Adventures
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Here's Kayla's journal for our fifth day of traveling in France:
Today we left Cassis at 8 a.m. and were lucky to catch a bus (€5,40 for both of us) to Marseille. We got off at Rond Point du Prado and took the metro to Gare St. Charles. We bought our train tickets to Manosque for €29 which left at 1:35, so by the time we finished our late breakfast we had three hours or so to explore Marseille. This time we actually saw some of the city instead of just the metro! We mailed a postcard, stopped at a bookstore to find our GR4 book (to no avail), then found an internet place for €2 per hour where we spent 30 minutes. We then walked down a dirty, noisy construction zone to the port and back. This city had so much garbage in the streets. I’ve seen women begging for money as well as older men. There were also a lot of North Africans in town. So many people out it’s crazy. A lot of people smoke—young beautiful women addicted to cigarettes—yuck! Even some smoke with their little kids around....
Continue Reading August 16th, 2006
It's been a few years since I've participated in a real road cycling event. My one and only claim to prowess at cycling is BAK (Bike Across Kansas) where for a week in 2002 I rode across Kansas state--the long way, from Colorado to Missouri. My faithful friend throughout the event was a purple Bianchi road bike that I bought in Utah for $200. The bike is still with me and I'm getting it tuned up and ready for another nice ride, though this time just for one day....
Continue Reading August 3rd, 2006
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Last Saturday I paddled from the Yaak River campground near Troy, Montana down to the Twin Rivers Canyon Resort where the Kootenai joins the Moyie. I used Paddle Routes of the Inland Northwest as my guide. Everything was accurate except the book said six hours to complete the trip and it only took me three. I was paddling steadily the entire time so that probably accounts for the difference--if you allowed the current to control your speed I wouldn't be surprised if it did take six hours....
Continue Reading August 3rd, 2006
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I'd paddled this stretch of the Kootenai River last October when flows were down around 6,000 cubic feet per second, so running it again in July gave me a new perspective. Besides being so much higher, the water seemed to run slower in spots, and there were no rapids to speak of. I also found the trip to be more relaxing because there were no submerged trees to avoid. However, whirlpools were a bigger challenge—any time two currents converged large whirlpools would form, which whip the kayak from side to side and could cause you to loose your balance. I found the best way to deal with these was to focus on the bow of the kayak—it's much easier to keep from throwing your weight out of balance....
Continue Reading July 24th, 2006
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On Thursday night I headed up for two days to Trout and Big Fisher Lakes, in the Selkirks west of Bonners Ferry. These are two fairly popular lakes with good fishing and excellent hiking. Because of my rudimentary (non-existent) fishing skills I was unable to nab even one of the trout that were constantly jumping the entire time I was there. However, I did get some excellent hiking in. Trout Lake is about 3.7 miles from the trailhead, up a moderately challenging slope which was made even more so by my overloaded pack. Why do I always bring twice as much food and water as I'll really need? Anyway....
Continue Reading July 24th, 2006
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In our second day hiking the Calanques, we ranged further along the coast to fully explore Calanque d'En Vau, the steepest part of the trail. After ascending the plateau that faces the inlet, we descended on all fours to the ravine that connects d'En Vau's beach to the hilly inland country. One thing I will say about most of the trails we encountered in southern France: the trail composition is virtually all stone. It was a rare day when we were able to rest our feet on packed dirt trails....
Continue Reading July 19th, 2006
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Even on the most thoroughly-planned vacations it seems that one way or another you spend a lot of time on logistics: getting from Point A to Point B. Our third day in France was like that, at least for the first half. We got up early in anticipation of leaving Marseilles and heading out to hike near Cassis, which according to the guidebook is only twenty minutes by train from the Marseilles station. Twenty minutes…. translated into five hours of frustrating transport mayhem....
Continue Reading July 17th, 2006
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Clifty Mountain is the most prominent peak above Bonners Ferry, Idaho and the most accessible high-mountain view in the Kootenai Valley. The hike can easily be done with children in tow—we took our five year-old (who walked the entire way) and our two year-old (who spent most of the time in the backpack). Views are outstanding in all directions: up into Canada and Kootenai Lake, south to Sandpoint (where the western edge of Lake Pend Oreille is easily seen, thirty miles away), west into the Selkirks and east to the Cabinets....
Continue Reading July 14th, 2006
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Our second half-day in Paris was meant to cram all the tourism of this huge city into one four-hour capsule. Thanks to our low expectations it actually went fairly well. The metro ride to the Eiffel Tower was painless and we were able to gawk up at that monstrous edifice along with several other thousand people... although fortunately we were not standing in line for an elevator as they all were (the lines were very long).
Our second stop for the day was Notre Dame Cathedral. We toured the inside, which when you think of how it was built and by whom, really is enormous. Unfortunately my rudimentary camera skills quickly broke down in the darkness, so I don't have a real record of the inside. My favorite parts were the artwork displayed in each little "nook" that ran out from the main gallery. After making the rotation we came back outside and stood in line with other tourists for a chance to tour the bell towers. Alas, the line was just a bit too slow and we were forced to abandon our attempt right as our turn came. Instead of imitating Quasimodo we instead shouldered our packs and lugged off to Gare de Lyon to catch our train....
Continue Reading July 13th, 2006
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My wife and I recently completed a two-week backpacking trip through southern France, following the GR4 trail from Manosque to Castellane. It was a great test of our hiking abilities, my half-remembered high school French, and Kayla's capacity to leave the kids for so long!
We arrived at eleven in the morning on an overcast and humid Paris day, not too much worse for the wear after an excellent trans-Atlantic flight where we each had a video console to ourselves and a great selection of time-consuming films (thank you KLM and Northwest). Paris was, well, Paris, and incidentally the cleanest metropolis I've ever visited, thanks to the ubiquitous public toilet "capsules" and an apparently efficient garbage system. Sure beats NYC....
Continue Reading July 1st, 2006
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