The End

So, it has come to the end of my blog. Perhaps I will start another, if I have lots of new adventures. The flickr photos will likely continue to get updates now and then. But the walkabout is truly over now. And to my great surprise, it is a happy ending. I truly felt when I left Colorado last October that this was all that was left, a wandering, homeless soul, for the rest of my days - no more happy endings for me.

But I guess I was not quite done yet, and maybe there is something else in store for me on this very unpredictable path. Thanks to all for reading and your comments, it was nice to have them to look forward to, and I often felt motivation and purpose in my actions, because I wanted to share them here. For a while, you can find me in Camas, WA, working at LightFleet Corporation. Please do stop by and stay awhile if you find yourself nearby.

Now then, as for that unpredictable path: Out here, there is a lot of forest and often is cloudy, but right now, I'm standing on the rocks on the bank of the stream, and I see a break in the trees down past that cascade. It looks like maybe a sunny clearing where the path becomes grassy and flat, and there could be some ripe blackberries on the side. Yeah, that looks good - let's see what's over there...

The Final Push

Whoooeee - we made it! Landfall into a temporary residence hotel May, 3. The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, just several long days of driving.

There were a few surprises, like stopping to have dinner at an Indian restaurant in downtown Boise, ID, where blocks away, we saw a bar having a "No pants day", complete with three pant-less coeds out front yelling at people to come in. I found it pretty interesting that in ID, liquor seemed to be pretty ubiquitous, in contrast to the scene in neighboring Utah...

The weather was great most of the way, and I got a great look at Multnomah Falls from the highway. It was pretty much straight to work once I got here, but all has fallen into place. I have rented a townhouse within biking distance to work, the scenery is beautiful, and I'm ready to start the next chapter...

Bryce Canyon National Park

After leaving Moab, we headed to Bryce Canyon National Park. I'd been plotting for some time staying in the fancy lodge somewhere to celebrate Heather's birthday. First, the goal was snowshoeing in Glacier NP, then it moved south to Yellowstone, and finally, it wound up as Bryce Canyon. This is another relatively small park, but a welcome change from the desert we'd been in for weeks. Most of the best sights are very easily accessible from the road, which follows the canyon rim for 20 miles. Hiking the entire 23-mile "under-the-rim" trail seems like it would be an awesome 3-4 day backpacking trip. We sort of took it easy here - no terribly strenuous hikes, but we did wind up marching out into the cold mornings for two sunrises (the best lighting time of day here), and took a madcap, speeding drive to survey all the viewpoints at sunset the evening we got there.


The most adventurous event here might have been the hike down into the canyon to the "Queen's Garden". There we stopped for a snack, and found the most aggressive chipmunks and ground squirrels I've ever seen! They would fearlessly approach to within kicking distance, and if you shooed them away, they'd just dart around behind you or under the log you are sitting on. I was really expecting one of them to run up my back, snatch the M&M's from my hand with a high-pitched "thank you", and leap off into the bushes!

It was pretty clear we were both pretty travel weary by the time we got here. Some downtime in the lodge was good for us, but the remaining 1000 miles to Portland still seemed like a long way to go...

Arches National Park

A couple weeks back, I went to Arches National Park. We took a ludicrous number of panoramas - which I am not done stitching together yet (will I ever be?) Anyway, I wanted to put up a link to the photoset on Flickr:


Arches was way neat, and it is a smaller park than I realized. Lots of dazzling scenery, but mostly at sunrise and sunset. I between - it's kind of a barren desert. There is not even a great deal of hiking to be done, on account of the "crypto-biological crust" on the soil. A very slow growing crust of bacteria, lichens, algae, and fungi grow on the sandy soil over the course of hundreds of years. It ends up looking like tiny black nodules, when one can actually see it, after 250 years of growth!

