Alaska Road Warriors

August 25

We took advantage of the showers at the RV park and watched church online before hitching up and heading out.

Today’s goal is Jasper and Banff.

I’ve been watching the news of Jasper ever since hearing about the devastating fire back in late July. Turns out the road opened to public just a couple days ago, so we are excited to be able to drive that route as originally planned.

We expected the drive to be kind of flat and boring, but it wasn’t. It was stunning.

I had been looking forward to the Jasper/Banff leg since first planning the trip. My family went to Banff many times and I have a lot of good memories. We never went as far as Jasper though. Dave and the kids and I did Banff in 2010 and it has even more good memories. I even looked up that Road Warrior series on our drive home and read some to Dave. Oh my gosh… so funny. I had SO MUCH MORE material back then! The posts are funnier and better, despite the fact I was 300% busier. I’m surprised anyone still talks to me…

Anyway, it was devastating to drive through Jasper after the fire. I don’t have any connection to the town (like I would if it had been Banff), but I can imagine how much harder it would be if you did. It’s crazy to see how the fire hit one building but spared the next. I would like to have seen what it was like (from afar). Not in a sick way, just because it must have been so powerful and scary. I think about those firefighters and the chaos and desperation. What a stressful and sad job that must be.

It was sobering. 

Eventually the burn gave way to green. The drive between Jasper and Banff is absolutely spectacular. We have been as farnorth as the Columbia Ice Fields and I remembered loving it, but MAN. I know I keep saying stuff like “MAJESTIC” but… just wow. 

We were DETERMINED to do a hike before hitting the campground that I had FRANTICALLY tried to make a reservation for on the drive during very sporadic internet. It was insanely and overly complex — like I was opening a line of credit instead of reserving a campsite. I did it because I was worried about trying to snag a site in Banff in August. My experience is that the place is a zoo. And it was…

I can’t quite articulate the experience of driving and driving and driving— for days on end — and not seeing many cars or people for the past couple weeks and then to go through Jasper, all burned out — a ghost town. And, like, NO ONE on the road (because it had just re-opened) and then suddenly coming around a bend to the ice fields and seeing HUNDREDS of cars and people. 

No bueno.

We are in RE-ENTRY mode.

Dave careened off the road at what looked like a trailhead. We knew nothing about it. Only that it had the fewest cars. We planned to walk for about 45 minutes, but it that is not how we do things.

When hiking, like driving, we tend to keep going. So we kept going to the top (after encountering a local couple who promised us that it was, hands down, the best overlook in all of Banff). It was 3 miles up with 2200 ft elevation gain. For these two sodden porkers it was a WORKOUT. But the view was, indeed, worth it.

Then back down and hustling to the campground so we could cook dinner, eat and go to bed.

That’s our life now: eat and sleep.

August 26

Our site at Two Jack campground (which SADLY I forgot to document) was annoying. We were almost sticking out on the road and so close to a huge puddle that I was almost splashed any time someone drove by. We didn’t linger at this sight any longer than we needed to, getting there late and leaving early.

We never unhitched the night before so we jut got up and left, driving into Banff for a hot Latte. It was only 9 am on a Monday but HOLY COW was the place a ZOO! Tour buses EVERYWHERE. Dave and I looked like something the cats dragged in (literally) while everyone out and about were all FANCY PANTS. It was disconcerting to say the least.

We stopped to get gas and I “timed things right” and went in to use the bathroom. I SHIT YOU NOT (sorry. Had to do it), the last station bathroom had a heated toilet seat and a bidet. 

And now I’m shopping for bidets on Amazon. 

Seriously. It was niiiiice. 

We stopped for lunch at some funky spot that Yelp rated 4.8. I have to say: we don’t agree, but it was a nice break to sit outside at a picnic table in the WARM sun (I have never been more pale in August…). 

Today the goal is Flathead Lake area. Dave’s parents had property on Finley Point on Flathead lake. It was amazing and hard to see it go. Finley Point has a road that goes around the perimeter, so the land was bisected twice, creating two lakeshore pieces and a large central piece where cherry trees were planted. Flathead lake cherries are famous delicious but also susceptible to freezing weather and hail. It’s mind boggling that they can survive here. It’s like a little micro climate, which still doesn’t make all that much sense to me because the lake completely freezes. Must be where the mountains are in relation to the lake? Anyone?

