Sunday, September 27, 2009

Canada A?

Why yes we have made it to Canada. The people and the country here are both beautiful. It been a while since my last post, mainly because of the intensity of our schedule and how much we have been doing. I can't believe its only been ten days since the Tetons!

I shall try to go in chronological order for sanities sake. After leaving the Grand Teton National Park we headed west on a couple of back roads inorder to connect with Hwy 93 in Idaho. Aunt Joyce and Uncle Dave if you ever do read this that is the MOST BEAUTIFUL road I have ever driven on. Nothing can compare. We joined 93 just after Idaho Falls, ID. Quick Fact...38% of Idaho is Undeveloped wilderness or National Park/BLM lands. We drove right through the middle of it all! we Followed the Snake River for a while as it meandered us up twords Montana. We passes the 45th parrell some where in Idaho. Kind of a neat stop and take a picture thing. Once in Montana we winessed a massive wildfire that blackened the entire sky. we could see flames from the road and people were pulled off the side of the road to watch. It was naturally caused and no houses were in danger, so they just that that baby burn!

Missoula, MT. Rachaels fantasy. atlease once a week their is a conversation about this town. Many people compare it to Asheville. Not so sure I agree. It was however, a wonderful town. Population of about 80,000. placed nicely in the mountains its economy is based around the University that is locaed there as well as tourism to local ski resorts. It is a college town thats why im not so sure that its really like Asheville, because Asheville is not a college town. We meet a few of Rachaels friends and hung out with them and toured around the town. Racheal was so happy she could hardly contain herself. It was neat to see such excitement. Weither she knows it right now or not in her life...she WILL move back there. its inevidable. We stayed in Missoula for two nights and three days and then headed north, still on Hwy 93 to Glacier National Park.

Glacier Nat'l Park, MT. This is one of the most beautiful places we have visited so far. Very remote, quite, and appropriately named the "Crown of the Continent". We spent three days in Glacier backpacking up and down Kintla Lake and Upper Kintla Lake. about 25 miles or so. The lakes were oviously Glacier fed and the most beautiful shades of aqua and teal that you could imagine. The only thing I can compare it to is the Tropical waters down near the equator. The color of the water is a result of the glacier silts that settle in the bottoms of the lakes and make the water appear light blue. (See mom and dad...I have been learning things! but sorry, I still dont know how to spell!). I must mention that before our backcountry expedition we ran into some very frendly locals at a town called PoleBridge,MT....PLEASE LOOK THIS TOWN UP on GOOGLE EARTH!! it has no electricity or plumbing. By far the BEST town I have visited so far. We ended up sitting outside of the one and only mercantile store sipping on a cold beer from a local brewery and started chatting with some local boys doing the same thing. We hung out a while in the "town" and then they invited us to join them at thier camp site. These were some of the most friendly people I have meet. They told us all about the area and what its like to be born and raised in the area. I really neat perspective on life I must say. I truely enjoyed it. It was refreshing meeting some more country folks...they just happened to live up north.

Banff,Alberta Canada!

That just about brings it all up to speed. We continue to meet all sorts of people as we travel. We followed Hwy 93 to the border and all the way to Banff National Park. So the road goes from Las Vegas to Jasper National Park in Canada and follows the rockies the entire way. A pretty amazing road. It is really expesive to do anything in Canada. gas is about 1.15 a litre, which is about $4 US a gallon.. 3.7 litres to the gallon I believe. Beer is about $6.50 US per 500ml or 1/2 litre. to get into the park its $20US per day...sorry Canada but we didn't pay that. then its $20 a day extra in the National Parks to camp!! so a 3 day backpacking trip would cost us about $120US. NO Thanks! Beautiful country but we cant afford that on our budget. We still have 30 or so other US National Parks to visit! and Vancouver!! that leads me today. We are in Banff, the town, and heading out tomorrow for Vancouver. We will spend a day or two there and try not to break out daily budget the head down to Washington. Maybe Ill see Aunt Lisa and an old friend from college that currently lives in Seattle. Oh Canada..Oh Canada........why do you have to charge so much!


(Update on the pictures... Rachaels computer is prettly much toast and doesn't really work...no internet... and Flicker will only allow me 50mb of space per month..we have over 4GB of pictures so far...I really don't know what to do..if you are reading this and have some advice I would love to hear it! if not we will just put them on CD's and share them with all that are interested.)

Love and Blessings to All,
Nathanael

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