Gardiner Headwall

Le jour où nous avons skié Gardiner Headwall la pile de ma caméra était à plat. Je n'ai donc pas pu prendre de photos. Mais, j'ai volé la photo ci-dessous du blog de John. Pour une fois, une photo de moi! Merci John.

Gardiner Headwall, le 23 mai 2009.

Beartooth Ski/Velo

Pour la première fois en plusieurs années nous n'avions pas de course de vélo prévue pour le "Memorial Day Weekend". Nous en avons profité pour passer une fin de semaine de ski, de vélo et de camping dans les Beartooths au sud de Red Lodge. C'est un peu comme le Mont Washington du Montana. Des gens viennent de partout en quasi-pèlerinage pour skier le gros sel de printemps dans les Beartooths. Samedi nous avons fait 5 descentes (et remontées!) dans le coin de Gardiner Headwall et nous avons terminé la journée avec une descente de Rock Creek Headwall.

Dimanche nous avons fait "Reefer Ridge". Une belle journée tranquille "point to point" qui nécessite une voiture. Le départ se fait à environ 10,500 pieds et on skie tranquillement dans la vallée pour terminer autour de 8,000 pieds. C'est très tranquille et les paysages sont fantastiques.

Petite monté avant d'entamer la longue descente

Tomas, John et moi avons skié ce couloir, qui peut être détourné à droite.

John et Jen remontent un peu pour atteindre une belle dernière section.

Après avoir marché les derniers 4 km pour revenir à notre campement nous avons pris une petite pause. Un peu de flânage, un peu de bouffe, et pour Tomas une petite bière (qu'il regretta plus tard!)

Pause bouffe!

Nous avons ensuite enfauché les vélos pour retourner chercher la voiture que nous avions laissée au sommet du col. Malheureusement le temps s'est ennuagé. Quand nous avons finalement atteint le sommet c'était brumeux, il faisait froid, et même quelques flocons sont tombés. Brrrr... Mais ça valait quand même la peine pour les paysages, et la belle montée de 30 km ininterrompue à 5%.

Lundi, jour de congé nous avons fait une petite descente tranquille sur les quelques centimètres de neige fraîche tombé la veille au dessus de 10,000 pieds.

Ann et Susan grimpent pour notre dernière descente de la fin de semaine.

Nous sommes revenus via le parc national de Yellowstone où nous avons évidemment pu observer bisons, gazelles, chèvres, ours et wapitis. Une bonne fin de semaine qui nous a bien fatigués physiquement mais rechargés mentalement.

Trouvez les skieurs qui grimpent!

Pédale pédale pédale!

Aujourd'hui j'ai fait ma première course de vélo de la saison. C'est environ un mois et demi plus tard qu'en temps normal mais si je cours encore jusqu'à la fin novembre ce sera quand même une saison suffisament longue. Ça a fait du bien de me dégourdir les jambes et les poumons un peu après deux semaines sur la plage.

Il n'y a toujours pas de feuilles dans les arbres et les montagnes sont encore couvertes de neige; c'est difficile de croire que dans à peine un mois les journées commenceront déja à racourcir! Faut pas oublier de profiter des belles longues journées d'été.

Two days to go!

The surf season is "supposed" to be just about done here (winter is when surfing is good) but we've been lucky and although the waves have gotten a bit smaller we've been able to surf every day since we got here.

Today we finally made it to Waimea Canyon. It's been difficult to pull ourselves away from the beach but it was well worth it. They call it the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific". It's not as deep or wide as the Grand Canyon but it's spectacular nonetheless.

Waimea Canyon hike

We did a short hike to a series of waterfalls and spent some time at the pullouts overlooking the Na Pali coast (which we hiked part of last week). I guess we were lucky with the weather because we 'did' get a view from the top. There is a small area up there that is "the wettest on earth" with an average annual rainfall of 461 inches.

Kalalau Valley seen from above. The only way to get 'in' the valley is to hike 11 miles along the Na Pali Coast.

Clouds rolling in!


See ya later!

Kauaihebdo III

Yesterday we checked out some new beaches and other streches of coastline (picture and video below).