It was fun driving down memory lane…

Then on to Lolo National Forest and Rock Creek, which Dave had picked out in the rare time he spent in the passenger seat. He saw it on the map and it was right about where we were shooting for to put us in position for our final push to Coalville/Salt Lake City for the camper work.

Turns out the area is a MECCA for trout fishermen! Our hopes were HIGH!

We turned into Norton Campground and had the place to ourselves which was very nice. As usual, it wouldn’t have been nearly as nice if you had neighbors, based on the way the campground was laid out. 

Two more nights of camping, so we are in cooler clean-out mode. We had the old stand-by of Thai Green Curry with chicken and put a bunch of the veggies in it. We relaxed, checked out the river, made a fire and called it a night — being all nostalgic about the impending end to our adventure. It really has been fun.

Ahhhhh. I keep getting busy and forgetting to write! You have to remember, these posts were always 5-7 days behind real time. So we’ve been back in Colorado for a few days now. And working like dogs unpacking, cleaning the car and camper, trying to get the house back in order after being gone almost the whole summer.

I keep forgetting that I’m a ROAD WARRIOR until the bitter end! The WORST thing I could do at this point is drop the dang ball. I’m still putting up with crap from my brother about the last-ever Road Warrior series that he claims I never finished. He’s probably right, but don’t tell him I said that. I challenge anyone to prove it though, my website being so abysmally bad. It’s easy to find my banana bread recipe though, right Charlie??

OK, where were we…

August 27

Lolo National Forest just south of Kalispell at Norton Campground, all by ourselves! We had a fun breakfast using up all kinds of crazy. We waited for the sun to peak over the mountains to warm us up a bit before heading to the river to fish.

It was beautiful. The weather was lovely…

Actually, it got a bit too hot. I feel like Gollum after having been in the rainy cold for the past month. I was all bundled up and we were wearing our waders when we started. And within an hour I was sweating and considering stripping down to my bra. Who would ever even see? (I didn’t.)

We caught some very small rainbows early on and then not much else. It was a TREACHEROUS river to walk in. Dave has a bad knee and walking in the river is hard on it. I am 100% injury free and even my knees were sore from all the slippery side to side near falls.

There was a new nearby fire that helicopters were flying water to. But generally, it was a disappointing fishing day. Again!

We closed the day out with a drive up farther to check the river out. It looked really nice. We fished some more. We caught nothing.

Then we drove back toward town to get some internet to check emails. It was a luxuriously slow paced day.

I swore I could not eat another BITE of Italian sausage but that’s all that was left in the fridge, so I made Cabbage soup with, yes, Italian fricken sausage. I think it was good, but I’m just plain OVER IT. Frankly, it kind of grossed me out.

Had another nice fire, having ascertained that there were, in fact, no fire restrictions — which seems LUNATIC given the new fires in the area…

We had the campground to ourselves again, or so we thought. At 9:45, well past dark — and let me say HOW WEIRD IS THAT having just come from Alaska where it’s light until midnight — a dumb pick-up drove in and stayed. Oh well. They were pretty quiet and unobtrusive.

August 28

We packed up and headed out for the final push to Coalville — another 7 hour drive. Completely uneventful, which I appreciate as I write this at 10 pm from my bed in Colorado.

As we left Montana, I got a Reddit notification about Banff (Reddit is creepy like that, I don’t even use it and it nows I was in Banff…) showing snow where we had just camped. So, we missed a late summer snow storm by just a day. The pass roads were closed and it sounded like a big mess!

Remember: we needed to accelerate our drive back from Alaska so that we could get the camper suspension looked at, along with a handful of more minor things (Like the flippin’ REFRIGERATOR connection for those that have been following since the beginning.) Escapod doesn’t have a full workforce on Fridays and it’s Labor Day weekend so if we didn’t make it, we’d need to wait until Tuesday.

They wanted us to drop it the night before, but we preferred to sleep in the camper. And rather than camp in their lot and get labeled as WEIRDOS by the good people at Escapod, we opted to spend the night behind the gas station in Coalville that happens to also sport a convenient RV park. Who knew? Not us. We just stopped to get gas and said “why not stay here?”

So we did.

Remember my third or fourth post when I was crying about having to stay in a private campground in Canada that had other campers and *gasp* electric hook-ups?

Just look at me now!

Pretty soon I’ll be in a Minnie Winnie towing a Jeep!

