded my gear in the truck. I hit the road around 8AM and headed west. Off in the distance while I was on I-80 I saw the University of Nebraska campus. Looks rather large. Made it all the way to Kearny before I had to make a stop. I-80 is full of bad drivers and trucks that must only be able to go 65mph while the speed limit was 75mph. That caused a lot of issues. I usually did five or six over and was very wary of other drivers. One almost got me. I had to jam on the breaks since they did not see me, plus they did not even use their turn signal for warning. Didn't hit the horn until I got the truck back in shape on the road. See the near miss below at 80mph.

Yes I am almost into the grass (thankfully I didn't hit the grass - might have been a different outcome). The guy covered his face as I passed and didn't even want to acknowledge he messed up. About an hour later I almost have the same thing happen to me with a truck pulling a camper. She at least apologized.

If you have gathered I am taking a picture every five seconds with a Sony cam that is like the GoPro. I will make it into a fast motion video later on. I am also taking video of my climbs.

About thirty minutes after Kearny I start to see tons of windmills to the south. These probably extended continuously to where I am at tonight in Rawlins, Wyoming. There were some breaks here and there but there were thousands of them.

I made it to exit 8 in Nebraska to head to the Nebraska high point Panorama Point - 5426ft. The plains climbed as I kept on I-80 and the I-76 split went to Denver. It was all uphill. No wonder the high point is near the Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska border. I was hoping to see buffalo, but they were not around. My truck was a mess seeing the high point and the tri-state point as well. Lots of mud on the truck.

I got a car wash in Laramie, WY and then had dinner. Tons of restaurants were not open on Sunday. Wow!

Below are some pictures of the Nebraska high point and the tri-state marker.

These were the windmills that went for hundreds of miles east to west. They were all rotating as well.

Tomorrow brings the trail head to Borah Peak. I will spend two nights there and hope to summit on Tuesday. The radar showed it was snowing in the upper elevations. Fun. Might be a day or two before I can post due to connectivity.

Fireworks and bluffs!

Long first day of travels and for the most part pretty uneventful except for the few bad drivers I ran into along the trek. Spending the night in Lincoln, NE. I thought I would have traveled through five states, but I guess even making it to downtown Kansas City I did not even cross the state line into Kansas so I only went through Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, and Nebraska.

The Arch greeted me in St. Louis - bad picture at 70 mph.

There is a speed trap at exit 234 in St. Louis on I-70 near the airport. They had it working like clockwork. I avoided the ticket because someone passed me a few minutes earlier. Whew! I saw tons of cops until about Columbia, MO.

Western Missouri is a whole other world. Every exit had one to three fireworks stores and most were open and selling (what?). I also noticed a lot of empty billboards as well as in only 1 in 10 had something on it.

The drive up I-29 was very beautiful. It follows this hill line. I assume they are called bluffs since the road was headed to Council Bluffs, IA. I tried to search how they were formed and found this at Wikipedia -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loess_Hills  It was a very interesting view all the way up.

I crossed over the Missouri River several times on my trip (3 so far?). I know when I hit Triple Divide peak that is the where the water feeds. The headwaters are not too far from there. It is interesting to think of the snow melt on those mountains flowing all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.

Have you ever thought about leaving your life and starting over somewhere where nobody would imagine? That place could be Lincoln, NE. I got to drive through a lot of the town and it is a neat little town, but has a big city feel in ways. I presume the University of Nebraska has a lot to do with it. You could find a new life here very easily.

Long day tomorrow. Nebraska high point and the tri-state corners (Wyoming, Nebraska, and Colorado). Hope to then make mid way through Wyoming.

12 hours...

The gear is mostly packed in the truck. Waiting on a few more laundry items. I will have to pack some perishables in the morning before I leave since the garage is like 100 degrees.

I guess I am leaving at the right time. The tropical summer has finally hit southern Indiana yet I am driving into a winter weather advisory in northern Montana. The last I heard was that they were expecting about three inches of snow above 6500 feet. That means some of my 10,000-12,000 foot climbs will have more than that. The precipitation looks to be clearing out when I get there which will be good.

I should be in Lincoln, NE by this time tomorrow evening.

A picture of the gear in the back of the truck (more to come):

My cat, Henry, seems pissed at me. If I could take him I would, but he would most likely be someone's dinner.

Countdown begins...

Less than 36 hours and I will be on the road to Idaho. I have done a lot of packing, from my food, to my clothes, to the gear and then some. I feel as I am headed to Alaska to climb Denali (Mt. McKinley for you old school people). I just want to be prepared for anything thrown my way.

Damn the Boy Scouts did a number on me. My grandfather, who was at one time the oldest active Boy Scout in America, would be proud of my preparedness.

I am only going to be in the back country for a couple of overnights, but I will be living as primitive as can be out of my truck. Someone asked me if I was going to watch videos at night or listen to music. I am sure my look on my face was one of bewilderment. My response was you don't do that when you are out in the woods with grizzly bears. You want to hear them sniffing around your campsite so you can make some noise to scare them off (hopefully). I am a very light sleeper out in the back country. In fact I will probably get more sleep during the daylight hours than in the dark. That will make some tough days of climbing.

Below is a picture of my gear all packed and ready for the bed of the truck. I will post a picture of the load out before I leave on Saturday morning.

Those crates contain most of the camping gear. Everything from tents, to ropes, to cooking items, backpacks. And yes, in the corner is the shotgun - loaded for bear. This does not include my clothing and food stuffs.

The only bad thing will be the miles traveled to get to these places, but that is part of the adventure. I am sure I will be sore after driving ten hours a day. The climb up Borah Peak in Idaho will surely do a number on my legs, plus the fact that I have not run in a week due to work and gathering my gear.

Afterthought - went to get an oil change on Saturday and the technician stated I had a leak somewhere in my Transfer Case. I have no clue where that was, but upon reading some things on the Internet, it is an important function on my truck to get the 4x4 in gear. The dealership hopefully fixed the issue on Wednesday, but yes another added cost to the trip. Good times!

Lastly, I will leave you with an image I really do not want to see while in Glacier NP. A momma grizzly and her cub. Maybe from the safety of my truck, but not out in the back country.