If We Had A Dog We'd Kick It

Home again home again jiggity jog,
Let's go in and kick the dog.

My mom used to sing this to me when I was a kid. We had a dog.


We're back, and Kian looks none too happy! 15+ days of travelin, 1,300+ miles of road trippin, 3 hot springs of dippin, 4 international borders of crossin, 42 diapers of changin, only 5 showers of takin while countless rivers of dippin, O restaurants of eatin, 1 campground of payin, 2 times of email checkin, so many things am I missin. We had a blast but are mostly happy to be home: Annie is back to school, I am back to unemployment, and Kian is back to a regimented schedule of naps and baths... poor little dude. I've never met a baby who took so easily to the life of vagabonding and dirt-baggin.

I am about to post some pics from our most recent travails, and will insert prior adventures and their corresponding pics into their rightful place in the chronological log of our trip. We had the fairest of weather the entire trip save 2-days of drizzle, but this was while we were spending a day of quadriceps recovery at Radium Hotsprings and while I hunkered down sick in the RV, so it was a no-nevermind. The rest of the time we suffered from perfect skies and an overabundance of sunshine.

The last few days has been our final charge home from Skaha Bluffs above Penticton BC, where awesome Gneiss cliffs are strewn with clean lines of bolted and unbolted routes perfect for climbers just getting back. Lots of great people there to share the rock, their guidebooks, and baby watching We subscribe to "it takes a village" and are refreshed to find others willing to help out in the process.

Kian was amazing, as usual! We hiked Kian into Skaha in his hardshell backpack hoping we could park him in a shady spot while we did some short climbs. In the parking lot I noticed a directional sign that said "Daycare": amazing, only here could you find a daycare at a climbing area. That thought lasted a few moments only because I noticed that it was the name of a section of crags in the area. So without a guidebook we headed in that direction and came across a young family of 5 who agreed to show us around, and so we spent the better part of the day hitting routes on this wall while Kian was entertained and nurtured, mostly, by the youngest member of their family: Osa, a 4-mo black lab puppy. That night was the only night that we paid to camp, and we did it so that we could hang out with the Hess'.

Next day we hit a different area of Skaha but we took Kian out in the Chariot and the Ergo. Different experience: he was still a super good boy, couldn't ask for better, but it was tough to belay with Kian on our backs, yelping and pulling our hair while laughing hysterically.

Hit the road that evening but we were busted at the border smuggling firewood, and so we had to turn-around, re-enter Canada, take the firewood to a nearby campground before we could return. I still had a good campfires worth of wood hiding in my new rear bumper trunk and so we are now an International band of wood-smugglers. Always wanted to do that: checked off the lifelist!

Last full day of the trip was in the Methow! Annie climbed on the Funrocks with Kian and some newfound friends while I got lost and broke expensive bike components on Goat Mountain. Hot sunny Autumn days in the Methow are hard to beat.

Camped on the Sauk River last night and this morning was treated oh so rudely on the I-5 while being given the Semi-truck sandwich. Having been chilled to the bone for the past two weeks up North its hard to relate to all this hustle and bustle.

Oh yeah, the story in pictures:

Kian approves of the campground: picnic table
and waterfront campfire pit.

Here we are at "Daycare".

In the backpack during.

In the backpack after.

Annie on repel, day 2.

Kian helping us tangle the rope.

Overlooking Mazama from above Goat Creek Wall.

Revelstoked!

What's up?

Getting nearer the headwaters of the Columbia.

I rode my bike up Mt. Revelstoke: 27-kilometers, over 4000'.

I met Kian and Annie at the top - they took the free shuttle.
I changed back into my Clark Kent and we did some walking.

Dinner on our final night in Revelstoke.

Chasing a bear out of camp.

The parting shot....

The Betweener Times

Snowpatch Spire in the round.

Usually it seems that travel time flies, but the past two weeks crept along, it felt like we were gone for months. This is a good thing and it probably means that we didn't try to do too much, which is unusual. We followed our whims along the way but had to balance the adrenaline-action activities with the hang out with Kian activities: like yin/yang there existed adventure/structure. Kian seemed to love it all, and as usual he rolled with the punches. We realized that other than the 4-hours that he spent sleeping in his crib after Annie's California trip that it had been 3-weeks since he'd spent any quality time at home. We wondered if he'd remember his life at home and his burgeoning collection of toys. The verdict: seems to be happy wherever he's at.

Riding shotgun in the baby seat.

Roger's Pass on Highway 1 in the middle
of Canada's Glacier National Park.

Here's a couple 3-D pictures (in 2-D) from the Bugaboos:

Same pics with different shutter speeds: which do you prefer?

Mardude, come on out and huck!

Could we get on with this gawking at Daddy's
nasty toe and start some huckin, please!

Golden BC: The Lazy Days

Not so much the lazy days as "forced relaxation". Daddy got sick and so everyone had this unfortunate fate forced upon them. Kiki didn't care, meant less time in the Ergo being carted up steep and perilous trails. It DID meant more trailer time behind my and Annie's bikes over relatively tame roads and double-track.

We chillaxed in Golden for the days immediately postceding our Bugaboo adventures while I recovered: my body was producing prodigious amounts of snot, so it was best to be out of doors where I could farmer-blow and not have to waste the 3-4 rolls of toilet paper that it was going to take. On our way towards Revelstoke BC we had a glorious night in an amazing parking lot, we had it all to ourselves, and the next morning we bagged an alpine ridge that overlooked nearly the whole of Glacier National Park. Well, if your geography is telling you that something is not adding up then your correctamundo: not the GNP of Northwestern Montana in the US of A, but the GNP of Southcentral British Columbia in the Can Ad of A. Both are amazing spots but the glaciers north of border are going to outlast those of their southern parks namesake. Marlin says that ALL the glaciers in our Glacier National Park are expected to be gone by something like 2020. Sad thing, that.

Here's some pics from that hike. Sorry no commentary on these now... currently in Vernon, en route to climbing at Skaha. Gotta getta shake on.