Polebridge is the kind of place I would worry about telling people if anyone actually read this website. A little “town” just ouside the western edge of Glacier National Park. Polebridge is off the grid, the Mercantile there sells some extremely delicious baked good, (think cheesy jalapeno bread and huckleberry bearclaws). Other than that there’s grass, kids, happy tourists, a sand volleyball court, cabins, a bar, and dogs.

My friend Lorrie suggested going there instead of visiting the eastern part again. After stopping for coffee and baked goods we went to the Bowman Lake Campground and did a nice 12-mile loop to Quartz Lake. After being caught in an evening thunderstorm the mosquitoes were basically unbearable. I’d never seen anything like it. The time of year was perfect for the little buggers, warm enough and wet enough.

When my friend Valerie Hastie was here visiting from North Carolina we did an excellent hike in The Grand Teton National Park. You walk around Jenny Lake, see Hidden Falls, continue up to a lookout called Inspiration Point, and if you are motivated you can continue back into Cascade Canyon.

We started at about 6pm and didn’t get back to the car until 10. Although it was not too bright for the walk back, we never needed headlamps and we hardly saw any people, which was fine by me.

If you are ever at Old Faithful, try and check out the myriad of different geothermal features in its vicinity. I know Old Faithful itself has the brand name recognition, but in my opinion it is one of the least interesting sights to see in the area. I’m just sayin’…

The morning we were at the Tetons I woke up at 5:00 and couldn’t go back to sleep. So I grabbed the camera and went down to the lake. The only sounds were the occasional bird, Jackson Lake was completely still.

Our last day in Glacier we walked from Sun Point to Virginia Falls.

Before there was Glacier there was Missoula, Montana.

We hiked to Bullhead Lake.

We ate peanut butter and jelly.

We hiked to Josephine Lake.

We saw a moose.

“Sunshowers that I’m aiming at you, cause I’m watching you my baby”

Thanks for visiting Val. I am lucky to have a friend like you.

My final pictures of California. The first set is from my epic Razor Scooter Tour of San Jose. The second is from my last day in San Francisco (thanks for letting me use your car Davy), it was finally clear down by the waterfront. Huzzah!

These were all taken during a walk around the Old Faithful area.

My friend Valerie is visiting and we just came back from a brief trip to the Tetons and Yellowstone. I’m getting more pictures than I know what to do with and going to Glacier later this week is not going to help that situation.

We saw some really excellent geothermal features around the Old Faithful area of Yellowstone yesterday. The geysers and multi-colored pools are some of my favorite things in Yellowstone National Park.

Our second day in San Francisco I rented a bike and we did a fairly decent 40 mile bike ride. We biked across the Golden Gate Bridge and into the magical city of Sausalito, where the humongous waterfront houses everywhere made San Francisco look like a shanty town.

After the bridge we went through Sausalito and up a large hill with some good views of the bay towards our destination of the John Muir woods, home to some large Redwood trees. The woods were lovely, it was interesting to see the tallest tree species on earth (although we didn’t actually see the tallest tree).

Exiting the woods we hopped on our bikes and caught scenic Highway 1 for a little bit, we did another decent uphill there and the traffic was fairly constant. I definitely was glad we weren’t taking some long bike trip on that road.

Eventually we went back across the Golden Gate where it was a lot foggier, windier, colder, and wetter than the first time we went over. I dropped the bike back at the rental place and we walked across town back to the car.

The day turned out to be an interesting blend of urban and natural worlds.

A wee bit o’ Sasquatch for ya.

After Yosemite we camped right outside the park in some national forest. In the morning we drove the remaining couple of hours into San Jose and found the place Davy had acquired back in Asheville. The next day we drove to San Francisco, a surprisingly scenic hour drive on Highway 280.

We had been blasting the AC all the way since San Jose was about 90 degrees. Arriving in San Francisco I suggested we try the windows. Rolling them down we were really surprised to feel that San Francisco was about 30-40 degrees colder than San Jose. It has its own weather due to ocean winds and the whole day I was wishing I had brought warmer clothes.

This was the last hike of our trip and we made it count.

Due to driving we didn’t get started until about 1 in the afternoon. Our plan originally was to head up the trail towards the top of Half Dome and then turn around somewhere along the way. It is a 17+ mile round trip to the summit with a decent amount of elevation gain, so we didn’t expect to reach the top starting so late. We passed two amazing waterfalls that would certainly be destinations in themselves, and indeed the crowds we encountered at the bottom disappeared after the 2nd one.

After a while we passed a sign for Half Dome in 4.5 miles. There was still a decent amount of daylight when we passed the “Half Dome: 2 miles” sign. I think it was right about there that we decided to just go for it.

We reached the top via a steep cable-assisted ascent at about 7 or so. It was excellent, there was no one else to be seen and the sun was setting all around us. We hung out, avoided mauling by the local creatures, ate a sammie, and decided it was time to descend. The downhill was fairly pleasant. Although we were in the dark for the last 2 or 3 hours, we had headlamps so it wasn’t a big deal. I did see quite a few scorpions on the trail coming down, which was a little disconcerning for someone in Chacos.

All in all it was a fitting ending to a great trip.