Likely not.

Given that our fridge is empty, we unhitched and headed in to Park City, where it all began almost two months ago. Had a nice dinner and walked around a bit. Truly, I’m also over Park City, having spent way too much time there waiting for the camper this past year. But it’s a nice town. We tried to make it until dark so we could pretend we weren’t staying in a drive-thru RV park.

We made it.

And you’ve almost made it too! One more post to go!! Text me if I forget!

The CONCLUSION!

We woke up in our home-away-from-home (aka the RV Park behind the gas station) and packed up for hopefully the last time, headed to Escapod about 2 miles away.

We dropped the camper and headed to… anyone?

Park flippin’ City. For breakfast. Though, unlike the last time in Park City for breakfast, this time, we picked a pretty tasty spot. We had real lattes, fun food and lingered for as long as seemed acceptable.

I bought Utah fishing licenses (mostly so that Dave wouldn’t force me to hike in this HEAT. It’s, like, 79 degrees…) and we headed to a little creek we’d seen from the highway that seemed easy enough.

It wasn’t.

By now, anyone reading this must think that we truly suck at fly fishing. All I can tell you (as I keep telling myself) is that, for whatever reason, we struggle to catch fish in the dead of summer. I have a fishing journal to prove it. My theory is that all the fly shops just lie when they say, “The ______ (fill in the blank) river is fishing well!” At least with our most recent two rivers (Rock Creek from the day before and Weber Creek today) the fly shops we called were actually honest. “It’s August fly fishing. You can try a hopper, but… your only real chance is a tiny nymph. Like a size 22 or 24.” Ninety five percent of you won’t know just how small that is, but I’m here to tell you: it’s about the size of a match head. It’s what we have to fish with all winter with freezing cold fingers, trying to tie the damn things on. It’s the absolute last thing I want to fish with in summer.

It’s dry or die for me, baby. And it’s also why I tend to catch way less fish.

We just ambled our way upriver, trying everything, except for, in my case, tiny nymphs. I finally called it a day and sat down on some comfy rocks. Dave popped out of the tall grass on the bank shortly after and asked if I was ready to go. I said, “Yeah, but you should hit this water first. It looks really good. I fished it but maybe you’ll catch something with your STUPID TINY NYMPH.

AND HE DID!

So then, of course, I had to tromp back up there, tie on a stupid, tiny nymph, and try it. I had a bite but it didn’t stay on. Dave took a few more casts and hooked a MONSTER. It came up to the surface enough that we saw it, but then it dove, wrapped around a submerged tree and broke off. They don’t get that big being stupid. They just like stupid tiny nymphs. BAH!

We had gotten a call about an hour earlier saying the camper would be done by 3 pm — miraculous! So we headed back to the car to make our way back to Escapod.

We were blown away by all the stuff Escapod did for us in such a short time. We’ve put a lot of miles on that little Storm Trooper and they’ve been really fair about warranty coverage for stuff that they probably didn’t have to be. We were really happy and grateful.

After getting everything set, we stopped for gas and literally the best slushy I’ve ever had. It hit the SPOT. And we were on our way HOME! Six and a half hours would put us there at 10:30 pm and into my sweet, sweet bed.

It seemed like a long drive, being the last one, I think. The BUGS were insanely bad. We had to stop again not long after getting gas just to wash the windshield again so we could see.

The windshield got mucked up again really fast. On a really curvy, dark road while I was reading something aloud to Dave, he threw his arm in front of me and said “Hang on.” I looked up and saw a huge bull elk in the road as Dave locked up the brakes. I watched in what seemed like slow motion as we passed him. His head was easily as tall as the roof of the Bronco. I feel like he looked me in the eye as we went by, while he, miraculously, stopped walking and stood still. We missed him by inches.

It all happened in the blink of an eye. As soon as we came to a stop, we got out to make sure everything was OK. The air reeked of burned rubber but the car and camper seemed fine. Hopefully the new tires, alignment and suspension didn’t get messed up.

We were stunned and grateful. Hitting that elk would have been… I don’t even know. It’s honestly inconceivable. 11,500 miles and we have the most serious incident two hours from home. But we were spared a tragic outcome.

Just so, so grateful.

We fell into bed when we got home.

And worked like dogs for the next two days unpacking and cleaning and all that jazz. It was a great trip and it’s great to be home.

Thanks for coming along with us!!