The Storm That Chased Us From Wyoming to South Dakota

Eastbound from the Wind River Range and Lander!

We stopped at Devil's Tower in eastern Wyoming.  Totally climbable!  And also 95 degrees with a high forecast for thunderstorms.  We looked but didn't touch.

nothing else around besides this huge tower

We also didn't touch the ground hogs, even though I wanted to squeeeeeeeze them because they are so CUTE!  (I'd feel differently if they were in my garden...)

squee!

A storm formed above Devil's Tower and chased us east for 200 miles.

really glad i'm not one of the climbers we saw on top of the tower

We drove past Mt. Rushmore, but it's really a huge tourist trap so this was as close as we got.

kind of lame

As we neared the Badlands, we could see the storm in our rear-view mirror.

ruh roh

We ate dinner in the car and set up our tent during a break in the rain.  Otherwise, we chilled out in the car, chatting at watching the lightening, before retiring to the tent.

it looks so pretty

like a painting

surely this storm will blow through quickly...  right?

At 2:00 a.m, all hell broke loose.

The sky lit up with a stream of paparazzi flashbulbs, bright enough to see the tents across the field.  I awoke to a constant screaming wind, interrupted with the drumroll of angry thunder.  The wind had changed direction - actually, it was coming from all directions - and it blew the side of the tent onto us, again and again.  The stakes holding the vestibule ripped out, and once those blew, the corners started going.  We tried to restake from inside the tent, because the only thing holding that tent to the earth was our body weight.

There was a violent, prolonged, intense wind to my side of the tent... and then silence, stillness, and near total darkness.  For 4 or 5 long seconds, we could hear the wind shrieking across the hills around us.  In our field, though, we could hear the crickets chirping.  Yes...  creepy.

And then, without warning or warm-up, a giant's hand squashed our tent like a mosquito.  The most violent and aggressive of sustained gusts hit the tent squarely on Dave's side.  He threw himself to the corner to hold it down, and I grabbed his back.  "This is getting scary."

No more screwing around: we needed to reinforce this tent, or we needed to get the hell out of South Dakota.  I made a mad dash to the car for extra stakes, rope, and a hammer.  I drove in stakes like my life depended on it (my sleeping bag sure did) while Dave sprawled like a starfish in the tent to keep it in place.  Bowlines slipped from my fingers onto the guylines like a pianist performing a sonata - thank goodness for practice.  Once the tent seemed like it wouldn't blow all the way to Minnesota, Dave joined me in his boxers.  We doubled the number of stakes and guylines holding the tent to the clay earth and hopped back inside, hoping for the best.

It was 3:30 a.m.

The worst was over.  It did continue to storm throughout the early morning hours, but without the violence of that storm cell.  We woke in the morning to distant thunder - still! - and a field largely vacated of tents.  Seems like the Double Rainbow was one of the proud few to survive the night.

tarptent double rainbow FOR THE WIN!

western south dakota: buffalo and thunderstorms

After the excitement of the night, the Badlands weren't terribly interesting.  The landscape reminded me a lot of the hoodoos in Bryce Canyon in Utah, just less impressive.

meh. insane electrical storms are way more exciting.

From South Dakota...  homeward bound!

Yellowstone

Reasons for being tourists instead of backpackers in Yellowstone:

Tons of wildlife all over the place, easily viewed from the road.

yellowstone black bear, doing his thing

Participating in “bear jams” is kind of exciting (when one car spots a bear and pulls over, and then every other car thereafter pulls over to figure out what the first car is looking at, rinse and repeat).

WHAT ARE THEY LOOKING AT

Weather was mediocre. (“There is no bad weather, only bad clothing” - Norwegian proverb – yeah yeah, whatever, I said mediocre not bad.)

grand prismatic spring from under my umbrella

Cross-country travel is complicated by geothermal activity, and it would suck to break through a soil crust into boiling water.

that's a geyser

Buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo.
(The English language's longest grammatically correct sentence made of a single word. Translates as “Ticked off bison from Upstate NY anger other irate bison from Upstate NY.”)

Slowing Down on the Olympic Peninsula

The first few weeks of this trip were really hectic.  We'd hike or climb during the day, then drive, finding a place to crash when the sun was low in the sky.  Dave set camp while I cooked; we'd eat, clean up, and crash.  In the morning, the tent came down as the sun came up, and we were on to the next adventure.  With the big Yosemite adventure smack dab in the middle of the calendar, we had so many places to visit, and so little time left.  So we'd go faster and harder.

It rained in Washington.  Not very hard - but constantly.  Big mountains hid in the clouds, and I never did see Rainier, except the visitor's center diorama.  

I spent a few days damp to my core, wrapped in layers of fleece, trying to stay warm.  The car smelled like wet hiking socks, slug mucus, and last night's rice and beans.  All of our gear was sitting in puddles of water in contractor bags.

tent floating in 3-4 inches of water

It was mildly miserable, just uncomfortable enough to make us realize that our deeper discomfort from constant running-running-running-faster was totally self-inflicted.

tent covered in 3-4 inch banana slugs

The Olympic peninsula wasn't on our original itinerary.  But people kept mentioning it, again and again, with intensity.  It was special, they said.

A special rainforest is a good place to wait out the rain.

Time to slow down on the Olympic peninsula.

There's nothing to see except what's close to the ground.

There's nothing to do except that which we are doing right now.

There is time to look at moss.

There is time to count the blades on a fern.

There is time to stand in the rain.

ruby beach

There is time to be with wildflowers.

There is time to make friends with a slug.

There is time to hike ten miles up to a mountain pass, even when you know you won't see anything in the clouds at the top.

There are plenty of mossy green streams on the way up for your eyes.

