Camping, backpacking, hiking, et al

[thrill]

My national parks ranked:

Olympic
Glacier
Rocky Mountain
King's Canyon/Sequoia
Yellowstone
Grand Canyon
Yosemite
North Cascades*
Rainier*
Arches
Smoky Mountain
Everglades
Saguaro
*both of these plummet when it's too foggy to actually see anything, which is often.

I wouldn't argue that Olympic and Glacier should be at the top of everyone's to do list, but there's something about them that spoke to me. They're both just incredibly singular places. For example, Rocky Mountain is full of grandeur, but it's not that different from King's Canyon. They're just beautiful alpine mountains and valleys. The Sierra Nevada have a different quality of light and color, more ochre and ambers, and RM has more awesome peaks even though Whitney is bigger than all of them. The Sierras are more beautiful but Colorado is just a more fun place to go on vacation. More to do. Point is that they're similar. I like Olympic and Glacier because they feel like their own, singular place.

Glacier is much harder to get to and less crowded. It's much more wild and feels more ancient. Water also plays a much bigger part than in those other mountain parks. Lake MacDonald, the Flathead River, the constant snow melt from the peaks and (disappearing) glaciers. Leads to beautiful wild flowers and more life.

Olympic is just so unique. Arboreal rain forests, lonely and hauntingly beautiful beaches, towering mountains jammed densely together and very few people for hundreds of miles. The beaches of Olympic are my favorite places I've ever been. It's a lonely place and that's my jam.

[Gashouse]

Xanterra is the vendor for Yellowstone. I know the people on the phone there will only give me an official line, but otherwise they've been helpful when I've called.

At the Grand Canyon it's the Park Service that manages the campgrounds and handles reservations not the vendor. Same at Yellowsone? Not that it makes much difference to you.

No, all reservations at Yellowstone are through Xanterra - lodging, camping, dining. The kind of weird thing, given their proximity, is that it's not the same for Grand Teton. I looked into reservations there, and I think that one is through the Park Service.

Looks like Xanterra is the vendor (for at least some things) for 8 parks and monuments.

[Freed Roger]

I like hitting the iconic parks slightly off high season. Crowds and weather typically better. Now it isn't as easy(middle school) to yank the kid out of school. Smoky Mountains in spring are phenomenal with all the water features flowing and place teeming with life.

Still too many voids in my travel-NW and NE- hard to get to from here.

[Gashouse]

Vacations are when I wish my wife weren't a teacher so it would be easier to go in the off season. Still the other perks (not the salary) of her having days and summers off with the kids are worth the hassle of peak season vacations.

Other camping I have planned this summer - We're taking the kids to Itasca State Park in MN to go to the headwaters of the Mississippi. So, in early July, we'll see the headwaters of the Missouri when we're in Yellowstone and Montana. Then in early August, we'll see the headwaters of the Mississippi.





Also camping in lovely Decorah, IA at this campground:


And camping in Cuyuna State Recreation Area for mountain biking in an old iron mine:

[thrill]

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/po ... nal-parks/

[Freed Roger]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/gra ... rnia-lake/

[expletive] Frat Brats

And to keep on being a downer, I'm always a lot bummed out by the amount of trash I come across in the woods. sometimes it's camping gear. [expletive], it's everywhere. Go to a remote wilderness beach or waterfront and [expletive] [expletive] all over the place. Left to it's own devices, sometimes the Wilderness areas are more trashed up than regular camping areas.

[Freed Roger]

heading to the boundary waters for the canoe portage camp trip in a few weeks. Two in our group have been there several times. kind of unusual for me to be not in charge of a trip. On the semi-positive side of this, all-dudes using an outfitter - I won't be the trip pack mule for my girls. Might actually be more relaxing and sedentary than I'm used to in travel, even with paddling and portage. though being pack mule is kind of a good workout, makes the beer taste better.

Looking forward to it, cooler clime and not having much cell connection, or hearing news etc. (had a taste of that recently in Northern MI)

Anyway, I haven't fished in years, I'm thinking I should take a pole up there. tips for going minimal and leaving more room for booze? What sort of bait, lures? how do I catch something?

Any other general suggestions (other than DEET).

[Gashouse]

I love the Boundary Waters. Where are you putting in?

I went up there for fishing opener 5-6 years ago, but we just did one portage and then set up camp for a couple of days. Some years the ice isn't out yet for fishing opener. I haven't been on a multi-lake trek there for a while, but we're starting to look ahead to something like that now that the kids are getting close to old enough. The lack of connectivity is awesome. One week-long trip in college was when the embassies in Africa were bombed. My buddy and I got into Ely for a bite to eat, saw the newspapers, and were all WTF? I think that was the same trip we decided to shoot the rapids in between a couple of lakes and ended up nearly wrapping our canoe around a big rock. Put a big gash in the side of the canoe, but duct tape held up.

I'm very far from being a good fisherman, but most of the time I've been up there, I and others have fished with minnows or leeches on jigs with a bobber.

I can't say we've ever done a great job being minimalistic there. If there's an extra backpack or Duluth pack, then it's just one more walk through a portage. It's not like you're carrying it all day like on a backpacking trip.

Bugs can be pretty bad, so a head net could save some sanity. I've never used one there, but I did need one when I was doing stream surveys for work just outside of Ely a few summers ago.

[Freed Roger]

not sure where we put in specifically - using Cliff Wold outfitter in Ely MN. two guys have notes from prior trips on routes and good campsites.

I will take a fishing pole I guess. I presume we'll be moving around a lot during the day - and fishing around camp in the evening. maybe a dumb question - do you mess with dragging a line off the back of the boat during the day -or is that an impractical/waste of effort

[Gashouse]

I've kept a line in the water while paddling across lakes. Probably won't yield anything, but you never know. For that, I'd probably toss a Rapala on the line and see what happens.