We really wanted to surf this morning but my neck really needed a break so we went for a hike instead. We climbed the "Sleeping Giant" via the Nounou trail ;-) When we reached the top we started chatting with a local who told us the fruit we'd been seeing all along the trail were "strawberry guavas". It's a good thing we didn't bump into this local at the beginning of the hike because we probably would have never reached the top! They were literally falling off the trees. Our pace slowed considerably once we found out this "bird food" was actually good to eat.

Photos are ok but not great because the winds are blowing "vog" (volcano fog) from the volcano on the big island accross all the other islands. It's kind of like forest fire smoke in Montana with the same spectacular sunsets, but it doesn't smell and it's not burning down forests so it's not bad at all.

We surfed the last hours of daylight, which is always fun because the winds often calm down, there is less danger of sunburning our clammy skin, and of course the sunset is cool to watch.

Kalalau Trail - NaPali Coast

Today we finally made it on the Kalalau Trail on the NaPali Coast. Everything they say about it is true. It's amazing. Looking along the coast it's mind boggling to think that a trail can take you there, but it does. It means some switchbacks and some exposed sections but it's really cool. It's an out-and-back trail that goes 11 miles one-way. We just went for a day hike so we turned around at the halfway mark.

The trail is typically about 1000 feet up on the slope looking down at the ocean but it included a lot of ups and downs. Most of the time if you are not in thick brush or forest you're looking straight down at the ocean. On the way out we saw a pod of dolphins and four Manta Rays swimming along the coast. We stopped a lot to take in the views and for a dip in a fresh water creek so we spent almost 8 hours on the trail. I can see how people spend several days, with side trips up canyons to check out waterfalls.

We finished the day with a few hours of surfing in Hanalei Bay until sunset. There was no wind, making the surfing conditions super smooth. Bonne nuit!

Kauai-hebdo II

We're in our rented studio for the rest of our stay and Susan "loves it!" It's very cute. Our car is not so cute... It's a rent-a-wreck that's supposed to let us blend in with the locals but the color of our skin is still a dead give-away. At least we don't have to worry about a little sand in the trunk! We're probably more tanned than the average Montanan but compared to the average surfer we lack color and tatoos.

Our (so far) trusty transportation.

Oh, did we tell you about the chickens? They are wild, they are protected, and they are everywhere. Roosters have messed up internal clocks and they crow any time of day or night. Apparently it's a $250 fine for hunting or chasing chickens. The word around the island is that they escaped in the 1992 hurricane and have since gone wild. But some have told us that's just a myth. When they go off at 2 am around the campground you wonder what could have prompted Kuaiians to make this their state bird...?!

We made a little stop by the local school in Hanalei. In one building students were practicing their drumming. On the lawn in front of the main building another group was doing some yoga. Seems like a pretty idyllic spot to go to school. You can't quite make it out in the background but there are 3000 foot waterfalls coming down the mountains. If Hawaii ever freezes over, I'm coming back to ice climb!

Houses on the far north shore vary from elaborate villas to total shacks in the woods but most are on posts, some of them really high off the ground. We're thinking it's a combination of "protection against the next tsunami" and "getting above the jungle for ocean views". Either way, they are pretty strange looking. The picture below is of one of the nicer ones.

Yesterday we visited a spot called "Queen's Bath". It's a natural pool in the lava rocks just along the coast. It was pretty neat to check out the fish and the crashing waves in the area. It's a 5 minute hike but the challenging part was finding a parking spot. The beaches are all public but sometimes getting to them can be challenging. For this one there is a 10 car parking lot in the middle of a hoity-toity neighborhood with no-parking signs all around it. We found another mini parking lot a mile down the road and made a longer hike of it.

Yesterday we visited a more secluded beach (Donkey Beach), which we had to ourselves for a good hour before a few more people started showing up. Susan spent a while looking for beach glass and I caught a few waves. In the afternoon we both surfed on a little beach just off the harbor where the giant cruise ships come in. Here's Susan on her way down to Donkey Beach.

That's it for now. 'Till next time!

(No, that's not me; just a local out for a paddle with his dog.)