We camped in the Olympic National Forest,

...walked along Ruby Beach,

......took 2 hours to meander the ¾ mile “Hall of Mosses” trail at the Hoh Rainforest, and

.........hiked to Marmot Pass on the east side of the peninsula.

And I can say I agree with every person who mentioned this place.  It's special, very special.

Before and After Oregon

Quick update on our travels from Yosemite to Mt. Rainier (and beyond!)

---From Yosemite, we stopped by San Francisco to see Dave’s lovely cousin Jess, who had graciously received our passports that we had forgotten at home. The Mission District where Jess lives was TOTAL SENSORY OVERLOAD after a few weeks disconnected from civilization.

---We escaped the city and headed toward the Redwoods on the northern California coast. It’s hard to appreciate redwoods to the same level of awe as sequoia, because redwoods aren’t as large as sequoia at their base, where we walk around. But the forest surrounding the redwoods is amazing… huge ferns, dripping mosses, and quiet.

redwoods

---After camping north of the Redwoods, on to Oregon! We drove by Crater Lake, but there’s not much hiking in the area. I don’t think you’re even allowed to hike into the crater. The lake was SO blue and SO still and SO beautiful. Best picnic ever!

crater lake

---We stopped at Smith Rock for sport climbing. I totally, absolutely loved the rock and the place. Smith Rock gets its own posts.

asterisk pass @ smith rock

---Sadly left Smith and decided to pass on a few other hikes in Oregon. We are already more than 1/3 of the way through the trip and still have Washington, Montana, Idaho, Canada, and more Wyoming on the radar. Plus, the hikes are snowed in at higher elevations, anyway.

mt. hood

---Stopped by Portland for lunch (cities = small doses) and Hipster Watching. We ate at the little waterfront park, which is full of runners and homeless people and very few Hipsters. Went a few blocks toward the city center and found all of the ironic facial hair and ugly eyeglasses we could ever want.

hipster mum on skateboard

---Continued to Washington and the Gifford Pinchot National Forest and Mt. St. Helens National Monument. Got an insane stack of maps and information from the forest service folks (thanks guys!). We did a short little cave walk through a basalt tube. Not very beautiful (it’s basically a pitch black, 100% humidity, 42 degree subway tube). But different.

into the dark...

---Thereafter, Mt. Rainier, which should really be called Mt. Rain-y. Weather was upper 40s and raining. I didn’t actually see the mountain, and the short walk we took through snow the consistency of a slushy was uninspiring and awkward. So, we hung out in their amazingly beautiful visitor’s center and caught up on pictures and journaling and generally sitting still for once.

not my favorite hike, let's say

And that’s where I’m writing this journal entry. Who knows when and where I’ll get to post it…

~~~~~~~~~~

Amazingly, I'm posting this the day after writing it.  At 3-something hours, this is the longest I've been on the computer since leaving Ithaca.  I have a headache and a stomache and want to go outside.

We're currently in the little town of Forks on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington, in a lovely quiet public library.  Waiting out the rain (all of our gear is SOAKED).  Doing some trip planning (i.e. trying to find hikes that are not under 2-10 feet of snow).

And from here, every step brings us back east...  and back home!

Get the Ark (Overflowing Waterfalls of Tompkins County)

I didn't sleep the night before Labor Day - booming explosions and bright flashes kept me awake.

One point three inches of rain?  Why yes, it's time for Waterfall Tour Extravaganza To Determine Most Awesome Waterfall 2013!

(Keywords:  I'm visiting Ithaca and I want to know the most popular waterfalls to visit.  Heh.)

First up:  Ithaca Falls.  Always a strong contender for Most Awesome Waterfall because it's not in a crowded park - it's just on the side of the road.

ithaca falls - typical flow

ithaca falls - 9/1/2013

I'm going to give this a 8.5/10.0.  We've got a super strong flow and a decent amount of spray.  Water color is white and foamy.  Gets an additional 0.5 points for the decent flooding in Fall Creek.  Still, I'm not getting that sort of "OMG I'm going to get blown off my feet by the power of that sucker."

Next up:  Lucifer Falls at Treman State Park.  YEAH BABY!  9.5/10.

lucifer falls from overlook - normal flow

lucifer falls - 9/1/2013

This got a 9.0 in the initial evaluation, but the Russian judge bumped it up an additional half point for the comparison between these two photos.  We've got increased width in the falls and a rainbow from all of the spray.  Lucifer Falls is bringing its game to capture the title of Most Awesome Waterfall!

Style points for water-based trail erosion closing the Gorge Trail.  This was as close as we could get:

lucifer falls from gorge trail - normal/ low flow

lucifer falls from gorge trail - 9/1/2013

Whew.  Is that spray from the falls or just a thin film of sweat from the adrenaline?

Third stop:  Buttermilk Falls State Park.  Buttermilk is usually pretty tame.  How did it stack up?

buttermilk falls - typical flow.  very chill.

buttermilk falls - 9/1/2013

7.5/10.0.  Considering Buttermilk Falls is usually a garden hose rather than a geyser, this increase is impressive.  But it can't compare to the other falls in the county.  Nice try, Buttermilk!

Last stop:  Taughannock Falls State Park.

taughannock falls state park - typical to slightly low flow

taughannock falls state park - 9/1/2013

Check out got a huge mist cloud filling up the "bowl" of the gorge.  Those falls are ripping!  Obvious increase in volume and thunderous from nearly a quarter mile away.  9.0/10.0.

So there you have it!  Final Rankings:

9.5/10.0:  Lucifer Falls, Treman State Park - Most Awesome Waterfall Award
9.0/10.0:  Taughannock Falls (State Park)
8.5/10.0:  Ithaca Falls
7.5/10.0:  Buttermilk Falls (State Park)