Since our time in Boise a week ago, we've been working our way through the northern wilderness with some time to relax in Calgary and now in Vancouver.
We went from Boise to Stanley, Idaho last Friday pulling over for some free camping not too far south of the Sawtooth Mountain town. In Stanley, we drove around to catch views of the Sawtooth Range and did a quick 'scenic' tour of Stanley. The town has a few hundred residents and its two main thoroughfares (Main Street and Wall Street) are wide dirt roads lined by quaint local businesses with Western storefronts. We did a hike up to Sawtooth Lake. We passed another lake along the way and took in her glacial, turquoise colors and the steep snow-spotted mountains that ringed her shores. When we found ourselves at last on the banks of Sawtooth Lake, we were surprised at how small it was. (more of a pond, I thought.) On our way down we wondered if we'd missed something; our suspicions were confirmed when we checked a map. The real Sawtooth Lake was another few hundred feet down the trail. Next time!
From Stanley, we headed north, taking a mesmerizing path through Idaho and Montana. We followed the Salmon River and stopped for lunch at a local park in Salmon, Idaho. We headed toward Glacier National Park in north-west Montana, but as night feel we decided to seek out a camp site.
We searched the dirt roads along the banks of Flathead Lake - a huge lake a few hours south of the park. We finally found a clearing and I heated up dinner while Ori prepared our tent. At one point I thought I heard Ori behind me, or to my side, but the roar of the stove made me question my own senses. I scanned the area, spotting something dog-like (but bigger) off to my right. Only when Ori Yelled, "Get in the Car" did I really register what was going on. We had seen our first bear! Ori said the small black bear had stared right at him, before sneaking off across the street and into someone's lawn. The bear set off the neighbor's motion detector lights, but generally let us be for the duration of the night.
A few days later, while driving near Glacier Park in Canada, we saw another Black Bear run swiftly across the highway.


Glacier National was absolutely stunning. Its beauty was simply incomparable to EVERY where else we had been. There is simply no comparison to the veritable and formidable nature in this park. Despite traffic and a good amount of visitors, we felt that Glacier was unable to be a mere Disney-ization of nature. We went on an amazing hike through an ancient forest, left unburned for several hundred years. Than we drove slowly over the continental divide, crossing the steep pass slowly amid snow flurries and hail.

From there we headed up for some couchsurfing in Calgary. We stayed with a couple who was nice enough to lend us their bikes, so we spent Monday exploring the city on bike, loving the cool fall weather the un-harsh sunlight and the brisk breezes of our northern-most point.

After a day and a half in Calgary, we hit the road again. This pasrt of the trip has felt a bit rushed because we are meeting up with friends and family in San Francisco for the New Year. Now in Vancouver, we have 5 nights until we have to be in San Francisco. It's a bit daunting, but I can say that I am enjoying the scenic drives more than I thought I would, and we are in fact trying to take the time to learn Arabic as we drive!

A trip highlight occured last Thursday as we made our way south and west to Vancouver. Seeking out a pretty, riverside lunch spot, we found our way to a small beach under a highway bridge, several miles off of Route One. We had to navigate around a few farms to get to this point, but we were rewarded by the serendipitous meeting of a local fisherman. He was enjoying the last of the summer's warm days to catch some of the salmon busily heading up stream with their bellies full of eggs. After our lunch, he offered to give us the next fish he caughtl!

This generous offer turned into an exciting afternoon. As I relaxed in the sand, photographing the mountains and gazing at the eagle overhead, Ori did some fishing. After a few hours, an unlucky salmon got caught offstream and beached himself on the sand nearby. Ori sprinted down the shore and caught the slippery swimmer in his bare hands! Meanwhile, our fishermen friend simultaneously got a nibble from a good-sized salmon, so together, the two guys could bask in their catches.


I was struck by the environmental tenderness and sense of responsibility that the fisherman expressed. He stuck strictly to the rules - 4 fish maximum, no barbed hooks, throw back the sturgeon and the smaller fish. As he carefully taught Ori how to kill and gut the fish, he explained the benefits of cleaning the fish on the beach. The head would go to feed the eagles and seagulls, the large store of eggs inside each fish were tossed back into the water to provide strength and protein to other fish.

Despite the fact that we were headed to the house of a strict vegetarian, we cooked up the fresh salmon in the neighbors' grill. Seasoned lightly with garden picked herbs and olive oil, it was simply fantastic. Here is a picture of Ori throwing the eggs back!

Out West
As I write this, I am sitting at the picnic table of our Grand Teton campsite, stars beginning to pop out above me, trees veiling the clearing that holds our tent, this picnic table and our car/home. Beside me our pasta is heating up to the roar of our backpacking stove’s burning and while we wait for it to cook, we’ll do some stretches to release the tension of today’s hike.
Our site is a bit off shore from Jenny Lake with Grand Teton herself looming over the trees. Today, despite a small bit of hail and rain, we enjoyed a 13 mile hike around the lake and through a canyon. There were quite a few people sharing the trail, but as usual, we run the late night shift, and they were coming as we were going. We saw several moose and shared the awe and beauty with our fellow hikers. The moose, even a mother and calf, chewed their grass nonchalantly as we tiptoed ever closer, cameras flashing and clicking wildly. We stood around them in disbelief for long periods of time, within 10 feet of the beautiful creatures – one photographer said “They’re too close for my zoom! Get me a wide angle lens!” We could see the enormous size and soft fuzz of their antlers and the necks that sustain their weight; we viewed up close the famous dangling chin-like protrusion.
The hike was a beautiful one, and despite spending the last several days in national parks, Ori and I felt for the first time that we were finally in nature. Yellowstone felt more like nature in a museum – a packaged sort of natural wonder made accessible to the old, the minivan family, the invalid. I think this is a wonderful thing. Truly. The brilliance of the national park system is that some of the most magnificent natural wonders – from geysers and waterfalls to 50 million year old trees have been preserved and made accessible to such a wide array of audiences. All in one –the parks preserve natural spaces and habitats, provide a sort of Eden for wildlife and allow the public an easy (physically and mentally) way to be in nature. You can sleep in a nice hotel, eat three meals in a restaurant (plus a stop for ice cream) and then drive by deer on your way to see a bubbling mud hole at 5000 feet. The parks go further though. For the “hard core” – there is back country camping, climbing and more. What we learned during our few days at Yellowstone is that stopping at all the “sites” of a national park is far less thrilling for us than one long hike. And that crowds and nature is not our favorite cocktail. Nonetheless, we loved it enough to want to see it one day in the winter –and to take hundreds of photos…
Tomorrow we are headed to Boise, Idaho via Craters of the Moon National Monument.