I highly recommend the Fiery Furnace ranger-guided hike. It was probably the best part of the whole trip. Bushwhacking and rock hopping down dry washes and up little slots to Surprise Arch, Skull arch, and other neat features was very fun, and well-worth the $10 fee. Also, the hike up to delicate arch was steep, but not overly long, and the view at the end is quite nice. I found the crowd of photographers poised in one spot, all waiting to take the same photo kind of comical. Finally, beware of Sand Arch. We walked in there on a windy day and wound up getting a serious sand-blasting. The kind where you are walking with eyes closed, or sometimes not walking at all - just covering your face with your jacket. It stung.

All in all, I was glad to get to see the place. Well worth the time to visit, should you ever be nearby. Still no personal sightings of the elusive Bighorn Sheep, though!

Big wheels keep on turning

I'm on the move again! We left Bryce Canyon today and are headed for Portland, as fast as the vehicles, speed limits, and driving stamina will allow. Tonight, the stopping point is Clearfield, UT.

I'm alternately excited and apprehensive about the move. Last night the weight of leaving this happy-go-lucky tramp lifestyle in exchange for the salaried professional was dragging me down - it felt heavy and the path ahead of me suddenly looked difficult. Right now, I am excited again, eager for the new adventures and challenges that await. Perhaps I am getting too old for this, perhaps I have made the stakes in my mind higher this time, and maybe it was just a simple case of nerves and feeling overwhelmed. I just try to remember that all I can do is my best, have fun, and that nothing ever has been quite as big a deal as I make it out to be, when I take a long/big enough view of things. Long day on the road tomorrow, I'm hoping to make it across Idaho and into Oregon...

My best to all my friends and family - I hope I'll have more time to communicate and put up pictures when I reach the end of the road!

Birds are not to be trusted

The owners of Pack Creek Campground have a few birds, and I got to meet two of them - a cockatoo and some green parrot bird. Jolly and smart little birds with their "parents", they would climb on their shoulders, laugh at jokes, dance and do other tricks.

So, at one point, we were left alone with them and I saw the cockatoo reach out of the cage and grab Heather's finger. He was a bit reluctant to let her go, but I was curious and wanted to try also. I approached the cage and help out my finger for the bird, and she reached out and grabbed my finger. How neat! I'd has been a while since I'm been around large, smart birds. Then the bird pulled in, and I let my finger go along for the ride. Just before I was going to pull back and extricate my finger, the bird lunged at it and delivered a serious bite to my finger! I was left with a 1/2 gash on top of my finger, and it broke the skin on the other side too. As I recoiled in pain, the bird across the room, started laughing! "Ha-ha, Ha-ha. Bye-bye!, bye-bye! Hahaha."

I should know better - never give any animal a single finger, cause they'll take it - even alpacas. Always a fist or palm. Ah well, it's not a serious wound, so what can you do but laugh - and don't trust those birds!

The Three R's of travel

Every now and then, one has to make a longer stop to rest, repair, and re-supply - the three R's of travel. We seem to have hit that point here in Moab. Heather's tire had a blow-out about 20 miles outside of town, and it turned into a 5 day stay for us. This was made easier by the fact that we scored free accommodations at a local campground run by a friend of a friend of Heather's. I'm very aware at this point that I will soon have to get to Portland and dig-in for my new job - I start only two weeks from now and I'm still over 1000 miles away. It will be a big push to finish the drive and busy times to get set up there, so some rest before that is a good idea. Also, it's far enough north now that it is freezing at night again, so we not really keen to be camping much further up.

BTW - that reminds me to plug a couple local businesses: Pack Creek Campground - where we stayed, and Ye Ol Geezer Meat Shop. Check them out if you ever find yourself in Moab, or want to mail order really good jerky.

It has been a very interesting stay - we explored in Arches National Park, got a far-ranging tour of ancient rock art and local sights from the campground owners, saw a local hot-rod/old car show, and slept-in quite a few times. There is much more to do in Moab than I realized - it's not just mountain biking!

Anyway, today we move onward to Bryce Canyon for a couple days..